You've got your flight booked, you're bags are packed and phrasebook in hand, you're ready to go. Touchdown. Jump in taxi, find your page-speak your phrase, get to the hotel.
Great success
Everybody loves phrasebooks, they provide easy access to the language, maybe touching a bit on grammar and still getting you through when you're stuck. In my opinion they are good for a look at what the language looks like and the way it should be spoken, but people rarely speak that way; at least in my experience.
So during my journeys I decided that it was best to get the most common words down; things that I would say during a conversation and what I would most likely hear. In reality I think everybody in the world talks in a similar way about the same things: What you did at the weekend, the night before, what you ate for tea, did you see such a programme, have you seen this video, what's popular on youtube. Everybody has the same interests, and will ask the same questions.
With that in mind basic conversation should be easy!
I will provide a list of words that you will hear a lot and will use almost daily.
This list isn't definitive, just something that will help you a lot more and give you more confidence to ask for things than a phrasebook. If you can't translate them at home, ask somebody to help you in the hostel, hotel or wherever you stay. I guarantee the words will stick in your head far better than a phrasebook and if you do forget one or two, they are all there in front of you, you wrote them, you know where they are.
Word List
Great success
Everybody loves phrasebooks, they provide easy access to the language, maybe touching a bit on grammar and still getting you through when you're stuck. In my opinion they are good for a look at what the language looks like and the way it should be spoken, but people rarely speak that way; at least in my experience.
So during my journeys I decided that it was best to get the most common words down; things that I would say during a conversation and what I would most likely hear. In reality I think everybody in the world talks in a similar way about the same things: What you did at the weekend, the night before, what you ate for tea, did you see such a programme, have you seen this video, what's popular on youtube. Everybody has the same interests, and will ask the same questions.
With that in mind basic conversation should be easy!
I will provide a list of words that you will hear a lot and will use almost daily.
This list isn't definitive, just something that will help you a lot more and give you more confidence to ask for things than a phrasebook. If you can't translate them at home, ask somebody to help you in the hostel, hotel or wherever you stay. I guarantee the words will stick in your head far better than a phrasebook and if you do forget one or two, they are all there in front of you, you wrote them, you know where they are.
Word List
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