S1 E4: 15 Must-Know Phrases for Travelers to Unlock Any Language Abroad

Welcome to Second Act Travels, the podcast.

For curious midlife explorers ready to trade crowded summers for smart, meaningful

off season adventures.

If you're over 50 and dreaming of meaningful travel that fits your freedom and your budget,

you're in the right place.

I'm Elizabeth and each week I'll bring you tips, stories and inspiration to help you

travel deeper, go further, and embrace your second act with confidence.

Welcome back.

I know that I said the last time that I wanted to talk about making mistakes when you're

traveling, but as I was looking over my show notes, I got more interested in the topic of

managing language barriers because it's something that I've spent a fair amount of

time thinking about while I'm traveling.

So for the purposes of this broadcast, let's assume that you only speak English and that

you live in the United States and that you are interested in traveling to a country outside

of the United States.

Now, the reality is that English is understood in most major cities.

However, the further you travel outside of a major city or tourist area,

the less likely it is that someone will know and understand English.

Not true of all areas, but a lot of them.

Yes, you can definitely use translation software, but it does get cumbersome.

It gets time consuming to type everything in or even to make sure that if you have a

microphone, it was captured correctly.

Sometimes speech recognition software doesn't work,

so you can't always rely on that.

And it's better to have a few phrases at the

ready.

You can definitely do a lot with pointing and gestures,

but making the attempt to know a few helpful phrases will make your life so much easier and

definitely help you earn the respect of the residents of the country to which you're

traveling.

Yeah, you're going to make mistakes using the language.

If you're not a native speaker, it just happens.

Are you going to embarrass yourself?

Probably.

But people will realize that you are trying to make an effort and it will go a long way.

So don't be afraid,

just get into it.

Now that I've traveled around a bit, I feel like there are some universal

phrases you should master before traveling to another country.

I boiled it down to 15 phrases that I think are not negotiable when somebody travels

outside of an English speaking country.

So the first group is dealing with manners.

Hello and goodbye number one.

Number two, Good morning and or good afternoon number three, please and thank you.

And the reason I think those are so important is because manners count for so much more when

you're traveling outside of the United States.

It is perfectly acceptable and expected that when you enter a small shop that you say hello

and greet the person working there,

or you say goodbye when you leave, even if you didn't buy anything.

The other thing is, when you're asking someone a question and you're approaching them,

whether it's in the train station or in the hotel,

people want to hear you say good morning or good afternoon before you ask the question.

It's just a question of manners.

Going along with that.

Number four.

I would add, excuse me, and I'm sorry, because you'll need to say that a lot if you're

learning a new language and practicing with people.

But always give it a go in the language of the country you're speaking.

It will go a long way.

Well, those are the manners phrases that I think are important, and most of those

are very obvious.

But there are also some phrases that are

helpful.

I call them root phrases because if.

You learn them, you can say so many things just by adding an extra few words.

But it's the basis for a lot of statements you'll make while traveling.

Number five,

where is the.

You could say, where's the train station?

You could ask where is the name of the hotel?

And most importantly, you can ask where the bathroom is.

Number six.

I would like to that phrase.

You can add common names of food.

You can ask for tickets to an attraction,

you can ask for tickets to the bus.

Something like that.

Number seven.

How much is.

Do you want to know how much something costs? It's good to ask, how much is something?

Know the words, how much is Number eight?

The bill, please.

The reason this is important is because in some places outside of the United States, you

will have to ask for the bill when you're ready to leave a restaurant.

Number nine.

Your numbers one through 20.

Know your numbers one through 20.

And if you're an overachiever, you'll learn your numbers by the tens.

10, 20, 30, 40, 50.

And if you're a super overachiever, you'll

You can always break down a more complex number into individual digits.

I have,

I have is helpful.

I have a ticket.

I have something.

I have is helpful.

But what's even more helpful is do you have.

Because when you go into a store.

You can say, do you have.

I got sick when I was in France and I was able to go in and ask for a specific

type of medication.

The third group of useful phrases are related to medical emergencies or emergencies in

general.

Number 11 of useful phrases I need help.

Going along with that is number 12.

I need medical help.

And it might be good to learn.

The word for doctor in in the country to which you're traveling.

Number 14.

I have a medical condition.

And if you are.

If this is very complicated to explain, you

might want to consider a medical or bracelet.

But know how to say something about your

medical state if you do have a medical condition.

The other thing that I use is number 13.

I am allergic to.

This is super important because I have a

pretty severe allergy and so I want to be able to tell people in restaurants or in cafes that

I'm allergic to a specific food group.

So always learn how to say I am allergic to and the name of the food or something to which

you have an allergy.

And of course, number 15. And this kind of covers everything.

Do you speak English?

It's always good to try to speak the language, but if all fails and you need to speak in

English, then good to ask.

Do you speak English?

I hope you found these 15 phrases helpful.

You'd be amazed at what you can get through when you know just a few things.

So there you have it. 15 words and phrases that would definitely be helpful to

anyone traveling.

And if you can think of some other phrases

that are particularly helpful that I didn't mention, send them along.

Love to hear them.

So thanks so much for checking.

Second act travels out and I'll see you back

here soon.

Sa.