Along with our kids, we have always tried to learn the basics of the language of the countries we visit - please, thank you, good morning, how are you, etc...
(Was easier for me when we used to frequent Spain/Spanish Islands as I used to speak Spanish.)

People have said that if you can speak Spanish then you can pick up Portugeuse easier.
It's not been easier for me - infact I have found it as more of a hindrance to be honest.
Thinking back, I was more concerned about mis-pronunciation and didn't want to insult anyone by slipping into Spanish - which is easily done.

But I'm going to try and get back into it and give it my best shot this year.

I have a little Spanish and found it really useful when I was in California as most of the staff in hotels and restaurants were Hispanic!

I also had a similar exerience in Chicago where I was in the hotel bar alone and the staff (who were all Mexican) were having one enormous moan about the hotel management behind the bar. My facial expression must have given me away and they came across to ask if I spoke Spanish. When I said "si, poco" they stopped having a moan and switched to English to talk to me about football! However they were stumped when I told them that I knew nothing about soccer as I detest the sport! This completly flummoxed them as they thought that all English people were obsessed with it.

whereever you go there's one thing that's really useful to know - Emergency Exit. Getting served the wrong food because of a language mix up is something you can laugh about when you get home. But a few years ago there was a fire in the terminal building at Düsseldorf Airport and several people who should have been able to get out didn't because they didn't understand the signs. The German for Emergency is Not - you can see how this could be a problem if someone who only spoke English saw it on a sign on a door. Obviously it would also be helpful if you understood the international standard pictograms for normal and emergency exits.

And the second most important thing to know is what it will say on the toilet doors!!

HDH

had a similar problem in Crete a few years back, a miserable bar man ignoring us, i later found out he Was German so i went to the bar and in my gruffest voice i used about the only German i know at him, his jaw dropped and the service for the rest of the week was exemplary

wiz

Milly_Molly wrote:

People have said that if you can speak Spanish then you can pick up Portugeuse easier.
It's not been easier for me - infact I have found it as more of a hindrance to be honest.

louise225 wrote:

find it much easier to read spanish than speak it and it doesn't help that I learnt french at school.

When I first tried to learn Spanish I found it very difficult to stop myself "thinking" in French - I wouldn't mind I wasn't even all that good at French at school, but my French vocabulary is comprehensive enough to get me by, although my French grammar leaves a lot to be desired - those blooming verbs!
In the last couple of years I have found I've more or less crossed the barrier of "thinking" in French when trying to read/speak Spanish, but my brain sometimes still gets confused and I'll use French words instead of Spanish (and vice versa). I'm still hopeless at understanding both languages when spoken by the "natives" unless it is very slow and clear.

steve8482 wrote:

whereever you go there's one thing that's really useful to know - Emergency Exit. Getting served the wrong food because of a language mix up is something you can laugh about when you get home. But a few years ago there was a fire in the terminal building at Düsseldorf Airport and several people who should have been able to get out didn't because they didn't understand the signs. The German for Emergency is Not - you can see how this could be a problem if someone who only spoke English saw it on a sign on a door. Obviously it would also be helpful if you understood the international standard pictograms for normal and emergency exits.

Ooh, that is useful to know - I thought it meant 'No exit' when we were in Berlin!

So it's a good job your hotel didn't catch fire then!

we wre in rhodes 4/5 years ago, sitting in the hotel bar and the kids came to us saying crazy words, well me amd OH were stumped. turned out there was a folder on the wall including greek words, thankyou , please etc and they had been studying it !!. the staff thought it was great and the hotel manager even bought the kids a present to bring home with them.. we all try to learn a bit of the local lingo now before we go away.. this will be our 3rd visit to egypt but are struggling other than the usual please, thankyou etc. but at least we are trying!!!

sharon

Reading this thread reminds me of when I was first starting to learn Spanish and my youngest lad was still at junior school.
I'm going back to the days before the Internet and the old BBC Sueños course and tapes.

I had a tape recorder in the kitchen and I used to have it playing all the time, anyhow, the tape gives a scenario where you are ordering a few drinks in a bar and one of the drinks that you ordered was a tomato juice (un zumo de tomate) pronounced un thumo da tomata, the e on the end of tomate, as in hay.

All day long I was stop-start, stop- rewind on this bit because there was no way I could get my tongue around the complete phrase and carry on with ordering a beer and the conversation.

That night, the lad is in his pyjamas ready for bed and I gave him a kiss goodnight and as he's climbing the stairs, instead of shouting back "nite nite mum", he shouts back "un zumo de tomate" as good as any Spaniard"¦.and certainly better than me.!!!

It might not seem funny to you reading this, but it was hilarious at the time and has remained in both our memories, when I phone him from Spain, he often says, "order me a tomato juice mum".

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiii

Nice story sanji. It's the little things that often make life special.

Doe

i needed a taxi back to our apartment,and as a student thought i`d use my spanish with directions ,well i ended up further from my apartment than where i caught the taxi,so just said here.Walked the rest of the way back,with the shopping .