Berlin to Odessa: The Lost Posts - Languages

My first mission upon arriving in any country is to learn a few key phrases that I have found will make my life substantially easier and help me to find nicer, and more helpful people (although I'm sure I still look like a stuttering idiot).

Generally just saying hello will prompt someone to babble at me full speed in whatever language I've spoken to them in. Causing my eyes to widen and a profoundly confused look to come over my face. Despite this, I generally answer in the affirmative. I feel very strongly that even this small gesture in single-word communication shows an immediate respect for someone in that you have come to their country and make even the slightest effort to respect and speak to them.

I'll admit that after getting to the fourth language I was starting to slow my roll a little bit. After about a week in Poland I was able to ask for and understand directions and express interest in a variety of different foods and road hazards. I guess more time would have helped me in the other countries, but by the time I came around to Russian I had difficulty memorizing even simple phrases.

Here are the vocabulary lists that I wrote down. Most of the words are most likely misspelled since they are more pronunciation guides than anything else.

Aside from this I probably have a good 20 or 30 other words in each language floating around my head. Most of these come from reading road signs or buying food.

I found the following five to be the most important and made a point to learn these immediately, or even before getting to a country. They are the gateway to beginning a conversation, however one-sided it may be. Saying any combination of the following words along with some large charade-like gestures will make people start talking to you. After a couple hours I can start to recognize repeated words and would often simply ask my hosts for the translation (because using an online translator only works when you know how to spell...which I do not)

• Hello
• Yes/No
• Thank you
• Excuse me
• Good
• Water
• Where is...

The rest are all excess and while they certainly facilitate conversation and allowed me to get my point across quicker, or gain favor with people (since they are always delighted that you are trying), they weren't absolutely necessary when having first contact with a new language or country

• You have nice eyes (one of my first hosts in Poland taught this to me, I decided to learn it in every language, and it was a huge hit every time)
• Nice to meet you (good to have some formalities)
• Bicycle (obvious)
• That's all (to tell somebody in a market that they can stop piling fruit or vegetables onto the scale)
• I don't speak... (this is less necessary because, well, if you have to say it, it's pretty obvious)
• What is that? (good way to quickly pick up in-context vocabulary without needing to translate, just point and learn)
• Good bye (I'm always bad at these)
• Milk (need it sometimes)
• Apples (delicious)
• Can you take a picture please?
• Beautiful (a good alternative to 'good')
• Car
• Important (not sure why, but it came up often enough to be useful, but it's in here)
• I don't have any money (for the border guards)
• How are you (I never understood the answer, but I like putting it out there)