How To survive Traveling In A Country That Doesn’t Speak Your Language
Travels are a gift of the future, the true testament to human engineering that anything can be possible. It’s now a way of life that helps connect the world. People might have taken for granted traveling for the most part nowadays but whenever they reach their destination it makes them thankful. Traveling is a very unique experience regardless if it’s for business or for pleasure for the reason that there will always be this sense of unfamiliarity especially if you aren’t familiar on the place that you are going like overseas.
Especially if it’s a country with different culture, race, beliefs, and language because there will always be that gap. One of those gaps is the language barrier, yeah yeah blame Babel for all of that, it happens. What you need to think about now is how to survive your travels in those countries that don’t speak your language. In this article you will find some tips if you happen to be traveling in places like these and just for consistency sake since you’re reading an English article, might as well assume that your language is English.
Look for people that speak English: No one really claimed that English is the universal language even English speaking countries but technically its the most popular language of all. If you happen to be in a non-English speaking country, find people that speak it even if they just speak a little English because chances are there will always be people that will know how to speak it. These people can help you with directions, recommend some really good places to dine, hang out, meet other people and direct you on where you can get the things that you need and so on.
Try translator apps: The cool thing about today is that there are translator apps that you can use. There are advanced translators that can easily help you translate and help you communicate in that countries mother tongue and vice versa. If you don’t have a clue about what apps to download, you can go hit or miss on the app store and go from there and see what would be the perfect one for you.
Check the signs: It pays to check for signs, pictures, and logos because it makes things easier to understand. This helps a lot if your buying stuff in a country that doesn’t speak your language. It will help you buy your needed essentials. Aside from that, it can help you get directed to the right direction by showing someone the picture of the place that you need to go like a restaurant, church, temple, malls, hotels, shops and many many more.
Use the maps: The last thing that you would want is to get lost in a country that doesn’t speak the young language. This is where maps and navigational software and tools come in handy. This will get you from point a to point b without wasting time asking for directions. Google maps is a very handy tool but if you’re going in a place that doesn’t have internet access, a good old map should get you sorted. Maps are also a good means to help you plan your travels since you will know which places are near to each other that you can visit to help save some time.
Track your steps: Track your steps, this applies to all your trips all the more if you’re in a country that doesn’t speak your dialect since this will be your guide just in case you get lost. There are maps app that you can use for directions and even sports apps that keeps records of your route, These things help a ton especially if you have a bad sense of direction and there isn’t a person that you understand in that specific place and doesn’t speak any English at all.
Speak with hand gestures: If you’re not so good with hand gestures you need to learn because that will help as well. If verbal doesn’t work, hand gestures can work in some cases and that is always a welcoming thought. When you are in a country where it doesn’t speak your language, having that extra language to help people understand you are a great addition to your travels.
Plan your activity: Planning your activity helps save some time, its one way of getting organized on the things that you need to do. Planning helps you maximize your time staying in that particular place.
- Plan where to go
- Plan what transport to take
- Plan what to buy
- Plan what and who to take
In case you’re wondering how this can help you travel to places with a different language, its everything really. Because it’s like risk management. If your in a country that doesn’t speak your language its bad not to have any directions or plans, you will get lost and while there is
fun in being unpredictable it will waste your time. It’s different if you’re in a place where everyone speaks the same as you versus a place that doesn’t.
Get a tour instead: If your a person that wants to enjoy minus the hassles in getting lost and asking people that don’t speak your dialect for directions for various destinations then a tour is perfect for you. Its less time consuming, it’s informative, it’s convenient and worry-free. All you have to do is bring yourself and a handy dandy camera to record your travels and your all set.
Traveling is fun, it’s something that you owe to the forefathers that made travel possible. But in travels, there are also challenges and one of the common ones are in places where it doesn’t speak your dialect. In case you plan or you winded up in those places, you need to look for people that speak English, try translator apps, check the signs, use the maps, track your steps, speak with hand gestures, plan your activity or just get a tour instead. Don’t let the barrier of communication spoil your fun there are a lot of amazing places to travel, you just need to be open to possibilities and be a smart traveler. Traveling might look complicated but it’s not, sometimes you just need to figure it out.
