I'll do graffiti if you'll sing to me in French

[venta]

Following on from my earlier claim that you can get by in a foreign country by smiling, being enthusiastic and saying "thank you" a lot, I wondered about the possibility of compiling a bare minimum phrase book for use by people who know nothing of the language they're going to be floundering in.

My BMPB should be small enough to fit onto a piece of paper considerably smaller than most phrasebooks. It assumes general goodwill on the part of the people to whom one is speaking, and isn't intended to cover any specific circumstance.


Yes
No
Please
Thank you
Thank you very much
Hello
Goodbye
See you later
Great [*]
It doesn't matter
1-10, 100
Can you write it down, please? [mostly for numbers not covered above, or placenames]
What do you call this?
I would like... [**]
I need... [**]
I have lost... [**]
I would like to go to (here) [points to map, or points to written-down placename]
... something
... that one/this one.
... one like this.
Where are the toilets?
I don't feel well

So, what have I missed for a BMPB ? What have I included that isn't really necessary ?

[*] A range (fantastic, brilliant, etc) also useful if you're going to be asked lots of questions
[**] Obviously an extensive list of nouns would be useful here. But you can do a lot with gesturing if necessary. I managed while in Italy to mime such things as "butter knife", "lens cap", "man who plays the melodeon", and "wine bar near the mask museum" without too much trouble.

Comments

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I saw it, but someone or other took several photos on their phone before going to, I think, either China or Japan, to use instead of a phrase book; they included things like a toilet, a bus, and so on. It saved mangling the language (which makes me think it was probably China, because Chinese is tonal, and therefore more difficult for your average Westerner to pronounce correctly), while still being adequately clear.

(Also, your "current music" is very excellent. Huzzah. They should tour the UK soon.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I saw that too, good idea. It was either someone on my flist, or one remove further, I think.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Plus it has the advantage that it would work in any other country, too :)

(Er, photo phrasebooks, that is. Not Billy Talent. I'm not sure yet how convinved I am overally by BT. I paid £2 in Zavvi's sale for a double album, mostly because I wanted Red Flag.)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

The best piece of equipment I found while getting around in Japan was a pen and a piece of paper on which I could draw what I meant. Another thing that would have been useful was a character dictionary so I could translate the monolingual sign saying "breakfast is 1000 yen, pay at the desk in the restaurant" instead of looking like a thief until a Japanese friend explained it...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Can you say it again more slowly, please?
Can you point to it in this phraselist, please?
Right, left, straight on.
My hovercraft is full of eels.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - 'slow down' is another thing I often want to say. Followed by 'no really, separate the words, it will help'.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Can you point to it in this phraselist, please?

What sort of uses do you envisage that having ? I'm not sure what sort of things I'd expect someone to point to in a phraselist.

My hovercraft is full of eels.

Don't be silly, that's easy to mime.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

My postillion has been struck by lightning!

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I would add 'I don't speak much [language]' and also 'help!'

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, definitely.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Sorry. It is the word I often want to say when trying to do things in a foreign country where I don't know the customs or my way around and therefore do the wrong thing a lot.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Good one, can't believe I missed that.

[paste.livejournal.com]

pointy book thing for lazy travellers!

[taimatsu]

"I only speak English/don't speak [language]."
"I'm allergic to..."
"I don't understand."
"Does anyone here speak English?"

[taimatsu]

Oh, and question words are useful because they can usually be understood even without a correct full sentence. So where/when/who/which/how would be good. 'how much/long/far' might also be useful.

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I remember making my students decide which 10 words were most important to know in a foreign language, and making them translate them into English.

And then invent a new alien language, and talk to each other in it :D

It was an excellent lesson plan. Didn't work at all, obviously. We just spent the lesson translating insults.

[ylla.livejournal.com]

On a dance trip to Poland, our 5 essential words were hello, please, thank you, beer and Scotland (we needed to know who we were, after all).

But you probably need a bit more if you don't have group guides to get you to places :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

We did need to know "English", as quite often the first hint we got that we were meant to be dancing was hearing an announcement about Inglesi...

Mind you, the Catalan team mostly found out by hearing announcements about Espanola, which pissed them off no end.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Two beers, please.
With whipped cream, please.

That's all you need.

Now, a short and possibly apocryphal story about some English professor of the Japanese language, lost in Japan.

Professor (fluent Japanese): Can you tell me the way to the university, please?
Japanese person 1: (shrugs or otherwise looks blank)
Professor (fluent Japanese): Which way to the university please?
Japanese person 1: (shrugs or otherwise looks blank)
Professor tries various phrases without success, gives up and gets back in car. As he drives away he hears:
JP1 to JP2: You know, it sounded just as if that gaijin was asking for directions to the university.

By the way, my hovercraft is full of eels.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

That has happened to me in Japan. It was a main tenet of Japan's confidence in WW2 that their communications were by default secure because no foreigner could ever learn to speak Japanese. Yeah, that one failed, human beings in good at languages shocker. But plenty of people still appear to believe that foreigners are like parrots, that put the syllables together but don't understand what they are actually saying.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Two beers, please.
With whipped cream, please.

Yuk! OK, beer in many places isn't as nice as it is here, but even so it's hard to imagine that adding whipped cream would be an improvement.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

What about the bare essentials for negotiation -
How much is this?
That's too expensive

I used to find those rather useful in Thailand -- "tao rai [baht]" and "pheng pai" (very approximately); in China the second one should probably be the local version of "you've got to be bloody joking", given the starting price you seem to be quoted...

And I usually try to learn how to ask for the bill, even though sign language works well for that -- miming writing on your open palm seems universal, though the Thai version is to make a circular gesture over your open palm. Beware that a circular gesture over the table means "another round please" !

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Didn't think of them, because I've not yet been to any countries where bartering is particularly common. I guess if you are in that kind of situation they're pretty important.

By the way, hello... are you someone I might know ? Just curious, as your journal posts seem to suggest you live in a similar sort of area to me.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

You need to be able to speak two phrases, and understand "No":

"Do you speak English?"
"Then fetch me someone who does."

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Also...

"Take me to your leader."
"We come in peace."

[reddragdiva]

"Two beers, please."
"Oh my God! There's an axe in my head!"