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.)

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Billy Talent are phenomenally good live; they did a short set at Give It a Name last year, and were just superb, I thought.

photo phrasebooks

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

And, of course, you can buy pocket books on the same principle, to save spending the weeks before your holiday tracking down a rickshaw and a yam (-:

Point It uses photos; ICOON uses icons.

[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...