How to have lunch in a foreign country when you don't speak the language

[gsh]

Get menu. Look at menu. Decide "ensalad" was salad, and I want something heavier. See something with "salmone" in it. Figure fish never hurts. Order water "agua". No gas. (Gas with water? I'd expect gas from the main course.) Get honking big plate of thinly sliced salmon, with cheese and capers. Also get bowl of some brothy looking soup which was served cold and *way* to spicy to eat out of a spoon. However it does go nicely when I dip one of the bowl full of crackers into the soup. Which is probably why they gave me a bowl of crackers in the first place. Have pleasant lunch totally unlike an american lunch. Listen to the half dozen 20 somethings having fun chatting while they wait for the rest of their party to show up. Leave 10% tip, which is small for an american but apprently a decent tip here.

Comments

[dckermit.livejournal.com]

You can often spot foreigners on their first visit when they try to order "still water". A year or two ago I was in line at Union Station behind someone who confused the hell out of the order taker. I ended up translating the poor foreigner's rather good English to the order taker, and translating the order taker's abysmal English back again.

[reedrover]

Isn't it sad when a stranger's perfectly good book English confuses a local (note I don't say "native") speaker? Sigh. Another sigh goes to the people who ask what's the native language of Jamaica or who compliment high-caste, urban Indians on their English.



... I still think the false cognates are the most fun, though. Embarrassed =! embarasada.

[dckermit.livejournal.com]

Translating can be so much fun.

The Swedish word "gift" doesn't mean the same as the English word. Even more fun, there are two translations, and depedning on context it can translate to "Married" or "Poison".

If you ask for directions to the "library" in France, you'll likely end up at a bookstore (librairie). Even asking for the bibliothèque didn't help me in Metz -- they sent me to la Plaza de Bibliothèque which is a historical site, rather than the local library.

[mtnwlf.livejournal.com]

Then there's my personal fav., the British English "shrubbery" for prostitute. Or even better, going round to "knock her up" as the way of saying knock on her door. As a southerner, I find their concept of "biscuit" quite revolting.

Just to demonstrate my extreme geekdom cum Star Trek, there's a really hysterical section in the old series in a book called the Romulan Way about translation issues. Still can't read it without howling with laughter. Damn, I really miss those books, the ones written before Paramount destroyed the series. *sigh*

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

Where are you again?

[make-your-move.livejournal.com]

scratch that ... you're in Chile *tired brain*

[gsh]

Today I'm in La Serena Chile. Tomorrow I go to Cerro Tololo, where I observer for five nights on the 1 meter telescope at CTIO.

[mrzodiac.livejournal.com]

If I ask you nicely, will you send me a postcard from one of these places? Or bring one back of the postage is to insane.

[dckermit.livejournal.com]

If you have a Palm Pilot or equivalent PDA, I can recommend this: http://www.palmdictionaries.com/, though I used the older "non-speaking" edition. I consider it a "life saver, must have" application.

I've used the Swedish-English dictionary rather heavily, and the German-English and French-English dictionaries a fair bit. I haven't tried the Spanish-English dictionary.

[gsh]

Your pda dictionary idea is a good one. If I can configure my laptop to sync to my palm i'll give it a go.

[dckermit.livejournal.com]

Most of the dictionaries have a trial period before you have to register them. At first they work just fine, then they spit out a reminder that you need to register the directory. The reminders get more and more frequent until you're acknowledging several reminders for each lookup.

I registered the Swedish-English dictionary almost as soon as I verified that it was useful, because I knew I would be there for several months. I didn't register the German-English dictionary for my first week-long visit to Germany, but did before my second. I never have registered the French-English dictionary, as it really wasn't necessary for the length of time I was there.

If you're going to be visiting Spanish-speaking countries on a regular basis it'll be worth registering, but otherwise you might get by with the trial version.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Huh, those are pretty darned cool, thanks for pointing them out.