Corollary: do not assume anybody doesnt speak English.
Comment on First overseas trip with my girlfriend – Any tips to make It our best trip?
isgleas@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
If you are going to a non-english speaking country, do not expect anybody to speak english. Learn some basic phrases on the local language.
If you need any medical assistance, do not hessitate and go to a hospital. Even better if you have some travel insurance.
Do not propose. Thank me later.
evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Specifically, expect no-one to speak English when you need help but everyone to understand English when you’re complaining about something to do with the country you’re in.
volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Can I add: also don’t expect that your body language and gestures are going to be the same. Had to learn this the hard way
Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Tourists in Bulgaria, for example, always get caught out by this. They shake their head for yes and nod for no.
cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 2 months ago
How did you learn this lesson? Was it Bulgaria like the other commenter said?
volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee 2 months ago
No it was Japan. (I’m from Germany.)
I was 17 and it was before smartphones and I somehow imagined people in Tokyo and Kyoto would know English but they didn’t. And then I tried to explain what I wanted or where I wanted to go with gestures and they tried to explain back with gestures but it was a catastrophe. None of us understood each other.
I am so sorry because at some point a cook in a soba restaurant kept asking me “Soba?” and I didn’t know what soba was and it was day 10 out of 14 and I was at my nerve’s end so I yelled back in German “I don’t know what you want I don’t know what your soba is just give me that soup that I am pointing at!”
It’s been 15 years and this still keeps me up at night 😭 I’'m so sorry soba guy. Yelling at you legit is in the top 5 things I would do differently if I could relive my life.
(I was also still processing my first break up and it was hot af and my boobs had grown humongous which earned me a lot of stares abroad and all of this added to me feeling lost and frustrated.)
cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world 2 months ago
A friend of mine told me about how each person has a bowl into which go all the things that upset them. Some people have small bowls, others have large bowls. When the bowl is full and more things go wrong for that person, the bowl tips.
Your bowl tipped that day.