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Learning for Travel... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5617 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 1 of 13 02 June 2013 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Any suggestions on learning for travel? I've found that its entirely possible to be well advanced in a language and not know or forget the word for "boarding pass", etc. I've been going through phrasebooks and figure I will start an SRS deck for the most important phrases. I feel I need to do something interactive to activate the vocabulary. Are there any particular websites or materials you recommend specifically for travel? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sarnek Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4024 days ago 308 posts - 414 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Swedish | Message 2 of 13 02 June 2013 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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You may want to try the Last-minute series by Teach yourself...
Or maybe just look for a very good dictionary, they usually have a specific section for these kind of things... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6406 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 13 02 June 2013 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I mentally picture the various situations I'll be in and make sure I know what to say.
Assimil is also really great, with their humorous interpretations of the common topics: -the neighbours' 4 year old was selling sea water! -did you buy it? -of course, i even got a discount! -how much does sea water cost at a discount? -10 marks. but the price didn't include the container and i had to return it. Assimil is also generally considered a good material for shadowing, which is great, as you might also KNOW the needed words but struggle anyway. Do shadowing to speak confidently, especially if you can write better than you speak. And yeah, get a good paperback dictionary that you can carry with you, or depending on your level maybe a phrasebook. Phrasebooks actually tend to contain a lot of useful vocab for travelling. There's also something in between - a dictionary for travellers that doesn't go into as much detail as the phrasebooks. If you don't find a good phrasebook/dictionary in your hometown, you might have better luck abroad. For example, when I went to Finland as an intermediate learner of Finnish in 2006, I forgot to take a dictionary with me, and I had no laptop so very little Internet access. I got a small dictionary aimed at Finns travelling to Russia (but I never actually needed it during the trip). When I got back home I learned almost all the vocab in it, apart from some specialized words that I don't even know in Russian. Now that I have a laptop and also have mob net that works in many countries, it's less of a problem. Edited by Serpent on 02 June 2013 at 10:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5617 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 4 of 13 02 June 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can understand much better than produce (both speaking and writing) although I've been
getting better by using some strategies that I've learnt: mostly doing self-talk throughout the day and imagining situations and what I'd say in them. With shadowing I found speaking at the same time I was listening to the recording to be annoying. I would be willing to try it again maybe by listening to a piece at a time then repeating, But hearing myself and the recording at the same time was just frustrating. A big part of my problem is that I've never done any international travel, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5791 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 13 02 June 2013 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you already understand the fundamentals in terms of pronunciation and grammar, a pocket
sized phrasebook is probably all you will need. I survived as a tourist in Germany having studied around half of an Assimil course by using a phrasebook to prepare specific vocab and expressions for situations I knew I was going to have to deal with (e.g. looking up phrases for checking into a hotel on the train ride in). A lot of the interactions you'll be guaranteed to have as a tourist are pretty formulaic anyway. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5617 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 13 02 June 2013 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Serpent, good point on the traveler's dictionary. I'm going to look for something on
Android and in print as a backup. I think a lot of situations are going to rely on finding the right word rather than perfect grammar. Not that its what I aspire to but with the right word and some pantomime I'd think its possible to communicate a lot. Something like "fork fall. new fork please" might not be elegant but I think would be understood. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5617 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 7 of 13 02 June 2013 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. Like I said I've never done any international travel so this is encouraging to hear. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 13 03 June 2013 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I have traveled a lot, and almost always alone - even if I'm on a group tour I try to get away from the group. But of course I can't speak the languages of all the places I have visited so sometimes it is just a question of absorbing the atmosphere, not the local language.
In places like Eastern Asia where I'm particularly 'challenged' I may learn a few local words and phrases, such as greetings and "thanks" and "how much". But I know it won't be possible for me to learn a whole language (and especially not from conversations) so basically I don't try. For instance I brought small dictionaries and a T-shirt with the local alphabet back from Myanmar a couple of years ago, and I got some theoretical knowledge - but no active skills at all. At the other end of the scale (such as places where for instance the major Germanic and Romance languages are used) I just need to supplement my vocabulary and stock of set phrases with relevant items like the locally used words for transport, institutions and commercial items - and maybe a rebrush of 'connectors' and travelrelated vocabulary if I feel the language has become slightly rusty. But not much more, as I count on getting back into the habit of speaking the language after a day or less, and I always carry a dictionary around with me in such countries. The interesting group is the middle one, where I have studied a language through written sources - and to boot typically through articles about science and culture, not literature. So there I have to tweak a written, mostly passive language into something relevant for travelling, which includes the study of language guides and sources with discussions, maybe even literature even though I normally don't read much of that stuff. And not least: I have to listen to any spoken sources I can find because my weakest point will always be the spoken language. A month should be enough for this - too long or short time, and the timing will be wrong. And if I don't feel that I can deal with 'normal' conversations during the first days of my stay abroad then I can still try to walk around thinking in the foreign language, and I can still translate all my conversations in auxiliary languages like English into the local language in my head. So a travel at just the right moment can give me the boost I need to change a language I just study to something I feel comfortable speaking. But again: the timing is important - I need to know the written language in order to get my spoken language properly activated. And then I come home and forget the things I have learned. That's life... Edited by Iversen on 03 June 2013 at 10:32am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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