Words and Phrases for Travelling

Even before you take up learning your new language, it’s possible to memorise a list of words and phrases of your destination language (assuming you don’t already speak it), which you can use to great effect as you travel. I started doing this from day one of my first overseas trip, and have always had fun and success. The advantages:

A bit of rote learning (quick memorising) is ok. And easy. You don’t need to know the exact meanings of words in a phrase. The important thing is that you’re aware of its function – the job it’s doing for you. In linguistics this is known as formulaic learning, and it’s a central topic in language learning.
Your pronunciation doesn’t have to be perfect. Give some attention to how the particular language guide you’re reading suggests how to say it (perhaps even this one!), and you’ll be fine.
The effects/results are instantaneous. There’s no waiting involved. What you get happens in the moment and is effective immediately or very soon after.
Benefits will follow. Apart from usually getting what you want (directions to your hotel, the price of an item, etc), you’ll also feel good, gain respect, even be able to defuse a tense situation if necessary.

Let’s take a closer look at this last point, where even the power of one single word to clarify or defuse a tense situation can’t go underestimated. All of us get frustrated from time to time with the day to day dealings of travelling: a late departure or arrival, below-standard service, forgotten restaurant order. Whether it’s the fault of the local service provider or not, losing your cool doesn’t get you very far (I talk from experience), but if you do, then…

Sorry. No problem.

In Visayan (one of the languages of The Philippines), its Way kasaw. According to John, a US expat I met in Moalboal, it works magic. No worries, it’s ok/cool, no problem etc, all have equivalents in every language, and can make things right in an instant. Wanna know more? At the end of this article I’ve included a list of 20 useful formula, where each level builds onto the next. I think you’re ready right now, to tell the truth. If you agree, scroll down. If however you’re hesitating for any reason, then first let’s take a look at what might get in the way:

Excuses, excuses: foreign language anxiety

So you say you feel shy or scared? Interesting how many excuses we come up with to stop feeling uncomfortable! Let me quote Wiki: “Foreign language anxiety, or xenoglossophobia, is the feeling of unease, worry, nervousness and apprehension experienced in learning or using a second or foreign language”. Just as when we learn anything at all, it’s normal to go through stages and experience such feelings. Learning to ride a bike / get your first job / ask someone out on a date didn’t kill you, and neither will speaking a few words in another language. These are some of the thoughts people commonly have in this situation:

They won’t be able to understand me, and I might sound silly, and I might make mistakes (yes, sometimes, but they will get your intention and that is almost as good).
They’ll laugh (yes often, but it’s laughing with you, not at you – a laugh of surprise and delight, not of ridicule), and the big one:
Most people can understand English anyway. Oh dear. Well yes, and no. Even if you’re in a place where English is widely spoken, the locals will still appreciate your efforts to use their language. If you use only English, with any hint of disrespect, it will be picked up on, and the results could be negative. We don’t want that. We want travel success for you, and that means travelling with at least a degree of humility and respect. Most of you seasoned travellers reading this will already understand, but it bears repeating.

Listen, you worked hard all year to save up for this trip, studying and doing exams, raising a family maybe, meeting the loan repayments for your house/car/smart phone, getting through a couple of bouts of illness… And now you won’t even utter one word in another language that will turn your whole travelling experience around? Hey come on! Look, on the rare occasions where it actually doesn’t work: no problem. During my time living and travelling in Japan, I had people turn around and walk away from me when I’ve gone up to ask them directions. Yep, it ‘feels’ uncomfortable. But just say sorry, thank them, smile and walk away (if they haven’t already lol). There are a hundred others right there who will engage with you, perhaps even someone who was standing by watching.

The Basic 20

So, ready to get started? Ok, here’s a list of Top 20 words and phrases that I’ve found to be the most commonly used, built up in blocks of 5. How many of them you end up using will depend on the length of stay at your destination, how many you’ve learned, and how willing you are to actually use them. Start with just five, build some confidence, then move to the next 5.

Basic 5	Basic 10	Basic 15	Basic 20
Thank you	Sorry	Excuse me (get attention)	I am
Hello	Yes	I don’t understand	How are you?
Goodbye	No	You’re welcome	Where is?
Good	No problem	How much?	Can I have?
Help!	Stop! (what you’re doing)	Cheers!	Slowly please

Another way to make sense of the phrases might be to take a look at them in terms of their functions, the job they are doing for you, such as:

Greetings & farewells: eg. hello, goodbye, how are you
Requests & questions: can I have, how much, where
Clarifications: I don’t understand, slowly please
Help & assistance: help, stop

To illustrate, here’s the Basic 5 in the languages of Indonesia and the Visayas region of The Philippines, two countries I visited recently:

Basic 5	Indonesian	Cebuano (Visayan)
Thank you	Terima kasih	Salamat
Hello	Halo	Halo
Goodbye	Selamat tinggal	Panamilit
Good	Baik	Ayo
Help!	Tolong!	Tabang!

So why not go ahead and write out 5-20 phrases in the language of the area you’ll be travelling to next, on one or more small blank business cards, put them in your wallet (or your smartphone note-taking app), and access them easily when you need to. Maybe your experience will even inspire you to take up learning the language you will have successfully used these basic travel phrases in. What a great decision! TTW is here with our partners to make available all the resources you need to get started and keep going.

โชคดี (Chok dii Khrub – TH 🇹🇭 Good luck!)

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