The most famous last words of the American tourist are:”They speak English everywhere.” Well, they don’t. You can, with luck, be stranded in a European town among people who will simply shrug their shoulders to an English-uttered request.
But necessity is not the only reason for studying a foreign tongue-half of the fun of a European vacation comes from trying out the local language! It brings amazing dividends in better service and treatment, too. Europeans, like most persons, are sensitive and proud. They react best to tourists who show some regard for the language and culture of their host country.
To do that, you needn’t become a full-time scholar. In any language, a very small group of words and phrases can be shifted and rearranged to fulfill almost any need. if you can learn the foreign equivalents of such terms as “where is,” “do you have,” “how much is this” -then you can travel comfortably in Europe and make your wants known. Half an hour of study, packed in as your train or plane approaches a particular country, ought to do the job.
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