I also try to get to know the "basic words" when I'm visiting a country. However, last summer I made a trip to southern / eastern europe; we started off in Greece, passed through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria to end up in Slovakia.
So, we basically had to learn how to say "thank you" in 6 different languages (well, 5 actually since I already knew German).
And then I got surprised that people laughed at me when I said "
благодаря" in Hungary
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherkanner
My problem, I don't have ze french accent when I speak so people don't know where I'm coming from and sometimes reply to me in their language at an incredible speed and I don't understand a single word  |
I know the feeling. On a trip to Sweden a couple of years ago, I asked a man for directions in broken Swedish. He started replying at high speed, and when he was finished, he asked me "
Förstår du?" ("do you understand?"). Since I
did understand the "
förstår du"-part, I just said "
ja, tack så mycket", and asked someone else in English