Showing your Appreciation

Okay, maybe you cannot converse in any more than the English language; however, you can still get by communicating if you know some positive phrases. Not only will you strike a chord of goodwill by doing so, you can make communicating a little easier too. For example, you can be polite in one of several ways. “Thank you” is denoted as:

• Merci (in French);
• Grazie (in Italian)
• Danke (in German); and
• Gracias (in Spanish).

Introducing Yourself Formally

To introduce yourself, you may want to say, “My name is . . .:

• Je m’appelle (in French);
• Mi chiamo (in Italian); or
• Me llamo (in Spanish).

Date and Time

You get the idea. By knowing some keynote phrases, you will enjoy your timeshare vacation in another country far more and start to understand the language of the countries you are visiting better too. But communication entails more than just a few basic phrases when you are traveling in foreign countries. It also means understanding how locals categorize addresses, dates, decimals, times, temperature, and floors of buildings too. Don’t forget that the day and month are reversed in dates. For example, 07-25-10 is 25-07-10 in Europe. Also, 1 p.m. is indicated by 13:00 in Europe or 3:00 p.m. is 15:00 on the continent.

Be Careful where you Place a Comma or Decimal

In addition, Europeans also reverse their usage of decimals and commas. For example, two dollars is expressed as 2,00 while two thousand feet is denoted as 2.000 [feet].

Floors of Buildings

With respect to temperature, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, or freezing in America is 0 degrees Celsius in Europe. Also, when you walk into your timeshare, and, say, are told that you are located on the first floor, you’ll find your unit on the second floor. That’s because the ground floor in Europe is the bottom floor, the first floor is the second floor and the second floor is the third floor.

Get Acquainted with your Destination Country

After awhile, though, you will get used to the distinctions in the language of the country you are visiting, and can overcome any barriers that may exist. Familiarize yourself a little bit with the language and customs of the place then before leaving on your trip. That way, you’ll be better able to cope with any miscommunication along the way.

Finding a timeshare in a foreign country is indeed exciting. No doubt, acquainting yourself with some of a country’s idiosyncrasies will make your trip just that much more interesting.

However, locals appreciate a visitor who has made an attempt to learn the primary language of their country.

If you want to communicate, then, a little more easily, it’s a good idea to be armed with about 50 phrases of the country you are planning to visit.If you only speak English, then you canstill  get by traveling in Europe. As most Europeans can juggle English with their spoken language, you should be able to communicate.

One way to better understand the various languages in Europe is to see how they evolved and note the concentration of languages in specific geographic regions. For example, the romance languages, as those found in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, came about from Latin, or the language that was once prevalent in the Roman Empire.

As the languages in the aforementioned countries are interrelated, you can easily transition from one language to the next rather readily. For example, if you know Spanish, then there’s a good chance you’ll also understand certain words and phrases  in Portuguese or Italian.

The next grouping of languages is the Germanic kind. While these languages are influenced by Latin, they were derived, in ancient times, from tribes living in the northern part of the European continent. The Romans, during that period, called the people who spoke in the Germanic tongue barbarians because their language was not Latin.

Nevertheless, the German language, which is one of these languages, is a practical language to use when visiting Europe. That’s because it is spoken, not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland and Austria as well.

Another Germanic language, Dutch, is spoken in the Netherlands and in northern Belgium, which is known as Flemish there. While Dutch is not German, anyone who speaks German can decipher what a Dutch speaker is saying.

In Switzerland, four languages are spoken. Most of the Swiss speak German while about a fifth of the population speaks French. A small percentage of people speak Italian while a very tiny percentage speak the language of Romansch, a language that is related to the dead language Latin.

If you are not well-versed in any of the mentioned languages, then, for practical purposes, at least know the phrase in the language of the country you are visiting that translates to “Do you speak English?” If the person says, “No,” you’ll just have to try to communicate to the best of your ability. Traveling through Europe can be accomplished, even if you only know a smattering of a country’s language. You may not speak eloquently but you will communicate nonetheless.