Quote:
Originally Posted by Churchill
Ive just been glancing at a thread about learning spanish for traveling and got thinking about which are the most useful languages for a traveler.
I realize that it depends on your destination but as a general concept...
my idea; english, spanish, and then what??
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That really is a question.
As you speak English as your starter language. Your half way to speaking to most of the world. If a German is in Greece and want's to talk to a Greek. They will both speak in English. So what it you are in the back of nowhere. Latin may be not a bad idea. As six to four there will be a priest that will speak it. So that could get you out of trouble. And most Languages are built up round Latin. But on a more serous note, Spanish is not a bad second choice. As for German be careful. I was station out there for three years. Picked up the language, lived on the German Dutch border. When in a training exercise in the northern part of Germany. In the a local bar. Trying out my German, no one understood me, reverted back to English. A little while later on a German came up and started to talk to us. Told us where we had come from, and he understood what we where saying. It turned out what we where speaking was a language called plat German. Only spoken in the area where we where living. The best I could make out, it was a kind of Dutch German cross. So be careful of German, and you don't fall in-to the trap me and all the other English people who lived there did.
Apart from that, I can't be of any more help.
John933
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To buy petrol in Europe. Pull up at station. Wait. Get out a 20 Euro note, then ask someone to fill up the bike. Give person money. Ride away. Simple.
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