Spanish traveling (pt.2)

[Maryjane Dunn]

3) Language: In my "second life" I work for a company that teaches
occupational "momentary interface" Spanish. Some tricks you can use when you
go abroad, but don't speak Spanish are:

a) Ask only yes/no (Si'/No) questions, if you can formulate a full sentence
(or even if you can't). Most people who don't speak Spanish (or don't speak
much) have more trouble understanding the response than getting the question
out. For example, asking someone "?Do'nde esta' el refugio?" is easy to say,
but will get you a full language response, of which you will catch about the
first sentence. BUT if you ask "?El refugio esta' por alla'?" and point down
a street, you get either Yes or No, and if no you'll probably get some
additional directions. Watch the direction in which the person points. Go
that direction, then ask the next person you see when you come to another
decision point.

b) Take a very small dictionary (not a phrase book). Look up only the key
words of what would normally be a "real" question. Gabrielle's practicing of
"Where can I find a taxi stand, please?" is great, but the question "Taxi?"
with an inflection that goes up (like in English), a quizzical look, and
perhaps your hands up with palms out (typical American "clueless" gesture)
will probably get you the same information. (Although perhaps not the lovely
story/experience of Gabrielle).

Sorry for the long post, but Gabrielle and Robert's posts made me think that
perhaps this information could be useful. Often it's easy to not see the
forest for the trees; as we focus on route specifics it's important to
remember this is another country too.

Maryjane
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