We’ve explored a handful of different countries in the past year from Denmark to Portugal to the UK to France to Croatia and Italy, where we are now. They all speak different languages in them, which can be a challenge when bouncing around countries.
My French came back to me.
I learned some French in school, and I was pleased at the rate it came back to me when visiting France.
Of course, traveling in the UK was a piece of cake when it came to language, though time in Wales presented a few interesting experiences. I also picked up a few new words like rubbish. :)
All the while traveling to different countries, I knew we’d be in Italy the longest and we needed (and wanted) to learn Italian. It made learning Italian front and center.
Still, while in Portugal I made some efforts to learn a few extra words beyond the basic greetings.
My attempts at learning some of the local language in any given country is for survival, but also to show respect for another country’s language.
Time to get crackin’ with Italiano
Once we were in Croatia, I knew the time to Italy was approaching fast.
It was time to get serious about learning Italian. And, with Croatian seemingly a difficult language, I didn’t put as much effort into learning much. I memorized a few basic words and intentionally stopped there. Things like greetings and how to order beef at the butcher. You know, important stuff. But I couldn’t help feeling like it was limiting my Croatian experience a bit to not go beyond.
Then, I had a neat experience in a local bakery one day.
[Read more…] about Going Beyond Please and Thank You in Other Countries
