I plan on going abroad in the coming year & want to know enough of the local language to ask basic things. Does anyone know something like 100 or 250 words that I could memorize to get across basic ideas & questions? I don’t care about being grammatical correct just enough to cave man speak during my time there.
Okay.
It’s something quite personal. Visualize your day today at your destination, what kind of situations and needs will you encounter, and jot down the words that you need to construct the sentences you’ll need.
You might want to supplement your list with something like a visual dictionary.
You didn’t mention the language, it will be hard for people to answer.
The invention of language made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
what is six times nine999999
I plan on going abroad in the coming year
See world. Oceans. Fish. Jump. China.
Depends
The minimal amount of words to communicate is 0.
If you want to be functional in a new country, you’d need to figure out what kinds of things you want to say and how functional you want to be.
I strongly recommend not talking to other humans, it never ends well. Have you considered a cat?
Dude. Dude? Dude! Dude…
The thing is, do you want to talk to people, or understand the answers? Because learning a few phrases is great but if you can’t understand the answers :shrug:
My standard basic phrases are Please; Thank you; Excuse me; I’m sorry; Where’s the bathroom?; and I’m a vegetarian. It’s not elegant, but it covers my most basic needs.
For places I want to go, I have a list in the local language that I can point to, and I learn the basics of written language so I can navigate (maps, store signs, menus, etc). I also watch TV in whatever the language is before I leave, preferably with English subtitles (sometimes that’s a local program, othertimes it’s a US or UK show dubbed into the local language).
That heavily depends on the language
And on the people doing the communicating.
And the complexity of the idea desired to communicate.
🤷🏻♂️ 🤔 ✌🏻
Where is ‘abroad’? Many countries will speak English pretty well, so you may not need it depending on where you are. Any vocab book for that country will give you the basics if English isn’t commonly spoken
Zero.
Communication doesn’t need to be written or verbal. Body language can effectively convey almost all basic human needs and wants.
Instructions unclear. Got my ass kicked due to cultural body language differences.
You know what you did
For many European languages and some non-European ones there is the CEFR, so you could look for an “A1” or “A2” level language course in whatever you want to learn. They aim to establish exactly this basic level of communication.
