Exploring Countries When You Don’t Speak The Language

Exploring countries and their cultures is something I miss being able to do. You can learn so much about a country by observing and people watching, especially in less touristy towns. I’ve been dreaming daily of the day I can get back on a plane and fly to a destination I’ve never been to yet.

Earlier this year, we were supposed to go to Tokyo, and our last international trip before COVID was Mexico. I mean, I hardly count that, so let’s back it up even further. In the Summer of 2019, we went to Italy.

When we do get to go to Tokyo, I am terrified because I can BS my way through some French and Spanish, and I barely survived basic Italian phrases, but Japanese?! Throughout all of our travels, I have learnt that a little goes a long way when visiting a country where you don’t speak the language.

As we look towards the Endemic, lots of us are itching to get out and explore. I thought I would highlight some things that we have learnt along the way to help you.

Guidelines For Exploring Countries Where English Isn’t The Native Lanugage

When you step off of a plane into a new country, you need to be cognizant of their culture. You’re not in Canada (in my world) / the USA / the UK anymore and how you go through dailylife may not be accepted where you go.

First Potential Opportunity To Explore A Foreign Country

Back in grade 10, I had the opportunity to take an extra credit class by learning Mandarin. We were able to participate in an exchange program, and experience Beijing. Before you think, “wow Ash, what an awesome experience when you’re 15 years old” I am going to let you know that I wasn’t actually able to go.

A requirement was that all core classes had to be passed, and I failed math, which made me exempt from the trip. I still got to host two students and that was amazing, but I missed out on the trip.

Something that we learnt very early on was that chewing gum was not allowed. I love to chew gum, but I could go without for two weeks. Spitting is also something that was frowned upon, but that’s not something I do much of. On top of that, their dialect is slightly different from standard Chinese, so we were told to be very careful about the phrases we used.

The topic of language is something that has always stuck with me.

Not everyone learns or wants to speak English

This is honestly something that should be well-known and understood, but it’s just not. Yes, English is commonly taught – especially in Europe – as a second or third language, but you should never expect someone to speak English.

Jason and I booked our first International trip together in 2012, and our destination was France. I do live in Canada where we have both French and English as official languages, but I live on the West Coast where English reigns supreme. Canadian French is also different than Francophone French and we heard how the French people would be disgusted if you spoke Quebecois.

Quick note: when it comes to European travel books, you can count on Rick Steeves to help you out. His books are full of information and have a wide range of information and common phrases for that country and have helped us immensely throughout Europe so far. 

ExplorWe very quickly learnt and practiced common French phrases. I distinctly remember Jason practicing getting packets of tickets for us to use on the Metro in Paris, while we were flying over the Atlantic. I do believe it goes something like “un pacquet de billets pour Deux personnes” and he was nailing it. When we got through customs and to the ticket counter, he said it so well, the lady responded very quickly in French and stunned us both. She smiled, gave a little chuckle and then spoke to us in English.

Everyone had told us that the Parisians were rude and not very helpful, but so far we felt welcome and exceptionally jetlagged.

The same went for customs by the way; we approached and greeted in French, but also used the phrase “Parlez-vous Anglais?” so that they’d know we can’t fully speak French when being asked questions.

First International Trip – France

When we travel, we love to explore different restaurants and cafes and people watch. I know that so many people go to Europe to explore the museums, but we’re not big museum people. Yes, we did go to the Louvre; we’re not animals! And absolutely I can attest to the fact that the Mona Lisa was very underwhelming. I said what I said and if you’ve been, you know.

Before this is taken the wrong way, I expected to be able to pick out Americans (and Canadians) based on their interactions. I only say this because North Americans have a tendency to believe their native language of English is the universal language.

We were both shocked when we saw how many people from the UK we saw all over France who refused to even greet in French. The UK may be part of the European continent, but having travelled there and various countries in mainland Europe for lack of better terminology, it’s almost its own world.

Every time we entered a cafe, shop, hotel, restaurant, we always made a cognizant effort to greet and have a basic conversation in French. Now, the Parisians know you can’t fully speak French because your speed of the conversation is slower, and you need them to slow down so you can understand. But every single time we did this, we had Parisians help us with phrasing for future destinations and some even helped us practice.

Contrary to what everyone was telling us prior to leaving for our trip, we had a wonderful experience with the often thought of “rude French people” and have been back to Paris many times since then.

Exploring Other Countries – Belgium, Holland, Italy & Mexico

We have applied this to every trip we have taken where English is not the first language. Mexico, Holland, Belgium, and Italy. I almost want to include England and Scotland in here, because sometimes it felt like they were speaking a whole other language!

In Mexico, we always greet the staff at the resort in and in the local restaurants in Spanish, but they do like to practice speaking English. They are more than willing to help you with your Spanish phrases, but remember that they’re pretty busy so in the middle of the day when you’ve got that day drunk feeling going, probably isn’t the best time.

In Belgium, you can speak French, Flemish, English, German and Dutch and you’ll get a response. So we used our awful French skills and then they’d converse as much as they could in English when we got stuck.

Holland was different. We only went to Amsterdam – which is where Jason popped the engagement question – and neither of us know any Dutch whatsoever but every

where we went, it seemed like English was used. I don’t know why, but it worked out well for us! I am positive that won’t be the case when we go back and visit the smaller towns and villages.

Italy is a country we figured would be very much equivalent to France. Again, we had heard that the Italians can be very rude, but we brushed it off after our France experience. Both of ourItalian skills suck, but again, we had our basic phrases down. Once again, the Italians were so nice to us and did switch to English when they saw how difficult it was for us to converse. Obviously, in the bigger cities, this is easier than smaller towns and villages, but it worked.

Exploring Countries Means Being Open

If you’re planning on an International destination anytime soon, learning some basic phrases and greetings will help you immensely when exploring new countries. You don’t need to sit and learn a whole new language, but the basics will get you a lot further than demanding someone speak English to convenience you.

On the flip side of that coin, don’t let the fact you can’t speak a language deter you from exploring different countries and cultures. Both of us only speak English, but we put the effort in to learn common phrases and questions and keep them on our phone. And hey, use Google translate while you’re travelling if you need the additional help, especially in small towns.

If you show someone in their country that you are willing to make an effort, that will come back to you ten-fold. You’ll typically come across someone who is having a bad day, or is tired of seeing tourists (me at the tail end of cruise ship season here haha), but overall that’s not the norm.

And who knows, maybe you’ll start to fall in love with the language and want to learn it yourself. Just sounds like the perfect excuse to go visit a country again!