As I mentioned in my previous post, I am doing some travel themed/inspired posts for a bit. We recently got back from a trip to Germany, which is a lovely country. I recommend anyone and everyone travel as far and wide as they can. I talked about travelling abroad in my last post and how I see it as being a very different beast from travelling within one's own country. I have often heard the complaint that "those people," whoever those people might be, are just not very friendly towards Americans. Perhaps the concern should be turned around. Maybe it's the Americans that are not friendly when travelling abroad.
Now I have heard all kinds of people talk about not liking the idea of travelling abroad because of the differences. Of course, a chief difference is usually the language. A common complaint I hear is that, "Everyone should speak English." Well let me ask, if I am travelling in Germany, why should I expect everyone to speak English? Shouldn't I expect them to speak German? And let's not forget about the immigrants that travel to Germany for work. On our trip, we had coach drivers from Poland and from Slovenia. None of them spoke German. And their English was okay but not great. And I was okay with that. Perhaps to get past this idea of other folks not being friendly towards Americans, Americans should learn some words to help themselves. The title of the post, in German, means please and thank you. I have found on three separate trips abroad that learning some simple words like please and thank you, and using them when talking to the natives, can work wonders for the attitude of all parties. I saw several German folks smile and light up when I said bitte to them. I was trying to be polite and, more importantly, I was trying to communicate with those folks in their language. The same holds for any country that speaks English as a second language, if they speak it at all. So travel, especially to some place completely foreign to you, but learn some words in their language and use them. Even if you mangle the pronunciation, the fact that you are trying will change the attitude of most people you are talking to. It will likely change your attitude as well.
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AuthorRyan Myers writes a variety of fiction. He plays the field from mystery to literary fiction to fantasy. He is also working on a memoir. Archives
April 2020
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