Chapter 26
(without photos) of
HOW TO EUROPE
The Complete Travelers Handbook
Internet edition.
A page from
Enjoy-Europe.com
by
John Bermont
Ja, Oui, Si; 1, 2, 3; A, B, C.
It's not quite that simple for Americans in Europe.
LANGUAGES
American or English
Americans
speak English, we say. Actually it is a dialect of English. It
differs in a number of ways from the language as used in
England.
When you're in Britain you'll notice
the differences right away. Some of the grammar and vocabulary is
a bit strange. One of the major differences involves pluralizing
words that apply to a group, e.g. they say "the team are playing."
Also, Britishers don't "go to the hospital." They "go to hospital."
Many words are different on the Island, including spanner
(wrench), bonnet (automobile hood), loo
(toilet), lift (elevator), and scores more. Going
colloquial, bull to Yanks is rubbish to Brits. When an American is
pissed he is angry. When a Britisher is pissed he is drunk.
Before going to Britain, I
recommend an interesting hour of reading in the front of any
college dictionary. There is usually a chapter there on the subject
of the history of the English language. Read it. Among many other
things, you'll find out why Bostonians put an "r" in many words
that don't have it (remember John Kennedy's "Cuber"), and leave it
out of words that do have it ("khah" for "car"). Some people from
New York do likewise. Britishers have the same habit, only more
so.
European Languages
There are dozens of languages in use in the countries of Europe. While it
is generally not necessary to know anything more than English, it
certainly helps to know a little bit of the language for those
countries you plan to visit. In the eastern countries, a little bit
of German can be quite valuable. People you come in contact with at
airports, hotels, restaurants, and train stations in western Europe
often speak excellent English. But occasionally, the people you
would really want to speak with know only broken English. Then some
familiarity with the native tongue is a great help.
Rudiments Are Appreciated
Learn a few simple phrases in the local
language. For instance, use the native for "please" and "thank you"
as a minimum. When you start up speaking in English and they don't
understand, you'll get a frown and a wave off in a few seconds.
Then point to yourself, say "American" with a smile, and ask if
someone speaks English. Nine times of out ten someone will come
forward or the one you are talking to will run into the back room
and bring out a teenager who has learned it in school or picked it
up from American rock 'n' roll records. American is the language of
the future throughout the world.
When using English, speak
clearly and slowly and keep your ear tuned because the reply could be
distinctly accented. If you know one of the romance languages you
might try to use it in another romance language country. French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian have the same
source.
Double Language Nations
Political boundaries do not
always equal language boundaries. In at least half of the countries
of Europe, more than one language is in use. Belgium and
Switzerland, two of the smallest countries, are notable examples.
Besides the major languages, there are a number of regional and
national languages which have survived invading armies and national
prohibitions. Notable among these is the Irish language and its
unusual alphabet. Basque is coming back to northern Spain after
decades of government prohibition.
Phrase Books
Phrase books are fun reading,
but not so much fun trying to use. Once you find the phrase that
you want to use, you'll probably botch up the pronunciation. Then
you'll show the book to the native and point to the phrase you were
trying to say. The native will look, nod his head, smile, and then
ramble on in the native tongue for a minute. Now what? These books
can be very helpful, but I find that a pocket translating
dictionary usually works better. I use both.
Dual Language Dictionary
I wouldn't travel in a foreign country
without a pocket translating dictionary. You can find
lingua/language paperbacks in any bookstore or department store in
Europe.
When using your translating
dictionary to hunt up the foreign equivalent of an American word,
also look up the reverse translation to see if it is the meaning
you want. Many American words have more than one meaning and
several foreign words may be presented.
For instance, in my Portugues Ingles / English
Portuguese dictionary, the American word "bill" is followed by half
a page of Portuguese words. Looking them up to find the reverse
meaning, I find: conta meaning "count, computation,
calculation, reckoning; account, bill; note; report, statement;
esteem," etc., for another half a page; nota meaning "a
note, mark, sign, memorandum, bill, memorial," etc., for ten lines
further;
factura meaning "invoice, bill of parcels;"
lista
meaning "strip of cloth, ribbon, slip of papper (sic), shred of
linen," and a load of other words including podao meaning,
among other things, "a clumsy, awkward man." When asking your
waiter for the bill, I don't think you want to use that last
one.
Pronunciation
Speaking foreign languages is
far beyond the scope of this book, but a few tips here may help you
pronounce a word or two.
Words are often divided into
syllables differently in most foreign languages. Words are usually
broken after a vowel or between double consonants. For instance,
monopoly would be mo-no-po-ly rather than mo-nop-o-ly.
Pronunciation of e can
be like i or a, or mute at the end of a word;
a can be like o, u like oo, and
i like
ee. Combinations
of vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs, are generally impossible to
express except in speech by a native.
Consonants are also
different. The letter g can sound like y or a cough;
k can sound
like c or ch, and t like
d. The letter r
is the most erratic of all. It can be mute, trilled, coughed, or
even spoken where it isn't seen.
Also, all languages have a
rhythm and character which seems to go with the people who speak
it. German is noted for having, to most ears, a rather brusque
tone. Some of the Mediterranean languages, reflecting a more
relaxed life style, have an almost poetic rhythm.
LANGUAGE LESSONS
Learning or brushing up on a foreign language is one of the reasons some
people go to Europe. Teachers use the summer to brush up on their
foreign language specialty. For transferees it's a must-do because
you are working over there and need to communicate. For first
timers in any language, it's hard work, mentally intimidating, and
worth close to nothing when you get home.
At Home
Many Americans had two to
four years of foreign language study in high school or college.
Then they go to, say, Nimes and can't even make the
garçon (waiter) understand that they want a glass of
wine. Well, you turkeys probably copied the homework from someone
else and cribbed on the exam. Anyway, the best way to learn a
foreign language is to go there, and speak it or suffer.
Berlitz
The famous name in language
lessons is Berlitz. It's also expensive and used primarily by
business people who need to get started in a hurry. We used Berlitz
in getting prepared for our transfer to Germany. I would rate our
experience as pro-forma. We learned about the difficulties of
learning the language, but little else in about six weeks at a
couple of hours a week with a one-on one instructor. It's about as
effective as learning to cook without a stove.
Alliance Française
I have attended the Alliance Française in Paris twice.
It is cheap and good and fun. Classes consist of a maximum of 20
students from all over the world. No English is spoken — everything
is taught by sight and sound. With four hours a day in class and
four hours a day studying, plus the environment of Paris, on my
first visit I finally understood the teacher in my third week. It
was an amazing feeling when all that darkness and confusion fell
away in the light. I would expect that three months at this pace
would bring most people to a fairly competent level in French. I
regretted that I only had time for one month, so I went again eight
years later. That's where I met Elizabeth and amour. It's
over now, but as Bogart said, "We'll always have Paris."
My French ability is still
rudimentary, but it's satisfying that I have done this. To study at
the Alliance Française, just go there and sign up on
the first of the month. You'll be given an entrance exam so they
can place you at the right level. I'll be going again when I have
the time.
Volkshochschule
On moving to Germany, we took
German at a private school in one-on-one lessons. I also signed up
at the local Volkshochschule,
a kind of adult education type of school in Aschaffenburg. This
seemed to work better for me. I was in class for three hours a week
for two years. Only German is used in these schools and it sinks in
after a while. Elizabeth had continued with intensive study at the
private school and progressed faster than I did. She also used her
German more frequently, in shopping and in talking with Stephanie's
kindergarten teacher and the neighbors.
Dutch
I took Dutch lessons at a private institute, the
Talenpracticum Dreefzigt, when I lived in Holland.
This was an almost comical arrangement due to the informal setting and
the highly individual character of our teacher. I also bought a
teach yourself book and studied every morning for a half hour at my
desk. One day my boss came in early and asked me what I was doing.
When I told him he scowled "What are you learning this language
for? Nobody speaks it except us!"
I ended up learning most of my Dutch by hanging
out in the local cafes, watching TV, and by dating Dutch girls.
Learning Dutch was my first experience with a foreign language,
except for two years each of high school Latin and German. Picking
up Dutch is very difficult because everybody in Holland wants to,
and can, speak English. And some of them have an attitude about
foreigners learning their tongue, as my boss demonstrated. Another
time I was washing my car in the street when a car pulled up and stopped next to me.
A spry old man leaned out the window and asked me how to get to the train station. I started
to tell him, in my best Dutch of course, and was nearly done when he
abruptly shouted back in English "In your own language! In your own
language!" And again, I was back in Amsterdam after my first month
of studying French at the Alliance Française in
Paris. In a bakery I ordered a loaf of that beautiful Dutch bread,
speaking Dutch. The owner replied in English. I replied in French.
Then she retreated to Dutch. Yippee! I won. Oh, that felt so good.
There are a large number of other
schools in all countries which specialize in teaching the local
language to foreigners. French, German, Italian, and Spanish
lessons are readily available in the respective countries. Russian
language study has recently become popular and schools have opened
their doors in major cities.
If you are interested in studying in any country,
obtain information from the official tourist office of the country
you plan to visit. There are frequent ads in the International
Herald Tribune, also.
Language Lessons by Tape
Taped language lessons provide a
convenient and inexpensive way to learn a few words of a foreign
language. We have used several of these and have found big
differences in the approach and the value of the tapes.
For German, we used tapes
from Berlitz, SyberVision, and "Just Listen 'n Learn" (Passport
Books). By far the best, and the most expensive, is SyberVision.
Another company, Audio-Forum, publishes tapes on a large number of
languages. Get their catalog of "264 courses in 91
languages." Tapes are available for all the major languages. Many
are available at your bookstore, library, and over the internet.
Language Lessons by Computer
The Rosetta Stone software offers audio with print words and images. A friend gave me
the Dutch version. I tried it out but found that I am already good enough
in Dutch that I don't need it. Rosetta Stone would be an excellent way to
get started in a foreign language.
Potpourri
A couple of nuisance items on languages should be
mentioned.
Americans in France should get used to saying "yes" or
"oui" (pronounced "whee") when giving an affirmative answer.
Never say "yeah." To the French ear, "yeah" sounds like
"ja," the German word for "yes." Many French don't care much for
Germans.
Finger language should be avoided. Americans start counting with the index
finger, go up to the pinky and then hit the thumb, Europeans start
with the thumb, and count through to the pinky. This may seem
innocuous, but in some countries, our number two with raised index
and middle finger is equivalent to the American middle finger high
sign, popularly known as "the finger" or "the bird." Our way of
showing two might be interpreted as the "finger salute."
NUMBERS
There are some small but
potentially significant differences in the way numbers are
expressed in Europe.
One and Twenty
Beware of numbers like neunundfünfzig and
negenenvijftig. These are respectively German and Dutch for
fifty-nine (59). The literal translation of both is
"nine-and-fifty." Thus, these languages employ the "olde English" system of
counting from 21 up, that is, one-and-twenty, to nine-and-ninety.
Some shopkeepers who are not too smart, or who are flustered at
meeting an American, may announce a price as 59 when they actually mean
95. It will sound like a bargain until you get 5 euros
change from a 100 euro note. This happens often so be
alert. N.B.: whenever you are buying anything in Europe write down the
price you think you heard and show it to the seller for agreement.
To avoid misunderstandings, always ask for the price, bus number, address,
taxi cost estimate, or
whatever to be written down. If it is not convenient for them to do
it, pull out your notebook and pen, write down your interpretation,
and show it to the other person for agreement. Heads talk. The
smiling, affirmative nod and the frowning, negative shake are
almost universal language, except in Bulgaria where a nod is no and
a shake is yes.
French 70
The French have a peculiarity in their number system which anthropologists
may be able to explain. They can't count past 69. To the French, 70 is
soixante-dix, literally translated as "sixty ten," and so on up to
sixty-nineteen for 79. At 80, a new system takes over. The French
for 80 is quatre-vingts, literally translated as
"four-twenties." This continues as four twenties-one for 81 all the way
up to and including four-twenties nineteen for 99. Those who feel
that they may have seen something like this before may recall Abraham
Lincoln's opening words at Gettysburg: "Four score and seven years
ago..." One hundred is simply cent, pronounced something
like "sawn," if you can swallow the n.
Decimal Point
Numbers can be written
differently. The decimal point is usually a decimal comma in
Europe, i.e., "78.5" is written as
78,5 over there.
And the comma separating
thousands can be a point, e.g. "8,642" is written as 8.642.
However, if a number is given to you verbally as
seventy-eight-point-five, it means 78,5 to them and 78.5 to us.
If you
are working on a computer spreadsheet in Europe, you'll come across
this situation right away. Change the default settings for your
program to the decimal point/comma protocol of your choice.
You may occasionally see the
decimal point located halfway up the number rather than at the
base, e.g. 78·5 rather than 78,5 or 78.5.
Don't be confused.
1,000,000,000,000
If you're talking big numbers in Britain, remember
that a billion over there has twelve zeros. Our trillion has twelve
zeros and our billion has nine. The American billion is a
milliard in Britain.
Handwritten Numbers
Your bill
(l`addition or rekening) at a restaurant or cafe may
look like a bunch of crazy squiggles. The number one (1) is usually
written as an inverted V and is easily mistaken for a seven.
Seven usually has a slash across its middle, or looks like a
Y or a 4. Two, three and five are often garbled. Eight
is started with the lower loop. Zero is usually impossible to
decipher except by excluding all other possible
translations.
Roman Numerals
Fibonacci is credited with bringing the Arabic number system to Europe in the
12th century. Prior to that, Roman numerals were the
only means of counting in Europe.
To recap, Roman numerals are alpha characters which can be combined to form
larger numbers. The base numbers are:
| Roman |
I |
V |
X |
L |
C |
D |
M |
| Normal |
1 |
5 |
10 |
50 |
100 |
500 |
1,000 |
Roman numerals have been trashed almost everywhere but there are a few places
where they are still in public use. One is at
the Albacete, Spain, train station. Track numbers there are posted
with Roman numerals. Arrondissements (districts or wards) in
Paris are normally indicated with Roman numerals. And they are
sometimes used as the month indicator in dates, as in 10.XI.08,
November 10, 2008 or the whole year for copyright notices, e.g. MMVIII for 2008.
Major sports events come with the name of the game and
the series number in Roman. Other than that, for the most part they
are engraved in cornerstones. But there is an interesting legend in Michigan that the
city of Novi got its name because it was the sixth stop on the suburban train system
a century ago. No. VI was shortened to Novi. Is that true? I don't know.
Remember that Roman numerals can be subtractive besides additive. That is, the number 4
can be written as IV instead of IIII and 19 is XIX instead of XVIIII.
Fibonacci also developed an
interesting sequence of numbers. The first two are 0 and 1. Subsequent
numbers are formed by adding the two previous numbers in the
sequence giving you 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . . The interesting part
of this is that the ratio of one number to the one previous
approaches the "Golden Ratio" of 1.618... This ratio is frequently
found in the natural structures of flora and fauna, and in famous human artifacts
such as the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
ALPHABETS
So you think that everything is a, b, c? Wrong! There
are very few languages, if any, which use all of and only the 26
letters in the English alphabet.
Code Breaking
In western Europe it's
usually not as bad as alpha, beta, gamma. Irish puts the lie to
that statement with a thoroughly unique set of alpha characters.
Three alphabets in eastern Europe also fail to follow the Latin
version. Greek is the one you are most familiar with. Another is
Cyrillic, used in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Serbia.
The unique hybrid Bulgarian alphabet looks like Cyrillic and Greek.
The two monks, St. Cyril and his brother St. Methodius, who
invented this cipher are celebrated as national heroes and given a
holiday in their honor.
If you are going to spend an
extended time in one country, make an early stop in a bookstore and
buy a local English bi-directional translating dictionary. You'll
have a much wider selection of dictionaries available in European
bookstores than you will find at home. In the eastern countries
these books cost pennies compared to their prices in the
USA.
Latin Alphabets
Following is a summary of some of the major
differences you'll find, and ways to cope with sometimes strange
looking signs and menus. Use this as introductory material
only.
We can be very
thankful that the Germans and Swedes have abandoned their old
medieval script, Fraktur, which makes Greek look easy in comparison. But both
languages have retained some features which are strange to us. In
German, the three "umlaut" vowels ä,
ö, and ü are used in addition to the basic
five: a, e, i, o, and u. When used with the umlaut, spelling order
is mixed in with the regular vowel. However, the umlaut is
gradually being dropped with the spelling changed to
ae, oe, and ue, respectively. So the umlauts
are de facto diphthongs. For instance, Munich is
spelled in German as München, and is sometimes written
as Muenchen.
This gets the spellings to fit into the 26 character international
telegraph system and the ASCII computer system. A practical
consequence and nuisance of this pops up when you are looking for
a street on a map or a name in a phone book.
Koenig would come after Köln and be mixed in
with König. Just regard any spellings with ae,
oe,
or ue as the single letters ä,
ö, and ü.
German also has an extra consonant which looks like ß.
It is equivalent to ss in pronunciation and
alphabetically lies between s and t.
Heading north, the
Danish alphabet runs from a to
z, and then adds æ,
ø, and
å. Equivalent characters are: ä for
æ, ö
for ø, and aa for
å. You'll find ü
mixed in with
y. The Norwegian alphabet is identical to the
Danish. Swedish twists this a bit. After the normal a
to z, they have added å,
ä, and ö. Thus, look for råka after
ryka in your Swedish to English dictionary. Finnish only adds the
ä and ö, but has very little use for b,
c, f, q, w, x, and z.
The French have done
little to the alphabet, except to add some accent marks to help
them pronounce it. You'll see é,
è, ê, á,
â, ô, and ç.
Don't sweat there — I can't pronounce them
either. The letters oe in sequence are a ligature, run together as
in œuf, the French word for egg, pronounced something like oof. French also
has the accented ë to indicate that it is part of a new
syllable and not a diphthong, e.g. Noël
(Christmas).
Portuguese uses é, ê, á,
à, ã, õ, ú, and
ç. All of the marks are strictly for pronunciation.
The Italians have no unusual letters or arrangements, but have no use for the
letters j, k, w, x, and y except in words of foreign origin.
Spanish has four additional consonants: ch, ll, ñ,
and rr. They come right after c, l, n, and
r, respectively. The rr combination does not rate a separate
chapter in the dictionary, but each of the others does. Thus, you
can look for rechazar after
recusor in your Spanish to English dictionary.
Dutch, more properly
Nederlands, is spoken in The Netherlands, half of Belgium, and even a
small piece of France, I'm told. Dutch uses most of the
normal alphabet with one oddity. The combination ij isn't
sure yet whether it's a y or just a humble ij. In
dictionaries it sits between ig
and ik. But in modern usage, such as in telephone books and
street indexes on maps, it is equivalent to y. Its
pronunciation is very similar to our y. Thus the Dutch word
dijk sounds almost the same as its English translation,
"dike." Another quirk of this combo is that if it begins a proper
noun both letters are capitalized, as in IJmuiden,
a city on the coast of Holland. Dutch also uses the "umlaut"
e, ë,
where they want to break a word between vowels for pronunciation, for
example cliënt.
That was all of the easy
stuff. Now we'll take a quick look at the strange alphabets used
further east.
The
eastern European languages which use the basic Latin alphabet have
additional characters. These are not yet included in the HTML 4
code which I am using in this document. Special characters involve
various marks on the standard characters, combinations which
receive separate chapters in the dictionary, and changes to the
word order because of the new characters. In short, it's more of
the kind of thing you see with Spanish. When the characters become
available in HTML I will add these features. In the meantime, when
you travel to any of the former eastern European countries, one of
the first things you should do is buy a translating dictionary.
Study the alphabet first and then learn a few of the polite
words.
Other Alphabets
The classic Greek alphabet has
contributed its first two letters to make our word "alphabet." Even
though the Greek symbols are familiar to those in science,
mathematics, fraternities, and sororities, they aren't in the daily
diet of most of us. Look in the front or back cover of a college
dictionary for a tabulation of the Greek alphabet. This may look
forbidding, but it's really not so bad. In fact, with the street
signs and many other signs in Athens using both the Greek and the
Latin alphabets, you start to learn Greek by assimilation after a
few days in town.
The Cyrillic alphabet
is a bit more difficult to assimilate. You might also see it listed
in a table inside the covers of your college dictionary, though it
might be labeled Russian. They use it in Russia.
The Bulgarian alphabet is similar to Cyrillic
but you won't find it very easily in reference books. If you are in
Bulgaria, buy a dictionary and ask someone how to pronounce it for
you.
Punctuation
There are a couple of strange
punctuation marks in use in European languages. As examples, the
Germans put the first quotation mark in the subscript position
rather than the superscript position. Sometimes quotation marks are
shown as double angle brackets, <<like so.>>
Spanish uses two question
marks, the normal one plus an inverted one at the beginning of the
question. To be consistent they do the same with exclamation marks.
¿Why do they do this? ¡Because this way you'll know
what's coming!
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