-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 11:49 AM 03/28/96 -0800, frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz) wrote:

I, at least, want to know something of the language of the countries I travel in. Being able to get a meal or a room for the night is useful. As a rock bottom minimum, I want to know the phrases: Hello, Good by, Please, Thank You, More beer please, and Where's the bathroom.

Indeed, I've found that pretty much covers the essentials :-) First things I've always tried to learn in a foreign language are "please" and "thank you".

The look of pleased surprise on the face of the Budapest resident when I said "Thank you" to in Hungarian as he gave up his seat to me because I was loaded down with caving equipment is something I still treasure.

Sounds much similar to the reaction I got in Japan, speaking broken Japanese. Atrocious accent, of course; abysmal grammar, and a fair share of mispronunciation tossed in - but I was *trying*, and that counted for a _lot_. I also have to concur with the point about the language/point-of-view argument. I never have learned to _think_ in a foreign language (a prerequisite for fluency, I believe :-), but have gotten sufficiently skilled to be able to understand some of the subtleties of the languages I've (kind of) learned. Regarding the notoriety of British (and, yes, Americans), I met up with a Brit in Japan who complained about the 'bloody foreigners that don't understand proper English'. I pointed out to him that *we* were the foreigners, and that the Japanese had a nicely organized society about the same time that his ancestors and mine were still smearing themselves with blue mud. That earned me an Evil Look. Dave Merriman -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMVpW7MVrTvyYOzAZAQE/xQP/WhYi/LAT2M/QYJ+b2PW7sOrRg2r0ZNcU gl3gk50RWY7AOUeEaifNM2ZWMl5oqqKSjA+eV5pnFZBlQBgrbnuzRHLi2F9IigZ6 Uu2V3/DHaTGY9ZVdWok0deU8DnkoY0W07pafggB9qpTCgqTGhU0NNOVxeWlU2HsT 6Yu9l5QduHM= =XMSb -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------- "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> http://www.shellback.com/personal/merriman/index.htm