You will be fine. Learn how to say please and thank you. A smile and polite tone of voice is recognized the world over.

I was so jet lagged at the end of our first day in Germany (no sleep in 36+ hours) that I started speaking to the hotel clerk in my broken and basic Italia

oops - got cut off.
Anyway, I was trying to communicate in my horrible Italian to the German clerk in Germany. Once I finally realized what I was doing, we all shared a great laugh ;-)

I love dutyfree's story-and remember a scene on a street in Naples where we stopped to ask a group of elderly men directions, They got into a huge discission, with each one of the four giving us a different route to our destination-which was only a few blocks away! Each was so adamant and insistant that my friend and I started to giggle-then there were smiles all around!

Latteluna-you might feel overwhelmed briefly at the beginning, but by the second day, you'll be just fine. Take a couple of phrase books with you, and enjoy yourselves!

<<Do you get scared when you can't speak?>>

No, I don't. But we all react differently, so I don't know whether you will get scared.

I found it exciting, in a way, to try to use words I'd learned for asking for simple things like water, apricot juice, toilets, the exit, the price, etc. in Greece and Turkey, where I did not know the languages. My mind was always racing trying to figure out what the various Greek or Turkish words on signs might be, and I'd get so excited when I could pick out one of the very very very few words I "knew" in an overheard conversation, even if I had no idea what the gist of the conversation was. In Turkey, I was on a tour, so my times off on my own were just brief adventures. But before I traveled independently in Greece, once alone, and once with a friend, I did spend a few weeks with a simple intro to Greek grammar and vocabulary book at lunch time at home, trying to learn more than just a few words, but I couldn't form too many sentences more complicated than "Where is...?" While on my most recent trip to Greece about seven years ago, I found English widely spoken, on the earlier trip long ago, it was not. My friend and I were always ready to try a different language if English didn't work: French for either of us, Italian for me, German for her.

I avoid doing things on trips that I consider "dangerous," so if I do find myself in situations where I am totally unable to communicate at all or well enough, at least the consequences are not terrible. To me, the scariest thing to do on a trip would be to rent a car and drive by myself either on fast heavily trafficked roads or on narrow winding roads along cliffs. If anything went wrong, I'd have enough trouble in English, let alone in a foreign language.

<i>I don't know about conversation but if the whole country is yelling </i>

So, try not to make them yell! ;)

You know, I haven't been to either Italy or France but I have to figure that they get a lot more english-only tourist traffic than many other countries. wouldn't you? And people keep going and going back, so it must be ok. We went to the middle of Romania by ourselves and it was fine. Got an hour + impromptu tour of closed and fenced off 13th century castle ruins in the middle of Transylvania from the caretaker who spoke not 3 words of English. It was great! People go to China and Paraguay and even the most remote parts of Paris and survive (reportedly, even enjoy themselves, but that's just unsubstantiated rumor).

If people want to yell at you and aren't interested in finding a way to get the message across, then you're probably lucky that you don't know what they're saying, unless of course they're saying &quot;look out for that bus...&quot;. Otherwise, we've found that making the effort to show that you'd like to be polite by knowing the pleasantries has gone a lone way. Get language tapes 1 of ... and learn the phrases in the car or instead of whatever.

Honestly, if someone wants to communicate with you, they will, even if it's just through gestures. Making them want to is up to you.

Wow, you know... it wasn't until just now when I read this back, that I realized that

<i>&quot;Got an hour + impromptu tour of closed and fenced off 13th century castle ruins in the middle of Transylvania from the caretaker&quot;</i>

is how every 1930's horror movie began and I used to say how dumb people were for walking right in that place...

Ok, maybe being scared isn't such a bad idea.

I don't get scared - but do get frustrated if I can't communicate. But it has happened so rarely that it's simply not an issue. I've been to europe over 60 times - to almost every country - some business and some pleasure - and the only time I was frustrated more than once was in Russia.

And it was my own fault for not learning the alphabet in advance - so I wasn;t that comfortable taking the subway alone and took cabs instead.

In western europe this simply isn;t an issue. I haven;t been anywhere that someone didnt speak some english - and simple sign language and your basic pocket translator book can take care of almost any situation.

That said - do you have some basic high school language classes you can use tapes to refresh with? Or even pick up 2/3 basic words a day from your translator - so you'll feel more comfortable? (I hadn't studied Spanish since high school - and almost all of it can back the first day we were in Spain even though it was more than 20 years later.)

I wouldn;t give this another thought - you really won;t have any problems.

1) apologize for not speaking French/Italian etc. 2)ask if they speak English. 3) listen to what they tell you and thank them profusely. I travel alone all the time and don't speak any other language. It'll be fine and an adventure!

Hi latte,

As noted, learn a few basic phrases, bring a pencil and paper for making sketches and maps, smile a lot.

We visited Prague, where we couldn't even read the language, let alone speak it, and were treated pleasantly.

((I))

LOL Clifton, that does sound scary!

All over the world we have found that if you even attempt to use local language you are met with warmth, appreciation, and assistance. You'll also be surprised how much you can communicate with someone when neither of you speak the same language. We were recently in Italy and spent two delightful half hours visiting with our landlord over cappucino -- he spoke no english and we spoke no italian. If you find you really need someone who speaks english, it's generally best to seek out the youngest person you can find, as they are the most likely to have taken english in school.