Language barrier
By Porcospino
@Porcospino (31366)
Denmark
December 14, 2018 12:18pm CST
My husband and I had Asian food tonight and during our meal we talked about an experience we had in Laos. We stayed in a budget hotel in Vientiane in Laos. We don't speak the local language and the staff wasn't very good at English.
At breakfast we ordered one cup of coffee and one cup of tea. The first day we got two cups of coffee. The second day we ordered the same and we received two cups of tea. I also asked for scrambled eggs and I received fried eggs. When we were having dinner in the restaurant I ordered rice. I received noodles.
We never knew what we going to receive. When we received the wrong things, we tried to explain that we ordered something different, but the waiter didn't understand our sentences.
We joked about it and we tried to guess what we were going to receive. The waiters were actually very nice, and they tried their best to communicate with the foreign visitors, but their English skills were very limited.
Have you been in a situation where the language barrier made it difficult to buy food?
8 people like this
13 responses
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
We also did that. At first we tried to explain that we ordered something different, but it was very hard for them to understand our sentences, so we just accepted the things we received.
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
14 Dec 18
When I first got to Thailand I had that problem. I would go to mainly establishments that spoke English. I lived there for 9 months and I got fairly good at the Thai language so I didn't have too much problem with ordering food..except for some of the local foods. Every once in awhile I think of all the wonderful native food that I would eat...I loved their local faire. I wouldn't mind going back for another 9 months and enjoying all the delicious dishes I had there back in the 1970's. I was lucky as most of the wait people knew English and I ended up mostly what I had ordered.
2 people like this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
I tried to learn a bit of the Thai language before I visited Thailand, but I found it very difficult. I never managed to learn much of it, but I didn't stay there as long as you did. It was just short visit as a tourist. I liked the local food a lot. One time we visited a small local restaurant. The waitress didn't speak English and the menu was only in Thai .We didn't really know what we ordered, but it was really delicious and much cheaper than we expected.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
I did the same thing once. I wanted to try the local food, but it was very difficult to order food when I didn't speak the local language, so I decided to stick to the international chains instead.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
My husband also managed to buy food in Portugal without many problems. In Asia it was sometimes challenging to buy food. Sometimes there was no menu in English and the waiters didn't speak English. I remember a cafe in Vietnam. We wanted to buy some food and we tried to ask in English, German and French, but they didn't understand any of those languages.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
16 Dec 18
@LadyDuck We had a lot of problems in Greece. We arrived late at night and it was really hard to find a taxi because most of the drivers didn't speak English. We tried to walk instead, but that was also a challenge because we couldn't read the street signs. Eventually we found a taxi driver who spoke English and he drove us to the hotel.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458006)
• Switzerland
16 Dec 18
@Porcospino I can very well imagine your difficulty. In Portugal we never had problems, In Greece most people do not speak English, but we managed to order food because we knew the names of many Greek dishes that we like.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
I have experienced it in Asia and also some places in Europe. It can make travelling challening, but I still love to travel 
@amadeo (111948)
• United States
14 Dec 18
@Porcospino same here.But my days are over.I missed it so terribly there.Mike and I used to travel most of Italy and other place.Continued there.Do it now.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
@amadeo Italy is one of my favorite countries. I have lived there in the past.
@KOLAMsegaran1 (4137)
• Bekasi, Indonesia
14 Dec 18
yes it often happens in a place that is in a different language.
this will make it difficult for us to communicate with them
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
Yes, it happens when we don't speak the same language. It can be a challenge sometimes. I think it is very interesting to travel in other countries, but sometimes communication is hard.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
@KOLAMsegaran1 In the past I often bought dictionaries or phasebooks, but today it possible to get translator apps as well. I think that would be a good help when we visit another country.
@KOLAMsegaran1 (4137)
• Bekasi, Indonesia
14 Dec 18
@Porcospino if you want to travel to another country,
there is one thing you must do, which is hiring a language translator,
because with us doing something like that,
I am very sure you will feel easy or tasty beta ends in the country you want to visit
1 person likes this
@sabtraversa (12924)
• Italy
14 Dec 18
We have few Chinese food shops where similar situations happen.
"What is this? What is it made of?"
"Uhm, is good is good. Hehe."
But I'm glad they all smile and do their best to be nice. 
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
I have experienced the same situation here. Some of the Chinese shops owners don't speak Danish, and sometimes they ask a family to translate if they don't understand a sentence. They are nice and friendly, but it is not easy to ask them a question about the food
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (95136)
• Marion, Ohio
14 Dec 18
No I havent. Hope you liked what you did get.
1 person likes this
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
The food was good, but we never knew what we were going to get
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
It makes communication difficult sometimes. I love to travel, but sometimes it hard to communicate with the people I meet during my trips.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
19 Dec 18
One good thing about not travelling is the fact that you don't experience that type of problems. It can be stressful sometimes when you want to communicate and don't speak the local language.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
I might help to write it down. In the past I sometimes bought dictionaries and phrase books. I often try to learn some of the most common words like "entrance", "exit, "open" and "closed" Sometimes the phasebooks weren't very useful, and I couldn't find the words was looking for.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
14 Dec 18
Sometimes I bring a small dictionary when I travel, it can be a help to show them the words if you don't speak the local language.
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
15 Dec 18
I am happy to hear someone was able to translate for you. I also experienced that once. I wanted to buy subway tickets and I didn't speak the local language. Fortunately the couple who was waiting in line behind me helped me translate and I got the tickets that I needed.
