For Christmas this year my friend Caroline gave me a very cute little
book called Point It (no idea why you can't
find it in the English Amazon site, but you can't. ISBN is
3-9803130-2-6). The book is basically a picture guide of things you
might need when you're travelling, including, for example:
breakfast foods - with
pictures of all sorts
of brekkie items, like: cereal; blood sausage and broiled tomato; toast
and jams; scrambled eggs; oranges; tea; coffee; and baked beans.
animals
- with pictures of critters like: cows, sheep, goats, bunnies, pigs,
chickens, deer, geese and ducks.
things to housekeep with -
including: iron, zipper, washing machine, detergent, clothespins,
hangers, mop, broom, dustbin, and sheets.
things to you'd use with a car
- like: tire chains, road maps, keys, parking places, batteries,
wrenches, jumper cables and that cross-shaped jobbie you use to take a
tire off with (if you can't call AAA)
Needless to say, this could prove very useful if you were to be
traveling somewhere you didn't speak the language. In addition, a
(unintentional, I think) bonus is that it's interesting to see what
things are considered significant for a given category of items from
cultures other
than your own. For example, having been to the UK, I know that baked
beans are considered a legitimate breakfast food there, even though
they're not here in the US. Some of the veggies on the veggie page I
couldn't
even identify because they're ones we don't often see in the states
(another contributing factor could be that I don't eat a lot of
veggies...oops.).
At the back of the book, after all the picture parts, is a page with
useful words/phrases (Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, etc.) in English,
German and French, along with spaces for adding two languages of your
own. I particularly like this feature as it's a "rule" of
mine that
when traveling abroad it's only polite to learn at least four phrases
in the native language of the countries you're visiting: please,
thank you, excuse me
and I'm sorry.
I figure that with those four to show "good intent" and a
willingness to make a complete and utter fool of myself by
gesticulating madly (which everyone knows I've got no problems with at
all), I can make my way anywhere.
Anyway, one night during the 10th annual Europrez
gathering (when I might have had a glass or three of Kriek, a muy yummy
cherry lambic that tastes remarkably like Cheerwine, but with alcohol
in it...mmmmm), I decided that I needed to get the rest of the
languange blanks provided on this page filled out. In fact, I
needed (I decided) to get six more languages (this despite the fact
that they only provided two blanks.) I got out my handy,
dandy tiny travel pen and created (badly) more boxes, then pestered
several folks to help me with their native tongues.
A couple of house later (an improptu knitting demo session providded a
thouroughly enjoyable temporary derailment), the chart was all
filled out:
Well, as you can see, thanks to my itsy-bitsy spaces, you can't really
read a lot of the text, so I've attempted to recreate it here in
tabular and legible format. Please, please send me any corrections, as
I'm not sure my transcription was accurate.
Legend
English
Swedish
Italian
German
Dutch
Portugese
French
Japanese
Hungarian
Today
idag
oggi
Cheap/
Expensive
billig/dyr
non
caro/caro (or economico)
heute
morgen
hose
billig/teuer
goedkoop/duur
barato/caro
aujourd'hui
kyoh
ma
pas
cher/cher
yasui/takai
olcsó/draga
Tomorrow
i
morgon
domani
Old/New
gammal/ny
vecchio/nuovo
morgen
gisteren
amanhă
alt/neu
oud/nieuw
velho/novo
demain
ashita
holnap
quand
atarashii/fu-ru-i(?)
régi/új
Yesterday
igår
ieri
Sweet/Sour
söt/sur
dolce/amaro
gestern
minuut
ontem
süß/sauer
zoet/zuur
doce/amargi
minute
kinoh
tegnap
doux/amer
amai/suppai
édes/savanyú
Minute
minut
minuto
Hot/Cold
het/kall
caldo/freddo
minute
uur
minuto
heiß/kalt
heet/koud
quente/frio
minute
fu-n
perc
chaud/froid
atsui/tsumetai
forró/hideg
Hour
timme
ora
Good/Bad
bra/dålig
bueno/cattivo
stunde
dag
hora
gut/schlecht
goed/slecht
bom/mau
heure
jikan
óra
bon/mauvais
ii/warui
jó/rossl
Day
dag
giorno
My Nation
mitt
land
la
mia partria
tag
dag
dia
meine
Staatsang
mijn nationaliteit
minha
patria
jour
hi
nap
ma
nationalité
waga
kuni
nemletiseg
Where?
var?
dove?
My Job
mitt
jobb
il
mio lavoro
wo?
waar?
onde?
mein
Beruf
mijn
beroe(?)
meu
trabalho
où?
doko?
hol?
ma
profession
watashi
no shigoto
munkam
When?
när?
quando?
Hello
god
dag
ciao
wann?
wanneer?
quando?
Guten
Tag
goede
dag
ola
quand?
itsu?
mikor?
bonjour
kon-nichiwa
jó
napot
How Much?
hur
mycket?
quanto?
Thank You
tack
grazie
wieviel?
hoeveel?
quanto?
Danke
dankje/bedanke
odrigada
combien?
ikura?
hany?
merci
arigatoh
köszönöm
So, how'd I do? Special thanks to everyone who
helped me fill the chart out ... I think I'll be printing this out as a
mini cheat-sheet next time I travel.
(I'd also love to add additional languages, so feel free to send me any
others!)
Oh, and here's the facing page too, just 'cause I thought it was funny. (Annotated to show you just what-in-heaven's-name I was thinking...)
