When visiting Spain, you may believe that the population as a whole in this huge country can speak English but, when you start to visit the country, you’ll find that it is indeed only in the tourist areas where that very same tourist can guarantee that he or she will get by with no Spanish at all. So, if you decide you have had enough of ‘tourist’ Spain and really want to get to know what I will refer to as ‘real’ Spain, what situations might you find yourself in where not knowing some of the lingo could seriously affect your time there?
What if you find your money has been stolen, or if you have strayed from the crowd and don’t know where you are? What if you hurt yourself and need a nurse or, worse still, you’ve broken your leg and you’re miles from nowhere? What if you are trying to find a particular building or place and need to ask directions? What if the menu isn’t in English? Are you starting to get my drift? Well, if you didn’t arrive on a package tour, and you therefore don’t have a holiday rep., you’ll be starting to wish that you had done some earlier preparation of at least getting to grips with a few of the life-saving sentences which could help you get yourself understood, and be understood, more quickly.
So let’s look at some situations:
Let’s start with the police. Maybe you need to call the police because you have been robbed, or you need to know where the nearest police station is. Maybe you would like to tell the police officer your name, where you are staying and what has happened. Worse still, maybe you urgently need to say that your child has gone missing.
What if you really can’t remember where your hotel is, you’ve left your medication in the hotel room and your next dose is now due? And a taxi can’t be seen? Saying the name of the hotel might cause a helpful Spaniard to gesture your needs to you but the chances are you’ll only remember the first indication (that way) and then need to ask again.
And you can get some nasty surprises if you guess what that Spanish dish on the menu is! Even just a few words, like chicken, fish, bread, salad, ice-cream and sausage will help you make an educated guess at what will be arriving in fifteen minutes or so.
If you have hurt yourself, you may need a nurse, a pharmacy, or depending on the severity of the accident, an ambulance. Are you starting to now think that getting a few important phrases under your belt should have been included in your safety plan? Is your son allergic to some kind of medication – how do you get that across to the ambulance staff when you have somewhat lost the plot?
While a holiday away from the package tour style can be a lot of fun, part of that fun should be that you did a little research into what you might need to know, should a situation arise. Remember, we were talking about the safety plan, yeah?
By now, several useful phrases should be running through your mind – can you help me, please, as well as where is the police station, my son / daughter has gone missing, I hurt here, I need a nurse / a doctor, where is the nearest pharmacy, my son is allergic to, I need a taxi quickly and where is the (Playamar) Hotel?
Then there’s the run-of-the-mill phrases like how much does it cost, can I try it on, I don’t understand, where is the toilet, what is the time and, last but not least, do you speak English? And let’s not forget please and thank-you! Tie those in with a few numbers (let’s say one to ten), yes, no, left and right and you’ll have done yourself a great favour.
Of course, those words will only let you get by and are not a wide enough base on which to build. What I mean is, if you had gone that extra mile, and maybe done a few weeks of Spanish learning, which would include sentence formation and some tenses, you’d find that interaction with Spanish natives would help you cement your vocabulary into your head and indeed let you build on it. Why miss an opportunity?
