Phrasebooks are dying out
economist.com
economist.com
When I think of phrasebooks I think of Monty Python's Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook[1] sketch[2]. I've never been able to bring myself to trust them since first seeing it. :P
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke
It's an amazing read. You can find it free online.
>Mark Twain said of English as She Is Spoke "Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."
>Stephen Pile mentions this work in The Book of Heroic Failures and comments: "Is there anything in conventional English which could equal the vividness of 'to craunch a marmoset'?"[7] The original has "to craunch the marmoset", an entry under the book's "Idiotisms and Proverbs". This is the author's attempt to translate the French slang idiomatic expression croquer le marmot, used to indicate "waiting patiently for someone to open a door",[8] with croquer referring to the "knocking" or "rapping" sound, and marmot, a term for the grotesque door knockers in vogue at the time.
There is some foggy.
I fear of the thunderbolt.
The sun rise on.
The sun lie down.
It is light moon's.
They mentioned it in the article, but these days the Google Translate app completely replaces that role. I've had complex interactions (work, baby sitters, house cleaners, repairs, etc) with people who spoke zero English through Google Translate's interactive translation mode across multiple languages and it works amazingly well.
On the other hand, I have a lot of funny memories about phrase books and things going wildly wrong. So I guess we will miss out those stories in the future.
I had a Portuguese one which translated “hi” to the equivalent of “Good day, Sir”. While a Polish one translated “great, thanks” to “fucking brilliant!”.
Example: in my favorite coffee shop and the barista asks to use my phone to translate something. The English that comes out is "Drugs are high in the mountains"
But maybe that was what he was actually trying to say, as that does seem appropriate for Thailand... However I was not inquiring about drugs, and when I was confused and translated just "drugs" he vehemently denied talking about that.
I had the opposite experience. I found the phrase books to be by far the best way to get by, because I didn’t have to worry too much about conjugation, word genders, and so on. One of them was the way I bootstrapped my way into speaking Polish with a girlfriend who spoke no English.
Exactly this! Phrase books give you just enough of the language to get into trouble, but never enough to get you out of it. Like third-year Spanish students on a class trip to Mexico.
I did end up using Google Translate on my smartphone more, but having a physical book that obviously marks you as someone learning the language is a useful and underrated benefit. I had 2-3 conversations ('interactions' is probably a better word for me actually using the Japanese) over the course of a week that I can attribute to the phrasebook, which is somewhat significant because at the conference English was the default.
Also if the phrasebook is well organized, it can be a good scaffold for keeping the language organized in memory, so it can be a kind of a bridge between a simple translation lookup and a textbook. It's also like a fanny pack that has some retro appeal. Although the phrasebook had a dictionary at the back, it wasn't that useful. Having a proper dedicated pocket dictionary was good because it had words listed with phrase collocations/examples.
He handed me a small book bound in red cloth. It was a guide to English conversation for the use of German travellers. It commenced “On a Steam-boat,” and terminated “At the Doctor’s”; its longest chapter being devoted to conversation in a railway carriage, among, apparently, a compartment load of quarrelsome and ill-mannered lunatics: “Can you not get further away from me, sir?”—“It is impossible, madam; my neighbour, here, is very stout”—“Shall we not endeavour to arrange our legs?”—“Please have the goodness to keep your elbows down”—“Pray do not inconvenience yourself, madam, if my shoulder is of any accommodation to you,” whether intended to be said sarcastically or not, there was nothing to indicate—“I really must request you to move a little, madam, I can hardly breathe,” the author’s idea being, presumably, that by this time the whole party was mixed up together on the floor. The chapter concluded with the phrase, “Here we are at our destination, God be thanked! (Gott sei dank!)” a pious exclamation, which under the circumstances must have taken the form of a chorus.
But something that was very useful in Paris was the menu translator book, thin enough to carry in your back pocket. I could stand outside and look at their menu, and almost all the food was listed in the book, which had chapters for meats, vegetables, dessert, etc. Then when I went inside I knew what I wanted.
I don't doubt there are better apps now, but I can imagine a specialized product like this still being handy.
(Before Google acquired it!)
I doubt anyone publishes those books anymore, but you can probably find them used.
That was always a favorite of mine. Walk into a restaurant in (NYC's) chinatown where there were only Asian folks and no English menus.
I'd usually just point at something someone else was eating. It was almost always glorious. :)
For example, in Hungarian, the literal translation of "Hi, how are you?" is "Szia, hogy vagy?", but you would almost never say that when greeting someone. Instead you would say, "Szia, jó napot!", which means "Hi, (I wish you a) good day!". If you ask a Hungarian how they are doing without any context you're probably going to put them off.
Some parts were neat historical relics ("Where can I send a telegram?", "How much is it per word?")
The oddest was the part about social life, ending with "Will you marry me?"
Hah, even in Latin
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aeverything2.com+when+having...>
Raw:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aeverything2.com+when+having+sex+inIn the back is a phrasebook, with a few dozen common phrases translated into a handful of potentially-useful languages. It includes such gems as "I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you", "please take me to a hospital", "why is the water brown", "where is the embassy", and the last phrase is "you will never take me alive".
Probably written for GIs in Europe post-WW2
When we're first learning our native languages, we're basically using a phrasebook that consists of set single- and double-word commands and statements. By learning how to vary and add stuff to those set phrases, we leverage ourselves into fluency.
One problem I face is that I use translator apps to converse with some family and (mutual) friends and don’t share common language, but when I translate a whole sentence or paragraph for example it’s hard for me to learn the meaning without typing each individual word/phrase individually which is tedious, and breaks the flow when we are conversing. Furthermore it would be nice to be able to keep a record of the conversations (which often take place in person) and I would like to be able to go back and sort of be able to practice the phrases and conversations I had in the past. Mostly just english/french and english/spanish would do for me but other languages would be cool too.
Essential friendly banter when visiting a place for the first time