Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Travel
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-13-2010, 08:51 AM
 
Location: Houston, Tx
3,644 posts, read 6,293,835 times
Reputation: 1633

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88 View Post
If you are dining with the highest muckety-muck, and you put your food in your mouth with your left hand, they will be highly offended, but probably too polite to say anything.
Typical anti-left-handed bigotry and intollerance. People in that part of the world need ot embrace diversity and be more accepting of alternative-handed lifestyles. Handedness is not a choice and this kind of discrimination should be a relic of a past age. Perhaps some diversity training classes are in order for this group of people.

Quote:
Originally Posted by burgler09 View Post

I have decided to buy a travel book and study the language a bit in my spare time on the side of my full time language. Seems like something fun to do, but I won't put too much effort.

Thanks for the help guys!
They also have phrase books for the things that you don't learn in textbooks. You can usually find them in the major bookstores. I recently bought one for Chinese to supplement my class-based knowledge. It has more casual ways of saying introductions and other things like that than are usually taught in textbooks. Its amazing how much you can impress native speakers just by throwing out a few colloquial phrases. Like if you heard a toruist with limited English caught in a rainstorm suddenly say, "Boy, its raining cats and dogs". That's something that doesn't translate; you just have to know it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 08-13-2010, 12:46 PM
 
Location: The Ranch in Olam Haba
23,707 posts, read 30,662,949 times
Reputation: 9985
Quote:
Typical anti-left-handed bigotry and intollerance.
No. Its Americans who think the world revolves around them and their naivity of other cultures.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2010, 01:19 PM
 
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
16,393 posts, read 30,869,940 times
Reputation: 16642
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilVA View Post
No. Its Americans who think the world revolves around them and their naivity of other cultures.
Oh brother..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2010, 05:17 PM
 
731 posts, read 1,576,567 times
Reputation: 695
The highest muckety muck, whatever that is, not only uses his left hand, he also coughs up the demons out of their throat every morning using that hckckckck noise. I won't even go into their preferences to sleep with, you get my drift...It is not the Americans who don't have etiquette, its just those people are different....not better.

I know these things for a fact, my husband spent a good number of years around the Persian Gulf. No Brat Just Fact.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-13-2010, 06:31 PM
 
Location: Viña del Mar, Chile
16,393 posts, read 30,869,940 times
Reputation: 16642
Quote:
Originally Posted by tinynot View Post

I know these things for a fact, my husband spent a good number of years around the Persian Gulf. No Brat Just Fact.

Hahaha I know how you feel, my girlfriend is Indian and I have seriously heard it all :P
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-15-2010, 02:18 AM
 
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 22,983,871 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogerbacon View Post
It's not about learning how to use them, it's about being physically able to use them. Squatting over a whole in the ground, even a nice porcelin whole, is not that easy for many people. Most Americans can not squat with their feet flat on thr ground. They have to be on the fronts of their feet. Try doing that for three minutes while trying to go to the bathroom and you will se how hard it is. This has nothing to do with weight either. I was 150 lbs at 6' 1" when I was in Japan the first time and I had difficulty using those toilets.
They are difficult for those with knee issues as well. I was clued in about the Japanese style bathrooms and I'm not sure if I can actually squat and use them.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-17-2010, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,764,762 times
Reputation: 36643
Quote:
Originally Posted by rogerbacon View Post
Typical anti-left-handed bigotry and intollerance..
Blame it on the Romans, whose words for right and left were "dextra" and "sinistra". From which we derive the words that mean "skillful" and "evil".

I can do you one better than that. In Urdu-Hindi, the words for 'clockwise' and 'anticlockwise' are the same word, but conjugated in the male gender for clockwise, and the female gender for anticlockwise. Talk about bigotry and intolerance.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-17-2010, 10:09 AM
 
Location: San Diego
5,026 posts, read 15,265,172 times
Reputation: 4887
There are quite a few iPhone apps out there that translate phrases from 11 or so languages. I love 'em and if you have an iPhone, I'd look into that instead. No book to carry!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-18-2010, 06:26 AM
 
Location: Texas
211 posts, read 565,160 times
Reputation: 156
Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilVA View Post
tourists do not take the time to learn to pronounce the words correctly.
I've always been under the impression that these phrase books aren't necessarily meant to be used for pronunciation, but for allowing someone to read what you want.

Unless you're on a linguistic holiday and attempting to learn the language to some extent, finding the phrase you want in English and allowing a taxi driver (or waiter, hotel clerk, etc...) to read in the local language is the easiest thing to do. (Of course, this method has its limitations and is rendered useless if your intended audience isn't literate.)

Scott
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-18-2010, 06:27 AM
 
Location: Texas
211 posts, read 565,160 times
Reputation: 156
Quote:
Originally Posted by MAK802 View Post
There are quite a few iPhone apps out there that translate phrases from 11 or so languages. I love 'em and if you have an iPhone, I'd look into that instead. No book to carry!
In addition, the taxi card apps that are available are also extremely handy.

Scott
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Travel

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:28 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top