I'm going to continue my delayed Switzerland blogging. This time, I'm blogging because the notes I made for this post are in a notepad that's basically full and is going to get replaced any day now.
One of the aspects of Switzerland that surprised me was how little English people spoke. I had (have?) that ridiculous American view, that at the end of the day, everyone speaks English. And of course quite a few people did, but many didn't.
This meant that's Shira's French went from being a novelty to actually being required. To help me communicate, especially on my lone travel day, Shira gave me a handful of phrases she thought I should know. And sure enough, they turned out to be really handy.
In fact, if I were to go to another country where I didn't speak the language, I'd probably learn this list as a starting point. It's a wonderful feeling being able to properly thank some one, or even ask if they speak English in an intelligent way.
So here it is, Ben's dictionary of useful French phrases to survive in Switzerland:
| Greetings | |
|---|---|
| bon-jour | hello |
| sah-loo | hi! |
| bohn-swah | good evening |
| ex-scusem-whah | excuse me |
| Basics | |
| wee | yes |
| no'h | no |
| avec | with |
| mer-cee | thank you |
| seh-voo-play | please |
| tray-bee-enh | very good |
| uh, duh, twah, ktra, sench | 1,2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Phrases | |
| par-lay-vou en-glay? | speak English? |
| gahr | train station |
| jin-eh-say-pah | I don't know |
| chom-bee-enh? | How much? |
| chom-bee-enh minuoot? | How many minutes? |
| Food | |
| fwee | fruit |
| fwee-de-mear | fruit of the sea (seafood) |
| pizza | pizza |
| fro-maj | cheese |
I wonder how one go about pronouncing those words. I have a feeling that anything French is never as you read it.
ReplyDeleteYou're telling me! It took me a while to understand that Chillon was pronounced "she-long" and "chill-on." :-)
ReplyDelete