Guides
The things a phrasebook leaves out: how the exchange at the counter actually runs, what changes from one country to the next, and the words you will hear before you need to say any.
- Tipping customs in 12 countries, from Japan to Mexico
The amount is the easy part. What trips travellers up is the mechanics: when to say it, whether it goes on the card, and what the line at the bottom of the bill already covers.
- Emergency phrases in 10 languages, and the numbers to call
The numbers are not the same everywhere, and 112 does not mean the same thing in Seoul as it does in Madrid. Here are the numbers, the six sentences that matter, and what to prepare before you need any of them.
- How to order coffee in Italy without sounding like a tourist
An Italian bar menu is short, exact and full of words that mean something else at home. Here is what each one gets you, when to order it, and the exchange at the counter line by line.
- Japanese politeness levels for a two-week trip: what you need and what you can skip
Japanese grammar changes with the social distance between speakers, which sounds alarming until you notice the split: one level to speak, another only to recognise.
- Portuguese vs Brazilian Portuguese: what changes for a traveller
It is one language with two standards, and a traveller meets the differences in a predictable order: first the sounds, then the nouns on signs and menus, then a handful of words that mean something very different on the other side of the Atlantic.
- Mexican Spanish slang you'll actually hear (and what to say back)
Classroom Spanish gets you a table; it does not tell you why the waiter said órale or what the man at the market meant by güera. Here is the everyday layer, sorted into words you can say and words to recognise and leave alone.
- How to read a Thai menu: the words that tell you what you're ordering
Most Thai dish names are built from parts: how it is cooked, what is in it, and what it sits on. Learn about forty words and you can read a menu with no translation, and order things that are not on it.
- Chopstick etiquette in Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam: what changes at each table
The one rule everyone knows is the same in all four countries. Nearly everything else, from the bowl to the spoon to the first words of the meal, changes at the border.
- Reading a European train station: the words on the board in seven languages
A departure board in Lyon, Cologne or Porto uses about a dozen words. Learn them once, across six languages, and every station in western Europe becomes readable.
- Haggling in Moroccan souks and Turkish bazaars: the numbers and words that matter
Bargaining is a conversation with a known shape. Learn the shape, the numbers and a dozen words in the seller's language, and it stops feeling like a contest you are losing.
- Greek for island-hopping: ferries, tavernas and the word for tomorrow
Island-hopping in Greece runs on a small, specific vocabulary: the names on the ticket, the words on the port screen and the handful of phrases that get you fed when the boat lands at nine at night.
- Hindi, Tamil, Bengali or Marathi: which language to learn for your India trip
There is no single language of India, and Hindi will not carry you everywhere. The right choice depends almost entirely on where you are going, and on what you want the words to do.