Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Alien_potato asks, Hello, Gary! Big fan of the podcast! When you travel abroad, do you just go around using English, or do you make the effort to learn some words in their language to make communication easier? And if you do, do you use language learning apps/programs or have another person to teach you?

The dirty secret is that you can pretty much travel around the world using English. English is the international language of travel and tourism. That being said, you should at least try to learn the basic words for hello, please, thank you, excuse me, and goodbye.

To learn basic phrases, you don’t need to use an app or buy a book. Just a simple online search will get you the basic words and phrases you need.

Learning the phrases isn’t a matter of needing them to function; it is just a way to show the local people you interact with that you respect their language and are making some sort of effort.