Is it easy to navigate (Western Mediterranean)

[Travel luv]

Hello,

 

We are in the process of preparing for an upcoming western mediterranean cruise. Curious to know how difficult it is to get around if English is our primary language? We speak very little French and Spanish and no Italian.

 

Any recommendations/suggestions on how to make this easier?

 

Thanks

[Denny01]

English has become the international language and many speak it quite well. Take a basic translation book with you - many appreciate you trying, or saying things such as thank you and so on. So unless you plan to travel to very small and non-tourist areas, there isn't any real concern.

 

Denny

[Travel luv]

Thanks. Any suggestions on electronic translators?

[basil's mom]

Every store, restaurant, and hotel we went into understood and spoke English. If you check out http://www.magellans.com/ or http://www.travelsmith.com/, you will find several translators.

[chipmaster]

We spoke no European languages an in 3 trips have never had a problem, including our cruise two years ago.

 

Hello,

 

We are in the process of preparing for an upcoming western mediterranean cruise. Curious to know how difficult it is to get around if English is our primary language? We speak very little French and Spanish and no Italian.

 

Any recommendations/suggestions on how to make this easier?

 

Thanks

[hat776]

[\In reality you will only have a few hours in Port and your stay will be in tourist popular places where most people speak at least limited English.

If you'll be taking a tour then obviously you'll have no problem but if you're going to DIY not all bus drivers/train station employees speak English so try to get as much info as possible before you travel.

[5waldos]

[\In reality you will only have a few hours in Port and your stay will be in tourist popular places where most people speak at least limited English.

If you'll be taking a tour then obviously you'll have no problem but if you're going to DIY not all bus drivers/train station employees speak English so try to get as much info as possible before you travel.

 

While this is true, it is highly unlikely that there won't be dozens of people who do speak English and would be more than happy to translate.

[Spursgirl]

Hi,

 

The Western Med is very English friendly although it is fun (and appreciated) by the locals if you attempt to speak to them in their own language even if it's just to say hello!

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Spursgirl

[GreenTreeFrog]

English will be fine.

 

Learn how to say hello, please, thank you and goodbye in each language of each country you will be visiting.

 

Plus it helps to know "Do you speak English" in each language as well...

 

Sprechen sie English? (Sprecken see English) German

Parlez vous Anglais? (Parlay voo Onglay) French

Parli inglese? Italian

habla usted Inglés? Spanish

 

:D

[Keith1010]

I am sure you will be fine in these ports of call. Having a map is helpful to get around and if you need directions sometimes being able to point to the map is helpful.

 

We also find that if you need help going into a store is helpful as usuually you can find someone who speaks english.

 

But on the street in places such as Spain you will find that many of the locals do not speak engish or speak just a few words of it.

 

Keith

[cynbar]

We only speak English and had no problems on either our Western or Eastern Med cruises. However, we did pick up a tip here on these message boards which proved useful. When taking a taxi. we always wrote the address down on a piece of paper and handed it to the taxi driver. Many taxi drivers don't speak English, especially it seems in Spain. Worked great for us. In other circumstances, if one person (such as a shopkeeper) didn't speak English, there was always someone close by who did.

[Infi]

We speak fluent Spanish and a little Italian and had no problems. However, Spain can be a little difficult if you don't speak the language. At tourist sites, you'll be fine, but in small restaurants or shops it could be an issue.

 

Buy a phrase book and practice key phrases. Rick Steves has a few of these, along with pages in his guidebooks dedicated to this. Please and thank you go a long way. Locals will always appreciate it if you at least try, and be more willing to help.

[smtcan]

We only speak English and had no problems on either our Western or Eastern Med cruises. However, we did pick up a tip here on these message boards which proved useful. When taking a taxi. we always wrote the address down on a piece of paper and handed it to the taxi driver. Many taxi drivers don't speak English, especially it seems in Spain. Worked great for us. In other circumstances, if one person (such as a shopkeeper) didn't speak English, there was always someone close by who did.

 

I would second that tip. We always have the name of the ship and the dock written down too, in case we have trouble getting back. I learned this tip in Shanghai when I was there for three weeks unexpectedly while DH was in hospital. Each day I had the nurse write down where I wanted to go and set off in a taxi, and always had the hospital name and address too so I could return. I didn't get lost once, and after that experience i have much more confidence navigating strange places!

Sheila

[CaroleLee]

Hello,

 

We are in the process of preparing for an upcoming western mediterranean cruise. Curious to know how difficult it is to get around if English is our primary language? We speak very little French and Spanish and no Italian.

 

Any recommendations/suggestions on how to make this easier?

 

Thanks

 

Learn/write down a few key phases- you will be surprised by the reaction you get. People like it when you try to speak their language-they will probably respond in English but it makes for a btter experience.

Learn the following

 

Hello

Good by

Please

Thank you

I would like

Where is the toilet

If clothes shopping- Do you have this in my size in___color___

My hotel is___ (keep hotel name & address, tel# on an index card)

My ship is___ @ port___

 

There are also point booklets with common foods, numbers, clothes items that you simply point to if all else fails-try Barnes & Noble.

 

Remeber that shops are considered "private" so when you enter always say hello

Carole

[Travel luv]

Thanks for all of the great advice. I agree that it is important to try to at least learn some basic phrases to show respect. I am considering purchasing an inexpensive electronic translator just in case. We are doing some diy adventures.

[rigldbrg]

I concur with other posts that you should have no problem speaking exclusively english. However, we did have a taxi driver in Costa May that spoke no english. None. Not even "hello." The only reason this presented no problem was that the beach club we were at called the cab for us and directed him to the pier. I was very uncomfortable on the ride back (reasons in addition to the language barrier), and wished that I had some way of communicating with this guy. The electronic translator sounds like a great idea, and I'm going to look into one of those as well. Great tip about writing down the ship name and port in spanish.

[hat776]

I concur with other posts that you should have no problem speaking exclusively english. However, we did have a taxi driver in Costa May that spoke no english. None. Not even "hello." The only reason this presented no problem was that the beach club we were at called the cab for us and directed him to the pier. I was very uncomfortable on the ride back (reasons in addition to the language barrier), and wished that I had some way of communicating with this guy. The electronic translator sounds like a great idea, and I'm going to look into one of those as well. Great tip about writing down the ship name and port in spanish.

In Palma we got the bus from the Port to the Cathedral in the centre of the old town. As usual, we asked the driver from where to get the bus to return to the Port . He spoke no English but using a mixture of Italian and phrase book Spanish he explained from where. We went to look for the stop before exploring Palma and were surprised the stop was about 350m away from the drop off.

On our return we had no problem but the stops nearer the Cathedral were packed with loads of people. In fact many began to panic and stopped passing taxi's.

We concluded that our driver knew the stops near the centre would be inundated with people andso directed us to a stop further away.

My point is that if you don't know the language you have to be more careful in your planning and not just take if forgranted that everyone speaks English.

[screwcork]

Having English as your mother tongue you are in the lucky situation that you can go all over the world without speaking a word of any other language.

Coming from a minor country like Norway, with less than 5 million inhabitants, you have no choice. I therefore had to learn English, German and French in school, and later I had to learn Spanish since I worked there for 3 years.

One piece of advice only: Try to speak as clearly as possible - some American accents can be difficult to understand for us Europeans!

 

Good luck!

 

 

Screwcork