One of the largest obstacles to overcome when traveling is the potential language barrier between you and your hosts. Though most guidebooks come equipped with key phrases to aid in logistical aspects of traveling like finding the bus, they fall short when it comes to actually facilitating meaningful communication. While traversing the serpentine mountain roads of southwestern Uganda, I spent time learning the basics of the local language from our cabbie, but also a few unconventional phrases that proved a big hit later in our trip.
Armed with our secret hilarious phrases, we spent the morning exploring our village and the neighboring towns, wandering along crumbling red dirt roads, the hallmark of the western Ugandan transportation network, linking village to village in the misty mountains of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forrest. Parades of school children in smartly pressed matching navy stampeded past us, chanting rhymes as they hurtled by, unbuttoned blazers flapping behind them.
While Western tourists aren’t completely unheard of in the region – the unparalleled silverback gorilla trekking draws a crowd – we were enough of a rarity to earn a giggling, whispering, pointing escort during our trek down the mountain. After a few moments, my husband caught the eye of one of the older boys in the group and gestured at me, saying, “Aligutinia n’joka.” She is afraid of snakes. As was no doubt his intention, the group of children around us erupted in a cacophony of laughter and, forgetting their shyness, began chanting with him. “Aligutinia n’joka! Aligutinia n’joka!” She is afraid of snakes! She is afraid of snakes! Before long, some of the older boys were dancing around us, yelling “N’joka!” and pointing at sticks and leaves in the grass, before turning to me expectantly. Surely I would do something hilarious when confronted with my greatest fear.
As we approached the village, the children scattered, our escorts disappearing into tin-roofed mud and cement houses, also red, but not before our antics attracted the attention of some of the village’s residents. They approached us with the usual questions:
“Where are you from?”
“You speak Fumbira?”
“How long have you been here?”
We answered the best we could.
America.
Only a little.
Just a few days.
“Why do you speak our language?”
It was easy to be honest with them. Because we love it here.
Outside of “Aligutinia n’joka,” or Fumbira vocabulary was limited to the usual greetings and polite phrases. Most people around us spoke English, even in the small villages we visited, and it was never our intention to be able to communicate extensively in the local language. Nor is my fear of snakes so crippling that I need to constantly announce it – it’s more of a strong sense of self-preservation than actual fear anyway.
Instead, and entirely by accident, “Aligutinia n’joka” became our unofficial ice breaker. It made people laugh and, more often than not, initiated a conversastion on wildlife and the environment (there are no snakes in the Ugandan mountains, allegedly) and frequently led to another language lesson. Even though we sounded a little silly and raised a lot of questions, our willingness to put ourselves out there served as a gateway into the local culture and lifestyle. We clearly wanted to learn, and our ability to go the extra mile made people want to let us in.
I know that it won’t always be easy, or even appropriate, but learning to say one extra and maybe unexpected phrase in the languages of the places I’ve visited has drastically improved my experience as a traveler. It helps people see that you don’t want to be an outsider. “Aligutinia n’joka” is fairly situation-specific, but it’s a good place to start. I’ve put together a list of more universal key phrases that I’ve found particularly useful or memorable. Start with these – in any language, and then get creative.
You are breaking my heart: This phrase has the advantage of being both hilarious and versatile. I’ve used it in markets when prices are too high, but it applies to any situation that isn’t going the way you had hoped. Is the bar closing early? Or maybe your train is delayed. This sentences if fool-proof.
I like to try new things: Also widely-applicable, this almost guarantees a surprising turn of events. My favorite place to use this is in restaurants, but proceed with caution. I’m fairly certain that this phrase is responsible for the worst case of food poisoning in the history of the universe, brought on by large and small pig intestine at a BBQ joint in South Korea. I should have known better when the waitress started laughing.
What’s up (or the equivalent): This is not the same thing as “hello” or “good morning.” In fact, it’s not even close. It’s the casual, generally ridiculous, impossible-to-translate greeting that teenagers shout to each other from moving cars. In Tanzania, where the locals speak Swahili, the exchange looked something like this:
“Cheezi?” Crazy?
“Cheezi k’cheezi” Crazy as crazy.
“Cheezi k’omandizi?” Crazy as a banana?
“Cheezi k’omandizi in da freeji!” Crazy as a banana in the fridge!
When you can tell someone in a foreign language that you’re as crazy as a banana in the fridge, you have officially arrived, and you are obviously insanely cool. Phrases like this, that a foreigner would never find in a guidebook and that might sound a little crazy, dissolve the barriers erected by linguistic and cultural differences and demonstrate that you, the visitor, aren’t afraid to embrace all aspects of a nation’s culture, no matter how confusing or bizarre.
Fast! The police are chasing us: I dare you to say this to a taxi diver. Fasten your seat belts.
Let’s be fearless,
Jen