How should I travel abroad if I don’t understand a foreign language?

First of all, let’s be clear. When traveling in most countries, if you don’t understand English at all, it will add a lot of unnecessary trouble to your journey, so you must understand some commonly used vocabulary, such as airport In English, there are "Terminal X", "Departure", "Arrival", etc. I spent the Chinese New Year in Japan this year. It was the first time in my life to go abroad and I made a lot of preparations. Since I have only been to Japan so far, I will only talk about Japan.

When Chinese people travel in Japan, "language" is not a big issue at all. Accommodation - When checking into a hotel in Japan, you need to fill in some personal information. Most of them will have prompts in Japanese, Chinese and English. OK - there are many Chinese characters in place names in Japan, so it is very convenient to take the subway, bus, etc. If you want to navigate, just use Google Maps to search for Chinese characters.

Eating - Many restaurants in Japan will put menus or models of dishes at the door and clearly mark the prices. Sit down and take the menu and say "this this this this this, thank you" after finishing the meal. Say "すみません" (pronounced "same as "die Mimomori", "Sorry" in Chinese, "Excuse me" in English), and the cashier will put the price on the cash register for you to see, and put a small plate for collecting money. Put it in front of you, and when you return the money, they will be counted to you one by one (also placed on a small plate).

Shopping - Of course when you go to Japan, you have to buy cosmeceuticals and visit shopping malls such as Daimaru. You may not encounter a Chinese-speaking shopping guide when you go to a drugstore, so try to choose a larger drugstore in a big city. You don’t have to worry about language problems when you go to a big shopping mall. Because 80% of the people here are Chinese, there are many Chinese customers, shopping guides, checkout, and tax refund service staff.

When we were shopping in Daimaru, Sapporo, there were more than 20 tax refund counters, and about 14 of them provided Chinese services. Finally, there is the same sentence. It is necessary to learn some English or the language of the destination country when traveling abroad.

If you don’t rely on language at this time, you can completely lose face. At this point you have two methods, 1. Make gestures. Don’t underestimate gestures, although they are inefficient, they can solve most problems. 2. Ask the Chinese people around you (at least it seems) for help.

Of course not knowing English may result in loss of some fun and even some money. But this is just a small thing when it comes to having fun. I want to travel on a budget but I don’t know how to communicate. This kind of beautiful thing is not as good as reading the copywriting of travel media before going to bed, and having fun in your dreams when you fall asleep.