These days I spend a lot of time thinking about the process of learning a language: what are the common steps, what are the common pitfalls, which words or phrases are really the most use when you find yourself in a foreign airport wondering what to do next?! Identifying high value concepts/elements in languages can speed up the learning process, by high value I mean words that can add maximum depth to your conversation with minimal learning overhead.
So, here we go; this is my top 10 most important words and phrases when starting a language. The list below is a bit of fun of course, but in all seriousness understanding which words/concepts are actually important to learn is a topic rarely discussed in traditional language courses. It probably seems obvious when it’s raised but concentrating on how to name all the animals in the zoo is rarely as important as mastering joining words in a sentence, though for some reason many language learning tools seem to imply the opposite.
Quick update 16/03/2010: check out this post’s follow up article when you’re done below.
My top 10:
- “Hello” – for obvious reasons, just being able to say this usually wins serious browny points in a foreign country, people engage with people they perceive as making an effort.
- “Thank you” – again for obvious reasons, you can’t get by without this one.
- “There is” – in many languages can be interchanged with “is there?”, this can be broadly interpreted in many situations.
- “Already” – gives you context and can again be both a question and a statement in many languages.
- “This/That” – often the difference between the two can make a big difference in conversation.
- “Why?” – With a pointed finger can mean “why is it so?”, “why did you do it?”, “why is there a problem?”. It can get you in to trouble when trying to understanding the answer but people can often interpret very laterally.
- “May I have” – or the equivalent, in many languages the literal translation is just “give me”, please and thank you are not required, either way understanding the convention can be very useful (and help you avoid taking/giving offence).
- “What” – obvious, the most important word for building your vocabulary, and or avoiding something dodgy in a village market stall!
- “I want” – this can indicate intent to do something in many languages as well as a desire.
- “Finished” – can often be interpreted as a question, a statement or a demand – all very useful at different times
I would love to hear your thoughts on this below please do leave a comment; share your Top 10,20,30 or a story about when some particular words have come in handy.
Simon
Tags: learning, polyglot tricks, tips, top 10
See our list of rss/atom feeds
This is helpful – thanks.
I have always been told that ‘sorry’ is the first word you should use in any language….
My word would be PLEASE …..
So true….I would add “where is…”
Thank you : )
Hugely important when travelling or living in a foreign is the word help. May be life saving to know.
Love this site and i am a daily visitor HOWEVER would have liked to see a sample of each word in use including HOWEVER!
Also need to see some more would have could have etc.
Just a note.
Why oh why do all the traditional learning methods use such antiquated phrases of no use to the regular learner such as “the maharaja will take his tea in the drawing room”
How about a day with lesser known words but frequently used everday by ordinary people (bosse,kif etc)
keep up good work and the modern working phrases.
Jim
I was rushed when writting previous comment but no excuse.
I must learn to write in english before i tackle french non?
Jim
@Everyone: all great points. Social niceties a and emergencies – definitely great vocab!
@Jim, thanks we’ll keep trying to keep examples current
Yes
No
Please
Thank you
I’m very sorry, but I don’t speak (insert name of language here)
Where is the toilet?
Numbers from one to ten
How much
Where
More
Less
Also
I like (that)
Goodbye
I love the site and enjoy getting the phrases every day.
But why list the top 10 things to learn without the examples in french??
Please share them with us!
merci
where’s the party?
@liz thanks for your feedback! The language tips blog is really language agnostic, but I’ll see what I can do about getting a list translated for you
@Conrado – of course! How could I have forgotten than one, I hope you had a great Friday night
Hello Simon,
Can I give you a suggestion: What is your top ten phrasal verbs?
Thank you !
[...] week I posted on the top 10 words and phrases to master when learning any language. It elicited some great responses from people some surprised I hadn’t include one word or [...]
It’s also might be useful to know how to ask “how much?” and to have a calculator to show sums of money or even to bargain.
“top ten phrasal verbs” is a good idea but not all languages have the same type of structure as phrasal verbs in English.
@Conrado and @Simon:
For players of the “Where Are Your Keys?” language fluency game, your “where’s the party” question actually brings up a critical issue.
We use the ACTFL scale (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages): http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/languagelearning/OtherResources/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines/contents.htm
According to this scale, you could say “getting to the party” is the first major endeavor of fluent language proficiency. But this takes many, many tiny steps to get there.
For “Where Are Your Keys?” we start with simple transactions at a want/have/give/take level (more on that later), and make them more and more complicated until we can finally get to that party, dressed appropriately, bringing/wearing the right stuff. This means eventually knowing numbers, telling time, what clothes do I wear, what is the address, what do I bring to drink, will my ex-girlfriend be there, can I bring children…etc.
But each of these comes in bite-sized pieces, and starts with a conversation at want/have/give/take (“I want to have your red pen – if you give it to me, I will take it”).
We’ve made some short videos on this approach: http://vimeo.com/user2215755/videos
It’s definitely working well in our endangered language revitalization work. Give it a shot, and tell us how it works out!
-Willem
Great thread about learning languages fast! And with everyone travelling around so much now it’s so important to pick up things like basic french and basic spanish!
So here are my 3 additional words that will make people think you speak Spanish! These words make up around 85% of Spanish mobile phone conversations.. LOL
Vale (bah-lay) – ‘fine’, ‘sure’ or ‘righty-ho’
Claro (klar-rro) – ‘true’, ‘innit’ or ‘for real’
Pero (pear-oh) – ‘but’, ‘yeah but’ or ‘ummm…’
Just use ‘em and you’ll sound as Spanish as Don Quixote’s Real Madrid shirt!
I usually use the following words :
Thanks
that’s funny
can I help you ?
may god bless you
dear
….
Thank you v much:)
what time…?; Where can I…?; how can I get there?…; I need ….; how much is it?; slower, please; bus station, restaurante, badroom, bank, store, food, water.
I would have added what does this mean? Or how do you say ___________
thanks i will try this method
i love this site and enjoy getting the phrase everyday. keep up the great work! GOD Bless u.