Shopping in a foreign language

[andyjanet]

Good morning fellow campers, yesterday before leaving France I spied a Lidl and thought I’ll just top up our food before travelling as we are going into an area of Germany without close by supermarkets,
First thing I did was saw GOLD TOP MILK

WRONG this is butter milk
Then whilst in the fridge section I saw FRENCH YOGURT

WRONG this is Cottage cheese,
then in the cheap section I noticed CHARCOAL INSOLES for my smelly trainers

WRONG these are thermal heat insoles
I did manage to buy cheap beer and cheese and salami

 

[Robmac]

There is a knack of asking a foreigner for things in English, even if they speak no English at all. My sister uses this a lot.

Shout the words in English very slowly whilst waving your hands about. If they still don't understand, shout even louder and even more slowly whilst looking at your spouse and rolling your eyes. That should work.

 

[campervanannie]

I find if you put Le or La in front of the English word it helps and obviously if in Germany it would be Der or Das hope this helps

 

[Penny13]

We have never bought anything we don’t need
Google translate has a camera ? Doesn’t always work but has helped us.

 

[Robmac]

I find if you put Le or La in front of the English word it helps and obviously if in Germany it would be Der or Das hope this helps

And of course speak the English words in a Hercule Poirot type accent Annie.

 

[saxonborg]

We bought some milk in Sweden to put in tea however when we poured it out it was thick and gloopy as though it had gone sour so we didn’t use it. We went back to the same supermarket to try again and asked one of the assistants where the fresh milk was located and also asked what it was we had purchased the first time, it turned out to be a breakfast milk i.e milk with cereal already mixed in, it certainly didn’t look very apertizing.

 

[runnach]

Add an egg to the buttermilk, some herbs in flour you got a great dredge for fried chicken

 

[Sharon the Cat]

We have never bought anything we don’t need
Google translate has a camera ? Doesn’t always work but has helped us.

We used that in Carrefour France once & got something that came from a duck, but even the dog wouldn't eat it when cooked. It was something out of a tin for dinner that night (once we'd aired out the MH & got our appetites back).

 

[tidewatcher]

Do you not think this a part of the adventure? Assume no shop will sell food that will actually cause you harm. Look up the few items you really don’t like in the local language then go for it and expand your horizons. You can always fall back on a phrase book, that’s one of those paper things with words in it...... In Spain and the only word embedded in my memory to avoid is “callos”. Look it up, then again I am from the south.....

 

[jagmanx]

Qu'est-ce que c'est
or Was ist Das

Loosely translated as WTF is that

Of course if you are Spanish milk is easy "Ole"

On a ski-ing holiday in Andorra a friend of a mate of a chum went into a bar and said
"Do us a beer mate !" and he got 2

 

[Robmac]

When I was in Russia, the locals all had apps on their 'phones to translate between Russian and English.

We had a brilliant couple of nights in the hotel with them and the language barrier was no problem. They could translate so fast it was almost like having a normal conversation.

The 'drinky drinky' hand motion also worked well'

 

[campervanannie]

When I lived in Germany I knew enough to get by plus a lot of shopping was done in the NAFFI when I went to France last year I had a Colin (full member ) and an Ian (stitch ) with me I made them ask

 

[andyjanet]

There is a knack of asking a foreigner for things in English, even if they speak no English at all. My sister uses this a lot.

Shout the words in English very slowly whilst waving your hands about. If they still don't understand, shout even louder and even more slowly whilst looking at your spouse and rolling your eyes. That should work.

Haha was in Czech a few years ago with an ex AA manager who now lives there and he was trying to order 10 tonne of pea gravel for some work we were doing on his campsite after ten minutes with his voice getting louder and waving arms in all directions I got my phone out and google ordered the gravel for us

 

[Robmac]

I can get by SPEAKING schoolboy French, however, I can't understand them when they speak to me, they speak so fast!

They ought to be more blimmin considerate!

 

[jagmanx]

I can get by SPEAKING schoolboy French, however, I can't understand them when they speak to me, they speak so fast!

They ought to be more blimmin considerate!

Can you PLEASE type slowly !

OR

C A N

Y O U

P L E A S E

T Y P E

S L O W L Y ! !

I am a bit deaf

 

[ricc]

weve not had any problems in self service supermarkets and chain stores where you can pick stuff up and pod and poke it and read the small print. only thing i am wary of, having been put in hospital by cheese made from sheeps milk, is never to eat any cheese that hasnt got either a piccy of a cow or cheddar made in somerset somewhere on it..

 

[izwozral]

Just get pissed with whoever you are trying to communicate with, it all suddenly makes sense!

 

[runnach]

We used that in Carrefour France once & got something that came from a duck, but even the dog wouldn't eat it when cooked. It was something out of a tin for dinner that night (once we'd aired out the MH & got our appetites back).

They eat everything from a duck bar it’s quack in the dordogne a common dish is perigord salad typically described as a salad avec noix et gesiers ,,, sounds ok until you discover gesiers is the ducks gizzard ....as for stuff in a tin odds are fois gras

 

[Robmac]

Just get pissed with whoever you are trying to communicate with, it all suddenly makes sense!

I'm liking the cut of your whatsit young whassyerface.

 

[jagmanx]

I am Multi-Lingual
I can order beer in many languages.
I can drink it in EVERY language !