This video is an excerpt from a much longer European Travel Skills Talk.
To view other topics, or to watch my Travel Skills Talk in its entirety, visit
ricksteves.com, or check out my Rick Steves YouTube channel. Thanks.
Thank you so much for being here, I want to talk about communication, I want to talk
about technology, and phones. All of these are very important for us to travel. When
we're exploring Europe, it's just obviously really important to connect
with people, and it's important to take advantage of all the wonderful technical
innovations that make travel more efficient, and easier now than ever
before. A big issue when we're traveling is simply your phone, and we've decided,
just recently, that any good traveler in Europe now it needs to have a phone.
Find out if your phone works in Europe. You might want to buy a phone in Europe.
that's certainly doable. And if you have a smart phone that's ideal. Whatever kind of
smart phone you have let your company here, your provider here, know you're going to
be in Europe, and explore your international options. The key thing is,
your phone can work in Europe and roam, but it's going to cost you a lot more
money than if you would let them know you're going to Europe, and buy the right
plan for your trip. When it comes to using your smart phone in Europe, there
are three dimensions to it, you've got to simply making calls and making texts, and
that's pretty straightforward, you've got data roaming, and you've got using it and
thinking it of it as a little computer, and getting online with WiFi in
Europe, and functioning that way. It's pretty straightforward getting online, that's
either free, or at a straightforward, nominal cost. And then you can use this
just like you use it here when you're getting online. Making the
the phone calls, I've got a policy where it's twenty cents a minute to call, and it's
just pennies for a text. That's pretty straight forward too. The big issue is
data roaming. Data roaming is where you can run up a huge bill. Data roaming is
when you can bail yourself out by not being able to get WiFi, and still being
able to get online, but you just gotta know how to control that data roaming, buy
that data policy from your provider, and then know how to turn it on and off, and
use it sparingly. You can use WiFi
till' the cows come home and it's just fine, but you don't want to use the data
roaming recklessly. you need to know how it's working, and how much it's going to
cost you. Bottom line is, on your settings, you can turn data roaming on and off. If
you're nervous, simply turn the data roaming off, and you can make phone calls,
and you can get online with your smart phone, and then you can data roam
sparingly. As far as FaceTime and Skype, and different ways that we can talk
to people with our phones, or with our tablets, or with our laptops, think of it
as no different than right here, because you can't do Skype and those things
without being online and having a good connection. If you have a good connection
in Europe, and if your friend who you're talking to has a good connection here,
it's just like Skyping within the United States when you're in Europe. So, if you
can do it here, you can do it there, and I'll tell you it's a wonderful service.
It's so great to be able to FaceTime people and Skype people, I use Skype, as a
matter-of-fact, as a phoning tool as well, and I can call people just on their
phones through Skype when I have a good connection, and it costs pennies a minute.
Learn how to use that, and once again if it works here for you, it'll work for you
over there, because it just requires being online and having a good strong
connection. Getting a good strong connection used to be a challenge.
Nowadays, you'll find it everywhere in Europe it is just getting better and
better. The first thing people ask at the hotel is, "how do I get online?" And hotels
know it, it's almost a joke these days. In the old days, they used to charge you to
get online, now
any good hotel or B&B will provide that as part of their-- they'll include it in
their services, and when you're traveling in Europe you'll find a lot of people
enjoying getting online in their hotel rooms. Traditionally, travelers use their
guidebooks in the print format. I still do. ninety percent of my sales are still
print. On the other hand, if you want to go digital, all the books essentially are
available digitally. Same information, some people prefer it, some people don't, it's a
personal choice, but you could have my entire librarian, and lots lots more on your
tablet, and do just great in Europe with that.
I find my guides are very enthusiastic about tablets in Europe. A
mini iPad is ideal, or a full iPad, and with this you can download movies, you
can collect your photographs, there's just so many tools and it's such a portable
device. The iPad is, or the similar device, is just a real boon, especially if
you're going to be teaching in the context of a tour guide. Photography used
to be a big deal, I think twenty percent of my luggage in the old days
was gonna be film, and lenses, and all that. I love photography, but I'm
impressed by how good the small cameras are these days. If you're a serious
photography and you want a big SLR and changeable lenses you can do that, but I hope you're
really committed your photography, 'cause that a lot of gear, a lot of stress, a lot
of headaches from a theft point-of-view, and so on, and I find that, rather than
buying the little $100 Coolpix point and shoot, I wanna buy about the most
expensive pocket sized camera I can. I spent 600 bucks for my Sony rx100, and it
fits in my pocket, and I swear it takes pictures as beautifully as my old
SLR. So, it depends on how much how technical you can be, and what tools you
want, but you'll be amazed at the quality photography you can do with a pocket
sized camera. For a lot of people, a simple iPhone is all they need, and if
it's good enough for you,
great, 'cause that is really convenient. And I would say invest a little
time in knowing how to use that smartly, 'cause there's a lot of tools that can help you do
really well, even with the smart phone. As far as communication goes, Europe is
multilingual, and I speak only English. Nothing to brag about, this substantiates
what I'm about to say, you can speak English and do just fine
around Europe if you are on the ball. Now remember, it's really important to
remember that Europe is multilingual. If you go to Slovenia and you wanna get sugar,
you'll see it there in five different languages, right. They've got the language
there, but it's good to function as well as you can in the local languages. When I
say I speak only English, I'm not bragging about it, it's a shame I don't speak
the local languages. But we speak the world's linguistic common denominator. If
a Greek meets a Norwegian hiking in the Alps, how do they communicate?
Broken English, what Greek speaks Norwegian? Now, learn the polite phrases,
even if you're going to function with English, it is really-- it behooves you to
know the top ten polite words in every language, I would say the top ten words
are more important than the next two hundred words combined, and you should use
them all the time. It's inexcusable for you to be in a country, and not know
the nice words. It's rude, it's bad style. That excuses the fact that Americans
are so lazy when it comes to languages. Now, for me, I just think it's polite to start
the conversation by asking, "parlez-vous anglais?" "Sprichst Du Englisch?" if they say no, I do my best
in their language. Generally, after a couple of sentences, they'll say, "actually I do
speak a little English, and I would be thankful if you spoke clearly, enunciate
every letter, assume I'm reading your lips, wishing it was written down, hoping
to see every letter as it tumbles out of your mouth." I speak this way almost
robotically for four months out of every year. When I return home, my friends say,
"Rick, you can relax now, we speak English fluently." But if you wanna be understood
in Europe, listen to yourself, listen your friends, they sound like, you know,
Gaddafi in a shredder. You need to make it simple, easy words, no contractions, no
slang, internationally understood words. If my car is broken in Portugal, I point
to the vehicle and say, "auto kaput." That would be understood. Honestly, I marvel at
how easy it is to communicate with that simple
awareness, and conversely, how hopelessly messed up
Americans are everywhere in Europe, when they don't get that. You don't say, "excuse
me sir, can I take a picture of you," you point your camera and you ask,
"photo?" and that would work, that would work just beautifully. A phrasebook is a
beautiful thing. We design phrasebooks, they're the bestselling books in the United
States, and we just love them. Not necessarily for practical things, you can
you know, to be honest, you can handle the practical things probably without a
phrasebook, but it just gives you that little extra edge. You can communicate.
You got all the menu items right there, you can
order breakfast with with finesse, you know what your options are, you know all
the different kinds of coffee at a bar in Italy. You can be in the back seat of
a taxi in Rome, and be able to stay if he's going too fast in perfect Italian,
you can say, "if you don't slow down, I will vomit." I love to be able to floor
people by being able to see a goofy phrases, and one thing fun about our
phrasebooks is, it's full of goofy off-the-wall things, as well as practical
things. You know, you're going to be dealing with gestures,
they're going to be doing this to you, they're gonna be doing that, they're going to be
doing this, that, and a few other things, and you want to know what it means, and
with a good phrase book, it'll help you recognize how to connect with the locals,
Anyplace that wants your money will explain how to spend it in whatever
languages are necessary.
Okay, here's a little boat station in Bruges. They're selling you a tour, and if
you look at that, you can read the Dutch can't you? Or the Flemish, it says, "boat
excursions 30 minutes long," and if you look further it says 7.60 for... four different
ways to say adults, and 3.40 for four different ways to say children.
How old are children? It says right there, four to eleven "jaar." And then down below,
four different ways to say the entrance to the boats. That's your standard experience,
right there, when it comes to the language barrier. You'll notice two new
languages on the list,
Chinese and Russian. Didn't see that before. Another thing you'll notice, is
in restaurants now, instead of four different languages, two languages. The
local language for the local people,
English for everybody else. English has risen to become the "lingua franca." I've
been saying this for 30 years, and since then, a whole generation has grown up
speaking better English than ever before. This is the hip and pop language on this
planet. Young people, educated people, people in tourism, will speak English
generally when you're going around Europe. As a matter-of-fact,
counter-intuitively, the little language groups, Estonia, Bulgaria, Norway, they
would be more likely to speak English than you would think, even more than the
people from the big language groups like Spain, France, and Germany. You can be
German, and have a big world speaking just German. You can't be Estonian and
have a big world speaking just Estonian, only a million people speak Estonian, so
anywhere you go, you can do fine
speaking the language. I've noticed at airports nowadays, there are some
airports that have dispensed with the local language altogether. This is a
country that speaks Dutch, it's Holland, and the airport you just see English
language signs. We're lucky. Now, make educated guesses, and proceed confidently
as if you figure it out correctly. If you're not feeling well in Denmark, and
you see a sign with a red cross on it pointing to the "Sentralsykehuset," go
down there and get fixed up. It's impressive to me how many Americans
would bleed to death in the street corner looking for the word hospital.
They have these things, they just have different names. Make an educated guess.
Here's a sign on a shop in Germany. Now I have never looked up any of these words,
I don't need to, I can just fake it. You look at this sign and you realize
these are hours, and you don't say, "what on earth is that top long word," you
think, "what can this sign be telling me?" It's either open times or closed times. So you
talk it over with your partner, and you think, "hey, they're telling us when it's
open." Open times. Open times 'vom,' from, 'vom,' if it rhymes, go for it.
The fourth of July. Okay, these are the open times from the fourth of July. On the left,
you see six words, most of which end in "tag." "Gutentag," soup-of-the-tag,
Montag, Monday, it's the day of the moon, isn't it?
Monday, moon-day. What is Monday in French? "Lundi." Lunar day, it's a riddle, the more
you play, the easier it is to step over that language barrier. Two days later, we have
something called "Mittwoch." Mittwoch. Now you know two more German words, midweek. That's what
Wednesday is, right? Now on Monday, it's open 9 to 11, "und" from 4 to 6.
Anything over twelve, subtract 12 and add p.m. 16-12, 4 p.m. No, 16-12, what am I a...
16-12,
4 p.m. Somebody said two, confused me, So, yeah and you gotta get good with the 24 hour clock. At
the risk of insulting my students, I really hammer this home, because I know
Americans are over there for three weeks, and they still go giddy every time it goes
over twelve. They have the 24 hour clock. if you refuse to learn the 24 hour clock.
you'll miss your train in Paris, and be mad at the French for refusing to speak
English. Get with it on that 24 hour clock. Now, on Wednesday afternoon, something
different happens. You see how we're thinking here, there's two options,
everything else is open, this is different. You don't need a phrase book
here, with all the confidence in the world you can tell your travel partner,
"hey, on 'Mittwoch,' after 'nachmittag,' it's 'geschlossen.'"
Very nice. There's a lot of signs. There are a lot of signs. But you know, they're
pretty self explanatory, if you look at these signs, you can see where you're
gonna eat ice cream and where you're not going to eat ice cream, and where you can
honk your horn, or where you can't honk the horn. A counter-intuitive thing, of course a "slash,"
you kind of think no, but counter-intuitively, a red circle also
means no, so it would be reasonable to think this is where you can take your
horse, but no. That says, "horses not allowed" this says, "no motorbikes and no
cars," except what? Except for access. That means if you live in there, or you have
a hotel, you can go downtown. So remember, read the sign, understand the context.
All over the place you've got lots of signs, they're pretty self explanatory.
And I want to stress, you got multilingual signs for your tours. Here's
a boat cruise, and what do you got, 16 different languages. that would be a tape recorded tour,
you just dial whatever language you want to hear the tour in. The audio guides
In Europe, they'll program them for your language. So, communicating is critical,
and if you have good skills, you'll find the most important language that you can
have overseas is English. Thank you.
If you've enjoyed this video, you'll find
lots more at ricksteves.com, and on my Rick Steves YouTube channel.
Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.