Buenas tardes, buona sera, and bonsoir.
That’s another token gesture towards International Languages Week and this a follow up from yesterday’s post about using pictures rather than words to get the message across to people who can’t speak your language.
When I put my card in the cashpoint machine today I was momentarily confused by what I saw on the screen.
Instead of the message I was used to, there were little dialogue boxes down the right hand side in English and an Asian script. The English said only use this if you want another language.
If you need another language it’s possible you can’t read English so how will you understand that instruction?
When we were in Europe, every cashpoint machine we used had flags denoting different language options. If you don’t understand what español, ingles, italiano, alemán or francés meant, the flag beside the word told you it was Spanish, English, Italian, German or French so you didn’t have to understand the host country’s language to work out what to do.
How hard would it be to do that here?
A picture doesn’t just paint 1000 words, it does so in every language.
Apropos of International Languages Week:
goNZoFreakpower shows us how Flight of the Conchords cope with French.
Jim Mora interviewed Professor Cynthia White from Massey University’s School of Languages.