The do's and don'ts of languages and accents when you travel

Shouting in a thick Australian accent doesn’t work, but your schoolgirl French isn’t much help either.

On a recent flight home from Chile, I was seated next to an older Australian gentleman. To his left was a South American woman, who politely tried to engage him in conversation.

“Where are you from?” she asked in heavily Spanish-accented English.

“OSTRAYA” he replied in the most Australian of Australian accents. 

She couldn’t understand him and looked confused. “OSTRAYA! OSTRAYA!” he shouted, to no avail. Embarrassed, they turned away from each other and stared awkwardly ahead for the rest of the flight.

It was a conversation between strangers on a plane that started the whole thing. Picture: iStock

I knew what was happening. It’s likely that the only English the woman had any exposure to was either spoken in a Spanish accent like her own, or with an American accent, which is of course the universal accent of Hollywood and advertisements and songs. Australian-accented English can sound like it’s from Mars if you’re not used to it.

When a native Spanish speaker asks where I’m from, I automatically reply in one of those easier-to-comprehend accents: “Ow-strrahlia” if I’m morphing into the Spanish, or ‘Usstreelia” if I’m doing the American. I do it reflexively and I have never struggled to be understood.

But if any of my Australian friends catch me doing this, I’m teased mercilessly. “Why the hell are you speaking like that? It’s embarrassing! It sounds racist!” cried a friend recently, when I admitted that I unthinkingly replied “Aléssandra” when asked my name by a Chilean customs official. I can’t help it. In my mind, as someone who finds accents very easy (my dad impersonated politicians and other prominent figures for a living so I expect accents are in my DNA, and I also went to an international school where I flipped from English to American to Swedish accents by the minute to make myself understood) I’m just making life easier for everyone.

When holidaying in France, obviously wear a beret (and adopt a cute little French accent). Picture: iStock

Deciding whether to dabble in accents or other languages when you travel can be tricky but shouting loudly in English isn’t the answer either. Here are my tips for how to navigate languages and accents overseas as smoothly as possible:

If your waiter speaks good English and you speak lousy Mandarin/French/Swahili, stick to English

You might think you’re being respectful or friendly by trying to stammer out “Je voudrais le pot au feu avec …um, god, how do you say cauliflower?” when you’re ordering at a bistrot in Paris. But all that stumbling just slows your waiter down when they have other customers to get to. They are there to run their dining room, not patiently wait for you to remember your schoolgirl French. It’s okay to make an attempt at pronouncing the French foods if they’re written plainly on your menu but for anything more complicated, keep things moving for everyone by speaking in English.

But try to tone down your Australian accent

The Australian accent sounds like a nasally, drawling mess to people who aren’t used to it, and if yours is very heavy you will struggle to be understood. Dropping into a soft, neutral mid-Atlantic accent is very easy for me as someone who grew up going to an American school in London but anyone can do it with a little practice. Even just shortening your vowels (don’t drag out the ‘aaaaay’ in Austraaaaalia, for example) and putting a little bit of a hard ‘rrrr’ on your Rs can break down language barriers.

Learn a few basic greetings

A few phrases can go a long way when you're travelling. Picture: iStock

I do think it’s polite to know the basic “hello” “goodbye” and “thank you” in whatever country you happen to be in. Learning “Buenos dias” in Buenos Aires or “Sawasdee kaa/khap” in Bangkok is not hard at all, especially as everyone will say it to you. But I would also strongly recommend learning the follow-up phrase “I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish/Thai/German/Farsi” in case your greeting is pronounced so accurately that people then happily continue a rapid-fire conversation in their own language, thinking you know more of it than you actually do.

When in doubt, don’t shout

The Australian guy on my flight looked quite annoyed when his Spanish-speaking seatmate couldn’t understand him and decided the best course of action was simply to bellow louder and then give up. This is a crap move. At the very least he could have smiled and shrugged and communicated the universal language of “Oh well never mind!” with a twinkle in his eye, so everyone felt more at ease and didn’t have to bury their heads into their Friends reruns out of pure embarrassment. 

And when in more doubt: Google

I recently had to purchase muscle cramp meds in Lima, and although I looked up the words in Spanish, stumbling through long medical terms in a Spanish accent was too much even for this language chameleon. In the end, I googled and handed over my phone for the pharmacist to read, and I’m pleased to report my calambre muscular was treated with haste.

And finally, lay off my accents!

Yes yes, if I spend a week in Wales I will have a Welsh accent by day two (this has happened). And my Alabamian accent after a road trip round the Deep South in 2019 was quite something. Leave me alone! I think you’ll find that I’ll be the one sharing the last bara brith or cornecuh sausage with my new besties, while you flail around sounding like an episode of Kath and Kim.

Originally published as The do's and don'ts of languages and accents when you travel