So when I go to the flea market, I sometimes encounter people who speak languages other than English, like Russian, Spanish, Mexican, etc... So I thought I would ask if anyone could chime in with the proper way to ask if someone has old razors in different languages, perhaps with phonetic guide? Thanks in advance!
Help me cross the language barrier!
- Thread starter Radar O\'Reilly
- Start date
Maybe just bring an example of what you're looking for?
I would think that Gillette would be an almost universal term?
Correct if you say Gillette and show a razor they will probably show you anything they have to do with shaving.
Haha I didn't realise that Mexican was a language.
This aside, I guess bringing an example would be the best way.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I'd put some examples on a sheet of paper.
Look up "Do you have any old shaving stuff?" on Google Translate in each language you think you'll need.
Print it on a 3x5 card and laminate it.
Indeed! As is West Virginian!
Print it on a 3x5 card and laminate it.
Indeed! As is West Virginian!
My suggestion is to spend about an hour in a bookstore, at the English-to-(insert_language_name_here) dictionary shelf, with a pen and paper. Library will work, too.
Look up noun and verb forms for "shave", then "razor" and "edge" and "old" and "antique", and write 'em down. This'll help make the key words familiar to you.
Then I'd go to google translate and put in the simplest sentences you can think of -- "I am looking for a razor like this.", etc.
Carry a picture with you, so that you can refer to it. Even if you only know a smattering of words, being able to point to a picture and say a few words that make sense will go a long way. Smiling also helps. I got through 2 weeks in Japan and Taiwan this way -- I only know about 100 words in japanese and maybe 30 or so, between taiwanese and mandarin.
The easiest folks to work with are the younger ones, as they will probably have had recent academic english classes. I've been amazed at how well-spread english is, through the world. Between your few words and their few words, you can probably figure it out.
2 anecdotes:
1) I was in Tahiti, and even though I'd taken six years of french in high school (20 years earlier), I forgot the name for "charcoal" and was trying to put together a grocery basket full of stuff for a barbeque. I finally manage to find it by asking for, in pidgin french "little bits of black wood, burned before, which to burn very hot" The answer was "charbon", and I was on my way.
2) I was in Kyoto, visiting a couple temples and doing some sightseeing, and since Kyoto is kind of a cultural center of Japan, I figured I'd have an easy time finding musical instruments. (I bring a native (or culturally significant) musical instrument home from every country I go to.) So I'm in a gift shop that has a few toy instruments, and the guy there speaks a little english and I try to get across that I don't want a toy instrument, and that I'm looking for a real instrument, one that a real artisan might play, and I'm looking for a store that sells real musical instruments. His eyes light up and he writes down an address for me. It's in the main shopping district, so I figure I'm pretty close. I get there, only to find it's a record store, but one with a -=very=- good selection of japanese classical music. I picked up a Yoshida brothers record, so all was not lost. I ended up buying my shamisen online, after I got back to the states.
-- Chet
Look up noun and verb forms for "shave", then "razor" and "edge" and "old" and "antique", and write 'em down. This'll help make the key words familiar to you.
Then I'd go to google translate and put in the simplest sentences you can think of -- "I am looking for a razor like this.", etc.
Carry a picture with you, so that you can refer to it. Even if you only know a smattering of words, being able to point to a picture and say a few words that make sense will go a long way. Smiling also helps. I got through 2 weeks in Japan and Taiwan this way -- I only know about 100 words in japanese and maybe 30 or so, between taiwanese and mandarin.
The easiest folks to work with are the younger ones, as they will probably have had recent academic english classes. I've been amazed at how well-spread english is, through the world. Between your few words and their few words, you can probably figure it out.
2 anecdotes:
1) I was in Tahiti, and even though I'd taken six years of french in high school (20 years earlier), I forgot the name for "charcoal" and was trying to put together a grocery basket full of stuff for a barbeque. I finally manage to find it by asking for, in pidgin french "little bits of black wood, burned before, which to burn very hot" The answer was "charbon", and I was on my way.
2) I was in Kyoto, visiting a couple temples and doing some sightseeing, and since Kyoto is kind of a cultural center of Japan, I figured I'd have an easy time finding musical instruments. (I bring a native (or culturally significant) musical instrument home from every country I go to.) So I'm in a gift shop that has a few toy instruments, and the guy there speaks a little english and I try to get across that I don't want a toy instrument, and that I'm looking for a real instrument, one that a real artisan might play, and I'm looking for a store that sells real musical instruments. His eyes light up and he writes down an address for me. It's in the main shopping district, so I figure I'm pretty close. I get there, only to find it's a record store, but one with a -=very=- good selection of japanese classical music. I picked up a Yoshida brothers record, so all was not lost. I ended up buying my shamisen online, after I got back to the states.
-- Chet
- Thread starter
- #9
Well, from what I have heard, translation programs aren't always the most accurate. Also, amazing as it seems, no printer. Kodak and Lexmark dont have their claws in me!
See above.
I would, but shaving stuff can vary widely, and I don't feel like carrying around a straight, DE, SE, mug, soap, brush, etc... I was just hoping for a general phrase to ask for shaving stuff. Usually you can work out the hand motions for whipping up lather, putting a blade in, shaving, etc... to specify what you are looking for.
Well, from what I have heard, translation programs aren't always the most accurate. Also, amazing as it seems, no printer. Kodak and Lexmark dont have their claws in me!
They are not the best, but it is only a basic idea you are trying to get across, hence the looser term "shaving stuff" or "shaving items" as opposed to a specific term like straight razor or safety razor.
I got by quite well initially in China using only Dragon Writer software on a laptop until I learned enough to survive, and that was more than 10 years ago.
Regarding no printer;
Put it on a flash drive and take it to the Library.
Send it to yourself in E-Mail and print it at work or at said Library.
Wrench yourself into the modern world and buy an inexpensive printer for less than 50 bucks. If you make one or two good deals at a Flea Market for razors you would otherwise buy on Ebay, you've made your money back.
... amazing as it seems, no printer. Kodak and Lexmark dont have their claws in me!
If you don't want to print anything out, just keep a couple pics on your digital camera... or you could put the pictures on a thumb drive, go to a photocopy center or drugstore, and get them printed that way for less than a dollar. If you have a laser printer at work, I'm sure your boss wouldn't mind you making black-and-white paper printouts in advance of a trip.
As for translation programs not being good, they don't have to be perfect. You just need to know a handful of the right words, and you need to be able to recognize them if you read them or hear them spoken. The translation programs are mostly just helping you see the important words in the context of a simple sentence, and maybe giving you help with the subjects, articles and prepositions. If you keep the sentences very simple, translation tools work very very well, regardless.
-- Chet
Yeah, I can see that. Bring your SE, pull it out of your coat pocket and wave it in front of one of the non-English speaking sellers and yell, "Razor! Razor! Razor!" That'll go over big.
Jeff in Boston
- Thread starter
- #14
Yeah, I can see that. Bring your SE, pull it out of your coat pocket and wave it in front of one of the non-English speaking sellers and yell, "Razor! Razor! Razor!" That'll go over big.
Jeff in Boston
As they point at you screaming Sweeny Todd!!
Well, Mexican Spanish isn't quite the same as what's used in other Spanish speaking countries.
Let's just say it's a little more colorful.
I had taken five years of Spanish in school and got a job with a number of Spanish speakers. I thought I'd be fine.
But then I kept hearing all these words that I was never taught in class. Even worse, I couldn't seem to find them in the dictionary.
So I grabbed one of the bilingual guys and started rattling off the stuff I hadn't been taught in class. It just about killed him. When he stopped laughing, I learned a lot about Mexican Spanish.
I think I can swear better in Spanish than I can in English.
Sorry, but what little Russian I know is, shall we say, not fit for public consumption in genteel company.
Great idea tho about taking digi fotos along and just pointing.
Great idea tho about taking digi fotos along and just pointing.
This can be said about every "Spanish Speaking" country.
As a Spanish speaker, I love to learn the various words different countries use for the same thing. Ex. Drinking straw in:
Mexico = popote
Costa Rica = pajilla
Puerto Rico = Pitillo (double ll is pronounced same as a y)
Shaving razor in all of them = rastrillo de razurar
Shaving brush = brocha de razurar
straight razor = navaja de razurar (this is also what you call a razor blade, or more commonly: hoja de razurar (the h is silent))
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Where are you shopping that you run across that many people who a) work with the public and b) don't speak any English?
- Thread starter
- #20
Flea Markets in my area where many people can rent a table for a weekend to clean out houses and other things. All the languages I listed I have come across.
Thank you!!!
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