Few things are as scary as landing in a country where you not only don't speak the language but can't even read the alphabet (hello, Japan, Greece and Thailand).
The fear of not being able to order food, of catching the wrong train or of not knowing how to ask "where's the bathroom?" makes a lot of people give up on travelling — or stick to the same comfort destinations forever.
But the truth is the language barrier isn't really a barrier any more. Between your survival instinct and the technology in your pocket, you can travel to the ends of the earth without saying a single word in English.
The Universal Language: A Smile and Mime 🎭
It sounds like a self-help book cliché, but it's the absolute truth. Pointing at the menu, smiling and saying "Please" and "Thank you" in the local language (learn at least those two words — make the effort) opens more doors than fluent but arrogant English ever will.
If you want chicken, make the chicken sound. If you want the bill, mime signing a piece of paper in the air. Locals, especially in tourist countries, are completely used to dealing with mime and most of the time they actually find your effort charming.
The Magic of the Voice Translator 🎙️
You don't need to lug heavy pocket dictionaries around any more, hunting for the word "pharmacy" while someone waits for you to say something.
Google Translate has a "Conversation" feature that's a genuine superpower. You speak into the phone in English, and the phone says the sentence out loud in the local language. The other person replies in their language and the phone translates it back to English out loud. It's like having a personal interpreter in your pocket 24 hours a day.
Camera Mode: The End of the Guessing Game 📸
You're in a restaurant in Tokyo, the menu has no pictures and it's all in Japanese. Are you going to play roulette and risk ordering fish-tripe soup for breakfast?
No. Open Google Translate, tap the camera icon, point it at the menu and voilà: the strange characters turn into English right in front of your eyes. It works for menus, street signs, train tickets and supermarket labels.
Offline Prep: The Paper Trick 📝
Technology is wonderful right up until you run out of battery or signal. The golden rule of survival is redundancy.
Before you leave home, download the country's language to your phone (so the translator works offline). On top of that, write your hotel's address and the airport's name on a piece of paper (in the local language and alphabet) or save a screenshot on your phone. When you get into a taxi and the driver doesn't speak a word of English, all you have to do is show him the paper. Simple, fast and failure-proof.
The Hook: Multipark's Universal Language 🚗
The language barrier abroad is solved with a smile and a smartphone. But what about back home? Before flying off to a country where you don't understand a word, make sure your trip starts without any communication mess.
With Multipark, the process is universally simple and transparent. You don't have to read fine print on shady contracts or try to figure out where on earth you should park your car in some unmarked dirt lot.
You arrive at the Departures terminal, our Valet Parking driver (who speaks your language and knows exactly who you are) is waiting for you. You hand over the keys, give a smile and head to check-in. We take care of storing your car in a covered, secure, monitored car park.
Don't make difficult what can be easy. Run your Valet Parking quote at the Multipark website and travel knowing that, at least in Portugal, we're all speaking the same language!
