Ultimate Blog Challenge - Foreign Country without speaking native Language

Welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Challenge and happy Weekend!

Today's assignment is to share a photo or image that inspires me or that makes me laugh, and I'll do that.

Let's start with the one that gave me a chuckle:

In addition I picked another writing prompt over at Freewrite:

You’re in a foreign country and don’t speak the native language

This is a bit of a challenge in itself because I can't entirely speak from experience, and it's not because I haven't been traveling. Most people in the countries I have visited, speak English as their first or second language. 

See for yourself:

Growing up in Europe, you can't go through school without learning some foreign languages. When I was a kid, we started to learn French when we were 12, and English when we were 14. 

I took Italian as an optional free subject at 13, and Spanish at 16. 

This has been very useful in getting around and of course at work.

Switzerland is not only a tiny country whose economy is highly dependent on foreign trade, but it's also a tiny quadrilingual country: 

In the larger part of Switzerland  - about 63% - folks speak Swiss German. The Western part is the French speaking part, (check out Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux) also called Romandie. About 23% of Swiss people speak French. 

What about the Italian speaking? They are an even smaller minority (8%). They know it and have accepted it. In addition to their Italian mother-tongue, they have learnt to fluently speak German or French or both and never complain. Hey, they got all the pasta and vino to enjoy the good life! 

There's some 5.5% left, in case you were counting. They are split between Rhaeto-Romanic or "Rumantsch" (0.5%), which is our fourth, very neglected national language, and 5% "other languages" like ex-yugoslav languages, spanish and portuguese. 

Or English ;-)

So while I have never encountered serious language problems while being abroad, I always make it a point to learn a few words of the local language, even if it's just to say good morning, please and thank you, and too order some food:

• Godmorgen, jeg vil gerne have en kop kaffe. Tusind tak!
• Bonjour, je voudrais un café. Merci beaucoup!
• Καλημέρα, θα ήθελα έναν καφέ. Σας ευχαριστώ πολύ!
• Buenos días, me gustaría tomar un café. ¡Muchas gracias!
• Goedemorgen, ik wil graag een koffie. Dank je wel.
• Buongiorno, vorrei un caffè. Grazie mille!

I think if I were to travel to countries that don't use our letters, like Greece (see above) Russia, Japan or Arabic Countries, things would become harder. A friend who felt nervous during a business trip in Tokyo, used to take pictures of the street name sign and the bus or underground station where his hotel was located to make sure he would find his way back. If he got lost, he took a cab and showed the driver the photo ;-) Clever!

In order to make this post more fun, here's a quiz for you!

Which cities or countries can you recognize in the following pictures? Let me know below. 

PS: I just noticed this is my 1,111th post. It'll be a while till we get to celebrate another blogversary!