A British woman who moved to the US says she had many misconceptions about the country until she lived there.
04.01.2024 - 00:03 / cntraveler.com
I’ve always wanted to live abroad. It’s not that I haven’t traveled—as a travel writer and all-around travel devotee, I’ve been fortunate enough to see many corners of the world. But I craved getting to know places on a deeper level—or maybe I was just subconsciously jealous of all those Instagram memes about friends who never stop talking about their study abroad programs. When the option to move to Istanbul presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity—and didn’t do much else in terms of research and preparation.
I’ve lived all over Canada and am fluent in English and French, so language barriers have only ever been fleeting moments while traveling. It’s not so hard to figure out, say, Spanish or Italian when you already have a good grasp of a few Romance and Germanic languages. But navigating language barriers in Turkey wasn’t quite as simple as figuring out how to order a glass of cava in Madrid or saying ‘excuse me’ while getting on a crowded metro car in Rome. I couldn’t guess my way out of a situation using a mash-up of French and English. And it became even more glaringly difficult when personal relationships came into play—case in point: meeting my Turkish boyfriend’s mother for the first time; she doesn’t speak English and I speak even less Turkish.
This is where the Vasco V4 language translator device comes into play. During a trip back to Canada I received a sample of this handy little device—and it ended up being a great icebreaker and helped make me less reliant on my poor boyfriend every time I wanted to talk to his mother. The device itself is pretty basic: It looks and feels a bit like a cross between a smartphone and a walkie-talkie, and as it turns out, is my life raft as I vie for the position of foreign-but-sweet daughter-in-law.
At first, I relied heavily on my boyfriend being around to translate our conversations in real time when we visited his family at home. If he had to go to the bathroom or wanted to go outside to play football with his brothers, my cortisol levels went through the roof. There’s only so much smiling and laughing one can do when they truly don’t know what’s being said. Here's what fellow travelers should know about this useful device.
The interface is simple and intuitive enough to use that you don’t have to worry about having to explain what’s going on to someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you. I set the language to Turkish and I press one button when speaking, which instantly translates what I say into Turkish and reads it out loud with less than a half second delay. The person I'm speaking to can then take the device and press the button on the opposite side—without having to toggle or change my settings around—before speaking in Turkish. It
A British woman who moved to the US says she had many misconceptions about the country until she lived there.
On an out-of-season trip to Zakynthos, a Greek island famed for intoxicated British teenagers that also happens to be beautiful, we stumbled upon Xigia Sulfur beach on the east coast. We were first greeted by the smell of rotten eggs, because of its sulphurous springs. Despite the smell, it’s brilliant: the glistening turquoise waters are framed by the towering cliffs, and the sulphur bubbles out of the seabed. A dip on this beach is said to be good for the skin and generally therapeutic. There are other little coves nearby, linked by paths.Lucas
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