Note: These have been edited by a French speaker.Įnvoyez-nous un camion de carburant s'il vous plaît. One thing I've done is to come up with commonly needed phrases when venturing to airports in other countries and writing down the translation. I don't know of any babel fish available on earth, so we are stuck with other methods. The babel fish, it seemed, digest language of any kind and out the other end came language the person in whose ear he (or she) was placed, could understand. In Douglas Adams' book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, space travelers could put a babel fish in their ears as a universal translator. But no matter how much on-call assistance you have, knowing a few key phrases can make your life much easier.īabel comes from The Bible (Genesis 11:1-9) and is supposed to be why we on earth speak so many languages. A quick phone call can solve your problems by asking "how do you say?" or "please talk to this person and ask for me" and then handing the phone over.
Put their phone number in your cell phone contacts list. In some countries the hotel desk is eager to please, in others a heavy tip can improve their willingness to come to your rescue in the future. You can also find a translation ally at the hotel concierge. Our handler called in a few favors and the pastries left the baker’s van under the watchful eye of a customs officer as they were brought directly to our aircraft.
#Babel fish french to english translator free
I was once presented with the last-minute task of procuring the finest Parisian pastries and ensuring they got to the aircraft within minutes of departure, free from any extra handling sure to happen once they showed up on the conveyor belt at customs. If you are a frequent visitor and use the same handler each time, it can be to your benefit to "tip heavy" on arrival and ask if you can call now and then for help. I like knowing that help is only a phone call away. “Why pay for what you can do for yourself?” Or, “it pays to have someone with a vested interest in your success.” I belong to the former camp, even for locations I know well. There is a debate among business jet pilots if and when to pay for a local handler to ensure everything goes smoothly during your visit. If not, we will explore our options for the tourist spots and look for local allies. For leisure trips, chances are the passengers will want to go someplace where other tourists are, and English may be common. I would also ask for their cell phone number, just in case. In those cases, I liked to ask the person for a few phrases that I know I will be needing, but more on that later. For business trips, the passengers should anticipate the same challenges and may have brought someone conversant in the local language. Now, as a civilian, my international travels are in support of either business or leisure.
Sometimes it is a luxury, but sometimes it is a necessity.
Having a person available who knows the language and the customs is obviously convenient. In extreme cases, we would have the translator meet us prior to departure, just in case we needed them when talking to air traffic control. embassy greet us and provide translation services. diplomatic missions as an Air Force pilot in a former life and when traveling to a location where a language barrier was known to exist, we had a member of the U.S.
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