Paris excepted, all of my recent trips to Europe have been to countries where I have no language skills whatsoever. Having got completely fed up with feeling like the stupid uneducated Brit abroad, I resolved to do something about this, and at least make some cursory efforts to learn a few words of the language of any future countries I plan to visit.
My first brush with Estonian might have had to wait until we caught the taxi from the airport, but I am wonderfully well prepared in comparison for our upcoming trip to Budapest: this morning, my latest Amazon package arrived on my desk, and within it was the Time Out guide to said Eastern European city. Surely the single page of basic expressions at the back of this rather small book will set me well on the way to conversing fluently in one of the most difficult European languages. However, I am rather concerned that, amongst perhaps 20 or 30 expressions that the illustrious editors chose to include–the phrases they expect visitors to the city will find most useful, and need to use most often–is this one:
Getting Around
When is the train for Vienna?
Mikor indul a becsi vonat?
Not exactly the ringing endorsement of the city’s charms that I had been hoping for.