Building a phrase pack before you fly

Most phrasebooks are organised by topic: colours, family, weather. Real trips are organised by situation. You land, you find the train, you check in, you eat. A phrase pack follows that order instead.

Choosing what goes in

Start by writing down the places you will actually be. Airport, hotel, a couple of restaurants, a museum, perhaps a pharmacy. For each one, note the two or three things you will need to say and the one or two things you are likely to hear back.

That usually lands somewhere around twenty phrases, which is a manageable number to rehearse over a few dark winter evenings before an Easter break. Always add a couple for problems, such as could you repeat that slowly, and I have a reservation but there seems to be a mistake.

Rehearsing so it sticks

Reading the list silently will not help much on the day. Say each phrase aloud, ideally to another person who answers back. That is exactly what our one-to-one pre-trip coaching does: a teacher takes your list, plays the hotel clerk or the waiter, and changes the answers slightly each time so you get used to small surprises.

Keep the pack on a single page. If it grows beyond that, you are probably planning for situations you will not meet.