The one word we learn in every country we go to is “thank you”. I’ve talked about this a few times here on Lattes & Runways, but we’ve really come to see how valuable this tiny gesture can be.
Every time we get to a new city, we try to ask a local how to say “thank you” in the local language, and then we spend our entire time in that country practicing. The reaction to our effort has been fun to track.
When we asked our flight attendants on Korean Air to teach us how to say thank you in Korean, they spent the entire 14 hour flight giggling every time we tried to say it. Even though they laughed, they seemed to truly respect our efforts. When we asked how to say “thank you” from the hotel receptionist at Shanghai Disney, she laughed and said, “in Chinese?!” like it was an impossible task.
Sometimes we actually do a pretty good job, though. In Hungary, we were often complimented on our pronunciation, something we are quite proud of! (We credit that to our moderate fluency in German.)
While we wish we could learn more words in more languages, we have found knowing this one word gets us pretty far. We have learned thank you in 10 languages so far, and we’re pretty proud of that!
Let’s practice.
Saying “Thank You” in 10 Languages
- Spanish | Gracias | [GRA·cias]
- German | Dank” | [DAHNG-kuh]
- Czech| Děkuji | [DYEH-koo-yih]
- Polish | Dziękuję | [jen-KOO-yeh]
- Hungarian | Köszi | [KUR-see]
- French | Merci | [mer-SEE]
- Norwegian | Takk | [tɑk]
- Portugese | Obrigado | [o-bri-ga-do]
- Korean | Gamsahamnida | [gam-sah-ha-mee-dah]
- Chinese | Xièxiè | [she-ye-she-ye]
What languages do you know “thank you” in?! I’d love for you to teach me!