One thing to say, nine ways to say it
Pick something you want to do with language. Every one of these shows you how 9 languages do it, said to a friend, to a stranger and to a client.
The vocabulary tables compare words. This compares what a language does to a whole sentence when you have to be polite — and the answers are wildly different. German rebuilds the word order, Georgian adds one suffix, Cantonese changes nothing at all and wraps the sentence in other words instead.
Languages here: 日本語, Français, Español, Deutsch, Italiano, Bahasa Melayu, ქართული, 普通话, 廣東話.
Getting by
Greet
Open the conversation.
Leave
Close it and get out.
Thank
Acknowledge something done for you.
Apologise
The most-used move in Japanese, by a distance.
Get attention
Make someone turn round before you ask anything.
Ask for a repeat
The single most useful sentence when you are out of your depth.
Ask what a word means
Turn any unknown word into a lesson.
Say you don't follow
Better than nodding.