Hope they help!

Sometimes I get around the “I’m sorry I don’t speak [the language]” by just learning how to say English in the local language. For example, here in Romania when people come up and start rattling off in Romanian and I have no clue what is being said or asked, I just sheepishly ask “Engleza?” They get the point. lol

Nothing beats actually using it! And sometimes it makes for great stories. LOL

I’m big believer in learning at least a few words. Certainly “Please” and “Thank you” are tops on the list. And often on vacation you don’t need perfect grammar–you just want to get your point across. (I have found saying the word for “toilet” and rolling my eyes and squirming will typically get someone to point to the bathroom!).

The most useful phrase for me is, “I’m sorry I don’t speak (whatever the native language is)”. Generally people are so happy that I’ve tried, that they go out of their way to communicate.

In the past I’ve had great success in the past with the “[Language] in 10 Minutes a Day” series by Kristine Kershul, which I’ve used for Russian, Italian, German and French. It’s an old-style workbook, but addresses learning the language in a very natural format. The book stresses learning simple phrases and basics, and building your vocabulary upon that. It also comes with little stickers to put all over your house, like you mentioned above. (Pardon me, could you pass me a “taryelka”?)

I found Spanish to be quite easy, and German often gives me a headache. When it comes to word genders, Spanish is so simple and obvious. French is pretty easy, too. German seems to have no real rhyme or reason sometimes. LOL But I do find it interesting how many words sound very similar to English.

At a minimum, yes.