4. Immerse Yourself in the Language
You’d be surprised how far you can go with only “hello”, “please” and “thank you.” Add a few more broken words, and you can actually build real bridges.
You don’t need fluency to connect. A greeting in someone’s native tongue, however clumsy, carries more weight than perfect English. Language is an entry point into rhythm, humor, and humanity.
The first time I ordered coffee in Turkish without switching back to English halfway, the café owner smiled like I’d just passed a test. And maybe I had; not of vocabulary, but of humility, of effort, of willingness to step outside myself.
