How to talk to Mongolians

“Sain bainuu.” I usually initiate conversations with “hello.”

If a Mongolian strikes up a conversation with me, it would be with a finger in my direction accompanied by the question: “Korean?”

Or the question: “Japanese?”

I used my Mongolian phrasebook as often as I did my Lonely Planet guide. Traveling in the past, I was shy about attempting the local language but in Mongolia, it was very rewarding. After hello, I’d turn to the Small Talk section of the phrasebook and half read, half point to the Cyrillic translation for “What’s your name?” and “How old are you.” Then progress to page 49, the listing of family members, to describe the existence of children/siblings.

A woman in Kharkhorin told me, “8 kids. Four girls, two boys.” Answers that didn’t add up were not uncommon and a 208 page phrasebook was not equiped to deal with the complexities of real life and human mortality.

Without a Mongolian to English dictionary, it was hard for the locals to ask me questions back so they would often express themselves in writing.

This was Zolvayar telling me in half Cyrillic, half roman alphabet, that his father is Mongolian but lives in Seoul (which he traveled to by plane). The picture of the moon and sun below is an illustration of “tomorrow,” to ask if I’d be leaving Terelj for Ulan Bator the following day.

This entry was posted on August 14, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Mongolia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.