- Timeshares in Cancun – How They Work
- How to Deal With Delayed Flights
- Planning Your Trip – Knowing Exactly What You Want
- Dealing With the Reality of Canceled Flights
- Booking a Flight Online – Getting There On Time At the Right Price
- For First Time Travelers – What Is a Passport?
- Las Vegas – A Vacation For The Whole Family
- Traveling the World and Learning a Few New Words and Phrases
- Discover San Antonio Texas and the Alamo
- Getting Through Airport Security Lines Hassle Free
Archive for the ‘Vacation Tips’ Category
What is a passport, exactly?
If you are a seasoned traveler, there is no doubt that you have a lot of experience dealing with documents such as passports. Yet, there are many Americans that don’t travel outside of the United States and, thus, have never had the need for a passport.
In fact, the US is large enough and diverse enough so that a large percentage of it’s citizens (estimated to be around 75%) don’t own a passport. Many live their entire lives never traveling abroad – instead, choosing to vacation within it’s boarders.
So, what is a passport? Well, if you want to quote the United States Department of State, a passport is a document that that is issued to a citizen of a country by the government. It’s purpose is to allow that person to travel internationally and to be able to re-enter the country afterward.
Almost every country issues passports to it’s citizens for the purpose of travel. It is almost mandatory in this day and age to require a passport to enter another country and to re-enter the country of origin. Of course, there are exceptions – for example, a closed society that does not allow it’s citizens to travel.
If you travel abroad, you are going to have to deal with foreign languages – that is a fact, no matter what your native language is. However, one advantage you may have if you are proficient in English is that it is used as a common denominator when you get two people together from different countries. For example, if someone from Italy is trying to communicate with someone from the Czech Republic, they are likely going to be speaking English.
Because English is the most widely used, and accepted language worldwide, this article is going to look at things from that perspective. Anyone who has English as their native language is going to have an obvious advantage when it comes to being able to communicate in different countries while traveling, but it also doesn’t hurt to pick up some key words and phrases along the way. At a bare minimum, you should at least know how to say hello and goodbye in the native tongue of the country you are visiting. It also doesn’t hurt to know how to say please and thank you.
