LingoflyAt the post office in Basque
A customer sends an international package at the post office in Basque. 6 phrases that the conversation is made of: «Egun on! Zer bidali nahi duzu gaur, pakete bat ala gutun bat?» — Good afternoon! What do you want to send today, a package or a letter?; «Pakete bat, nire ahizpari. Nazioarteko paketea da, Alemaniara doa.» — A package, to my sister. It is an international package, it goes to Germany. Every line can be played right on the page.
How the whole thing sounds
The situation: a customer sends an international package at the post office. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.
- A package, to my sister. It is an international package, it goes to Germany.
- It weighs two and a half. What is faster, express delivery or regular mail?
- Banaketa azkarra hiru egunetan iristen da; posta arruntak, berriz, astebete behar du. Hartzailearen helbidea idatzi hemen.Express delivery arrives in three days; regular mail needs a week. Write the recipient's address here.
Lines one by one
| Basque | Translation |
|---|---|
| Egun on! Zer bidali nahi duzu gaur, pakete bat ala gutun bat? | Good afternoon! What do you want to send today, a package or a letter? |
| Pakete bat, nire ahizpari. Nazioarteko paketea da, Alemaniara doa. | A package, to my sister. It is an international package, it goes to Germany. |
| Ongi. Jarri hemen pisuan: paketearen pisua neurtu behar dut lehenik. | Good. Put it here on the scale: first I need to measure the weight of the package. |
| Bi kilo eta erdi pisatzen du. Zein da azkarrena, banaketa azkarra ala posta arrunta? | It weighs two and a half. What is faster, express delivery or regular mail? |
| Banaketa azkarra hiru egunetan iristen da; posta arruntak, berriz, astebete behar du. Hartzailearen helbidea idatzi hemen. | Express delivery arrives in three days; regular mail needs a week. Write the recipient's address here. |
| Idatzi dut, eta posta-kodea ere. Bidaltzailearen izena atzean jarri behar diot, ezta? | Written, and the postal code too. The sender's name has to go on the back, right? |
How to prepare for a conversation like this
Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.
And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.
- Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many timesTeimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
- That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many timesXiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.
Frequently asked
How do you start a conversation in Basque in this situation?
“Egun on! Zer bidali nahi duzu gaur, pakete bat ala gutun bat?” — Good afternoon! What do you want to send today, a package or a letter? The first line in such a conversation is almost always the same, and that is the one worth learning: the other person will carry it from there.
What if you did not understand the reply?
Say “I don't understand” and “repeat, please” — both are in the rescue set. Admitting your language is still shaky almost always makes the other person more patient.
Should you memorize the dialogue?
No. It is more useful to catch the key words by ear: the other person will say their own thing, and a memorized line will not always fit their reply.