How did people travel 30-40 years ago with the language barrier?

Hey!

I’ve been travelling the world, and I can’t explain how much I’ve had to depend on Google Translate. I’ve been able to talk to anyone and everyone, about anything and everything because of this technology.

It’s made me wonder…how did people travel to non-English speaking countries before such technology existed? Did you carry dictionaries??

Thanks!

EDIT: Thank you all for the replies. Very interesting to hear these experiences. I’m writing this edit while I travel from city to city on a bus in the middle of nowhere. Shows you how far technology has come. I wonder what kind of experiences our generation will have, that will baffle the coming generation 🤔

Author: Dangerous-Fun-2796