---
type: Tip
title: Learn the local language
description: Learning even a little of the local language earns goodwill everywhere — Harry tries in every country he visits.
tags: [language, culture, respect]
timestamp: 2026-07-12T12:00:00Z
---

# Learn the local language

Wherever he goes, Harry tries to learn at least some of the local language —
"whenever you go to a country, try and learn the language." Even small
efforts earn outsized goodwill from locals.

## How Harry applies it

In [Pakistan](/countries/pakistan.md) he learned bits of Urdu and uses local
greetings (assalamu alaikum) constantly. His fort guide in the
[Hunza Valley](/places/hunza-valley.md) told him the British were historically
accepted there partly because they wrote to the ruler in Persian — the
language effort itself won respect, which Harry cites as exactly the point.

It works hardest where the effort is least expected. On
[Siargao](/places/siargao.md) he greets everyone in Tagalog on an island where
Tagalog isn't the first language — a foreigner speaking the wrong local
language, confidently — and it lands better than English would have. Filipino
greetings and thanks are in his mouth constantly across the Philippines
videos, to the point where locals stop treating him as a tourist mid-sentence.

## The mechanism, stated as a procedure

Everything above is about goodwill in the abstract. On a local beach in
[Aqaba](/places/aqaba.md) Harry describes it as a repeatable sequence, and it is
the most directly usable thing on this page:

**They stare at you until you look back. Then you say something in Arabic. Then
they are friendly.**

He is throwing out whatever he has — a greeting, *good evening*, *how are you*,
and one phrase he admits he doesn't know the meaning of and uses because
[Mac](/people/mac.md) does — and it works every time. His summary is that people
love it when you make an effort with their language.

**Why this belongs on the page rather than in the Aqaba entry alone**: it is the
one place where the tip solves a specific, uncomfortable problem rather than
generally improving the mood. He and his companions were being looked at hard
enough that it is the subject of the previous video, and a handful of Arabic
words is what converts it. Compare
[cover up in conservative countries](/tips/cover-up-in-conservative-countries.md),
where the same situation is handled from the other side.

## Demonstrated in

- [First Impressions of HUNZA VALLEY, Pakistan 🇵🇰](/videos/pLjDnYzkOyE.md)
- [Unexpected Encounter with Filipino Police in Siargao 🇵🇭](/videos/g2HIe0Urqgc.md) —
  Tagalog greetings on an island that speaks something else, which he notes
  makes them stranger and more welcome, not less.
- [I got Kicked out of the Golden Temple for this 🇮🇳](/videos/MpZUcxh4q7g.md) —
  the most practical use of it on the page: plainclothes police stop him filming
  at Amritsar airport and demand to see his footage, and a few words of Hindi
  plus the right form of address ends it with everyone smiling.
- [The KINDEST City In The World?! 🇵🇰](/videos/qjSnZN6jMME.md) — the argument
  from the other direction. English in [Peshawar](/places/peshawar.md) is poor
  enough that he spends the day waiting for the occasional fluent speaker, and
  he promises on camera to return fluent in Urdu because it would improve the
  experience tenfold.
- [$180 Boat Scam in AQABA, JORDAN 🇯🇴](/videos/bX-3z2aREZE.md) — the staring
  problem solved with four words of Arabic, stated as a procedure.