Soviet “Youth Phrasebook” (1965)

I recently picked up this Soviet “youth phrase book” from 1965 to help me learn some Spanish phrases for a trip to Barcelona. It contains over 1,000 phrases in 12 languages.

Some are still useful. Others, perhaps less so.

I didn’t manage to see any hot houses, pig-farms, or melonfields, nor did I get to use phrase 12 (“I have come with the trade union”) or phrase 92 (“Do you belong to a political party?”).

I also somehow failed to work phrase 996 — “How are the collective farmers paid for their work?” — into natural conversation.

I am definitely ruefully mourning the fact that I will never get to experience Barcelona through the eyes of a Soviet delegation from 1965.