I learned Cyrillic when I spent some time in Macedonia. Being able to read the alphabet was actually very useful, even without any further language knowledge. B

I learned Cyrillic when I spent some time in Macedonia. Being able to read the alphabet was actually very useful, even without any further language knowledge. Being able to read street names, shop names, destinations on buses, etc all made the city much more accessible than without that. Most languages also have a large number of words that an English speaker will recognise — and even more if they've ever learned any other language. Being able to transliterate at least lets you have a good chance of spotting some things you'll know. This is even more so in places where there'll be a large number of imported words, such as many restaurants, cafés, etc. It really helps in a coffee shop to be able to get as far as choosing between 'Espreso', 'Kapuchino', 'Nas so sladoled', 'Makiyato malo', 'Makiyato golemo', 'Fredo', 'Frape', 'Ladno chokoladno mleko', 'Klasic crno chokolado', 'Klasic belo chokolado', or 'Meksikansko chokolado', rather than a board full of gibberish.