Barriers to communication off the beaten track exist just because ofwho you are: a visitor from another civilisation. It is necessary to show the local people that underneath the surface impression of strange clothes and foreign manners exists a fellow human being.

The first step is to approach local inhabitants as if you are their guest. You are. It is their country, their village, their hut, their lifestyle. You are a welcome, or perhaps unwelcome, intruder into their familiar daily routine. Always be aware that they may see very few faces other than those of their family or the other families in the village. Their initial impression of you is likely to be one of unease and wariness. Be reassuring. Move slowly.

If possible, learn a few words of local greeting and repeat them to everyone you meet in the village. It is very important to keep smiling; carry an open face, even if you feel exactly the opposite. Hold your body in a relaxed, non-aggressive manner.

In your first encounter, try to avoid anything that might anger them or make them shy with their initial approaches to you. If they offer a hand, take it firmly, even if it is encrusted with what you might consider filth. Don't hold back or be distant, either in attitude or voice. On the other hand, coming on strong in an effort to get something from a local person will only build unnecessary barriers to communication.

Words and pictures

Begin with words. If you are asking for directions, repeat the name of the place several times, but do not point in the direction you think it is, or suggest possible directions by voice. Usually the local person, in an effort to please his visitor, will nod helpfully in the direction in which you are pointing, or agree with you that, yes, Namdrung is that way, "if you say so". It may be in the opposite direction.

Merely say "Namdrung" and throw up your hands in a gesture that indicates a total lack of knowledge. Most local people are delighted to help someone who is genuinely in need, and, after a conference with their friends, will come up with a solution to your problem. When they point, repeat the name of the place several times more (varying the pronunciation) to check if it is the same place you want to go. It is also a good idea to repeat this whole procedure with someone else in another part of the village (and frequently along the route) to check for consistency.

In most areas it is highly likely that none of the local people will speak any language you are familiar with. Communicating with them then becomes a problem in demonstration: you must show them what you want or perform your message.

If you are asking for information that is more difficult to express than simple directions, use your hands to build a picture of what you need. Pictures, in the air, on the sand, on a piece of paper, are sometimes your only means of communication and, frequently, the clearest. Use these symbols when you receive blank stares in answer to your questions. Use sound or objects that you have in your possession that are similar, or of which you would like more.

Giving and getting

Not all of your contact with local people will be about getting something from them. Don't forget that you have a unique opportunity to bring them something from your own culture - try to make it something that will enrich theirs. Show them what it looks like with the help of postcards and magazines. Let them experience its tools. If you have a camera, let the local people, especially the children, look through the viewfinder. Put on a telephoto lens so they can get a new look at their own countryside. If you have a Polaroid camera, photograph them and give them the print (a very popular offering, but be careful, you might end up being asked to photograph all the villagers). And, most important of all, become involved. Carry aspirin to cure headaches - real or imagined. If someone in the village seems to need help, say in lifting a log, offer a hand. Contribute yourself as an expression of your culture.

If you want to take photographs, be patient. Don't bring out your camera until you have established a sufficient rapport, and be as unobtrusive as possible. If anyone objects, stop. A bribe for a photograph or payment for information is justified only if the situation is unusual. A simple request for directions is no reason for a gift. If the local people do something out of the ordinary for you, reward them as you would a friend at home. The best gift you can give them is your friendship and openness. They are not performers doing an act, but ordinary people living out their lives in circumstances that seem strange to us.

I have found myself using gifts as a means of avoiding contact with remote people - especially children - as a way of pacifying them. I think it is better to enter and leave their lives with as much warmth as I can give, and now I leave the sweets at home. If you are camped near a village, invite some of the local people over to share your food, and try to have them sit among your party.

On some of the more travelled routes, such as Morocco or the main trekking trails of Nepal, the local children, being used to being given sweets by passing trekkers, will swarm around for more. I suggest that you smile (always) and refuse them. Show them pictures or your favourite juggling act, then give them something creative, such as pencils.

If a local event is in progress, stand back, try to get into a shadow, and watch from a distance. You will be seen and noticed, no matter what you do, but it helps to minimise your presence. If you want to get closer, edge forward slowly, observing the participants, especially the older people, for signs that you are not wanted. If they frown, retire. Respect their attempts to keep their culture and its customs as free as possible from outside influence.

Many people in remote places are still in an age before machines, and live their lives close to the earth in a comfortable routine. Where you and I come from is sophisticated, hard and alien to them. We must come into their lives as gently as possible, and when we go, leave no trace.

Officialdom

In less remote areas where the local people have had more experience of travellers, you must still observe the rule of patience, open-mindedness and respect for the lifestyle of others. But you will encounter people with more preconceived notions about foreigners - and most of those notions will be unfavourable.

In these circumstances - and indeed anywhere your safety or comfort may depend on your approach - avoid seeming to put any local person, especially a minor official, in the wrong. Appeal to his emotions, enlist his magnanimous aid, save his face at all costs. Your own calmness can calm others. If you are delayed or detained, try 'giving up', reading a book, smiling. Should you be accused of some minor misdemeanour, such as 'jumping' a control point, far better to admit your 'mistake' than to be accused of spying - though even this is fairly standard practice in the Third World and shouldn't flap you unduly.

Wherever you go in the Third World, tones and pitches of voice will vary; 'personal distance' between people conversing may be less than you are used to, attitudes and priorities will differ from your own. Accept people as they are and you can hope that, with time and a gentle approach, they will accept you also.

Language

When you have the opportunity of learning or using a smattering of the local language, try to make things easier for yourself by asking questions that limit answers to what you understand and prompt responses which will add helpfully and manageably to your vocabulary. Make it clear to your listeners that your command of the language is limited. Note down what you learn and try constantly to build on what you know.

Always familiarise yourself with the cultural limitations that may restrict topics of conversation or choice of conversation partner.

Keep your hands to yourself

Gestures can be a danger area. The British thumbs-up sign is an obscenity in some countries, such as Sardinia and parts of the Middle East, where it means roughly 'sit on this' or 'up yours'. In such places (and anywhere, if in doubt) hitch a ride by waving limply with a flattened hand.

The ring sign made with thumb and forefinger is also obscene in Turkey and other places. And in France it can mean 'zero', i.e. worthless - the exact opposite of the meaning 'OK' or 'excellent' for which the British and Americans use it.

By contrast, our own obscene insult gesture, the two-finger sign, is used interchangeably in Italy with the Churchillian V-sign. Which way round you hold your fingers makes no difference - it's still understood as a friendly gesture meaning 'victory' or 'peace'.

In Greece, as the anthropologist Desmond Morris tells us, there is another problem to do with the gesture called the moutza. In this, the hand is raised flat, 'palm towards the victim and pushed towards him as if about to thrust an invisible custard pie in his face'. To us it means simply to 'go back', but to a Greek it is a hideous insult. It dates from Byzantine times, when chained prisoners were paraded through the streets and abused by having handfuls of filth from the gutter picked up by onlookers and thrust into their faces. Though naturally the brutal practice has long since ceased, the meaning of moutza has not been forgotten.