For fans fumbling with Russian, there’s an apparatchik for that

SAMARA, RUSSIA» Randall Garcia and his wife were on a bus in the Russian city of Samara when a local resident stared at the couple and pointed his phone at them. The screen read: “Good luck, Costa Rica!”

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar may be the stars of the World Cup. But the app Google Translate has been the Most Valuable Player for many fans to leap over the language barrier in Russia. They have used the mobile app version to order food, change money and meet new people, especially in cities such as Samara, where most people only speak Russian.

“Google Translate has been a fundamental tool,” Garcia said, wearing the red jersey of Costa Rica’s national team.

“In a country where people are going out of their way to try to understand us, it’s key,” he said. “We thought there was going to be a language barrier, but it wasn’t like that.”

Before hundreds of thousands of fans descended on Russia, many of them studied phrases or took lessons to learn the basics of the language and the Cyrillic alphabet in time for the tournament that kicked off Thursday.

“It’s really hard. My partner has been learning a little bit of Russian, but other than that, we use Google Translate,” said Ruth Morris from Queensland, Australia. She who wore a yellow T-shirt emblazoned with green kangaroos that read: “Aussie, Aussie Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!”