"When you're abroad as a college kid it's the most unbelievable time you're completely free and everyone's looking to do ridiculous stuff," Hochman said. "Our book facilitates getting yourself into a ridiculous adventure in a foreign city."
The book includes six chapters titled "Eat," "Sleep," "Daytime Fun," "Nighttime Fun," "No Fun" and "The Basics." These chapters include phrases like "I'm out of shape and wearing flip flops. Can I do this hike?" and "What's your cheapest drink?"
Hochman and Lewis said they were inspired by their own experiences studying abroad during Spring 2009 at the Lorenzo de Medici Italian International Institute in Florence, Italy, through a non-Dartmouth program called Academic Programs International.
"We were in Florence, Italy, for sophomore Spring and we had a bunch of standard phrasebooks, but we didn't want to use any of the phrases in there," Hochman said.
Their resources provided "irrelevant" phrases including "Where can I get diapers?" so the pair decided to create a book that catered specifically to the needs of college students, he said.
The process of converting their idea into a reality was a long process largely due to different D-Plans and time commitments of their respective varsity sports, Hochman said. Hochman is a member of the men's swimming and diving team while Lewis plays on the men's squash team.
The two students waited until senior year to begin seriously compiling the contents of their book so that they would have the time and energy needed to make the project a success, Lewis said.
While in Florence, the two students created a Google document to which they added ideas and phrases they thought were useful at the end of each day, according to Lewis. They then purchased copies of each phrasebook that posed potential competition, he said.
"We wanted to make sure ours would be different, but also wanted to see what they did that was good," Lewis said. "We knew there was a market for it."
To refine and edit their collection of phrases, Hochman and Lewis assembled focus groups of other Dartmouth students who offered feedback on the phrases they had selected.
"We wanted to figure out what people thought was funny and appropriate for guys and girls and people with different interests so we could appeal to lots of different people," Hochman said.
Although the book includes French, Italian and Spanish phrases, neither of the authors speak any of the three languages, Lewis said.
"That's why we needed a phrasebook," Lewis joked. "We knew what we wanted to say but had no idea how to say it."
Valentina Albi, a Dartmouth graduate student, translated the phrases into Italian, fellow graduate student Clement Petitjean did the French translations and Nicolas Burford '14 translated the phrases into Spanish. All three are native speakers with experience in translation, Hochman said. For help with transliteration, or the phonetic pronunciations of words, the pair turned to Ryan Milligan '12. Kari Cholnoky '10, who possesses extensive graphic design expertise and currently serves as a post-graduate studio art intern at the College, helped design the book's appearance, Hochman said.
When the phrasebook was finished, the students "caught a lucky break" when their publisher, BookCrafters, put them in contact with a large retailer, Lewis said.
"Originally we were going to do a self-publishing website, but once our publisher saw that our vision was to be in bookstores everywhere, they put us in touch with Barnes and Noble, which really opened the door for us," Lewis said.
The book is now available online through Barnes and Noble and Amazon, as well as on its own website, canweswimhere.com.
Hochman and Lewis have been in contact with several bookstores regarding the possibility of carrying their phrasebook, Lewis said.
"We really believe that this should be in college bookstores," he said. "It's something that every young person should have."
Hochman and Lewis said they hope the book will find a niche not only within the Dartmouth community, but also as a go-to brand for young people everywhere.
"This book is for any young person or even any person who is young at heart who wants to have fun while traveling," Lewis said.
Although total sales numbers are not yet available, the response to the book thus far has been very positive, Lewis said.
"People who have read it feel like this is exactly on point for what they're looking for," he said.
The phrasebook will be a useful tool for college student studying or working abroad, according to several students interviewed by The Dartmouth.
"That sounds like something I would definitely be interested in buying for when I do an abroad term," Samantha Dowdell '14 said.
Hochman and Lewis hope to release additional editions of their phrasebook in languages including Portuguese, German and Chinese, Hochman said.
"From day one, our vision for the whole thing is to have it on the bookshelf at Urban Outfitters," he said.
