Language Apps

[GAN]

With many people planning trips to Europe, I thought I'd recommend an App I used prior to my trip to France last month -Duolingo. My English is pretty good(by today's standards!), my Italian is barely serviceable, and my French is worse! So I figured what do I have to lose and started using Duolingo about two months before leaving for maybe a half-hour 4-days a week. It was actually fun, and more importantly I realized I could actually converse(at a low level) and understand most of what was either spoken or written.

I think it's important because while in most larger cities(Rome, Paris) people will just speak English openly, in other areas, they appreciate a little effort -for which you will be rewarded ...most of the time! I caught the Viva Italia podcast and Pete mentioned waiting 40 minutes for a check at a restaurant -which is unusual even in laid back Europe. I was thinking if he asked in English, they could take that as a sign of disrespect or lack of effort ...which is what they return. I'm not saying that was the case, but it's an example of how a little bit of knowledge can go a long way in a foreign country. In Italian, maybe you wait only 30 minutes!

The app starts slowly and at first you may think that it's not teaching you the "important" phrases you actually need to know, but over time you realize that it will come and you'll be very comfortable picking those up -even if it's on your own. If there are any other Apps people had success with, I'd like to hear. Ciao!

 

[sayhello]

Cool! Thanks for the recommendation! I'm going to check that out!

Sayhello

 

[mare1203]

Duolingo is great! I used it for our recent Italy trip!

I actually ended up paying for a month of another great program/app, Babbel, as a supplement. Duolingo ends up doing more vocab, while Babbel does a more conversation style with statements tourists use pretty often. I felt it worth it to use them together for a bit, since there is some overlap. It was less than $10 for the month of Babbel, and I felt like I was more confident after using them. If for no other reason than recognizing words and phrases and being able to struggle my way through.