Would you take a language course prior to your trip?

[helenk]

We are going to Italy in May. Our local high school has adult education classes and one of the course coming up is Basic Italian. The cost is $85 so we are not talking about a lot of money.
I realize that English is spoken at hotels etc, but just to get a basic understanding might be helpful.

 

[Alesia]

We are going to Italy in May. Our local high school has adult education classes and one of the course coming up is Basic Italian. The cost is $85 so we are not talking about a lot of money.
I realize that English is spoken at hotels etc, but just to get a basic understanding might be helpful.

If you can afford it, absolutely! Even if you couldn't afford it, I would suggest getting a basic italian CD or DVD from the library. It is always best to make an effort to learn a bit the language when visiting another country.

 

[airbear]

I agree, I spent two weeks in France and all the local people that I talked to really appreciated the fact that I was making an effort to speak French.

 

[AZ Mom]

I would recommend you try the free "Italian Steps" online program through the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/

I completed this online course prior to our Viva Italia trip in Summer 2008. It helped us navigate things a little better when we were on our own and the Italians did appreciate my efforts (though feeble ) to communicate with them in their language. It was particularly helpful in restaurants and shops.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[helenk]

Thanks for input. I am going to sign up today. Its for 10 weeks, and the last class is at the end of April and we leave the end of May so that should work out pretty well.

 

[sayhello]

I think that's a wonderful idea! It certainly wouldn't hurt, and I imagine it would greatly increase your enjoyment if you understood what was going on around you, could read signs, things like that. Good for you!

Goda di! (According to Babel fish, that's 'Enjoy!' in Italiano!)

Sayhello

 

[helenk]

I would recommend you try the free "Italian Steps" online program through the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/lj/

I completed this online course prior to our Viva Italia trip in Summer 2008. It helped us navigate things a little better when we were on our own and the Italians did appreciate my efforts (though feeble ) to communicate with them in their language. It was particularly helpful in restaurants and shops.

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks for the link. I do better with a class room situation, but I sent the link to my daughter. She is student teaching right now and not real close to home so the course I'm taking won't work for her. But this on line program would be great for her.

 

[Skatetigger]

We ordered the Berlitz German program for our Sept trip, figure we'll learn the basics

 

[Kurby]

My daughter is in a French Immersion school and will start all her classes next year.

I've just received the Rosetta Stone French course and am now on lesson 2. so far it's the only one (of the dozen or so disc courses) that i've stuck with past the first lesson.

it's not cheap but since dd will be speaking french for school and not just a vacation it's worth it to become fairly bilingual.

you might check your library or ebay to see if they have Italian that you can borrow or buy cheaper.

good luck.

 

[WeLoveABD]

If you want to learn the language, great! Good opportunity to try out a few phrases. But--it isn't really needed on the trips. We tried to learn Italian before doing the Italy trip, listing to the tapes in the car etc--but we picked up little that was useful on the day to day interactions, especially in slang or local dialect. We didn't even try re China--although another family did take Chinese before the tour, but again didn't really use it. I took German in high school (well, attempted to learn German is more like it), so was excited to try it out in Germany--bought a small pocket phrase book to help out. Our German guide was encouraging and helped me out a bit--but all in all, I spoke German infrequently. I had fun when I did use it, and I think the person on the other end appreciated the effort (and/or was amused)--but unless you want to learn a language for many other and future uses, I'm not so sure I'd spend a lot of time and money on this if it is just for an ABD trip. Just my two cents (or euros)!

 

[walt's assistant]

I took a semester of Japanese before my first trip to Japan. Big time help in terms of remedial communication skills and cultural do's/don'ts.