Serious travel planning for our round the world family trip is currently on hold, while we finalise the sale of our house.
Therefore, in a minor attempt to plug some of the gaping holes in my global adventurer toolkit, I am instead trying to learn a little Spanish. I opted for Spanish on the basis that I believe it to be one of the most widely spoken languages outside of English. Also, I like Spain, so perhaps a few words will come in handy on future summer holidays when I’d really like to know what I’m ordering for dinner.
Thankfully, as for nearly everything else, there are now plentiful free apps that promise the road to fluency in practically any language you fancy. After several concentrated seconds of research, I opted for an app called “Duolingo”, which I would definitely recommend for beginners.
After around ten hours of lessons, which are helpfully broken up into easily manageable 5-10 minute stages, I am now apparently 10% fluent! I find this hard to believe, but I suspect the next 90% gets harder. At least I may now be able order some drinks at a bar without having to rely purely on pointing, providing the kids are happy with either milk (leche) or orange juice (hugo de naranja) and nobody starts asking me any awkward questions.
Buenos noches.
Dan
round the world with my family 
I’m using Duolingo to learn Spanish too…apparently I’m 48% fluent! I’ve started trying to read Spanish magazines and books too, just to shake it up a bit and keep it fun. Hope you keep enjoying it 🙂
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48% is great! Do you feel half fluent??? Looking forward to being able to read some Spanish newspapers and books too.
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Not at all…I think I’m at the ‘I can get by’ stage, but it’ll come with time!
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Sounds great, will have to have a look at that app. I fancy Italian myself!
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Definitely worth a try. I am terrible at languages but feel like I am making reasonable progress.
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Good for you! We took formal Spanish lessons in both Mexico and Guatemala and actually picked up quite a bit of Spanish as we traveled through Central and South America too. We’re at the “can get by” phase and have found that knowing even a bit helps in Spain. Surprisingly, knowing written Spanish has also proved to be helpful in Portugal when navigating about a grocery store or reading signs as many of the root words are similar. Every bit helps and you won’t be disappointed with the effort you put in! Anita
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How are your plans going? We’re now in Vancouver. Travelled through Canada. Great place. I’ve moved my blog to this site http://freespiritsfamily.com
Keep in touch
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Very jealous! We are still in the process of selling our house, so a bit tricky to confirm anything until this is complete. It would be great to stay in touch and pick your brains at some point.
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House sitting has been good to us so far. trustedhousesitters.com
Yes please get in touch anytime.
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