Studying languages on vacation?

It’s travel season, many people go on vacation.
Maybe you are on vacation too but what to do with your languages?

You don’t go on vacation to be studying there all day but maybe you are afraid to neglect your languages because you won’t have time to revise them?

Then this article is for you!

When you go on a vacation most of the time it’s to relax or to discover a place.
You won’t have much time to study there and maybe you won’t think about it at all.

But even without really ‘’studying’’ you can revise your languages every day.

Option 1

You can work with flashcards, digital flashcards are easy to use and you have them all the time with you.

Two excellent flashcard apps are Anki and Quizlet, both available on mobile and on your computer.

A few days before you leave for vacation make your flashcards (insert them into the app) and you are ready to go. Everyday 5 minutes of revision time is not a big deal and (toch) will benefit you.

Best times to do your revision are first thing in the morning or before sleep. I recommend you to revise in the morning because after a long day it may be possible that you either forget to do it or that you don’t feel like it anymore.

What should you put on the flashcards??

You don’t know what to put on your flashcards? Just take sentences and vocabulary from the recourses you normally use to study.

Option 2

You also can use an app like Duolingo or Memrise. The lessons are very short and don’t take much time. Same here like with the flashcards, do it in the morning or in the evening, it will just take you 5 to 10 minutes and it will benefit you.

Option 3

If you are in the country of the language you learn then it’s another story of course! Just talk with the locals and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. This is the best exercise you can do to practice.

Surround yourself with the language.

Option 4

Another thing you can do is READ.
Reading is very important when you are learning a language.
Take a book with you in your target language or find newspapers in that language (when you are in the country of the language itself)

When you don’t have books or newspapers or you can’t find any, the internet is full of content. (online newspapers, e-books,…)

Read a little every day, 5 mins a day, for instance one article a day.
An amazing tool to read on the internet is “readlang“ , with this you can easily look up the meaning of a word.
Maybe you can take a little notebook with you to write the new vocabulary in it.

So these were some options you have to study or revise your language(s) even when you are on vacation.
5 to 10 minutes a day is good, it’s better than doing nothing and in this way you will be able to keep track on your language(s).

 

Why you definitely need to use phrasebooks.

Hey fellow language learners, in this article I will tell you why you definitely should use phrasebooks when learning a new language.

To begin, there are several publishers who make phrasebooks, the most known is probably Lonely Planet, they have excellent phrasebooks, I really recommend them.

Well, why you should use them?

First of all, they are very useful, they contain a lot of practical information. With practical information I mean phrases that are used in daily life plus often they also provide possible answers to questions.
These little books are divided in different chapters like for example: practical information, shopping, traveling, at the doctor, in the supermarket etc.

 

The chapters are very easy to browse through.

Mostly the chapters are indicated with colours.

In this way you can look up a phrase in no time. This is handy when you are in a foreign country and want to ask something to a local but you don’t know how to ask it.

Another asset that these tiny books have is that they contain relevant information. Textbooks often have boring dialogues that are totally irrelevant. In phrasebooks you really have good examples of phrases that you surely will need. With dialogues in textbooks you actually have a lot of excess information.

Most phrasebooks also have a chapter where they explain some grammar of the language, they also have a chapter of basic information like numbers, days, months etc…

Many phrasebooks have some drawings with vocabulary on it like you see on this picture.

In all the ones that I have they show how to pronounce the language and all of them have a little dictionary in the back. Little and compact, perfect to take with you wherever you go. That’s another asset of these tiny books.

In the Lonely Planet phrasebooks, they give you some information about the culture of the country that speak that language, I think it’s very interesting and also important if you are planning to go to the country.

My conclusion is that they give you a good base of the language, some grammar points, basic information and phrases for daily life situations. You can bring it with you wherever you go and it’s not that expensive. So, that’s why I really recommend you to use phrasebooks.

Did you know?
They already used phrasebooks in the 15^th century. They were used in Mediaeval Europe by pilgrims to the Holy land.