Language Tips for More Meaningful Travel with Margherita Berti

Let me ask you this, as we kind of like talk about now, like language and travel, kind of to transition into that.

You know, I always kind of tell people before they travel somewhere where they're not speaking their native language, you know, like where I am here in the UK.

It's like very easy for me to communicate, obviously, with people.

But when I was in Paris, and my French is terrible, which I always tell everybody, I know more Italian, I know more Spanish, but I always try to tell people, you know, at least know a handful of words before you travel, you know, just some general kind of pleasantries even.

Yeah.

or some key words, like I always feel like the word for like bathroom, exit, entrance, stairs, or your elevators, your lifts, whatever, just kind of some basic things.

Stop, that's always a good one.

What do you think, like what are some tips that you would offer to a traveler traveling to a country that doesn't speak their language as far as maybe some key things to learn like key phrases, key words, but also maybe how to make it like so many people, especially Americans, as you probably learn English speakers, it's so hard for us, especially older ones, you know, to learn a language.

So maybe you have some tips to help to make it easier, to make it fun, to make it stick in our brain.

Yeah.

So I agree with you.

It is very important to learn even just a little bit of a language before you travel to another country because you're going to feel more connected with that country and the people.

But I recommend, for example, using flashcards.

So using flashcards is a very, it is a very powerful tool for learning phrases, words.

We use them in my courses and a tool that I recommend that is free is Quizlet.

Quizlet? Quizlet.

It's free as well, but it's a paid version, but you can use the free version where you can create your own digital flashcard decks.

And so you can download the app on your phone and maybe when you are...

I don't know, waiting at the doctor or you are on the bus, you can just quickly review some of the phrases to prepare for your travels.

You can also just make traditional flashcards with paper and then on one side you have the, let's say, Italian word and on the other side the translation.

But it's a great tool for learning flashcards.

And then podcasts.

So it's so important to get that language input to listen to the language.

And there are many language podcasts for Italian and other languages as well out there that you can listen to during your dead time.

If I'm driving to work, instead of listening to music, maybe today I will listen to a podcast.