Languages for travellers

I have been fortunate enough to have travelled extensively in Europe and have found that if I had a smattering of the language my visit to all the countries was enhanced enormously. Simply 'Please' and 'Thankyou' in the local languages has always brought smiles to faces, no matter how badly pronounced.

Ordering a meal in a Venetian restaurant away from the major tourist areas required me to explain, in halting Italian, that I was allergic to gluten and brought Momma from the kitchen to listen to my story which resulted in a wonderful meal. A meal that was so good, and the experience so rewarding, that we returned night after night with the entire family gathered to bid us farewell when we flew back to England. We were even presented with a bottle of wine as a goodbye gift. Without my little Italian that would never have happened and I would have missed the experience of being gathered to Momma's ample bosom for a hug.

A trip down the Rhine to taste the wines of German was much improved by trying out my German even if they were much amused by someone tasting wine with a dictionary in hand.

Travelling in Greece brought whole new experiences by being able to read signs in an unfamiliar alphabet. I may not have understood every word but I no longer felt an illiterate which improved my trip enormously. Many waiters in island restaurants speak excellent 'restaurant' English but when it became more complicated communications failed. Resorting to even more rudimentary Greek I was understood and appropriate messages passed to the kitchen. One waiter even came back after passing on the order to say he had understood but not realised that I had swopped to Greek and congratulated me. Achievement points there for me!

I am never going to be a simultaneous interpreter at an international conference or even be mistaken for a native speaker of any language but my hours of study continue to increase my enjoyment of travel.

Let's not kid ourselves, it isn't easy, no matter what the sellers of language courses might imply. Getting even a rudimentary grasp of a language takes hours and hours of study. Having the motivation to avoid the lures of the bar, the television or even a walk in the park isn't easy. You need help! You need encouragement! You need rewarding for your efforts!

I have just found a brilliant system that does all of those things and it's free. A website based in the Spanish capital of Madrid provides all that, and more. BUSUU.COM provides language learning lessons completely free, though there are enhancements available for a fee, and it's well worth a look.

The system has provided an infrastructure for a community of language learners to develop and I have been astonished how much help I have gained from what were previously total strangers.

I am off to South America next year so I decided to sign up for Spanish and in a very short time was able to write simple sentences. Carlos, in Barcelona, not only corrects my exercises but adds very helpful notes on language usage. Diana, in the city of Santo Domingo inThe Dominican Republic, an ex Spanish language teacher, offered to correct my work if I sent it to her for comments, New friends in Ecuador, Uraguay and Mexico have all helped me enormously and a lot of motivation comes from their support.

My knowledge of the South American continent has improved alongside my language studies as I keep the atlas handy to check on the location of my friends and teachers.

The system even allows for audio and video communication and I received a recent call from a a teacher of English at a summer language camp in Spain asking me I would speak to some of her students for a few minutes. So from the comfort of a chair in my conservatory I was able reciprocate a little by adding something extra to a language class just outside Madrid.

After trying out the full system free for the first seven days I decided to upgrade to Premium Membership. This provides hours of spoken material to improve my pronuncation which is not available in the free version though I know that lots of users stick with it.

Give it a try, it won't cost you anything and it could just make a big difference to your next visit to a foreign land.