The flights are booked and the swimming trunks are packed, so now all that’s left to do before your holiday is to pray to the weather Gods for nothing but sunshine on your vacation, right? Well, what if we told you that you could also learn a significant amount of the local language before you fly?
If you’re the sort of Aussie traveler who wants to soak up some rays and a bit of culture, learning the language will allow you to escape the usual tourist traps and fully embrace the country you’re visiting — even if you’re just popping over to Bali. Babbel transforms you from a tourist into a traveler by enabling you to start speaking a new language in just a matter of weeks. Don’t believe us? Here are five ways Babbel can get you talking before you fly:
1. We Teach You The Holiday Essentials You Need
Instead of frantically trying to learn some phrases as you leave the airplane, Babbel helps you master the essentials before you travel. Our in-house team of linguists have created purpose-built lessons for 14 languages which cover everything you need for your holiday.
Whether you’re going to Bali or Barcelona, there are some fundamental aspects of a holiday that you’ll inevitably have to grapple with. Being able to order food and drinks in a restaurant, paying for your souvenirs in a shop, and asking for directions to the beach are all prime examples. We’ve even built vacation learning plans for French and Spanish to make the learning even easier! All of our lessons are designed to empower you and help you feel confident in your new language.
2. We Teach You To Speak The Language As It’s Actually Spoken
The Babbel app fine-tunes your ears to pick up on the language as it is actually spoken, which means you’re less likely to stumble through simple phrases or butcher the pronunciation.
We know it’s not easy to master exotic, new sounds. To assist you in your learning journey, Babbel provides key vocabulary and phrases delivered by native speakers with our speech recognition tool. This feature focuses on building up your confidence to speak the language by giving you immediate feedback on how accurate your pronunciation is. This means your first attempts to communicate with the taxi driver at arrivals won’t be your first time speaking the language, so you’re much more likely to be understood.
3. We Give You The Level You Want
With only a short time available before you fly, it’s vital that you concentrate your efforts on the most important areas. Our beginner courses quickly get complete novices up to speed on all of the fundamental aspects of their new language. The app does this by seamlessly weaving together all parts of language learning (reading, writing and speaking) to give you a full appreciation of the language from the get-go.
If you’re a more advanced learner who’s just looking to refresh the language before you fly, you can focus your learning time on our refresher lessons that are designed to jog your memory and awaken dormant language skills just in time for your holiday.
4. We Even Give You Handpicked Travel And Language Tips
Your time abroad is precious (especially if you’ve left Australia to visit Europe), so you don’t want to waste it by eating out at the wrong restaurant. Take Rome for example: It’s not difficult to find a pizza in the city, but in order to find the perfect pizza, you’ll need to butter up the locals for some sound advice. We take these things as seriously as you do, so if you’ve always dreamed of ordering a proper Quattro Formaggi from a rustic pizzeria in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood, then breath easy, because we’ll teach you how.
5. We’ve Been Verified By Experts And Universities
We believe it’s possible to learn enough of a language before your holiday so that you can start speaking it the minute you step off the plane. And to prove it, we got two academic studies to back us up on our effectiveness.
First, an independent study by researchers at the City University of New York and the University of South Carolina evaluated the overall efficacy of Babbel Spanish courses by examining 391 randomly selected learners and their progress by the end of the study. What did they find? Complete beginners with no knowledge of Spanish needed on average only 15 hours of study in a two-month period to cover the requirements for one college semester of Spanish. Better yet: 95% of users surveyed said Babbel is “easy-to-use” and “helpful.”
Then in 2018, a study conducted by researchers at Michigan State University showed that virtually all participants made measurable gains in their ability to communicate orally in Spanish when studying with Babbel. Now that’s a real honor!
No matter where you go or what you plans are, every true traveler knows that getting a grip of the pleasantries in the local language will make you stand out among the hordes tourists. We don’t just encourage you to learn the lingo in order to be a polite traveler, though. We know that learning the local language will open up doors for you on your holiday that would otherwise remain closed if you stuck to the English-speaking confines of the hotel bar.