Language

Learn how to say these phrases in the local language to travel fluently anywhere.

“All of the kids speak Chinese. I don’t know what they’re saying,” my three year old daughter, Petra, spoke in frustration. While young children can learn languages far more adeptly and easily than adults, they don’t just learn them as though through osmosis. Learning foreign language is tough for kids too. Petra is struggling with [...]

Ivorians call their country Côte d’Ivoire, the Thai call their country Prathet Thai, the Chinese call their country Zhōngguó, the Japanese call Japan Nippon, Russians call their homeland Rossiya, the Fins call their country Suomi, the people who live in the Czech Republic call it Česká Republika, Turkey is known to its residents as Türkiye, [...]

When I’m in a Spanish speaking country, take it for granted that the dialogue that I have with the local people happened in Spanish. It is rendered on this travelogue in English, as this is the prime language of this website.

It is often said that Western Europeans speak English. From traveling all through Europe I know that this is not entirely true. Some regions of Europe have a 90% English speaking prevalancy rate, while others it is generally an unintelligible tongue. The divide, it seems, lies with the Romance languages. In Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the [...]

Petra’s bilingual development at one year, 10 months Please watch this video of Petra’s Spanish and English bilingual abilities before reading the remainder of this entry Seven months ago, I published a video and travelogue entry about Petra’s initial foray into simultaneous bilingualism. Now, at the age of one year and 10 months, I’ve again [...]

Deviations in language are vast even within the same dialect in the same language. Word choice and usage are one of the main tell tale signs that show what segment of a given society a person comes from or associates themselves with. In Mexico, I found myself in a funny predicament: although I could understand [...]

In this correspondent question I ask Jasmine Stephenson from Jasmine Wanders to explain the methodology she uses for learning foreign languages while traveling. “In your previous correspondent response, Tips for Solo Female Travelers, your first piece of advice was to learn the local language of the countries you travel in. I am just wondering what [...]

Iphone Translator App is the future of language learning OAXACA, Mexico- Everyone looked amazed as a traveler from Perth fumbled with a bag of potato chips and a smart phone. It looked as if he was photographing it, no, he was translating it. This traveler was equipped with an Iphone that had a translator app [...]