Posted on by Peter Rettig

From Budapest to Lingo–Late: Essential Words and Phrases

Prague CastleAs with GamesforLanguage, the idea for Lingo-Late was born straight out of our own experience.

In the fall of 2018 we stayed for a week in Prague, the Czech Republic. As we typically do before any travels, we had prepared ourselves by reading about Czech history. (The book "Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed" by Mary Heimann was an eye opener.) We had also learned some basic Czech words and phrases and Ulrike wrote about our trip in: European Travels 10 – Prague in 2018.

Finding some of the basic Czech greetings, as well as words such as yes, no, please, thank you, etc. - together with audio was in fact not easy. Yes, we obviously could find them on Google Translate and on our phone translation apps. But we really would have liked to have them in one place to listen to the audios, recording ourselves and to practice and review them often. Learning the new sounds of another language takes time and repetition. If it's not convenient to do, it's hard to sustain.

On Duolingo, what we consider “essential” words and phrases for travel are scattered throughout numerous lessons. You have to go through all kinds of other vocabulary to find the ones you want. And many other free sites have essential first words and phrases, but few have audios and none have recording features.

Not surprisingly, we found that people appreciated our attempts to use the local language. For us it was a way to show respect. And, even a few words were helpful in small local shops, although in Prague's restaurants and hotels many speak English.

Our Budapest Eureka

After a wonderful week in Prague, we took a train to Budapest. Buda Castle view across the Danube from PestAs we had only planned to stay there for three days, we didn't  put the same effort into learning essential Hungarian phrases as we had done with Czech.

However, breakfast in our hotel showed us that just a simple “Thank you” in the local language can bring a smile to even a taciturn waiter: As we ordered from the Menu, the waiter was silent and appeared quite tense. When he brought our plates, Ulrike thanked him with a friendly “Köszönöm".

This little word was all it took for him to lighten up. He then told us in broken English that he had been to England, but had not really learned enough English there, that he wanted to continue learning, etc. We gave him some suggestions for language sites and he shared some of his experiences in England. That was a really nice travel moment!

We realized in Budapest that we were in a similar situation as many travelers to Europe who take river cruises or organized trips through several countries: No time (or plan) to really learn another foreign language, but interested in just practicing some essential words and phrases for a next trip.

Lingo-Late.com Beginnings

Lingo-Late.com Home PageWhen we reserved the URL Lingo-Late.com, we wanted to attract a target audience, i.e. adults “later in life”, say 55+. But, we also wanted to suggest that you can learn +/- 50 essential words and phrases "late", i.e. in the last couple of weeks before your trip. Maybe you'll only remember the first 10-20, but this will still be better than knowing none at all.

Based on our own experiences, we thought that the first batch of 11 should include yes, and no, excuse me, please, and thank you, as well as the basic greetings. Lesson two includes the typical “Where is...” questions that many tourists will want to ask. In the third lesson, you learn directional responses i.e. left, right, straight ahead, etc. The lessons after that will include food and restaurant-related words and phrases as well as the basic numbers.

Our lessons have a simple format:
1. 11-15 words and phrases in the foreign language with the English translation below.
2. The foreign language audio that can be replayed as many times as wanted.
3. A recording feature that lets you repeat the foreign word or phrase and compare yourself to the foreign speaker.

We feel that a recording feature even for some very simple words and phrases is essential: Not only will saying them aloud make you remember them better, but hearing and comparing yourself to the foreign speaker will really sharpen your pronunciation.

As of May 2019 we have posted the first 36 words and phrases (3 lessons) for German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Icelandic, and the first lesson (11 words) for Dutch and Danish.

Why Portuguese and Icelandic?Essential Portuguese 1 - The first 11 Phrases

In March, we spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal and had the perfect occasion to try out our Lingo-Late idea firsthand. It worked great. But we have to admit, that knowing other Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian and French also helped. Still, without also learning and practicing the rather-different Portuguese pronunciation of similar Spanish words, we'd have missed quite a bit.

We added Icelandic, as our son and his family will spend a week in Iceland this summer and want to also learn and practice some essential Icelandic words and phrases. And of course, Iceland is also on our own travel list.

Next steps?

Once we have added the first +/- 50 words and phrases for most of the European languages, we plan to add some simple and entertaining games and quizzes as well. Might as well have fun learning.

We also have to do more work on our website, make it easier to find languages and lessons, etc. As we build our audience and users, we'd like to hear from travelers and share their stories of how learning local words and phrases made their visit of a place more enjoyable and interesting. And who knows, maybe we'll expand the vocabulary from their stories and suggestions a little further.

If you have any suggestions or stories to share, please comment below or send us a note at contact@gamesforlanguage.com.