Vacation time is great, but if you’re one of the millions who travel abroad for your break, it can lead to heartache and worse as you realize your language skills are more than just rusty, they’re chronically poor. That’s where language lessons can help, and wouldn’t you know it, the mobile phone once again steps up to the plate.
Babbel is a free language learning app for both iPhone and Android smartphones. It comes with a 3000 vocabulary dictionary with interactive exercises to help you actually get on with the speaking rather than just the learning bit.
The app (pronounced ‘babble’) offers both basic and advanced vocab lessons, and uses speech recognition to help practice and perfect. The app works really well to help you learn, especially with the quizzes and great vocal repetition which you access as part of the process.
Judging by low 65% scores on pronunciation, I’m not going to do too well in Spain next time I visit unless I put in a lot more hard work. Sigh. A great app, and a great way to learn a language on the go, just plugin your headphones and try not to annoy your fellow travelers in the train. The series offers 11 languages including English and Indonesian.