Language|Travel tips

How to say Merry Christmas in 12 languages

Santa-shaped chocolates

While we typically stay stateside for family festivities for Christmas, we have opted to travel over a few yuletide celebrations before! Years ago, my family and I went to Italy for Christmas and back in 2020, Rick and I went to Jamaica for a tropical take on Christmas. Hopefully one of these years we can

Language

Travel Portuguese: Useful phrases

Lisbon's Mosteiro dos Jeronimos

We’re getting ever closer to our trip to Portugal and though we’ve got out travel itinerary pretty much nailed down, we still have to perfect a few phrases we’ll be using as we travel around Lisbon! I love learning new languages and while I have no hopes of being fluent in Portuguese by the time

Language

Romantic phrases in the Romance languages

Vintage couple

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and since love is in the air I thought it’d be fun to explore how we talk about love in the most romantic of the languages, the Romance languages! The Romance languages all come from Vulgar Latin and split into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. Rick and I have been

Language|Travel tips

9 simple tips for learning a new language

Language on blackboard

One thing I always do before we travel to a new destination is to learn a few words in that country’s language. Am I going to be having witty discussions with locals? Probably not, but I can at least make an effort to speak their language and communicate in a way they’ll understand. On Back

Language|Travel tips

Travel Dutch: Useful phrases

Dam Square in Amsterdam

I love studying Italian and learning a few key phrases in other languages when I travel, but two of the hardest ones I’ve come across are Dutch and Icelandic. Give it enough time and you could throw down a handful of Scrabble letters and create a word in Dutch. You’d need a whole new bag

Language|Travel tips

Hawaiian language guide

Aloha in the beach

Though Hawaii joined the United States in 1959, it still protects and furthers its culture by having two official state languages: Hawaiian and English. It was awesome being at the airport in Lihue and hearing everything spoken first in Hawaiian and then again in English – even though I could barely keep up with the

Language|Travel tips

Travel German: Useful phrases

Frankfurt, Germany

Since Denver’s Oktoberfest is coming up and I’ve been busy dreaming about a return trip to Germany, I thought it’d be fun to share some useful travel phrases in German! While heading back to the land of great bier isn’t on the itinerary for 2019, I can’t wait to visit Germany again and get my

Language|Travel tips

Travel French: Useful phrases

Eiffel Tower in Paris

Did you know that nearly one in five people speak French? As a romance language, it’s easy to see why so many want to learn the language. If you’re heading off to France soon and don’t have time to learn French, here are a few useful travel phrases in French to get your travels off

Language|Reviews

Learning a new language: Rosetta Stone vs. Duolingo

Girl learning new language

I love learning helpful phrases in other languages when I travel but I’ve always dreamed of being bilingual or at least able to speak somewhat fluently in another language. While Spanish would be more useful in Colorado, Rick and I had booked a trip to Italy so we decided to learn Italian together. I’d used

Language|Travel tips

Travel Italian: Useful phrases

Rick and I have been studying Italian for the past year or so in preparation of our Italian getaway this summer and it’s been a fun challenge. While I’m sure many Italians will just answer us in English, I’m hoping we can at least have one or two full conversations with our camerieri (waiters) or