How to Learn Language for Travel with Rosetta Stone
Before visiting any foreign country, learning some of the local language makes sense, even if most residents speak English. Basic phrases and language comprehension simplify travel tasks like understanding menus, reading street signs, and boarding public transportation. Besides, you’ll gain insight into the culture of the country you’re visiting. Locals will appreciate your efforts and you will likely feel more welcomed, too. You might even make some new friends during your travels. Thankfully, Rosetta Stone makes language learning easy and fun to do. Read on to get tips for using Rosetta Stone to learn language for travel!
This article is brought to you in partnership with Rosetta Stone.
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How Rosetta Stone Works
Rosetta Stone teaches language via immersive learning. That means you’ll hear no English (or your native tongue) while learning Spanish, Italian, Korean, or other target language.
Students intuitively learn the basics of a new language with Rosetta Stone Courses through a series of photos, voice recordings, and written words. You can even practice speaking aloud using the world’s best voice recognition technology. It’s similar to how you learned to speak your language naturally rather than through the rote memorization many of us experienced in high school.
For me, the Rosetta Stone language school feels like an online puzzle or game. You’ll match pictures to the correct words and fill in the blanks. And, like with a video game, it feels exciting to complete a level and move on to the next challenge!
Where to Learn with Rosetta Stone
Language learners use an online Rosetta Stone subscription. It works on both Macs and PCs. Simply go to RosettaStone.com, choose the language you want, and you’re ready to start learning!
The Rosetta Stone App is included in the package price so you can do lessons on your smartphone, too. This makes practicing your second language easy to squeeze into your day, while traveling or at home. In fact, I often do my Rosetta Stone lessons while brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed at night.
Learn Language for Travel ASAP
The most popular Rosetta Stone languages (like Spanish and French) offer 20 units of study. Meanwhile, less commonly spoken or more difficult languages (like Swedish and Japanese) include 12 units. If you’re spending about 30 minutes per day on Rosetta Stone, then you should take about six weeks to complete each unit.
But you might not have that kind of time before your upcoming trip! Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good, as the saying goes. Even if you only have a couple of weeks or days before your vacation, you can still get started learning a few simple phrases with Rosetta Stone.
If you download a few Rosetta Stone units to your mobile device, then you can learn on the go even without an Internet connection. Just use your headphones and temporarily disable the speaking component so you don’t disturb your seatmates on the airplane, train, or bus.
Make Progress with Rosetta Stone
Of course, the more time and effort you put into your language education, the more your comprehension and speaking skills will progress. The Rosetta Stone units were designed to be studied in a linear fashion, starting with Unit 1, and wrapping up with Unit 12 or Unit 20.
But language learning is about progress, not perfection, so you may want to bypass some lessons. How do you know when you’re ready to move ahead? Rosetta Stone recommends taking the Review Activities under Lesson 3 and Lesson 4 in a given unit. If you pass those, then you’re ready to go to the next unit.
Best Rosetta Stone Lessons for Travel
Are you ready to skip to the good stuff? Even if you have a significant amount of time before your foreign travels, you might be feeling antsy to get to the most relevant language lessons for travel purposes.
I suggest moving as quickly as you’re comfortable through Unit 1 (Language Basics) and Unit 2 (Greetings and Introductions) in your Rosetta Stone online language course.
If you’re grasping the language pretty well, then consider skipping Unit 3 (Work and School) altogether unless you’re traveling for a study abroad program or business trip.
After that, queue up Unit 4 (Shopping) to make souvenir hunting more fun and browsing for clothes and other goods easier during your travels.
Then, dive into Unit 5 (Travel) to learn some of the vocabulary, ideas, and verbs most useful for short-term travel. Learn about topics like Destinations, Directions, Times for Arrivals and Departures, and Weather.
Food is an integral part of the travel experience, so I suggest jumping ahead to Unit 8 (Dining and Vacation) next. You’ll dig into such tasty subjects as Dining In and Dining Out, Landmarks and the Arts, Emotions, and Vacation Activities.
What NOT to Do
Travelers who already understand some of the desired foreign language should be able to bypass a few units. When you skip ahead too quickly, however, you might get confused.
For instance, Unit 13 (Tourism and Recreation) might seem like a good one to tackle before your trip to Mexico or Spain. But future and past verb tenses and more advanced grammar rules will likely trip up new Spanish learners. By going at too fast a pace, you might get overwhelmed and give up entirely. And that would be muy malo.
Rosetta Stone is meant to be fun and easy! The whole point of Rosetta Stone is to learn a language at a reasonable pace, which encourages confidence and fluency.
Additional Rosetta Stone Language Learning Tools
In addition to immersive, interactive language courses, Rosetta Stone provides several additional tools as part of your membership to help you learn language for travel. Specific content varies from language to language.
On-Demand Videos
Dive deeper into concepts to improve your fluency via short, engaging videos of everyday situations. For travelers headed to Italy, think Pizzeria Pro-Tips, Italian Caffè Culture, and even Swearing in Italian.
Live Lessons
Do you learn better from live interaction? Sign up for a live online lecture through Rosetta Stone. Learn conversational tips, like How to Build Sentences in French. Mais, oui!
The Alphabet
When learning any language, you can reference The Alphabet character tool. Click on letters in sample words to hear the proper pronunciation as spoken by a native speaker. This tool may be particularly handy when studying a language with a different alphabet from your mother tongue, like Japanese.
Stories
Practice your language skills by reading, listening to, or speaking aloud stories. These stories vary from short fiction to explanations of foreign customs. For example, when studying Brazilian Portuguese with Rosetta Stone, you might read about a local dish like feijoada or a traditional dance like samba.
Audio Companion
Train your ear to understand the new-to-you language using the Audio Companion. I find this tool to be a particularly helpful part of the language learning process since you can listen wherever and whenever.
Getting Started
When you open a new language in the Rosetta Stone app, you will be asked a couple of questions to determine where to begin your language journey.
What kind of learner are you?
- Beginner (I’m just starting to learn.)
- Intermediate (I know the basics.)
- Proficient (I want to maintain my skills.)
Why are you learning this language?
- Work
- Family
- Basics and Beyond
- Travel
Based on your responses to these questions, Rosetta Stone will open the unit that seems most appropriate for you.
Vocabulary and Key Phrases for Travel
By going at your own pace and skipping ahead as appropriate, you’ll learn new words and basic phrases for travel in no time. Below are some of the most important words and phrases for travel.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Goodbye.
- The check, please.
- Thank you.
- Excuse me.
- How much does this cost?
- Where is the bathroom?
- Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
- Yes.
- No.
- Stop.
- Cheers!
Rosetta Stone Languages
Choose from 25 different Rosetta Stone languages, including two versions of English (British or American) and two Spanish options (Latin America or Spain).
Common Languages
- Spanish (Latin America or Spain)
- French
- Italian
- German
- English
- Japanese
- Filipino (Tagalog)
- English (American or British)
Additional Languages
- Arabic
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- Dutch
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Irish
- Korean
- Persian (Farsi)
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Vietnamese
Language Learning Packages
Rosetta Stone offers 3-month, 12-month, and Lifetime Unlimited Languages packages. You can even get free lessons before you commit. Try a complimentary Rosetta Stone demo or a free Rosetta Stone trial to see if this immersive training method is right for you.
The best deal, especially for travel lovers, is the Lifetime Access Package. When you purchase this option (like I did), you can learn as many Rosetta Stone languages as you please. Then, before you travel to any foreign-speaking country, you can play and learn with Rosetta Stone, so you’re prepared upon arrival.
Why Use Rosetta Stone for Travel
There are vast benefits of learning a foreign language. From gaining a better understanding of local customs and meeting new people in different countries, to improving brain health and boosting your career.
Rosetta Stone’s award-winning software makes learning basic conversational skills in different languages easy and entertaining. You don’t need to become fluent to benefit from the language learning process and carry on simple conversations while traveling, either. But once you break through that language barrier by chatting with some native speakers in a foreign land, I bet you’ll want to continue to improve your new skills even after your trip has concluded!
Save $10 on Your Rosetta Stone Subscription
Need another reason to break down language barriers and start learning a new language with Rosetta Stone’s interactive software today? Save $10 on your Rosetta Stone Lifetime Membership. Take advantage of this great deal when you sign up using this special link just for Travel Mamas readers!
(Discounted pricing is already reflected on the page. See regular pricing here.)
Save These Rosetta Stone Tips
Want to learn language for travel? Be sure to keep these tips for future reference. Just pin the graphic below to Pinterest. We hope you’ll follow Travel Mamas on Pinterest while you’re at it!
Learn More Tips for Travel
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Keep the whole family entertained on your next trip with these amusing travel games for all ages.
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A Note from The Travel Mama: I will receive monetary compensation related to this blog post from Rosetta Stone. As a Rosetta Stone affiliate, Travel Mamas will receive a small fee for purchases made through product links at no extra cost to consumers. As a Rosetta Stone partner, I received a complimentary 3-month subscription years ago. I liked this online language-learning program so much, I bought a Lifetime Subscription. All opinions are mine, as always.
My family never taught me, but now I need to learn Ukrainian!
Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone doesn’t currently offer Ukrainian among its 25 languages. Hopefully there is another language that sparks your interest!
Very interested in refreshing my German skills, expanding my Spanish, and having a proven resource to get language foundations and more.
Spanish is the language I’d like to learn next.
I would love to learn any language! I’ve been trying to learn Spanish. It would be so useful and would love to travel to Spanish-speaking countries. Would also like to learn Italian and Mandarin.
So many options! Love it!
I love the Spanish language, and I was quite proficient throughout high school and college, but over the years I’ve let it lapse. I would love to refresh my skill so I can use it for travel, and also for future employment opportunities.
Kat – I love using Rosetta Stone to brush up my language skills from high school and college. I hope you find it as useful as I have!
I’d like to learn Portuguese because my husband’s family is from Portugal.
Great reason to learn a language!
I would say Spanish because I visit Mexico a lot!
I love Mexico! I feel so accepted when I try to speak Spanish there, too!
You probably already know that I’m a language nerd, so I am all about this giveaway! I’d use the subscription to strengthen my Spanish and Italian, and probably start studying Portuguese and German.
A Rosetta Stone Lifetime Subscription is perfect for you!
Be great to give it a try.
Have the best options to learn a new language.
Spanish would be extremely handy to know, and relearning what French I learned in high school would be great.
Those are the 2 languages I focus on most with Rosetta Stone!
I am most interested in learning German with Rosetta Stone.
My son is learning Spanish so this would be awesome
Great to learn language together as a family!
i think all my kids should learn spanish and japanese
I’d live to learn a language, maybe more.
What a great product to brush up on language skills prior to a trip! I don’t have any out of country travel planned at the moment but would love to learn some Spanish!
Lisa – I am learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone and am loving it!