Train Your Tongue to Talk the Talk with These 10 Travel Language Apps
You might be able to walk the walk, but can you talk the talk?
Did you know there are over 6,000 languages spoken worldwide? With so many phenomenal countries to visit and cultures to experience, utilizing language travel apps can make your experience abroad that much more fluid and fun.
Being able to communicate in a country’s native tongue opens up more opportunities.
However, unless you are a linguaphile polyglot (a language-loving multilingual), it is likely you will need some language assistance in countries you have never visited before.
Do you want to learn a new language? Directly translate conversations, menus and signs? Navigate the various places and situations you will find yourself in abroad?
These 10 language travel apps make communicating in a foreign language easy peasy.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
5 Questions to Choose the Right Language Travel App for You
1. What language are you interested in?
The perfect language travel app for you will greatly depend on what language you are trying to learn, translate or use while traveling abroad. Some apps are better suited for certain languages than others.
2. Are you willing to pay for a language travel app?
Many language travel apps are completely or initially free. Some require you to pay a nominal fee if you want to unlock certain features or advance beyond the part of the program that is offered free of charge.
Others offer a free trial, and then require you to pay to continue.
The old adage applies in any case: You get what you pay for. You’re going to pay for your content either way—with free apps, you’re almost guaranteed to be stuck watching advertisements and closing out pop-up ad windows. And free content often pales in comparison to paid content desired with care by real-life language experts.
So, to pay or not to pay? It depends on how dead set you are on accessing high-quality material.
3. What is your preferred learning or communication style?
It is a great time to be alive! We live in an era of innumerable choices. Whatever your language learning or communication style is, there is an app that can accommodate those specific needs and preferences.
It is a good idea to determine how you would like to learn and practice your new language so that you don’t waste time on an incompatible language travel app.
Do you prefer to play games and memorize flashcards? Watch real-world videos and listen to recorded audio? Take quizzes and complete assigned tasks to improve certain skills?
The same type of questioning goes for picking the right language translation app. Do you want a language travel app that is capable of face-to-face translation, voice translation or photo translation? Do you need a pronunciation guide?
In a sea of choices, it is definitely helpful to know what you want before you dive into the seemingly infinite collection of language travel apps.
4. Do you need a language travel app that works offline?
Unless you have an international phone plan or purchase a prepaid SIM card for your unlocked phone while you are abroad, you must be in a Wi-Fi zone to access the internet. Many apps require internet connection, which is in no way helpful if you are off the grid.
You are in luck, though! Some apps still work without internet connection. Offline capability is a major bonus for sticky situations like communicating in a foreign language. But it is a convenience you might have to pay for.
5. What is your end goal for using a language travel app?
Are you seeking an app to learn a new language or improve on existing language skills? Do you want to be able to rapidly look up key phrases, directly translate in a face-to-face conversation or translate signs and menus by simply snapping a photograph?
The ideal language travel app will be the one that does what you need it to do.
Train Your Tongue to Talk the Talk with These 10 Travel Language Apps
The Top 5 Language Learning Apps
FluentU
It is an entertaining and highly effective way to learn languages. Whether you are proficient in Japanese or on your first day of learning Russian, this app will help you advance quickly.
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons. And the FluentU app makes learning languages on the go much more convenient.
FluentU is available for offline use. Download documents so you can watch authentic news programs and silly videos from a bus in Argentina or a beach in Mexico.
The best part? With just one FluentU account, you can access all nine languages! That makes this app perfect for backpackers visiting multiple countries.
MosaLingua
MosaLingua has both free and premium (paid) apps to help you learn Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, French or English. The free app will help you master the basics, but if you are serious about learning a new language, the premium approach is the way to go.
This app offers dictionary access, a complete guide to grammar and thousands of flashcards. You can also choose from different language levels, multiple categories and bonus features. Downloading MosaLingua is like hiring your own private language tutor.
MosaLingua is available for iOS and Android devices. However, unlike some of the other apps on this list, you must download a separate app for each language individually.
The premium app can be used offline.
HelloTalk
HelloTalk connects you with native speakers around the globe to learn and practice your desired language. There are over 100 languages supported and over 10 million users already using HelloTalk.
Through text messages, video chats, audio recording and voice calls, you can improve your communication skills. At the same time, you will make new friends and connect with people who are from the place you want to explore.
This revolutionary free language app also includes built-in translation, pronunciation and instant correction features.
Duolingo
Duolingo is a free language learning app that is like having an on-call tutor you see five minutes per day. Your lessons can be personalized to meet your specific learning style and needs.
Duolingo features games and other interactive activities to make learning a new language fun and easy. Five minutes per day and you are on your way to fluency.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone has been offering language courses in 30 different languages since 1992. The company has since expanded and designed an easy-to-use app so you can take your language learning wherever you go.
There is an option to download lessons ahead of time so you can continue your language course while offline.
Your first lesson is free, but after that you must purchase a three-month, six-month, twelve-month or twenty-four month subscription.
The 4 Most Advanced Language Translating Apps
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Translator is a free app that allows you to directly translate conversations. This way, you can continue conversations in your native language.
For example, if you meet a Spanish-speaking person on your trip to Bolivia, you can send each other messages in Microsoft Translator. You will see the messages in English, and your new Bolivian friend will see the text in Spanish.
The conversation can take place across multiple devices.
This is a simple travel language app that is breaking the complicated language barrier.
Google Translate
Google Translate has remained one of the most popular language translation apps on the market. This free app can translate an impressive diversity of languages via text translation, instant camera translation or two-way speech translation.
It also has offline text translation capabilities for 59 languages to help you out in those magical places void of internet.
iTranslate
iTranslate’s motto is that this app is “your passport to the world.” This travel language app received the Apple Design Award for 2018. You can translate text, websites, full conversations, phrases or individual words for over 100 languages.
This app is as easy to use as speaking right into your phone or snapping a photograph of something you do not understand. iTranslate can now be used offline, too.
SayHi
SayHi is another simple app that allows you to converse with someone who speaks a different tongue. The app offers language translation support for 90 different languages and dialects.
A nice feature of this app is that you can adjust the voice and speed of the audio translation to your preference.
The Only Phrasebook App You Will Need
Bravolol
Bravolol is a dictionary and phrasebook app compatible with 18 major languages. No need to carry around a physical phrasebook when you have 18 phrasebooks at your fingertips.
Bravolol works without internet. The app also gives you the option to save your favorite phrases and listen to authentic pronunciations of words. You can even record and compare your own pronunciation to the correct diction.
Like MosaLingua, you must download a separate Bravolol app for each language you want to learn.
Ready to talk to the talk? It is as easy as clicking “download” now.
Then you can walk the walk right next to locals as you have a fun conversation!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Jenn Parker is a native Floridian who has been living in Costa Rica since 2010. She is an avid writer, traveler and nature lover on a mission to surf the earth and share her stories. She writes for multiple publications, including a collaborative blog called Ocean and Oak.
