Learn Spanish Travel Spanish Blog

What’s that you say?  You don’t need to actually carry on a conversation in Spanish, since you’re only going to be there for a week?   I see.   You need to ask directions for the metro.  You need a room for the night, and perhaps a menu in English.

No hay problema.  Here are a couple of websites that can help you.

The first has what I would consider to be a very unfortunate name, but hey… you’re on Learn Spanish, Travel Spanish.  That doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.  But if you’ve ever tried building a website, the first thing you learn is that all of the really good names are taken.  Don’t believe me?  Think of a really good website name.  Google website domain and you’ll find sites that will search for the name for free and tell you if it’s available.  It won’t be.  I guanantee it.

Anyway, this website’s name is Speak Spanish, Feel Good.  See what I mean?  It’s not a bad site actually.  It’s “part of the Speak English, Feel Good family of websites”.  There’s also Speak Polish, Feel Good, and I don’t know what else.

What were we talking about?  Oh yeah, traveler’s Spanish.  Speak Spanish, Feel Good doesn’t have TONS of stuff in this category, but you’ve already said you don’t want tons of stuff.  Everything you’ll need is probably on this site.  Essential Phrases (time, numbers, etc), Transportation, Eating/Drinking, Traveling Around, Accommodations, and miscellaneous.  Plenty.  More than you’ll need.  And it’s laid out pretty well, too.

The other sites are Learn-Spanish.com and About.com (which has lots of useful words and phrases for the tourist).

One word of advice though.  Let’s say you learn how to say “¿Hay un supermercado por aquí?”, and you learn to say it perfectly.  You’re absolutely brillant at saying this.  Then, the person you’re speaking to says, “De vuelta a la izquierda en la próxima calle”. ….. Hunh?   Do you have any idea what he said?  You see the problem?

Pay close attention to body language, hand gestures and the like.  Carry a paper and pen (say “Mapa, por favor”) and look pitiful.  And don’t think of getting lost as a bad thing.  Relax.  It’s going to be okay.

Tags:   Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · Travel Spanish · Traveler's SpanishNo Comments