Speaking a foreign language while traveling or living abroad — or simply making humiliating, hilarious attempts to speak it — is one of the surest ways to make real connections with your hosts, opening ever deeper doors of travel.
Here’s a great roundup of language instruction programs to help you brush up before your next trip: “Eight Free Online Resources for Learning a New Language.” From the BBC’s online courses in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and Greek, to MIT’s “open course ware,” in which you can subscribe to RSS feeds from their academic classes, to courses in ancient tongues like Sanskrit — there are many options and no excuses not to learn at least a few phrases. Buena suerte! [LINK]
