Planning a trip to a foreign country this summer? Consider challenging yourself by going to a country where English isn’t the native language! This will give you the opportunity to learn and practice an entirely new language for your vacation or to dust off one that you used to know.

No matter which language you’re interested in picking up, there are plenty of travel options. If you want to learn Spanish, you can plan an amazing trip to Spain or Mexico. Or, if you’d prefer to go somewhere a little less popular, you could visit another country where Spanish is spoken, like Uruguay or Gibraltar.

Wherever you decide to go, we’ve got a few tips to help you learn a language for your vacation. Keep these in mind as you start to plan the perfect summer getaway. Scroll to the end for links to our vacation cheat sheets and find the one that matches your destination.

Start Learning Early

As soon as you book your trip, or even before you lock down the specifics, start the process of learning a language for your vacation. The sooner you start, the more time you’ll have to make sure you know all the basic words and phrases you might need. It’ll also give you the chance to practice speaking the language aloud, which is often the most challenging part. If you start early, you can practice, make mistakes, learn from them and then practice some more. By the time your flight lands, you’ll be good to go!

Focus On Useful Phrases

One of the pro tips for quickly and effectively learning to have basic conversations in a new language is to pay particular attention to vocabulary and phrases that will be useful to you. Focusing on relevant information will help your brain remember the material you learn without getting overwhelmed by frivolous details. For a vacation, you’ll want to study vocab related to transportation, ordering food, scheduling activities and meeting new people. The cheat sheets below highlight some of most useful phrases in the language you’re learning.

Pack The Right Tools

When you’ve got the basics down and are ready to depart, make sure you pack some tools you can use for a last-minute language emergency. You can download an app like Babbel so you can keep practicing at the airport, on the plane and when you arrive at your destination. You can also create a list of key words and phrases to reference if needed, or you can print out a pocket guide, like this Spanish one, to bring with you.

Language For Your Vacation Cheat Sheets

We created these language-specific guides to compile some of the most important vocabulary words and phrases you may need for your vacation. Choose the appropriate cheat sheet and start studying!

• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Indonesian
• Russian
• Norwegian