Babbel to learn a foreign language?

[ProudDad2022]

My wife and I are planning an Italy trip for our 30th anniversary next September. We no zero Italian (unless you count food words) and would like to learn some/most before our trip. Our plan is to give it about 30 minutes a day and, at some point, find some Italian tv shows on youtube to watch. We are thinking about using the Babbel app. Not sure if anyone has experience with learning a language through an app. My questions are:

1. Is the app Babbel a good way to learn?
2. Is 1 year enough to learn conversational Italian?

 

[Capt MJ]

My wife and I are planning an Italy trip for our 30th anniversary next September. We no zero Italian (unless you count food words) and would like to learn some/most before our trip. Our plan is to give it about 30 minutes a day and, at some point, find some Italian tv shows on youtube to watch. We are thinking about using the Babbel app. Not sure if anyone has experience with learning a language through an app. My questions are:

1. Is the app Babbel a good way to learn?
2. Is 1 year enough to learn conversational Italian?

Look up Coffee Break Italian. They have free podcasts and short lessons. And many other languages.

Coffee Break Italian

coffeebreaklanguages.com

Check your local public library’s online resources. Most have language lessons you can check out for free online. My library has Rosetta Stone.

I haven’t tried Babbel.
If you are disciplined about your studies, i would think you could master basic conversations. One challenge - regional accents.

 

[cb7893]

Try Duolingo.

It's free and I found it very helpful with a difficult language I once spoke well. I was able to "jump in to the deep end" to start, wanting to bone up for Mrs cb7893's family who do not speak English.

From scratch, I don't know how all the apps compare.

Buona Fortuna!

 

[A1Janitor]

Look up Coffee Break Italian. They have free podcasts and short lessons. And many other languages.

Coffee Break Italian

coffeebreaklanguages.com

Check your local public library’s online resources. Most have language lessons you can check out for free online. My library has Rosetta Stone.

I haven’t tried Babbel.
If you are disciplined about your studies, i would think you could master basic conversations. One challenge - regional accents.

I laughed at regional accents.

My great uncle many years ago called me an Italian word - meant as an insult.

I used it on my old Italian clients. They didn’t know it and laughed and said it might be a regional accent. Apparently my great uncle was illiterate in Italian.

 

[severn]

... watch cheesy, cliche,
cringe-worthy movies:

* Under the Tuscan Sun
* Letters to Juliet
* Love & Gelato
* Cinepanettoni
* To Rome with Love
* Eat, Pray, Love
* All Roads Lead to Rome

 

[WT Door]

My wife and I are planning an Italy trip for our 30th anniversary next September. We no zero Italian (unless you count food words) and would like to learn some/most before our trip. Our plan is to give it about 30 minutes a day and, at some point, find some Italian tv shows on youtube to watch. We are thinking about using the Babbel app. Not sure if anyone has experience with learning a language through an app. My questions are:

1. Is the app Babbel a good way to learn?
2. Is 1 year enough to learn conversational Italian?

I haven't used Babbel or Duolingo. I do think you'd be able to get your point across in Italian within a year. Youtube has some basic beginner and situational lessons that might be helpful. An Italian phrase book could also help for canned questions and responses. Just got back from Italy. I think you're going to have a great time on your 30th anniversary. Cin-Cin!

 

[Ihavenoidea]

Duolingo is good if you discipline yourself to use it every day. Doesn't have to be for a hour every day, but 20 min a day really helps. Podcasts are also good for repetition and can be done while your driving.

I never tried babbel or the others because the price was pretty high, but they might be great.