Going Expat the Easy Way: The Language Short Cut

The way I see it, you can either visit a country or you can experience it. The richest experiences, I think, come from becoming a temporary expat. Doing so inspired some of the best authors and painters of the last 150 years, from Vincent Van Gogh to F. Scott Fitzgerald and, of course, the king expat, Hemingway.

Perhaps the hardest part of going 'temporary expat' is being able to speak like one. In the past, you could get over the language hump by either living in a country long enough, or entering an intensive language learning course (neither of which are very convenient options for the convenient traveler). Recently, though, I found a 3rd option: Duolingo

Now, this isn't an advertorial masquerading as a blog post. I haven't gotten any promotional incentive to write up a post about Duolingo (though it'd be nice if I did..hint, hint, Duolingo if you're listening). No, Duolingo is simply the best self-paced language learning tool I've ever seen, and I used to teach in an accelerated language learning program. You only need to know 3 things to know how good Duolingo is:

1. It's comprehensive
2. It's fun
3. It's free

Duolingo offers a handful of language options (Italian, Spanish, French,Irish,Dutch,Danish) and you can use it either on your smart phone or online. They've tapped into the 'with friends' epidemic as well, as you can connect and compete with friends.

This whole blog post may sound like a paid-advertisement, but although I wish I was being paid to promote Duolingo, it's not. Duolingo is just an amazing language-learning tool.