Planning a month in Malaga and Seville Spain this winter. Looking for app or software to help us learn the essential phrases, etc. for our trip. Due to other prior travels, only have about 2 months. Given the complexity of learning another language, we think we have to focus on necessary conversation so many language programs seem too general for our needs. Any recommendations? Thanks!

You don’t always know what the essential phrases will be till you’re in a spot. I still carry a pocket phrasebook.

Italki lets you practice Spanish with native speakers in exchange for English practice. For free.

I would find a tutor on italki and tell them your goals. The problem with knowing the "essential phrases" is that once you ask the question, the person will answer you in Spanish and most likely you will not understand what they are talking about. But I think you will progress the fastest working with an actual person and not an app, and with a person you can better focus on what you would like to learn in this short time.

Pimsleur has a Castilian Spanish CD set that I used before my Madrid trip. I wasn't there long enough to speak other than 'un vino tinto, por favor'!

More and more folks write about e-translate apps. Anyone??

Have a great trip!

If you just want to learn some key phrases you can create your own phrase book using google translate. This can be done in writing or orally (better so you can hear how the words sound). This won’t teach you anything about sentence structure or grammar but with little time available can help you learn some basic words and phrases. I usually focus on the courtesies and nouns plus ‘I would like’, ‘where is’ etc.

On the topic of phrases like "I would like" or "where is" or "we have a reservation." Duolingo does a great job with that sentence structure and basics. It is free, engaging and almost like a game than like learning a language. Might be worth trying.

Edit: some of the topics are not what most of us would need while traveling, but the use of the topic for grammatical concepts is very helpful in general and gets applied to future lessons.

Another vote for Pimsleur's!

YOu can' really learn what I call essential language from any app nor quickly. To me, that means you can actually construct sentences by understanding sentence structure, basic pronouns and verb conjugation, understand mostly what someone says to you, etc. YOu wont' be able to have basic conversations.

BUt if you just want to memorize some phrases, I"d get a good basic traveler phrasebook and then combine that to hear language with a basic program. I think Pimsleur is ok for that, at least you hear them speak, I use it for practice and to get used to hearing a language but I took at least 4-5 years of Spanish over the years. It's been a while, but I think their accent is ok. Pimsleur in general tends to focus too much on phrases businesspeople would use, though. Maybe they have one more for travelers.

You can try Duolingo which is at least free for the basic version. You don't really learn much, though, as there is little explanation so it could be confusing, and the beginning lessons aren't particularly geared to travelers, either. So that's a problem. I know people who've been using it for at least a year and don't even understand basic grammar (in French, I know that language fairly well and help some people with questions using Duo). Their model is to make it like a game, which isn't always helpful, ,and it's really geared a lot to kids as they get paid by schools for it.

For a travel phrasebook, I really like these series, I have them in about a dozen languages:

I would go for a phrasebook / Duolingo combo. It's not practical to think you can learn all the grammar you might need in the phrases within a short time, but Duolingo will get you on the way to that. My husband is doing Duolingo for French. He has been doing it for about 18 months now and he is often confused because they introduce things without sufficient information, but of course this is to steer you in the direction of their premium service, which is paid and you get a bit more support (we don't pay, we listen to the ads). It's also not unlike real life, where you often hear new things and have no idea how to process them yet. Fortunately I am here helping him with my bad French, and he is making some progress. But can he speak French? No, not yet, but I think he is getting a toehold now. He understands how to pronounce things, can recognise words, can string together sentences out of a selection of words, and is developing a reasonable accent. He is not really a language guy, but he is a games guy, so this is right up his alley.

I think learning the pronunciation coupled with a phrasebook would be good. Remember you can point out written phrases to the people you want to talk to, and they can point out answers if they are in your phrasebook, so you don't always have to be a language maestro!

Lavandula

Four years ago we spent a week in a rental apartment in France. The proprietor didn't speak Italian and we spoke very little French. He used Google Translate on his phone to communicate with us. He would say something in French and we would hear it in Italian, and so forth. It worked surprisingly well. It would be a good backup to the basic phrases you will have learned, especially to understand the responses to your questions, if your interlocutor is willing to talk to a phone.

Thanks all for your thoughts and ideas... Seems that Phrasebook is necessary, which is fine. Pimsleur (one lesson do far), is on ,y list and I will look at Duolingo. As one offered, I do wish there was a program geared towards tourists. No long in my professional life needing business/professional language and not interested in learning Spanish as a language (as my High School Grandson is doing). But as I've also learned, while I might learn the useful phrase, unless the person responding knows English or uses gestures, I'll be lost if I get a convoluted answer. Will also have Google translate (or similar) along. All part of the excitement of travel to a new place!!

Thanks, all!

That's part of why I like Pimsleur's -- the initial lessons focus on things that I, as a tourist, find helpful. Basic civilities, where is X , how much does Y cost, etc.

Just a thought:
How to translate a conversation in real-time
https://support.google.com/translate...form%3DAndroid