English
Tell me if this sounds familiar to you:
You have proudly finished your [PLEASE INSERT WHICHEVER LANGUAGE HERE] course and you are finally headed to a destination where you can show off your newly acquired knowledge. But after trying your new found skills on a local you quickly learn that whatever you have learned in this course was a bit slightly outdated and real people don’t talk like that.
What to do?
Don’t worry: There’s an app for that! Where some people might think I’m mockingly using this phrase given the perks of technical advances these days, I’m actually being serious. There really is an app that helps you to be “down” with the locals and in the founders’ words “helps travelers to look less like a stupid tourist, and more like a globetrotting legend.”
Our app of the month is Slango, an app that breaks language down into a variety of categories that really matter from ‘The Basics’, ‘Eating’, and ‘Sleeping’, right through to ‘Picking up babes’, ‘Potty mouth’, and ‘In the sack’.
This review is by our product manager Giampaolo.
My view: This app is a major revelation for me. Where has it been all my life?! Ok, I’m done being dramatic now, but truth be told I think it was about time that someone came up with a language app that teaches you useful expressions. Many of us use learned languages for the first time when we go on trips and people I meet on the road don’t tend to ask me to recite conjugations of a verb. If I have to be completely honest, I have to admit that the first phrases I learn in different languages might not be the most appropriate. Why? My theory is that it is the most authentic way to express yourself in any language. This app covers all the basics of travelling, but adds the local conversational, funny elements and even helps you pick up guys or girls. What more do you need in life?!
All jokes and semi-humorous remarks aside, I like the app, because the thought behind it is really learning to use a foreign language the way locals do. It is super easy to use and the translations are given in text and audio form. You can access the app without wi-fi, because everything is stored locally. The best feature is that you as user can make suggestions for phrases that are later on added in updates.
About the author: Gian is our product manager. Many years ago he left the north of Italy to get cozy in Barcelona. He’s into music, travels and the Mediterranean cuisine. It would never occur to him to leave the house without one of his striped shirts!
