Neapolitan in 20 Minutes: Learn Just Enough for Any Conversation in Southern Italy
If you want to joke, flirt, and make a proper toast in the south of Italy, you could certainly speak Italian. Or English — or Galician or Russian, for that matter, as Italians are generally only too delighted to carry on a conversation without the slightest comprehension. But if you really want a truly local adventure, you must speak at least …
The Best USB-C Mobile Batteries — for Charging Mobile Phones, Tablets, and USB-C Laptops While Travelling
To find the best portable battery to provide backup juice to USB-C devices (Macbooks, Nexus phones, and more), we devoured the extant consumer advocate and press reviews, as well as customer complaints and raves across blogs, YouTube, Amazon comments, and tech geek forums. The best deal we have found at the moment is the . But we’ll also point out a decent cheaper, somewhat-lighter …
The Coolest Flask/Wine Skin/Road-Drinking Companion/Picnic Wine Vessel: The Bota!
Sure, you could take a bottle of wine on a picnic in Italy, on a flask of vodka on the overnight train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. But the best road drinking gear comes from Spain: the bota. These drink sacks are made from leather with an inside lining of goat bladder, pitch or — nowadays …
How Dance Communities Form: Practical Advice from Those Taking Forró from Brazil to Europe
How can you take a dance style that is unknown in your area and create a thriving community with parties, workshops, and classes?
On Learning Just Enough Bosnian Slang to Toast, Gripe, and Propose Marriage
Bosnian is uniquely rich among its Slavic brethren in shortened informal expressions. Here’s a quick guide; master these few words and you’ll sound like a local.
You Can Pass for French with Just These Gestures and Noises
The world thinks it knows what a French person sounds like: a derisive laugh that somehow pulls phlegm through the nostrils, a sarcastic oh-la-la between pinched puffs of smoke… But what do the French think the French sound like? And what can you say and do to pass as one of them? As part of our Fluent …
Learn All 53 Catalan Expressions Involving Shit
It’s hard to complete a Catalan sentence without merda. Shit is always on the tip of the Catalan tongue, whether used to describe speed, cowardice, disappointment, avarice, explosive mushrooms, etc., etc., literally ad nauseum. In my quest to speak Catalan like a native, I’ve compiled an exhaustive list of shit-based expressions from friends and academic sources. At my …
I Learned Six Languages as a Befuddled Adult with a Crappy Memory
A screenshot from a recent class. My Anki decks for memorization are on the left, and on the right a Skype session with one of my favorite Serbian teachers from Italki. I record some of the new words and phrases from each class into my Anki decks. A Skype lesson with my self-teaching guide close at hand I’ve …
For Gringões: 20 Minutes to Feigning Fluent Brazilian Portuguese
As part of the our Fluent in 20 Minutes, this post provides EVERYTHING you need to participate in conversations with Brazilians, whether or not you have any idea what anyone is saying. Why learn (a bit of) Portuguese? Well, there’s good evidence that this language has the best music, and then there are other aspects of Brazilians …
The Outstanding Russian Gestures that Should Be Adopted by Everyone
Your buddy is tipsy. Would you rather express this with a gesture referencing an 18th-century alcoholic carpenter’s tzar-given neck tattoo, or just mime tipping a bottle to your lips? Almost invariably, Russian gestures are more interesting and/or emphatic than their international counterparts. We suggest that the following be immediately adopted into everyone’s physical vocabularies, whether …