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Your travel plans may be canceled, but there’s never been a better time to learn a new language

Blend in with the locals—when we can travel again.

Photo of Marisa Losciale

Marisa Losciale

babbel app

If you’ve had to cancel a trip because of the coronavirus pandemic, you’re undoubtedly disappointed. Travel, particularly overseas, just isn’t in the cards right now, and no one really knows when we’ll be able to freely take off again. That being said, there’s actually never been a better time to learn a new language, and this is the best deal you’ll find on a lifetime subscription to Babbel.

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With extra hours on your hands, you can spend lots of time planning your almost-definitely-way-cheaper dream vacation, which will boost your spirits now, and actually book it to give you something to look forward to later. And then you can do a deep dive into the local language with Babbel. 

Access to over 10,000 hours of high-quality language education voiced by native speakers—covering Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Turkish, and more—will have you all set to get around town, check into your temporary digs, order your very-specific favorite cocktail, ask if you can replace the potatoes with cauliflower rice, and masterfully navigate the nearest food hall in whatever foreign city you’ve chosen.

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If 10,000 hours sounds like a lot, that’s because it is! And while it may not/hopefully won’t be that long until you can get your passport stamped again, you can rest assured that if you dig into the lessons you’ll be more than prepared. Practice with 10- to 15-minute lessons you can do almost anywhere, anytime (progress syncs across devices and there’s an offline mode) and see how the speech recognition technology helps you sound like you know what you’re saying even before you’ve fully absorbed the language.

From beginner to advanced, the personalized review sessions further reinforce what you’ve learned, and it’s all based on real-life usefulness. Some other apps, like those with a “sociopathic owl mascot,” can teach you bizarre, ominous things like, “Ce sont les dernières années” (These are the last years) or downright insulting phrases such as, “Tu manges comme un cochon” (You eat like a pig). And for nonsense, like translations of “That’s what she said,” you’ll have to turn to YouTube

But Babbel, noted as “one of the stalwarts of the online language-learning sphere” by The Next Web, was developed by over 100 expert linguists to help millions of people speak a new language quickly and with confidence about practical topics, such as transportation, dining, shopping, directions, making friends, etc. It even offers a language podcast now. 

So take advantage of all this prep time and snap up a Babbel Language Learning Lifetime Subscription for 60% off —you’ll be practically fluent when the borders reopen.

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