[Idyllchat] ? for tenured travelers

Mon Mar 19 12:19:13 EST 2007

Jay,

It will be interesting to see what you think of Rosetta Stone. I have  
seen it advertised.

We tried "Before You Know It", from Transparent Language, for both  
Spanish and italian and liked it.It is a flash card system for  
learning words and simple phrases, not really "learning" a language.  
That is the approach we have used in the past anyway except with  
flash cards we made up and an after dinner exercise. An additional  
thing I liked about BYKI was that they have a Palm program component  
so your list can also be on a Palm PDA, which was handy rather than  
having to be at our computers.

Russ Crum
rrcrum at sbcglobal.net

On Mar 19, 2007, at 11:23, Jay Cloidt wrote:

> Langenscheidt's is a great dictionary. I used it studying Italian  
> and never needed a bigger one until I tried to read literature. I  
> got turned on to it when I was studying Russian. Their Russian/ 
> English dictionary is excellent.
>
> I'm experimenting with Rosetta Stone for studying German. We're  
> going to Switzerland, and I know from being there that most people  
> speak English, but I want to try to learn some German. We'll be in  
> the Swiss Heartland which is German speaking, then we're going to  
> Ticino where I can use my Italian.
>
> I've never had a problem in an Italian restaurant. We went to a  
> little local restaurant in Milan once where no one spoke English  
> and I had started studying it yet. It was a small neighborhood  
> restaurant that catered to locals. We still managed to get seated  
> and order a 3 course meal with no major problems using a limited  
> number of Italian words.
>
>   - Jay
>
> On 3/18/07, haggart <haggart at moscow.com> wrote:
> Marcia
>
> Welcome to UnTours. You will love the experience and you will love  
> Italy. We were in Tuscany and Rome several years ago and plan a  
> return trip to Tuscany and Venice this fall.
>
> Getting from place to place is, in fact, reasonably easy to do. Be  
> sure at the orientation to ask if they have a local map. We did  
> this a got a very good one that had a lot of secondary roads not on  
> the other maps.
>
> Gas stations are easy to find and the ones that we used had an  
> attendant who did the filling up and took the credit card. But that  
> may have changed and you may run into self serve near the larger  
> cities. Orientation folks can tell you what is available in your  
> area and what their times of operation are.
>
> Never used a tour guide in Italy.
>
> Language is not a big barrier. We have never actually learned the  
> language of the countries we have visited in Europe, but we do take  
> the time to learn a few useful phrases and of most important to  
> learn to ask in Italian if the person you are speaking to speaks  
> English. People like to have you at least try to speak their  
> language. We also take a phrase book wherever we go and in Italy  
> found a little yellow book called "Langenscheidt's Universal  
> Dictionary" in this case "English-Italian/Italian-English" - which  
> we actually bought in a shop in Italy, but I am sure is available  
> in the USA. It is small enough to fit in a pocket, but is packed  
> with words. This is useful when driving and reading parking signs  
> to make sure that you are parking legally and won't get towed off!  
> Anyway, we found the dictionary to very helpful during our travels.  
> I think this company publishes them in several languages. Check  
> with your local book store.
>
> Lastly, look at the trip logs at the Idyll web site to get insights  
> on what places people found interesting.......... but most of all  
> take your time and have fun!
>
> Pete
>
> Peter and Margaret Haggart
> haggart at moscow.com
> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Marcia Waffner
> Date: 3/17/2007 3:42:54 AM
> To: idyllchat at lists.untours.com
> Subject: [Idyllchat] ? for tenured travelers
>
> Hi
> We're planning our first trip to Italy in the fall. Untours sounds  
> just 'up our alley' since we don't want to be with large groups and  
> on tour buses, however we were wondering if we can hire guides or  
> ask for recommendations from this group on the 'who, what, where  
> and when' of getting around.  Some questions: 1.  is getting from  
> place to place reasonably straightforward   2. are gas stations  
> easy to find  3.  can we hire tour guides on our own and if so, how  
> 4.  is language a huge barrier if our Italian is limited.
>
> Thanks for any help...
> Marcia
>
>
>
>
>
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