After three years working in travel, I wanted to make this year a year of tradition to return to places that made my heart sing in the past. One of those places was Switzerland. While researching and planning my new tradition of a trip to Switzerland each January, I stumbled upon an International Hot Air Balloon Festival in a small French-speaking town in Switzerland—Château-d’Oex. I planned my return trip around the balloon festival—a tradition that began back in 1979.
The last time I traveled to a French speaking town was in 2007. I was a backpacker just out of college visiting Paris and Nice for the very first time.
I distinctly remember how tough it was to understand the quick speaking French. Such a beautiful language, but a bit more difficult to grasp than other Romance languages like Spanish, for example.
When researching for my trip, I realized that I would be visiting a francophone region of Switzerland, so I began practicing the phrases in Phrasebook in the Rosetta Stone app a week before to get around for the two days.
Using the French words and phrases I learned through Phrasebook, I set out to get lost with locals and participate in a now 40-year-old tradition.
Phrasebook is in the Extended Learning section of the app, where you can hear and repeat the phrases aloud. I love using it on the road because it allows me to quickly refresh my memory on pronunciation.
I have a long list of places I’m looking forward to making a return trips to this year, where I can use Phrasebook to get by on a whim.
What travel tradition would you love to participate in this year?
