The problem

Have you ever been in a situation when you walk into a small grocery store in a foreign country, you want to buy some local produce, but you can't say a word the shop owner would understand - because they don't speak any of the languages you do, and you don't speak any languages they do?

You have probably ended up pointing to things saying "this" and "that" in English, and showing your fingers indicating quantity, and you got away with some of the things you wanted - but if you're anything like me, you might've retreated without buying half of the thing you'd like (or getting something else entirely) and feeling frustrated with yourself for not being able to communicate.

In comes the Pidging!

So is it possible to have more fulfilling experience with journey communications? Well, certainly, you could study the language, understand grammar, proper pronunciation, build up vocabulary and start speaking it - but for most of us, that's not a feasible solution for a one-week trip to a foreign country.

Pidging is aiming to help in another fashion, by providing a vocabulary of simple words and phrases you could use in any situation, and a rapid translation to over 90 languages with an ability to store selected translations offline. Sure, you won't be able to maintain an elaborate conversation, or even build a grammatically correct sentence, but you'd certainly help people understand what you want exactly (and not get champagne instead of coffee in the morning; unless that's a desirable effect), ask for directions, read signs and so on - and also (at least partially) understand what people are saying back to you.

The provided vocabulary is by no means complete, because everyone considers different words and phrases more important than others, so Pidging also offers an ability to add your own word/phrase collections and translate them in new languages automatically!

Where to get

If that sounds helpful, give it a try - the app is free and available for both iOS and Android. Download links are on its web page: https://hydralien.net/pidging/

Bon voyage!