Tourist life-line

An app to help you remember the many little words and phrases that you will find useful when travelling abroad on holiday or business - words and phrases that you may have learned but which do not spring quickly to mind when you need them.

The app will be equally useful to you whether you are a business traveller, a holiday-maker, a teacher working abroad or attending a project meeting, or a student learning the language or going on an exchange or a work-placement.

Type in the Search box (in any of the languages) any word that occurs in the phrase that you want, and you will see all the phrases containing that word in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and modern Greek. Similar apps will soon be available for Japanese speakers, and for Chinese speakers.

Use the app to refresh your language skills before your trip and bring to the front of your mind some of the vital words and phrases that you will need to use. It is a great way to spend time at the airport waiting for your flight.

This is the first in a series of language apps created by David Sephton and his team at Primrose Publishing, Cambridge, and developed from their Tick-Tack language software used by universities, colleges, schools, companies and hotels all over Europe. Further information can be found on: www.2clix.net/apps/index.htm

You only need to know a small number of phrases in a language, are able to pronounce them properly, and practise them so that they spring easily to mind, for you to feel you can communicate with local people. This can give you real confidence. The more phrases you know the more confidence you will have.

You may have learnt the language in school but the phrases don't come to mind when you need them. Languages get rusty very quickly unless you practise them.

To enjoy maximum benefit from the app, study the phrases and select the ones you think you may need. Make a list of them and practise them. Choose phrases similar to what you say in your own language. That way they will come to mind more readily.

Don't try to memorize too many. A small number of phrases that come readily to mind will give you more confidence than many phrases that you cannot recall.

Collect the phrases that interest you. From the Menu button select "Share". Click on your email and send the screen to your computer. When it arrives you will see that you have the text in the body of the message rather than as an image of the screen.You can then edit the text and save the part that you want. In this way you can build a list of the phrases that interest you in the language, or languages, that you wish to practise.

A good way to make progress and gain real confidence is to choose, well before you go abroad, a new phrase each day and repeat it to yourself throughout the day. Over time you will assemble an impressive range of phrases covering many situations.

Preparations are well advanced for including many more phrases useful when you are abroad, covering lots more activities and areas of interest. They will be included in a future release or in a separate app.