Blog Excerpt

The way we travel starts long before we board a plane. For our family, language learning is one of the ways we prepare our children to engage with the world—not simply observe it.

Spanish is currently our focus language, and making it part of our everyday life has helped us build a deeper connection to the cultures we hope to experience. We’re not aiming for fluency overnight. We’re building curiosity, confidence, cultural empathy, and a willingness to communicate—even when we don’t get every word right.

Before we travel anywhere, we also make a point to learn a few basic phrases in the local language. A simple greeting, thank you, or way to order food can change the tone of an interaction. It shows respect, makes navigating easier, and can open the door to more authentic connections.

And language learning doesn’t have to mean hours of studying. For us, it looks like 20 minutes a day, practicing together, watching videos, playing games, and finding small ways to make another language part of our family’s everyday life.

Because we believe travel is about more than seeing the world. It’s about learning how to connect with it.

We got a chance to use the One-Third Stories app to brush up on the kids’ Spanish skills and we loved it! Read about what we thought and why it worked so well.