“Hola! Como estas?”

“Bien, bien, gracias. Y tu?”

The above word exchange is only one of many first things you learn in a beginning Spanish language course, but it is probably one of the most crucial foundations of speech – the ability to exchange a simple greeting. Learning a language beyond those beginning stages of child development, when language acquisition is on the forefront of our intrinsic abilities, is time-consuming and difficult. People spend years crafting and honing a foreign language, and those four years spent in high school, suffering through AP Language courses, cannot hold a candle to language immersion studies – like the prestigious Language Schools held at Middlebury and Mills College – or to total cultural immersion for an extended period of time, as a dear friend of mine did for a year traveling throughout Mexico, Central and South America. Prior to traveling to foreign lands, most tourists don’t have the time to brush up on stagnant language skills, and don’t take the time to give themselves a proper rundown on basic survival language, relegating themselves to toting around a dictionary, a phrase book, or simply a hefty guidebook with a single chapter on language, all the way in the back, all of which can be pretty inefficient when flipping through pages just to ask directions.

Lingolook is an iPhone app developer specifically designed with the traveler in mind, providing language flashcards for 7 languages, including Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Hindi and German. Each Lingolook app has over 500 translations on 100 digital flashcards, and 300 of these are actually audio translations recorded by native speakers, to guide your pronunciations even more effectively. Given my Spanish background, I opted to check out Lingolook Mexico, see if it would be easier to use than those flimsy, steno-bound phrase books you see cluttered on the front desks of bookstores. I was surprised to note how beautiful and cute the app is, and how it’s so easy to navigate that even the most ignorant of tourists will have no problem. The main page shows 9 buttons, which cover basic subject categories every traveler will encounter, including Essentials – phrases that concern niceties like “excuse me” and “thank you” and asking for restrooms and money exchanges -, Travel, Lodging, Leisure, Food & Drink, Shopping, Services – banks, computers, pharmacies, etc. -, Help – for those times you need the police, the doctor, the embassy, or simply need assistance -, and a Reference section which covers translation of various cultural items and foods, international clothing size conversions, and more. In their “About” section, Lingolook also includes a basic map of Mexico, indispensable Traveler’s tips – I’ve been to Mexico countless times and I always forget the A/C is 127V and 60 Hz, or that you need to dial 060 for a fire or the police – and even gives a cursory overview on the phonetics in the app, informing you on basic Spanish pronunciations.

Each of the tabs on the main page leads you to a list of various subjects within that category, and each item on the list has its own flashcard where the exact phrase is translated along with supplementary phrases considered a natural conversational adjunct. Under Food & Drink there is a flashcard titled “Delicioso!” The flashcard will show you a phonetic breakdown of delicioso, and has three phrases below it considers pertinent to this exclamation. Obviously, if you think something is delicious, you will be inclined to ask for more. So, Lingolooks includes the phrase “some more please,” which it translates as “Mas, por favor.” It also translates the phrases “The meal was great!” and “What is that?” In case you’re unsure how to pronounce anything, you can tap on the Spanish translation and you’ll hear an audio recording of someone pronouncing it slowly and clearly. What’s particularly great about this feature is not only do some people learn more quickly through hearing, but should you, for one reason or another, simply not pronounce a word well enough for a native speaker to understand, you can simply hold up the iPhone and have it speak for you.

After perusing Lingolooks, I was really hard-pressed to find any area they didn’t cover. Anything a tourist could possible want or need is included in these handy flashcards, whether they want to see sports, or the more specific spectator sports; enjoy a museum or biking or hiking; need to ask a salesperson for a different size or color of clothing; need to check-in or check-out of a hotel and see what kind of services and amenities your short-term residence has to offer; and in more extreme cases, if you need to tell the doctor where it hurts, or tell the police your car was stolen. You could practically travel indefinitely with this easy to whip out guide, and eventually learn on your own. To boot, Lingolooks even has a prior organized list of “Favorites” for those phrases, concerns and questions most frequently used by travelers, things like asking for a bill, saying thank you and hello, and asking for directions.

With Lingolooks, you will scarcely be looked upon as yet another gringo to the local Mexican inhabitants. Given your speedy delivery and articulation with the help of Lingolook’s flashcards, they may just be patting you roughly on the back, chattering away at light speed in Spanish, and offering you copious amounts of carne. Don’t worry, the rapid-fire speech never really disappears to the foreigner’s ears.