{travel tip} Don't be an Obnoxious American

My goal is to travel the world.

And not be one of those obnoxious Americans

who only knows English and refuses

to at least attempt to learn the native tongue.

But, I also don't want to spend a lot of money

in my attempts to become bilingual,

because lets face it, high school Spanish did nothing for any of us. 

And unfortunately the only French I learned while studying in Paris was

all of the different menu items 

and how to order crepes of every variety. 

{I thought that was the most important vocab to learn, and I stick by my decision}

That's where Duolingo comes in.

It is a free website {and now iPhone app}

that turns language learning into a game. 

Each lesson you start out with three hearts/lives 

and if they run out by the end of the lesson

then the owl mascot cries and you have to start over. 

Now that there is an app, it's pretty much all I 

do while laying on the couch watching tv and not studying. 

But at least I'm being productive, right?

Currently they have French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Do you have any embarassing language confusion/misinterpretation stories?