Yeah you are absolutely right, the traditional way is the best way- in person or in a class room, which is better than a language app, but then for those that can't do either, google translate can be beneficial too.
As long at it's something.
I used to live in the rainforest with no power- so no tv, no nothing and I worked at a backpackers, so I lined my entire walls with paper, drew columns down each sheet, wrote a list of English words form the ceiling down to the floor on the first column, then every time I had backpackers come to my place to visit or stay (which was a lot) I got them to write down their matching words and then practice it with them.
SO I had Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Thai.
I then went back to p/t school at the age of 35 and learnt, Mandarin, French and Japanese, which was great in the classroom, and it really helped me working in the hospitality industry.
I actually learnt Japanese when I was 15, but that was a long time ago, so it was good to relearn it again at 35 too.
Unfortunately, I do not get a chance to practice any of these language IRL, but I listen to them on my phone all of the time when I am walking somewhere instead of music, which keeps most of the words alive in my mind, so one day when I do get the chance to go to Europe, it will be easy for me to pick up the language again.
And having been to Thailand twice since then, it was a great way to be familiar with some of the words before learning Thai while I was there.
So I take the opportunity to keep learning and refresh my mind however that presents itself, but ofcourse I do prefer to learn IRL- especially if I can go there and lean in person- that is the absolute best way to learn anything- hands on. 😀
What an interesting story! Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with me. I really admire the effort you made in learning all those new languages, I think it's a very beautiful and also useful thing. I'd like to have a little bit of your courage ahahah! If you want to speak and keep your Italian trained we can chat a bit whenever you want 😊
Oh Grazia!
Molto, MOLTO Bueno! 😀