When I visited Portugal, I just wanted to walk in somewhere without speaking English straight away. That’s when the idea of 'get-by' holiday courses first came to me. I didn’t want to spend hours ‘learning’ Portuguese, but I also didn’t want to be a stereotypical rude Brit! Duolingo didn't stick, and other courses required weekly commitments. Before I knew it, I was on the plane having learnt... nothing. And no surprise, when I started with “hello” I felt like that Brit.

After loving Portugal, I wanted to return but without having that horrible feeling. So, I tried again! A bit more successful this time, I could read and spell a few basics. BUT I couldn’t for the life of me pronounce them right! I then realised the phonetic pronunciation was going to be the key. It's no good knowing how to read 'thank you' without being able to say it properly! Since then, all the Portuguese I've learnt has been through the phonetics- and I can actually speak with confidence.

Most people learn a language to not feel like a clueless tourist, or let’s be honest, to impress people! It’s very rarely because someone wants to read a novel in a foreign language. SPEAKING and saying the words CORRECTLY is much more important than reading or writing. With ‘Phonetical’, we want everyone who holidays in Spain to feel confident when saying hello, goodbye and hopefully some of the bits in-between. You don’t need to ‘learn’ Spanish, you just need to ‘get by’ in style!