Learning language sufficient for holiday - what apps are alternatives to Duolingo?

[categorychaos]

I have tried Duolingo to improve existing knowledge and build grammar and vocabulary for a language I want to improve beyond conversational level (French) but I’m looking for something that is a little less rigid for a language I’ll probably not use that often.

Is there an app that’s helpful to learn basics of a language but without building a whole new language lesson?

Does that make sense? Ideally all the useful phrases for a holiday plus numbers and with audio on pronunciation?

I am thinking specifically for Norwegian and Italian - but a “less educational” tool would be great for any language!

Italki. Real teachers, in the country. Little or a lot!

If its any help we use youtube as a resource - DH needing to learn a language for work - we searched " beginner French" and bingo easy to follow lessons at various levels including catering for visa related tests

Busuu for Italian. Much better than Duolingo. If you use the paid for version you can interact with native speakers but I just used the free version. Having said that I’ve continued with Duolingo as the streak aspect has kept me at it nearly a year now

The Duolingo streak was freaking me out!

I have my son and his friends as my friends on it who all laugh at how regularly the have to send me streak freezes. It really doesn’t teach you holiday Italian anyway. I’m really good at talking about ghosts and scary rooms though in Italian!

Coffee Break Italian podcasts are good.