I’m heading abroad. How can I avoid communication issues?
AApps are your friend. Guru has recently spent many weeks with Duolingo (free, Android and iOS) and by golly he has obtained a vague grasp on very basic French. Some of it is a bit odd, like its slight obsession with owning a pet owl, but it’s a clever language-learning course that breaks things down in a really sensible manner.
Not everyone has the time for all that, though. Duolingo’s gamification of language learning is effective, but it does involve learning – surely, in this day and age, it is better to cheat? Live translation is a thing, and don’t believe Google’s hype about it being an exclusive Pixel Buds thing. They just make it slightly more convenient. Fire up Google Translate (free), poke your phone’s mic in the uncomfortable space between your faces, and it’ll do its darnedest to interpret two-way conversations in 32 languages. You can also type messages, if you don’t trust its interpretation, and your quarry can do the same.
Sticking with Google, Lens (free) can, through your phone’s camera, transform printed text in foreign languages into something you’ll understand, avoiding those awkward menu snafus or missed ‘danger of death’ signs.
If, on the other hand, you’re more worried about staying in touch when there might not be adequate network coverage around, the goTenna Mesh (£142 a pair) is a neat solution. You can use two, dangling from backpacks, to create a long-range network link between a pair of points and send text messages and GPS locations between them. Additional devices can act as repeaters, extending that network further. Definitely a clever solution for keeping your location known while hiking, or ensuring there’s a brew on the go when you’re nearing base camp.