Full-time International Travel & Learning a Foreign Language | Adelaide from Talkbox.Mom

Note: This transcript is auto-generated. Though transcripts are largely accurate, discrepancies and errors may occur. Welcome to the stoke Fam, the podcast designed to help families adventure more and stress less on this show. We give you the confidence and inspiration. You need to find your stoke by sharing interviews from real families, doing amazing things. Conversations with brands who make adventures easier and all the things we wish we’d known sooner.

[00:00:19] Come on. Let’s go.

[00:00:27] welcome back. Stoke fam. Today. I am talking with Adelaide from talkbox.mom. She is a homeschool mom who loves to travel and has a unique talent. When she and her family arrive in a new country, they can start talking in that language right away. After about two weeks, they’re talking and understanding the locals and the locals are understanding them.

[00:00:46] She took this unique talent and turned it into her business talk box, stop mom, where she helps you talk in a foreign language the same day that you start today. She’s here to share with us, her experience with traveling full-time with her family and how they made everything work, but also how to experience a new place, even deeper by learning the light.

[00:01:02] She’s a ball of sunshine and energy and a fellow boy, mom, and I am stoked to have her here today. Thanks so much for being here today. I am still, oh, I was allowed, sorry. I am stoked to be here. It says stuck that I’m blowing the microphone out. That’s all right. So it’s going to be full of energy today, as you can tell.

[00:01:20] So Adelaide, can you start off by telling us your adventure story, your travel story? Was that something that you grew up doing, or was that something that you and your husband decided to do? After you met or how did all of that come? Hmm. My dad was one of those people who would make a binder and put all the information for a vacation in that.

[00:01:42] Nice. And then he would take us on this nice vacation. And my brothers, my older brothers would just complain all the time. It was terrible. It was the most terrible thing ever like, oh dad, why’d you make us come to London? Oh, we they’re just terrible. You know? And I’m like on the hop on hop off bus and I’m like, this is nice.

[00:02:02] This is great. Yeah, my dad, he’s just, he’s really like that. And, uh, when my, my husband and I, after we got married, we actually, we really wanted to work internationally. And so we applied for jobs in Germany and we ended up moving there and living there for awhile. And I had my. Son there. And you know, when you have a new baby and you just, you don’t know how to do any of the things and your whole body feels like it’s falling apart.

[00:02:27] Yup. I know exactly how that feels. Well, my dad and my mom, they came out after I had the baby and it was their first grandchild. They got there and they, my dad was like, he held the baby. And then after I would say 30 seconds, he was. Well, I’ll be right back. And then he came back, uh, maybe an hour later and he had this big van and he was like, we’re going on a road trip?

[00:02:52] Cause he’s like, why would I take vacation off and come to Europe and not see anything? I love that. So what did you do? I just stared at him like you are out of your mind, like you’re out of your mind. I also thought in my head, like, this is why I didn’t invite you guys until the baby was like a couple of weeks old.

[00:03:08] Like I had waited. I was like, you guys need to come later. Uh, and he just looked at me and he’s like, yeah, Your stuff, pack, whatever baby stuff do you need and let’s go. And I was so overwhelmed my kid, like I, cause I couldn’t barely breath. I was just like, oh my gosh, my dad’s out. It was my, so I packed up everything.

[00:03:25] Uh, my husband helped and. We went on this road trip and before the baby was a couple of weeks old, he had been to six countries. Oh wow. My dad just kept driving to places and seeing those places. And it was, it was November. So it’s cold. So he’s like in this cold stroller, but honestly had I not like just gone out and like started traveling.

[00:03:46] I probably wouldn’t have traveled with the baby. Cause it just felt overwhelming. Like you kinda just have to jump in and do it. Yep. If you think about it a lot, it’s really hard. It’s really scary because it’s already hard. So, but I realized pretty, pretty soon that, you know, my kids are gonna throw tantrums or my baby’s going to cry anyway.

[00:04:06] Like why not do it somewhere? Yeah. Yeah, so true. So, you know, that’s a funny story because with my young, my oldest, excuse me, we, I, there was no way I was going anywhere. We had a rough go, he had horrible reflux and they told me it was colic from the get go. And it was forever to get diagnosed. It was a whole thing, but anyway, he had horrible reflux and he didn’t sleep for more than like nighttime was like two hours max for forever.

[00:04:30] And so that was a nightmare. But my second. We went on vacation two weeks in and I was like, am I crazy for this? Like, have I lost it? I’m like, I think I might not really. Maybe, maybe the hormones are getting in my head. This is maybe not the smarter. But it actually turned out really great. My parents were there and I was able to be like, Hey, watch the toddler.

[00:04:50] But that was second baby. Right? Where you already like, have kind of done some things. And I had, I was able to kind of pass off the toddler with my parents a little bit because they went with us and I was kind of like, this is maybe not so bad. Cause I also don’t feel the need to clean and I don’t need to feel all those things that hold me.

[00:05:04] You’re like I have to do this and this and this too. I didn’t feel the need to do any of that. So in some ways it was nice. Yeah. I don’t know with my first one that I would have made it so props to you. My dad’s really fun, but it’s true. Like, I didn’t have to do any of the cleaning or the cooking and it made that time really nice.

[00:05:20] And, uh, we will remember that forever, but we were still new parents. We were still really tired. There was, we were in a, we were in a really beautiful. Church in Berlin, just checking it out. We’re sitting in the cathedral and my husband was so tired that when he was holding the baby, I had like went to go to the restroom.

[00:05:38] When I came back, my family was just laughing and I’m like, why are they laughing? And then finally, my dad goes to Hector, drop. The baby, had fallen asleep on the church, pew, which is typical of him anyways. But like we were sightseeing, but really hungers, like he didn’t fall. He’d more like slit all the way down my legs to the floor.

[00:05:57] Oh, but it was, it was really fun. So that was, that was crazy. Anyways, we ended up moving back to the states when he was about a year old. And at that time I could speak German at work. I could speak German at church. I could speak German with our friends, but I really felt like a failure in speaking German with our baby, because I didn’t know how to say, like, poop went up your back or, you know, the normal, normal things, normal things.

[00:06:27] I could not say normal things, or even if I was like, I don’t know, Just playing with toys around. And I just, I couldn’t say so many things that people say in the home. I ha I had just missed that. So we actually, when we left Germany, I kind of, I felt like, kind of felt like a failure kind of was upset with myself.

[00:06:41] Like, why don’t you use German with your kid? Uh, and I didn’t know yet that it wasn’t really my fault, but after we. In the states for a little bit, it was just so hard to feedback and not be traveling. And so we had kept saying like, oh, we would really like to travel. Like we would love to put our stuff in storage.

[00:07:01] We would like to do that. Uh, but as you know, you probably know, and you listening that there’s a lot of resistance involved when you want to do something. Awesome and fun. I really like how Steven Pressfield writes about that and the turning pro and the art of war. Yeah. Or the opposite way. There we go.

[00:07:25] Well, the drug and me, I slept last night. Um, and, uh, no one woke me up last night, but, uh, I just, yeah, so there’s a lot of resistance involved when you want to go and do something. It can feel like thoughts of like, oh, we’re not ready yet. Or just, yeah. Just not getting it together to do it, or just being something really distanced.

[00:07:45] And after I read turning pro, I started changing a lot of things in my life and I was like, I’m going to be a pro. I’m going to do the things that I, I think I, you know, I want to do. Uh, and I’d also re read that book, eat that frog. And it said, it talked about pitching to your company. Uh, your salary and how you want to work and projects you want to work on, so you can make them more money and then they’ll pay you more money.

[00:08:06] I thought it was really interesting. So I talked that over with my husband and we were like, let’s just pitch, you know, that we will work remotely. And this is before people. Really working remotely before the last year. Now that doesn’t even sound interesting. So we actually, we were really nervous about it and we’re like, wow, he could totally get fired.

[00:08:24] They’ll think like he doesn’t take his job seriously. Uh, but we were willing to take that chance because we just really wanted him to travel. So he pitched it to them and they stopped him about five minutes in and the company, it was an accounting firm and they’re like, they’re like, yeah, you know what?

[00:08:38] This sounds really good. But can you just be back for a month during the year? And he was like, what? So, like, it was just such a shock. And at that moment we were like, where do we want to go? And it was just like, we could go anywhere as long as he could keep, uh, Pacific coast time hours. Right. So, so yeah, so that was just, that was awesome.

[00:08:59] So we, yeah, we put everything in storage and then we went to Brazil. We still, at that point, this is really embarrassing. But when they company said that, like, you guys can go anywhere, we didn’t like take our chance. Right. Then we actually went to Dallas and we got like a cheap house to rent. And then we like started putting our stuff in search.

[00:09:19] We were so slow about it and we could’ve spent our time there. We could have spent that time traveling, but we were just so slow about it because there’s still that resistance going on. And then we have these returns. From Brazil, where my husband had booked an extra leg after the trip. So we had already returned for, to Brazil or no, we’d gone to Hawaii.

[00:09:38] It was a push present for having the second baby. We’d gone to Hawaii and came back and then it had an extra leg to Brazil and it was about to expire. And the finally, I was like, what are we doing? Let’s just go. And so within a week we had put everything in storage. Uh, and then we flew down to Brazil. We didn’t even have an apartment or anything or whatever.

[00:09:59] We had some hooks, we had like hotel points. So we were like, we’ll stay in a hotel and then we’ll get an Airbnb. And then we did that for two and a half years. Wow. And it was so fun and, but we did hit a point where I was like, I want a home base. So now we have a house that we rent out on Airbnb. And when we go out of the country, we rent it out.

[00:10:17] And then when we’re in the country, we stay in it. That’s nice to have that home base and still be able to have the flexibility to choose. Yeah, it worked out well for COVID. So I bet it, um, laying the groundwork, whether you knew it or not. Um, I actually, when you were talking about like going to Dallas first, I remembered a quote that I have heard and I, I forget where I heard it, but basically like the whole, like it’s okay.

[00:10:43] Sometimes to take the stairs instead of jump off the cliff. Right. Sometimes you need some like training wheels on to do something big and scary. Right. It’s okay to take those small steps because they’re all getting you there just because somebody else decides to jump off the cliff doesn’t mean that has to be your way to.

[00:10:58] Yeah, that’s nice. Maybe it fixed me feel a little better.

[00:11:04] So when you guys decided to do this, um, how were there. Logistics or anything that were challenging to handle. Cause I know that there are some people who are listening, who may be considering doing like full-time travel and I’m sure that it wasn’t just like, it’s super easy and I’m just going to go from place to place.

[00:11:22] And it’s all going to be smooth all the time. So like, what were some of the logistics or challenges that you had to face, um, in getting from one place to another or from planning and like finding housing or all of those? Oh, it’s such a great question. So the first thing that we look at of course is our budget, because if you don’t have the budget, you can’t so sad reality of life.

[00:11:43] Right? I think that the budget, there’s, there’s two parts of your budget. There’s one part of the money that you can touch. Uh, and there’s another part of money you can’t touch. So money I can’t touch is like. Uh, money that goes to my health insurance. Like I would like to have that happening, cause that would be bad money.

[00:11:58] If you, for savings. I don’t want to spend my savings if I’m trying to save them or if you have to pay off debt. Um, anything that like has to, has to be paid, uh, you can’t, you can’t do that. On the other side, you have things that go to say your housing to your food. To your fun to your transportation, you can touch all of that stuff.

[00:12:18] Cause you can, you can change to a apartment. You can change to a mortgage. Like you control that. That’s your money you can for your fund money. You could go flush it down the toilet and do nothing that whole month, right? It’s your choice, what you do with it, your food money, it’s your choice. So looking at that, we had to figure.

[00:12:35] Where can we go where we can make sure we’re spending the same amount on the side of the money we can touch. Right. So for our housing, where can our housing stay the same or be less for our transportation? What can we do? So when we looked at that, we’re like, well, really easy. We could live really nice if we went to Brazil.

[00:12:52] So that would be. That would be great. So that one seems, well, we had to take our car and put it like non operable insurance. So we didn’t have to pay extra money to that. So then that money freed us up to do, to do other things. Our storage unit did take up like, you know, a hundred bucks a month. So that was part of the route we had to account for, to not spend that.

[00:13:10] And then we kind of knew like how much we had to look for that. We, uh, my husband loves credit card points. Absolutely loves it. He’s a frequent filer, frequent flyer.com follower. Nice. Was that what it is? Yeah. He’s so he’s so into it. And so we did have a lot of points set up and I would say that year we were in Dallas.

[00:13:29] We did say we did do a lot of points. I always felt really weird. This is when you could, like, you could get, you have to meet the minimum specs. Right. So same thing we’re looking at when you get a card for points you look at, will I meet the minimum? Spend? Then get the card, if not, don’t get the card.

[00:13:43] Right. So there was a time when you could actually buy vanilla reload cards and buy money to pay off your credit card with your credit card. So wait, vanilla reload cards. I don’t think I know what those are. I can’t do those anymore because of like, people like us. So we would get the minimum spend would be like 5,000.

[00:14:00] So we’d go buy $5,000 of vanilla reload. And then pay the credit card off. Oh, I see. You used to be able to do stuff like that now. You’re not allowed to it. Wasn’t illegal, but I did have the sweats, like buying it at the Walgreens. It’s like, are you buying these? Are you like being scammed? I’m like, no, I’m buying them for me.

[00:14:20] And I’m like, I’m not doing anything wrong. Right. But, so we had actually gotten a lot of points there. Now we have to do it different a different way, but we still do like getting, um, points. Uh, so we did have points for our. I mean, my husband’s so into points that by the time when my son, my oldest was turning three, he had already flown over a hundred times and we only paid for five of those.

[00:14:43] Nice. Like my husband loves points, so it’s a hobby. I’ll let him have, okay. That is, Hey, that’s a good hobby. I’ll take anyone who wants to figure out how to get me free flights like that. That’s a win in my book. So that helps us out a lot helps us out because we only have so much money for transportation.

[00:15:01] So if we’re using our cash on flights, then now we’re losing our transportation and some of our phones. Right, right, right. Yeah. So to be able to go, we had to end our lease, put our stuff in storage, you know, turned down, change any insurance, just make anything cheaper, cancel any subscriptions we didn’t need probably kept the Netflix.

[00:15:21] I feel like. And then. And then when we did get Airbnbs, we really made sure they had the right upload, download speed for internet, like checking all that out. Uh, so, so that made it happen. And when we chose where we went in Brazil, we actually, we wanted to go to a place that wasn’t too big and not too small.

[00:15:42] And so we figured. We asked around and then we found a town we really liked. We started in our kazoo in the north. And when we found that out, we asked people, uh, does anybody know anybody from our Kazu and somebody at our church knew somebody from there. And so we met with them. Yeah. We just asked them all the questions and made sure it’s what we wanted, because I don’t like to travel so fast with kids.

[00:16:02] I’m not my dad. I like to go somewhere for like three years. To six months, like in that one area, like make friends with the neighbors, join the bar, the jujitsu, or Muay Thai did that in Mexico. That was really fun. Like just be part of the community, how my kids have friends. So I don’t like to go too fast.

[00:16:22] So I want to make sure I like it only once we’ve gone somewhere. We do. We did not like we left early and that’s okay. Sometimes that’s okay, but I love that too, because then you actually get to really know the area and the, I wish we had more time to be able to do that at this point in our lives, but because it would be great to spend that deep time.

[00:16:40] I know every time we’ve spent more than a week, somewhere like two or three weeks, you just really start. You get such a deeper knowledge of the area and the people and culture. And it’s just such a, I love spending longer whenever we possibly can, but I haven’t yet to be able to spend like months. So, yeah.

[00:16:55] So, so goals, incentives, people say to me like, oh, Adelaide, like, like my husband couldn’t work remotely. And I was also working remotely too. I, I co owned a popular YouTube channel with a commercial photographer and I just did the marketing so I could, I could leave. And he was like, well, you can leave it like that.

[00:17:11] I’m not changing here. Um, I do that from there and my husband did that, but people will often say like, oh, I don’t know my, yeah. My husband does surgery. He can not do that remotely or right. Yeah. That’s where John works is when the, or so, yes, totally. There’s only so much you can do well, they so much, but you could, you could go for two or three weeks by yourself or with a friend, a family friend, and then they can meet you up when they have time.

[00:17:35] Or if they’re really nice, you can, your company or whoever it is, you can ask for sabbatical. But I, I mean, I don’t mind go with another mom and her kids going somewhere, so. Awesome. Great idea. Good fun. And take a, take a book from us and why not sometimes, no, minus two, what? I love having him along because usually when I’m losing my patience with the kids, he’s got it.

[00:17:55] So it’s a nice balance, but sometimes it’s really, that’s a great idea to go when you, he can’t always go. It’s something that we could do with another mom. I like that idea. Um, and then. The one thing though about me is I’m not too worried going somewhere. Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t have like enough, uh, I don’t know, rationale.

[00:18:16] I don’t know something in my brain. I’m like, whatever my, uh, my, I had a friend in, in. I had in college at the university and she was like, hallelujah, we should have to go on a study abroad. And I was like, should we now? And she’s like, yeah, this is the best way to meet hot guys was like, maybe you have a point.

[00:18:34] We tried to sign up for these different study abroad. And none of them would take us cause we didn’t speak any languages. And they’re like, you guys don’t qualify, but the German, the German one didn’t have enough people. And they said, you guys can go if you want, you’ll just have to take German when you get here.

[00:18:48] I’m like, yeah, sure. I’ll go. I’ll whatever. My dad again, he’s driving me to the airport and he’s kind of looking at me. He’s not really saying anything. And he’s like, Adelaide. I don’t remember you ever taking German in school. And I was like, yeah, I don’t know German. And he was like, what in the world are you doing?

[00:19:06] Like, you’re going to get there. And then Latin, I was like, figure it out, I guess. You know? So like I’m not, I’m not so, so worried about that. Um, but I did find that when I got there, you don’t just like instantly learn a language. Because you’re in another country, a lot of people think that will just kind of happen.

[00:19:25] And so I, I meet a lot of people. I know a lot of families in Germany who are military families and they are so disappointed that their family went there and they didn’t actually speak the language. And that it’s just, it’s kind of fresh. It’s frustrating for them. Uh, and so. With, with German. I started learning, uh, you know, the hardest way possible, which is grammar vocabulary when I was on that study abroad.

[00:19:46] And then, you know, I moved back, right. Like I said, and I was working, I was working in the fashion Institute doing marketing and in Germany. And then I had my son. And then again, I couldn’t talk to him, but I could talk other places. And so when we were going to Brazil, I did see it as like a big opportunity to learn Portuguese.

[00:20:03] Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, sure. I was thinking like this, we’re going to do it right this time because I have failed other, like I tried, I did Spanish in high school. I got such, I got great A’s I was so good at it, but I couldn’t speak Spanish. So it seems like a problem that was me and French. Yeah. Like I’m like, I don’t know how I got a hundred percent and not, I don’t know how to do anything.

[00:20:27] So it didn’t work out. It felt like a failure there. And then with German, I felt like hot, man. I couldn’t, I can’t even talk to my kid. Like, what’s wrong with me? I thought, I thought I knew it. So Portuguese, I was like, we’re just, we’re going to go all in. And so I got a college textbook and I made some flashcards and I had a verb book.

[00:20:46] And when we got to Brazil, We finally got to our, our, uh, Airbnb and it had a view of the beach and it was really pretty. With the water. It was, so it was so nice. And I told my kids, okay, before we go to the beach, we’re going to, we’re going to learn some Portuguese, you know, cause we’re going to do this.

[00:21:02] Right. And my one and four year old, they didn’t care about the college textbook. They like threw it on the floor. That’s about right. And they threw the flashcards. But my, that was like the one-year-old just jumping around. And my four year old he was so he’s like, he’s sassy and he’s smart. And like in a good way.

[00:21:21] And he’s looked at me and he’s like, mom, we didn’t come to Brazil to sit in a room. Oh, whoa. A 40 year old, there is some sass, but he’s right. He’s always so right. And I’m like, oh my gosh. And so I was like, in that moment, I was like, I am doing this so wrong. And I thought right, then wait a second. I obviously taught this kid to talk because he’s telling me what that, and I didn’t use a college textbook.

[00:21:51] I didn’t use a verb book and I didn’t use flashcards. And so in that moment, I was like, I, I, I had a friend who would always say, uh, So, you know, kind of the problem is a solution. And so I was like, well, these kids are definitely the problem. They’re going to ruin my textbook, but I was like, no, they’re the solution.

[00:22:10] Like they are literally the solution. How I taught them English is exactly how I should teach them Portuguese and learn it myself because that’s how I learned it. Right. I think that’s such a smart thing. And as you were talking, I’m thinking about how, you know, people always say that kids, young kids are so much better at learning foreign languages, right?

[00:22:28] And I think what you’re talking about is why, because when we’re adults, we sit there and be like, oh, it has to be perfect. That conjugation has to be this and the female and the mat are feminine and the masculine and we get stuck on all that versus actually just practicing it like you would when you’re a toddler and making mistakes and growing from there.

[00:22:44] And so I think that as you were talking, I was just like, oh my goodness. That’s exactly why, because we get too stuck on the technicalities and don’t actually. Practice or just talk, we just get stuck in the, or I’m not going to sound right or all of that. So I love that he like brought you around to be like, mom, we just got.

[00:23:02] We’re not, we’re not going to do this here in this room with this textbook. We’re we gotta, we gotta be out there. We’re in Brazil. Yeah. Like that’s the point. If you want to sit a room, you should’ve stayed in Dallas. It’s like, why did we come here for this? So, uh, and like what you’re talking about about adults learning slower, it is like we’re going into the text.

[00:23:24] And then if you think about it, when we, when you have a kid, like if you have a bunch of three-year-olds and they come into a classroom and you’re going to do an activity with them, you’re going to have people poking each other, taking their shoes off. You’re going to have weird stuff going on and you have to explain things and they have to touch stuff.

[00:23:40] Whereas when adults come in a room, they just sit down and they just look at the teacher. Right. Like their approach, their environment is so, so different. But when you have a kid, when you’re a parent and you have a kid and you have to interact with them and make the day happen, you have so much opportunity to teach a language.

[00:23:56] And that’s what we do as parents. We are the most successful language teachers in the world. We teach babies and toddlers all over the world, how to talk at a native level. And when we teach like a mom or like a dad, when we teach that way, we can actually teach and learn a foreign language. Just so, so fast.

[00:24:15] And so I started doing that with Portuguese and I had actually gone to a church the first week and it was like the first day we were there, like after the flight, the day after the flight. And so. There was this woman there and she’s trying to talk to me and I knew enough to say I don’t speak Portuguese because I asked my husband how I will not follow Portuguese.

[00:24:34] Right. Um, and so she kept trying to talk to me and I told her, I don’t know, I don’t know anything. And then two weeks later we were back at that church and. I was telling my kids in Portuguese to sit down and stop touching thing. Like it’s going to start. And they were asking me questions in Portuguese. I was talking back and then one of them started like yelling mama, which also means nurse.

[00:24:54] And he’s like way too old, you know? Like, he’s fair. I mean, if you want to interrupt your cause we were all in like that, but for me too old and people are looking at us. So I was like, oh my God. Like credit, get you out of here. And that woman, she came up to me in the hall and she was super upset with me.

[00:25:07] Like her face was like so much rage. And I was like, what did I do? And in Portuguese, she was like, you said that you don’t speak Portuguese. And I was like, I speak Portuguese and she’s just staring at me. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, I, I speak Portuguese. I do that. So shocked at how much you learned and just went two weeks, two weeks.

[00:25:31] And I just kept talking to her in Portuguese, just talking like, I couldn’t believe it. And then from there we just kept going deeper and deeper into the language. And then we ended up going to Portugal after that. And, uh, it’s a, it’s a bit different. The language is a bit different. And then we went back to Germany and when we were back in Germany, I could finally talk with my kids and use the language.

[00:25:52] So, so cool. And just as we were doing, going to these different places, and then we went to Mexico and we could speak Spanish right away and just keep going deeper. As that was happening. So many families were like, how are you doing this? And I was like, it’s so easy. You just need to replace English with the language.

[00:26:09] Well, it’s not that easy. It’s like it doesn’t, you know, I finally figured out the solution cause I had been, you know, just failing left and right. Uh, and so, because it’s not just that simple, I worked with native speakers from all over the world, too. For you to make it so easy that you can replace what you normally say in English with their language.

[00:26:32] And [email protected], we help families to start talking the same day, the same exact day. You start, you will start talking to the language and you’ll keep adding more and more of the language into your life as it just fills up your life. And so your kids will be talking and you’ll be talking, there’ll be understanding what you’re saying.

[00:26:50] It’s a pretty simple process. So we have like these, these boxes that have beautiful guides in them with full phrases to help you talk. And we break those into challenges and you just put one challenge up and you pick a phrase from it. That’s just the first step. Then the second step is you just practice the phrase that looks like.

[00:27:07] Saying what the phrase is in English, playing it in the app with the names, speaker, audio that comes with the programs you purchase, it comes, it will show what you purchased in the app. So if you buy the Spanish box, it will show the first box. It will show you all the audio for the Spanish first box. So really nice.

[00:27:23] So you’ll hear the native speaker. She says it one word at a time and pauses to let you say it. And then she’ll say the full phrase. So you can say it to. After I do that, ask my kids, you know, what did she say? And sometimes they’ll say it sometimes they’ll be like, I don’t know I was listening to them.

[00:27:35] And that’s why we don’t have English in the app because they’re not listening. And so then you will say it cause we put the English in there. I can guarantee kids are going to tune it out after the second phrase. So you listen to it and then you practice that phrase. So you could say if the phrase is like, I’m really hungry, you could say, let’s say.

[00:27:51] Um, I haven’t, I haven’t made food and I’m making you wait 20 more minutes. And then you, how would you wind it? And your kids might be like,

[00:28:01] yes, or a hundred percent as your practice, you can practice it in this situation. Like, oh, we’re going to run out the door, but we forgot to eat. And so you tell me you’re hungry. So it really becomes real. And we also have a printable games which are secondary. We really want you to practice them situations, but we have fun games to take the pressure off too.

[00:28:17] And then the third step is just to really use the phrase. So when. Drive by say Chick-fil-A, you can say thing. Well, mucho, Andre, I’m really hungry. Uh, and what’s incredible about it is you’ll sound like a native speaker. You won’t be in your head thinking. So like I asked a lot of people they’ll be like, is my kid too good at Spanish for the Spanish one?

[00:28:34] And I was like, oh, often asked, how do you say I’m really hungry? We’ll get things like  . But that’s because they haven’t heard a native speaker, say thing, go Miuccia Andre. They don’t know how it’s supposed to sound. And they’re running all the grammar rules through their head. But when you learn a language and you’re.

[00:28:50] When you were a baby first, you’re taught to read to thing too. Then you start talking and singing and maybe watching videos if you’re allowed screen time. And then you start telling stories because I don’t really see nine month olds telling stories a little bit later. Right. And then you start reading, writing, and grammar.

[00:29:08] And so we build on it that same way, where you. Talking first and using the language and then you move up, uh, in, in layers. And so our boxes are, are not beginning, intermediate advanced. It’s more, are you using the language or not? If you’re not using the language in your home and your native speaker. This is great for your family, if you know nothing, and you’re not using language also great for your family, because you’ll be using the language, that’s the, that’s the goal.

[00:29:32] And so, yeah, that’s how we do it. And so now it’s just, it’s it’s so it’s so fun. It’s just so fun to be able to jump in and win, you know? Yes. And I love that, but I have to go back for just one second. I want to talk about that because we also use talkbox and I want to share our experience, but I have to ask.

[00:29:47] So were you able to. Speak enough Portuguese at the time to explain to the lady? No, really. I knew nothing two weeks ago. I wasn’t being rude. I want to know like, or were you just, or were you trying, did you just know enough to like communicate with your kids at that point? And she was still like, yeah, this lady was just throwing me for a loop.

[00:30:03] I could say, um, I think I knew how to say I just started because we had been playing some kind of game. I mean, everything you learn in your home, you use other places. And so. Yeah. I was like, I don’t, my Portuguese might not have been perfect, but yeah, I was like, well, then I didn’t see, you know, like I did explain it to her.

[00:30:23] She didn’t seem as upset. Uh, but I was like, I was so stuck on this. It was all like coming at you, like you lied to me. You were rude. I, I told her I don’t. I remember I said I didn’t lie because my kids had okay. I didn’t lie. I said, I didn’t know it then. And I, yeah, something about like, I just started. Uh, but you do sound so good when you start that we do now have like it’s in our toolbox and our phrase book that is, I just started speaking and I learned with my kids.

[00:30:53] So people like, cause that was something like I, yeah, I had told her, like I learned, I had told her whatever I possibly could, but I’ve taught my son this today when we were in Mexico. Just my husband and I, a bit ago, I was ordering like ice cream and I was talking to the guy at the counter in Spanish.

[00:31:10] And then all of a sudden he’s like, wow, your Spanish is really good. And I told him, I just started last week and his mouth fell open and I was like, dude, I’m kidding you. Regardless areas. Um, so we started with talkbox last year and we haven’t gotten through as much as I intended because life this last year, but we have tried.

[00:31:34] We’ve been homeschooling all along. Our kids are in third and fifth grade. And so we’ve always homeschooled and I’ve tried at least two or three. I’d have to like go back through my mental list, but like at least two or three other Spanish programs, we remember nothing like nothing and we’re on box two and which is the actions box.

[00:31:53] So it’s really fun because I’m able to, we played like red light green light, but with Spanish terms and like practicing those kinds of things. And it’s, it’s been a lot of fun because I am able to use them in different ways versus like sitting them down with a book. Right. Like that’s what we were doing before and it wasn’t working, they weren’t retaining it and I wasn’t retaining it.

[00:32:10] And. We though, the things that we’ve learned are sticking and they’re still using them, which is huge, huge, because our goal, the whole reason we wanted to do this, I mean, obviously Spanish is very helpful in our society right now to have, but the other reason is we have this huge desire to do more travel, and I really want to be able to communicate in the languages.

[00:32:32] Are being spoken in the countries we visit and we ha we want to travel more to, uh, Mexico and central America. And, um, so Spanish was huge on our list to learn. So that was the first one for us to tackle. And I’m just stoked because our kids really are picking it up. And yes, we totally do the same thing where we’re like, we have them play like scenarios and like I’ll have them like what?

[00:32:55] Um, oh, I forget which one I did with them the other day, but it was something about like, what. Like I busted them eating a cookie in the closet and what are you eating? And they were like nada. And I was like, what are you eating? And then the whole, uh, And then I busted them with a guy at the

[00:33:19] Yes. And, um, so I, I totally busted him with it and that was fun. And then the other one that they like to do is like, um, now that is, uh, when I’ll say come here and I will call them to come to me and. I’ll be like, I’m really angry. So I’ll pretend like I’m really angry, Becky. Yeah, go ahead. Chunk line your hand.

[00:33:39] That’d be like, yeah. So, and then, so that’s working really well and it’s actually really, really interesting too. We actually, um, with the actions and games box, one of our last trips was a snowboarding trip. And so. I was like, we’re going to practice, like stop and go and right. And left and those kinds of things.

[00:33:56] And those terms while we’re on the mountain and just practice because a lot of it is like directions. Hey, we’re going to go over there or, Hey, we’re going to hang on, stop, hold up. So using those phrases that we were learning with the actions and games box while we were snowboarding was actually really cool too, to take it into, you know, our, our daily adventures.

[00:34:11] And so like, we may not be heading to Mexico yet, but. Have the opportunity to practice this in our adventures right now, which is really cool. And they’re remembering it. I liked the, I liked the actions box for snowboarding. Cause sometimes you have, well, you’re sitting down and you’re standing up a ton.

[00:34:27] Sometimes you have to turn around, I’ve worked that and get on your knees out of the day. Right. You have to kneel because you have to like fix stuff and, and get back up if you’re facing the mountain. And yeah, that’s really fun. I do like, yeah. And that’s the cool thing about it is, you know, you’re learning in your home and then it applies to outside your home.

[00:34:44] Just like what happened with English. So that’s just like, that’s really fun to see. Yeah. I really liked it. And then we realized that the one that we say a lot on the mountain, it’s like, okay, go. So it’d be like, Hey, I got to practice that a whole lot. Um, but they, they learned it and they listened to it, which was really cool.

[00:34:59] So it’s really fun to do that, but I want to work getting kind of towards the end of our time here, but I wanted to know if somebody is thinking about wanting to incorporate more language into. Their day-to-day activities. I know, obviously you have talkbox box, which is awesome. And I really do, um, we love the boxes.

[00:35:22] I’m actually stoked for summer when I have a little bit more time, because I’m like, then it will be easier for me. Like when I don’t have to do regular homeschool to like focus on our Spanish. So like I’m super excited for summer, but what tips would you give parents with young kids who are wanting to start learning the language, maybe even in a time management standpoint.

[00:35:39] Right? So. They get the box. If they order a box or even if they decide to just grab a phrasebook or, or learn in another way, even how, what tips would you give them to incorporate it into their daily life and make it actually work? Right? Like so many of us get stuck on the, oh, I took Spanish, like you said earlier, we’ve talked about right.

[00:36:00] Like I took Spanish and I didn’t learn anything. Right. I took French and I got a hundred percent and I still know nothing. So what tips would you give parents who are wanting to start. Yeah, that’s a great question. So the goal is not to learn as much as you can, as fast as you can. The goal is to start using the language in your life so that it just stays.

[00:36:21] So let’s say you have a great month and you’re really using the language. So that would look like choosing one to five phrases that day to work on not 20 or 30. Like if you want to learn 30 phrases. Do five a day, like don’t do 30 at the beginning. Uh, cause it’s kinda like telling your husband and grocery list out loud only so much.

[00:36:41] He’s gonna remember. Okay. So it’s the same thing like that. So just choose one to five. You’ll you’ll go so much faster when you choose the phrase, you want to take time to practice it, which is saying it makes sure your kids know what the phrases that’s helpful. The all on the same page. Um, You know, work the freight, choose a phrase that you can practice and then use in your life so that you can be doing that.

[00:37:04] We do have a phrase planner that helps you choose your phrases and helps you be consistent. And my kids are just really great about that. So you, as the parent, you don’t have to be the one running the whole show. Your kids can also be pulling you along, even if they’re younger. So that could look like. Uh, your kids, you can say, Hey, which phrase would you want to learn?

[00:37:25] Letting them choose the phrase. And then working on that phrase, my kids, they each have like a list of phrases that they, that we’ve put together. So we just pull from them. When are like one to five, get completed, we’ll pull one of their phrases in they’ll. They’ll be the ones who will say what the phrase means.

[00:37:39] They’ll be the ones who. Play the button in the app. And they also will be the ones who will, who will use it and help remind me to use it. And so it’s not all on me. So if you feel like I have to run the show and make this consistent, you need to start delegating some of it to your kids. I know if I tell my kids a time we’re going to do something at a time.

[00:37:59] We’ll make sure that he’s right. Like you can watch shows, right? They’re going to know. So if I say to my kid, all right, math is supposed to be done at 10 30, at 10 30. I want you to start the language thing. My kids will, they will have math cleared away. They will have the app open. They will be ready to go or whatever it is.

[00:38:20] They’ll have it ready to go because it is a fun part of our day where we get to play together and do that. I also have that built into brushing teeth because if I’m going to brush my kids too well, I’m going to brush my teeth to keep teeth. Cause I don’t want to give all our money to the dentist. I’m just don’t want to donate so much to them.

[00:38:34] It’s just too hard. Yeah. My son, I was like, I told him, I was like, it’s just so expensive. And he’s like, when I grow up, I’m going to be a dentist. And I was like, what? And he’s like, cause I’ll be rich. I was like, it’s true. We give them all our money. Uh, but I’m going to brush my kids’ teeth. So I have it built into the routine.

[00:38:53] So once I brush their teeth, we can practice the audio. Right. We can do that time. So that, that builds. Um, if you’re not using Topbox stop mom or, or if you are, it’s just really about taking that phrase and using it. And once you’re using it, your kids are hearing it. Maybe they’re saying it to ho hopefully they are.

[00:39:11] If not, you can give them time and add in another phrase. A lot of times we’ll have native speakers whose kids don’t answer back. And that’s usually because of two things. One is you’re you, your kids think you expect everything of them. And the second is your kids expect. They, they think you expect them to sound perfectly, you expect your kids to sound perfectly.

[00:39:32] So they’re not going to try to speak the language because they’re not going to sound perfect or you’re going to say something or criticized, like whatever it is, they’re not going to do that. Even if you’re non native speaker, whenever somebody tries to say a phrase, don’t correct them. Don’t correct their pronunciation because according to science, they cannot hear it.

[00:39:50] So it takes you a couple of weeks to a couple of months to hear all the sounds being said. So if you’re just nitpicking at your kids, how it should sound, they can’t fix it. They’re not going to do it with you. And so they’re just not going to do it. So you want to really make sure you’re, you’re creating this environment of how you tell your kids the first language, which is when they said their first word, you’re excited and you weren’t.

[00:40:08] No it’s ball, you’re saying it wrong. Right? Right. So maybe so creating that environment. And then the other one is if your kids expect you, you know them, they need to say everything. You gotta get on the same page as them just say, Hey, I want to work on this phrase with you. Let’s start using that and then keep adding in another.

[00:40:24] And that’s what I talked about. Some moms great. Cause you can like literally get on the same page and be able to use those, use those phrases. And so it’s, and then if you’re like, wait, what about grammar? Where to grammar? It’s just like with English, you could hear it, you could speak, you could do something only things before you started grammar.

[00:40:41] Like how old were your kids when they started grammar, they could, they could already do it. And so if you’re starting with grammar, you’re really holding yourself back for lots and lots of years. Cause you go in the wrong way. Uh, so once you start going the right way and you can talk, you start getting an ear for the grammar.

[00:40:55] And then instead of learning this second language type of grammar, you’ll actually learn grammar that native speakers learn. If you decide that. To go even deeper in that direction. So that would be, that would be my tips on, uh, you know, don’t get in your own way and then just choose a little bit to work on.

[00:41:13] And you’ll start seeing that add up and add up and see that consistency happening. If you really have a consistency problem, we do have our accountability group that. That helps you, you can post everyday what you’re working on. You also see other people for scrolling Facebook. You’re like, oh, I bet I better do something.

[00:41:31] It’s that reminder. Yes. That’s a good point. That’s a really good point. Um, so we kind of wrap up most of our, our talks with a couple of quick questions. So one of the things that I would love to know is what is something you wish somebody had told you, which I think you may have already covered this a little bit about traveling full-time and immersing yourself in the language.

[00:41:52] Earlier, what is something, the one thing that you wish somebody had said to you when you were, you know, in college, before that trip to Germany, uh, before that your journey, you will not meet hot guys there.

[00:42:08] Any Germans listening? Um, not that Germans are hot. Uh, I actually, I actually met Hector right before I left, so that was my husband. Didn’t work out.

[00:42:23] No. I think if I meet a lot of families who are in my same situation, or maybe they served a mission, they did like a mission trip somewhere. They learn in school and they’re just so frustrated that they cannot speak to their kids. It is just like, Hey, it’s okay. You actually didn’t learn. You miss the whole foundation of the language and the whole foundation of language is learned at home.

[00:42:47] That’s how it works. Right. And so I think I was, so I just felt like a failure with Spanish though, with German. Right. And so I just knowing that I needed to teach like a mom. That’s that’s probably the most helpful thing. Uh, at that time I wasn’t a mom, so I’d probably be like, I don’t know who you’re talking about, but that’s such a great tip though, but it really boils down to go back to the basics.

[00:43:09] Right? Go back to what somebody who is at the beginning of learning a language. What would start with, like, as a baby, as an infant, going back to pretending you’re a kid kind of a thing, as you’re, as you’re moving into it, it’s not about the grammar and the conjugation to begin with. So, cause I was, I am good at logic.

[00:43:26] I could do that, but yeah, talking and that’s, I, I can’t remember you said something at the beginning, you said, like you said, like that’s my talent that I can start talking right away. And it made me just laugh a little bit because that was the thing I was the most anxious and worried about. Like I was horrified to talk to people when somebody called the office and I had to pick up in German, I was like, oh, like just like email, but like pick up and talk so scared.

[00:43:53] And so I just think it’s so nice when you really start talking this way. You’re not in your head thinking you can talk correctly, which is fluency. Fluency is the ability to, to S to speak or to write also accurately, but it will just fall out of your mouth without thinking in your head. And it just, it makes sense.

[00:44:11] It just makes it so easy. Uh, and so just, that was like the hardest thing for me. And now it has become something that is super easy and that’s how it should be for everybody should be really easy. I love that. And the other question I typically ask everybody is what’s a piece of gear or a tip that you couldn’t do without.

[00:44:27] So something related to like your travels with your kids, something that once you got, you were like, oh my goodness. Why did someone not tell me about this, you know, five years ago? And if I had had this, it would have saved me so much. Is there anything, whether it’s a thing or whether it’s like a, a tip of like I had, um, We have things like for us, one of the biggest things that we do is having snacks everywhere.

[00:44:53] And I know that sounds so simple into, but like I keep non-perishable snacks in the truck at all times. So if we have, you know, impromptu adventures, we are ready to go and I don’t have the, like I’m hungry meltdowns, like ultimate melting down while we’re out. I think that, uh, One of the, one of the thing that, that helps me the most.

[00:45:14] If it’s, if it’s with a baby, like if we have a baby with us having the change, the change of clothes in a Ziploc bag. It’s just the best, because if they do something, I have something else to put the clothes in afterwards. I learned that from a mom who’s there, their baby she’s like, she’s not sick, but she kept throwing up on the airplane because she had some kind of stomach thing.

[00:45:34] And the mom had a whole roll of just like Ziploc bags to keep putting, not Ziploc, just tie bags though, to keep putting outfits into. And I was like, that’s what I need. Cause I kept putting the clothes in there. But then I had nowhere to put the gross clothes or whatever. So for little ones, that one, I try to think the guava family crypt, that’s probably my favorite crib to travel with.

[00:45:54] Have you seen that one? I haven’t seen that one. Okay. Then like year would be probably that one. So it’s super light. It can actually fit as a carry on. So if you want to carry on the cribs. So we’ve had layovers where we’ve just popped that open or like flight delays or something and just put a baby in it.

[00:46:11] Opens up within like three seconds and then it just collapses right back down. Oh, where was that? When my kids were teeny, that’s amazing. I have like a little front zipper, so like they can crawl in and out if you want them to do that. We actually got like the UV cover and we went to, took it to the beach when we’re at the beach.

[00:46:29] So we knew the baby wouldn’t crawl into the water. We’ve used it through the two of the kids, so that my favorite baby stuff for older kids. Ours. We just, we make them, ours is not like a gear or anything, but we make them save up for the trip, the percentage of their age. So seven-year-old saves up 7% of the trip, 10, 10%.

[00:46:53] If it’s a really expensive trip, then we’ll cut it down a little bit. But doing that, they have they’re spending money. And so they don’t ever ask me like what they can get. They’re more focused on the trip and they help plan the trip. So we actually do like things we all want to do together. I love that that’s been really good.

[00:47:10] We make our kids to plan the trips with us, or we let them one time. I let my kid plan a trip. He chose at a travel show where like, you can go anywhere. Where do you want to go? And at the end, he was like, can you. No, no, you can literally go anywhere. I will take you anywhere. He’s like he wanted to see the wizard of Oz museum.

[00:47:29] Ah, that’s so cute. So could you take me to Kansas? We went to Kansas and it was not, it wasn’t the, was your mom’s museum 70 made it cause they really love the wizard of Oz. It was. At first, I was a little nervous, but then it was fine. It turned out just fine. Oh, that’s awesome. No, I love that you involve them in the planning and have them help save for it.

[00:47:51] That’s a great tip that I have not had my kids do, but I love that because it also, it gives them a say so, and buy-in, and the trip we have had them help plan the trip, but I love that you help them have them help pay for it too, because it also teaches them. What it all costs. And I think it probably gives them a better understanding while you’re there.

[00:48:08] Like you said, that they’re not going to ask for everything under the sun, because they’re going to kind of understand what all goes into it and what’s already been spent. They won’t be my brothers. Oh, that’s awesome. So before we wrap up, I just wanted to share that we have been, like I said, we’ve been using talkbox and I absolutely love it.

[00:48:28] We. I, like I said, my kids have been re retaining the, the words and the phrases that we have been practicing. They, we use. Regularly, we haven’t done as many as I want, but we are learning them and we’re retaining them. So like you said, whether it’s one phrase a day, five phrases a day, whatever it is, we’re making progress and we’re retaining it.

[00:48:47] And actually we had somebody who was a native speaker that we were talking with the other day and my kid asked, said he wanted to practice when it, his phrases. And so he asked her, um, when do you want your apple peeled? And so, but he said it so fast that she would. Huh. And like she said, huh. And then he slowed it down and she was like, oh, that was really like, it was, he said it right.

[00:49:10] He said, and he was like, oh, I got it. Like, he felt like, oh, she understood it. But she. I was like, buddy, you spoke too fast for her. She was like, oh no, but it was really good. He just, he was just flying through and you know, right now we’re masked. So he was like wearing a mask and it was like all muffled.

[00:49:26] So I think that was really what was, what was going on, but it was so great. Cause once he slowed down and said it again, she was like, that’s really good. Your, your pronunciation is great. And he was just like beaming, right? Like it, it clicked that like, Hey, people actually understand me when I say this too.

[00:49:42] Mom and dad. Right. So that was kind of cool. And I’m sure she was expecting, oh, LA right? Like

[00:49:51] so many like breaks into this whole long phrase and she’s like, whoa. Okay. You’re probably right. So, anyway, I also wanted to let you guys know everybody who’s listening. We have partners with Adelaide and talkbox step mom. And we have a code to share with you for a discount. If you want to give, talk box a try yourself.

[00:50:10] And if you want to try out the first box in a phrase book, you can use code the stoke fam 20 to get $20 off of both of those. And if you want to use or try out just the phrasebook, you can also get five bucks off the phrasebook with the stoke fam five. You can even go check out all of the other cool stuff that she has on her [email protected] Ford slash stoke, and including that homeschool phrase planner, which I’m totally going to get, because I want my kids to start writing down the ones and plus handwriting practice.

[00:50:41] So right there, I’ll send you one. Okay. Oh, thank you. It’s so awesome. Yes. Um, I’m going to have them actually take ownership and put it in the phrasebook cause they can totally do that now. So, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your story with us and for giving us tips too. Be able to arm our stress, immerse ourselves better in the countries that we visit on our travels and adventures.

[00:51:06] And yeah, I just really appreciate you sharing your story. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. This has been a fun mom, mom hour. So thank you. Yes. Well, before we go, I think we’ve chatted about some of it, but will you tell everyone where they can connect with you? So I know you have several different places and ways that people can connect with you and, um, expand their language horizons too.

[00:51:25] So can you share that. Yeah. If you go to good old instagram.com for the app, because to the app, you can find us at talk box mom and. You can, DMS will even send you a free starter pack. If you want to check that out there. And on our blog, we also have information on like how fluency works. If you’re curious about that, that’s at talk box at mom’s slash fluency.

[00:51:53] You just want to grab our starter pot pack. You go to talk about step moms slash ball because you play with the ball in it. And I’m sure it has another year. I don’t remember the cool one. I remember the ball one. Uh, but those are, those are from places on Instagram. You can totally DM me either I’ll respond or Eileen or Morgan.

[00:52:14] We’re all fun people. So if you have questions, we’re here for you. We also have, if you know, if you’re not sure you want to try it out the Starbucks. Great. We also have phrase of the day calendars, so you can see those on our Instagram as well. Awesome. Thank you so much. And I also wanted to say before we log off to you, so the cool thing I like about the boxes too, is that they are topic specific.

[00:52:40] So I think we kind of mentioned it, but we didn’t really talk about it a whole lot, but they’re topic specific. So like the first box is food related and the second box and correct me if I’m not saying this correctly, but the second box is like the actions in games box. You kind of get to pick a part of your day.

[00:52:57] I love how it starts with food, because like we eat food three times a day, right? So there’s plenty of opportunities, practice it without feeling like it’s taking over your life. So that was my favorite part is that that starts with something where you can get some easy, quick wins and really see how that’s working in your family.

[00:53:12] Because clearly we all eat all the time. And if you have my kids. It seems like 24 7. Yeah. Yeah. So the boxes they’ll go into different aspects of your, of your life. And by the time you get to the end, your phrases are just in that language. But don’t worry. You’ve got it. So they do like, they don’t, they don’t necessarily get more difficult.

[00:53:33] Cause language is language, but they do get more phrases because you learn faster and less English. And then the phrase book, it has like little phrases to use throughout your whole day. So if you don’t, you don’t have to wait until the seventh box to say, it’s time to get dressed. Like you can do some of those phrases before then to help you out.

[00:53:50] But the boxes. Super deep into that area. And they as has talked about something on families, say they are worth their weight in gold, because it is so much of the language it’s. If you use your box, your it’s the equivalent of at least $600 to a thousand dollars, at least of having a native speaker in your home with those phrases and using that because we have all the phrases set up and we have all the audio for you to listen to.

[00:54:18] It’s similar to what I did in Brazil with a live person. Uh, but it costs definitely less. And it’s actually faster because it’s so streamlined and nobody rolls their eyes at you. If you forget how to say a phrase, can you tell me to a gun? I don’t sleep right again and again. And so we packaged that whole experience into an $80 box.

[00:54:38] It’s not per month it’s per box, and you can decide how often your boxes come. But if you’re going out a moderate, like kind of fast paced every two months for a family of four, Over two months, that’s $10 a week, which is $2 and 50 cents per person. It really is the most cost effective way to have this immersion experience.

[00:54:56] And that’s what we wanted to have for families, but we want it to work within your budget. Obviously, you know, I’m budgeting conscious. I talked about title so you can, how often you want your boxes to come, you can get one and then pause it or choose any date. Or if you’re having a trip coming up. You can have a bunch calm and just, you know, stop the math for a little bit and get the language going like you’re going to do for the summer.

[00:55:19] Yep. Yep. I love that. And the app has been super helpful too, because, and like you said earlier, you mentioned how you not correcting everybody, but the more we listen to those phrases, the more people we start correcting ourselves. Right. So like, I’ll notice where. I didn’t say it right the first time where one of my kids didn’t say it right the first time.

[00:55:39] And instead of calling them out on it, we just listened to it a few more times. Hearing it a handful of times or practicing it for a handful of days, suddenly that initial mispronunciation is dropping off. So I’m sure we’re still not perfect, but we are definitely where we can be understood by native speakers, even when we surprised them with phrases, they didn’t think we were going to drop out.

[00:55:57] Right. So that’s really cool. So anyway, Thank you so much again for joining me today, Adelaide, I’m going to let you go and get back to your family tonight. Um, cause we are recording this for late for her. So, um, thank you so much for your time and for sharing talkbox stock mom and your story with us.

[00:56:15] Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. And I’m going to go read my kids a story, so thank you so much fun. And I love the, I love the, the stoke fam Instagram, just by the way. Thank you so much. I appreciate. Thanks again to Adelaide from top box, stop mom for coming to join us today on the podcast. I absolutely love this conversation with you about full-time international travel.

[00:56:39] Well, not just international travel, but full-time travel and how to great learning a foreign language into our family so that our travels to other countries can be more immersive and that our kids and us can get a lot more out of it. So I really appreciated this conversation. Some of my favorite takeaways from this talk.

[00:56:56] That it travel full-time is something that you would like to do consider pitching your company. You might be surprised like Hector was number two. I really loved her tip, which probably isn’t like super shattering, but it’s something that I think a lot of us kind of skip over and think, oh, I’d have to sell everything.

[00:57:10] Maybe you don’t. Maybe you can just consider renting your house out while you’re gone, because if you want to keep it as a home base or you’re not quite sure if it’s for you for the long-term rent it out and then. Um, something to come back to if you change your mind or something changes. And I really also love that she pointed out that planning a budget for them and kind of having things in the fixed category and the flexible category.

[00:57:29] So, you know, fixed category, being things like their housing that they really have to pay for, right? Like you don’t have a choice. And then also having the things that are more flexible, like eating out or dining or activities, those kinds of things you can kind of flex with and to keep those separate so that you can kind of figure out how much you can spend in each year.

[00:57:44] And then when it comes to a foreign language, I really, really love that she pointed out that you do not have to memorize verb conjugation charts to begin with, to speak a foreign language. You can actually just start speaking the language and our kids have shown us that that is true. Like we have not conjugated verbs in Spanish at all, and we are.

[00:58:01] Having small, we were having conversations in Spanish, so we’re getting there. And so I just really appreciated her reality dose for traveling internationally with kids and learning that foreign language. And she was so much fun to talk to. I literally had so much fun. Um, just a reminder, if you are interested in trying out talk box, don’t forget to you.

[00:58:19] The stoke fam 20 all caps for $20 off a phrase book and your first box or the stoke fam five for five bucks off of your phrasebook, or she even made it super easy. And you can just go to talk box, stop mom Ford slash stoke to find the deals that are available to you there, and last but not least to thanks again for being here with us, Sam, you are why we’re doing this and if you’re enjoying it, if you would give us a rating or review on iTunes, it would be super helpful.

[00:58:44] So we can continue to bring amazing guests like Adelaide to you at venture marks. See out there.