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Tips for Foreign Language Learning on Holiday

You arrive at the first motorway service area in the country which speaks your language. You fill up with petrol. Rehearse your numbers and polite phrases as you go to pay. Take your cues from the people in front of you at the checkout.
As you drink your coffee in the restaurant next door, listen to conversations going on around you. Even if you do not understand every word, listen to the music of the language. Try to install its rhythms in your head so that you can use them when you speak. Read the walls.
Have a browse through the shop. Is there a manual for your car there? Would it be good to buy one? Or maybe the one which comes with your car has pages in your chosen language. Have a look through before you set off again.
Listen to the local radio as you go along. Is there someone else in the car who is learning the same language as you? Maybe you could try to work out what you have heard as you go along.
If you are not the driver, look at signs on the other vehicles and at the side of the road.
You see a tourist information point. You stop and go in and have a look. Pick up the brochures which look as if they would be of interest. Later, when you are at your destination, make the effort to read the part written in the language you are studying. Only refer to the English - if there is any - if you can't work it out. And then see how it means what it means.
You arrive at your destination. You rehearse the phrase you are going to use when you check in. You may be able to take some cues from other people in front of you. If you have to wait, read the walls.
You decide to do some shopping. Rehearse your polite phrases. Listen to the supermarket announcements. See if you can mange to buy the offer of the day. Read all the writing you see.
You find a piece of advertising put under you windscreen wipers. Don't bin it. Take it home and read it.
You notice a family of native speakers next door. They are a similar 'shape' to your family. Eavesdrop a little on their conversations. Have a few rehearsed polite phrases, so that you can make a contact. Let your children play together.

And it's only the first evening!