About Foreigndly
Henry & Amanda · updated 27 August 2026
I built this for my wife.
Amanda and I travel, and before every trip she wanted the same thing: enough of the language to get around and be courteous — dare I say, friendly foreigners. Not fluency. Just enough to greet someone properly, order without pointing, and not be the couple who assume everyone will switch to English.
Nothing we tried did that
The owl app had us learning random words — and in some languages the whole alphabet — for weeks before a single phrase we would actually use on the trip. Translation apps are great in a pinch, but they are no good for memorising anything, and holding up a phone doesn't exactly help you blend in with the locals in basic interactions.
And almost nothing is localised
This is the part that bothered me most. Vietnamese is usually taught in Hanoi's northern pronunciation — which sounds off in Ho Chi Minh City, where a lot of visitors actually land. You can study for months and still say it in a way that marks you as having learned from a book aimed at somewhere else. Our Vietnam kit carries both.
So a Foreigndly kit is built for one country: the phrases you need in the first days, how the letters actually sound there, what's polite and what isn't, and enough about the food to read a menu. One country, one kit, written for that place rather than translated off a shared word list.
No streaks, no daily quota
There's nothing in here that punishes you for missing a day. No flames, no guilt-tripping notifications, no owl. You're going on a trip, not entering a relationship with an app. Your progress is a record of what you've practiced, not a debt you owe us.
It works on the plane
A kit is stored on your device after the first load, so it opens with the wifi off — which is generally where you are when you finally get around to learning how to say hello.
Say hello
If a phrase in your language reads like a textbook instead of a person, I genuinely want to know — corrections from native speakers get fixed fast. Same for a country you want built. Get in touch, or email foreigndly@gmail.com.
— Henry