Prepare both sides of the conversation
Each conversation fold pairs what you may say with the replies you are likely to hear, plus the fragment worth listening for.
thereabouts
Be ready for the conversations you are actually going to have.
Atessa · Abruzzo · October 2026
Language readiness for a real place.
thereabouts prepares the language you are likely to say and hear on a trip you actually take—built from your destination, people, routines, and the moments that caught you out last time. The first real-world trip happens to be in Italy.
THE TEST
On the next trip, does it help you understand or say something you genuinely could not have handled otherwise?
55 SEC
A walk through the trip loop.
In the app
What it does
Available on iOS and Android.
Practise the language for your real trip
Preparation is organised around the places you actually go: cafés, restaurants, food shops, family, neighbours, driving, and local errands.
Hear it naturally or slowly
Target-language playback has platform-tuned natural and slow rates. Recognition practice asks what a likely reply meant before revealing the words.
Rehearse aloud without a fake accent score
Push-to-talk practice shows the settled device transcript and any missed words as evidence. Your own judgement remains the outcome.
Say when something sounds wrong
Much of the language is written by an AI model and checked by a second one. If a phrase does not sound right, tell the app: it is withdrawn, replaced, and does not come back.
Keep the useful context, not a generic profile
Approved people, places, routines, phrases, and trip moments stay editable. Local SQLite remains the source of truth, with optional account linking and consented cloud backup.
Accepted direction
What comes next
Planned, and not yet in the app.
Conversational trip intake
Describe where you are going and what you expect to do in one short note, with at most one useful follow-up before seeing value.
A fuller acquisition ladder
Break longer phrases into meaningful chunks, explain only the grammar that helps, and build from recognition to whole-phrase spoken recall.
Translation that becomes useful later
Solve the immediate gap, then choose whether to save it, learn it for a future trip, or leave it behind.
Considerate trip attention
Optional, trip-aware reminders with quiet hours, easy pause controls, no streaks, and no notification unless there is a genuine reason.
The return loop
Capture what happened on your trip so the next one starts from real encounters rather than another generic beginner syllabus.
Field notes
Frequently asked questions
Is thereabouts another general language-learning app?
No. It is a trip-readiness app, and it is not limited to Italian. Your destination, target language, recurring places, people, and likely conversations decide what deserves attention; grammar appears only when it helps with something you are likely to use. Italy is simply the first real trip it was built around.
Why prepare the replies as well as the phrases?
Being able to ask a question is not enough if the answer arrives at normal speed. A thereabouts conversation fold includes what you say, likely replies, their meaning, and a useful listening cue.
How is the language checked?
Much of the language in the app is written by an AI model and checked by a second one, rather than by a person. That is a real limit and the app says so. If a phrase does not sound right to you, report it: the phrase is withdrawn and replaced, and it will not come back. Do not rely on it for emergency, medical, legal, or other high-consequence communication.
Does it score my pronunciation?
No. Device speech recognition can show what was transcribed and which expected words were absent, but it cannot honestly provide phoneme-level pronunciation or accent grading. The app keeps that distinction explicit.
Does it use AI?
Requests go through an App-Check-protected Firebase Function before OpenAI, with explicit consent that can be withdrawn in settings. What is sent is the note you write about your trip, the text you ask to be translated, and your destination and language. Saved people, places, preferences, recordings, and high-sensitivity memories are excluded.
Are there streaks or daily pressure?
No. There are no streaks, leagues, XP, punishment mechanics, or percentage-complete scores. The reminders on the roadmap will be opt-in, pausable, trip-aware, and will only appear when there is something genuinely worth preparing.
Is it available to download?
Yes. thereabouts is available for iOS and Android. It is free, with no subscription, purchase, or paid entitlement.
Plain-English records