Around 80% of Americans believe that learning a few words of the local language matters before they travel abroad. Only 58% of those Americans actually go so far as to learn some words. That twenty-two-point gap is the basis of Preply’s report on language anxiety and travel, supplemented by visuals to support the data on this anxiety.

The report opens on this contradiction between belief and action and sharpens the data. It shows that 40% of travelers admit to cramming language lessons at the airport or on the plane. Only 25% begin practicing the language of their destination months ahead of time. 32% side-step the problem entirely by choosing destinations where English is the dominant language or prevalent enough to carry travelers through.

Two ranked charts are the center of the report and comparing their results offers eye-opening details. The first chart shows that in 2026, Italy topped the wish list of American travel destinations. Australia, Ireland, the UK, and France followed.

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The second chart ranked where Americans would consider living. Australia and the UK tie at 20% of the answers, and Canada follows closely at 19%. Three of the top five travel destinations are largely English-speaking, and the relocation list you’ll note was entirely English-speaking.

Japan demonstrates this split dramatically. 18% of Americans would like to visit Japan, but only 10% would consider living there. Comfort clearly wins out over desire when it comes to relocation.

The demographic section shows even more interesting trends. Gen Z is nearly three times as likely as Boomers to want to visit Japan (24.4% versus 8.6%). They’re also more than twice as likely to consider living there (13.4% versus 5.3%). Ireland runs the opposite direction, with 26.2% of Boomers wishing to visit and only 9.8% of Gen Z. This is the biggest generational gap in the survey.

The pattern suggests that Boomers gravitate toward English-speaking destinations, while Gen Z showed stronger interest in places like Japan, Korea, Brazil, Colombia, and Thailand. Gender splits emerged too, with women favoring Italy, Ireland, and Greece, and men dreaming of Japan at 24% versus women’s 14%.

A horizontal bar graph ranks the barriers to visiting non-English-speaking destinations. 37% of Americans assume the native language is too difficult to learn. 35% believe English is understood well enough to get by without learning. 33% of respondents said they’re bad at learning languages, 32% cite lacking the time to learn, and 31% fear offending a native speaker by mistake. When ranking language intimidation by country, China led at 37%, Japan followed at 34%, then Korea at 24%, and Thailand at 13%.

A graphic on language faux pas showed that 35% of Americans point to menu items rather than attempting pronunciation, 23% speak louder and slower, and 17% buy American fast food for familiarity—only 15% attempt to mimic the local accent, which the Preply team gently discouraged.

The big takeaway seems to be that 45% of Americans would travel more if they spoke another language.

Moving into a first apartment is a rite of passage, but the math behind making it a reality is becoming a bigger obstacle. The metros with the strongest job markets also have the steepest living costs, and over the past few years, rent in these areas has climbed faster than paychecks. Cheap rent isn’t the only solution, though. Thin wages and flat hiring shut young people out of many cities.

Rove Lab’s new analysis identifies the cities in the middle ground with the most to offer young people establishing their lives. The study examined the 100 most populous U.S. metro areas and scored each one on 10 different metrics grouped into three weighted categories.

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Financial affordability was the most important category, carrying 60% of the weight. This category covers average annual wage, wage growth, median rent and utility costs, rent-to-income ratio, and cost of living relative to the national average. Cost of living alone received 20% of the weight, the heaviest single metric in the study. Opportunity and access accounted for 24% and included employment growth, number of residents between 22 and 34, and amount of rental vacancy. The final 16% went to entertainment and dining, tracking the number of arts and recreation venues and restaurants and bars per 100,000 residents. Each metric was standardized, scored, and weighted into a final number out of 100.

The winning city was Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas, with a score of 74.24. This isn’t an obvious winner until you look at the numbers. Wages increased by 20.5% from 2022 to 2025, with the average wage at $77,165 and a cost of living that’s 8.65% below the national average. This combination creates a rent-to-income ratio of 19%, leaving young people with money to save, potentially for the elusive dream of homeownership. Fortune 500 companies, Walmart, J.B. Hunt, and Tyson, have a home in the area and likely explain wage strength.

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos followed with a 73.93 score, driven by a thriving tech sector that’s seen 8.7% employment growth, and the area offers 30,000 vacant rental units for newcomers. Des Moines, Baton Rouge, and Nashville round out the top five.

A few cities earned high rankings thanks to low housing costs. Pittsburgh was seventh overall with a rent-to-income ratio of 17.6%. Wichita, ranked ninth, has low rent and utilities and a low cost of living that’s 11.05% below average. Toledo, number 25 on the list, has the cheapest housing of all cities on the list, with an average of $949 a month.

The most surprising cities on the list are Californian. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ranks 21st, and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont lands 24th, despite costs of living well above the national average. Salaries do the heavy lifting, averaging $208,877 and $146,433, respectively. This pulls down San Jose’s rent-to-income ratio to 16.2%, the lowest on the list.

Anyone who chats, texts, or scrolls social media will see text depicting laughter many times a day. A new map from Preply shows that the way laughter is portrayed changes dramatically depending on the language. In this “Laughing Around the World” map, Preply cataloged 26 different ways people express their mirth online, from familiar acronyms to creative onomatopoeia.

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Some of the most distinct forms of laughter aren’t words at all. Thai speakers type out “55555” because the Thai word for that number sounds like “ha!” The more 5s Thai texters type, the bigger the laugh. Mandarin speakers type “23333,” while Japanese users type “www,” because the Japanese word for laughter is warau, and they think a “w” resembles a grinning face.

Other forms of laughter come straight from keyboard mechanics. Indonesians type “wkwkwk” mostly because “k” is easier to reach on a home-row keyboard than “h.” Brazilian and Portuguese speakers write out “kkkkkk” or “rsrsrsrs,” which derives from riso, the Portuguese word for laughter. The map also shows the Korean letters for laughter, which are romanized as “kkkk” or “hhhhh.”

English alone has spawned a range of laughter abbreviations, including LOL, LMAO, LMFAO, and ROFL. Other languages followed this lead. French speakers might type out “MDR” or mort de rire, which means “dead from laughing.” The French also use PTDR, or pete de rire, and XPTDR for even greater laughter. Nigerians type LWKM, which translates to “laugh wan kill me,” and LWKMD, or “laugh wan kill me, die.” In Jamaica, you’ll get a text reading DWL for “dead wild laugh.” And Estonians text “IRW,” shorthand for the word irvitamina, which describes a certain type of laugh.

In many languages, online laughter is phonetic based on whatever alphabet the speaker uses. Spanish type “jajaja,” which is the same as “hahaha,” with “jejejeje” indicating irony and “jijijiji” meaning mischief. Persian Farsi uses letters that spell out “kha-kha-kha.” Russian Cyrillic spells out “axaxaxa,” and Ukrainians have a version that indicates that their “axaxaxa” is sarcastic. Greek offers letters for basic laughter, sneaky laughter, giggling, and evil laughter.

Some options show the texture of a language. Italians write out “ahahaha” or “ehehehe” because their language lacks a strong aspirated “h” sound. Germans like to indicate stage direction with an asterisk, so they’ll text “*grins*” or “*lack*.” Polish teens spell out “heheszki,” which means something like “kicking and laughing.” Lithuanians send “cha cha cha,” but they mean laughter, not dancing.

The takeaway from this joyful map is that laughter is universal, but remarkably local in how it’s expressed through a keyboard. Our text-based laughter is shaped by phonetics, slang, alphabet, and the quirks of the keyboard style we use. In a world connected by social media, it’s helpful to recognize the symbols used by our international neighbors to better understand them and communicate clearly. Laughter text also offers a unique look at various languages and their shapes and textures.