Combining Business With Pleasure — Learning Languages Abroad

Daria Sergeeva,

Correspondent (Travel)

 

The world is witnessing a popular trend nowadays – learning languages. Being able to speak a foreign language always helps in your career. A large percentage of people in the world speak more than one language. Usually these are the ones of the European group: French, German, Spanish or Italian. Obviously, English is a ‘must-learn’ language in the entire world. Basically every school in most countries teaches English as a mandatory subject. Unfortunately, most of the time people’s knowledge of any language stays at a school level. Thus, the best way to learn a language or to improve your current level is to go to the country where it is spoken and fully integrate yourself in it. Take some language classes, talk to the natives and experience the culture – the advantages will be more than beneficial to you afterwards.

This is a great opportunity for travel-lovers. Choose a language that you want to learn or just stick with the one you are currently learning and willing to improve, whether it is Italian, Swedish or Chinese – it doesn’t matter. Your next step is to decide what country and city you want to go to. The same language can be spoken in several countries but bear in mind that it might have different accents, for instance, Spanish spoken in Spain differs from the one in South America.

If you like big cities, parties and loud places, then choose a capital or one of the resort towns. This way you can attend your classes in the morning and spend afternoons and evenings sightseeing, partying and having fun.

Another option is to visit a small town or even a village. You can be sure that people there won’t talk to you in English. In big cities most of the citizens speak English and they somehow notice that you are not native and ruin all your attempts to speak in the language you are learning. They will eventually reply in English. On the contrary, small town inhabitants are not necessarily able to express themselves in English thus, it would be quite a good language practice for you.

No matter what option is more preferable, you should still visit all the possible places of interest and always try to talk to people in their language. Don’t ask for menus in English in the restaurants, forget that English exists (obviously not if that’s the language you are learning) and dive into the foreign culture. People usually notice your attempts to express yourself in a foreign language and always compliment you.

This way you would definitely improve your language skills and spend a pleasurable vacation in a foreign country. Fill your usual lazy sleeping-till-noon-doing-nothing holidays with something useful and valuable. The benefits will be immeasurable!

Image Courtesy: Tim Green (http://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/4954528861/); Shane Global, Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License | Wiki Commons