Get Ready for a Trip – Learn the Language

The single thing that will give anyone a better travel experience is to learn at least some of the local language and pandemic lockdown is a great time to do it.

For anyone who thinks “I am too old” or “I don’t have the talent” or any number of other reasons why it can’t be done, I suggest reading this article from BBC.com, How to Learn a Language – Tips from a Polyglot.

My personal favourite is when people say, “oh, you have a knack for languages.” If only! If that were true, I would have learned more than thank you in Russia after spending a week there, and after two months in Vietnam I would be beyond the rudimentary level, which I am not.  In my defence, I was teaching English in Vietnam, which sounds like and is an excuse for having been lazy!

What I do have when I want to learn a language is a knack to be willing to spend hours studying, the willingness to make mistakes and to sound stupid most of the time in the other language, and not being able to say what I really want to say.  Sometimes I just want to tell people that I really am smarter in English than I am in their language!  But for many of the countries that I visit, that would be far beyond my ability, so I stick to first learning the basics, such as hello, thank you, excuse me, I am sorry, and then progress from there.

A key point is that there are many ways to learn and it is important to learn in the way that works for you.  Some people can learn a language strictly from watching TV in that language, a feat which humbles me. I happen to like learning the structure and the grammar (so I don’t sound stupid, maybe?) and then reading novels and watching films and TV.  Many find language apps such as duolingo helpful.  Whatever works – a little experimentation may be necessary.

Then the most important thing is to not give up – be consistent by studying at least a little every day.

And when we can travel again, the effort will be rewarded with a much richer experience.