How to enjoy learning a language abroad

Face it. Learning a language in a classroom setting can be dull, even deadening. Time spent learning in school in the U.S. was often an occasion to try to impress a bored fellow soul to whom I was attracted. Even the best teacher using the most advanced methods could only make the process of memorization slightly less painful.

Since then, language tapes, CDs, DVDs, Podcasts, and state-of-the-art online classes have been tried as part of New Year’s Resolutions or frantic cramming sessions before a trip abroad — all to little or no avail.

Nevertheless, in my experience, there is probably no better way to travel abroad than with some knowledge of the local language. Not only is communication possible on a deeper level, but you learn to use or expand what some researchers have discovered to be different parts of the brain. In other words, you learn to see the world with the fresh perspective of a child, even while engaging in potentially existential conversations in new and often exotic settings. And I won’t even go into the political, social, and economic benefits of learning a foreign language which Americans — from all walks of life — are now realizing to be of fundamental importance as global citizens.

So how to balance the contradictory need to learn a language with the tedium of endless memorization of verb conjugations or grammatical rules?

When traveling through most of the world I am in the same boat as everyone else who wishes to communicate with the local population, and I have found the following options for language immersion to be of most use for vagabonders:

• Avoid traveling with partners who do not share your interest in learning to speak another language. It is far too easy to distance yourself from the local population and withdraw into your native language.
• Try not to spend too much time in expatriate hangouts or in youth hostels where most travelers are likely to speak English as a first or second language. It is possible to meet natives traveling within their own country or become friendly with the local staff, but all-too-often the tendency is to default to the lingua franca instead of the native language. Youth hostels are one of the best budget alternatives, but if you stay to sleep, try keeping to the streets during the day and converse with locals as much as possible.
• Whenever possible, try to arrange homestays or hospitality exchanges. There is nothing more touching than living with a family willing to go to every length to teach you how to speak their language, and their reward is in expressing their own pride and hospitality while satisfying their curiosity regarding your life as an American in what is still considered a “Shining City,” regardless of current political events.
• Do not let any perfectionist tendencies or fear of making mistakes prevent you from trying to speak the language. I have seen far too many well-educated travelers find themselves tongue-tied out of fear of appearing ignorant by making grammatical mistakes. With a few exceptions, most natives are very flattered that you are even trying to speak their language and are more-than-forgiving. Often natives will speak broken English just to share their empathy for your situation.
• Read or attempt to read newspapers, magazines, and books in the native language as much as possible while on the road. It never hurts to carry along a small dictionary or a guidebook with a good section on basic vocabulary and pronunciation.
• Even when spoken back to in English, continue to attempt to speak in the native language. Some like to show off their English and expose you as a foreigner, but don’t take the bait. You will be respected for your good-faith attempts.

Another option is to try learning a language in a small language school abroad. The intimacy of smaller schools allows for a richer and more intense cultural and language immersion experience, and many schools now offer cultural and adventure activities to supplement intensive language classes. The same can hold true for even the larger chain schools. While this may violate the purist view inherent in the independent spirit of vagabonding, a good school will eventually enable you to travel even more independently and with a solid fundamental background in the native language. It will also likely result in lifelong friendships or bring you potential travel mates.

If you do decide to go the language school route, you must choose between attending a short- or long-term language study program. Short-term programs are less expensive and allow you more flexibility in your travels. Longer-term programs cost more and will therefore be more restrictive on your time and location, even though they should result in a deeper understanding of the language.

Be sure to research all options online no matter how spontaneous you are by nature. TransitionsAbroad.com offers scores of expert and first-hand articles on language learning worldwide as well as listings of many eclectic programs worldwide. Check them out and dare to immerse yourself in a new language, which will make possible meaningful communication with locals and will likely forever change your perspective on the world. Who knows, you may even start to dream future vagabonding adventures in another language…

(Disclosure: I must admit to having "cheated" on some occasions over the years by being spoiled. My parents had the foresight to have thrown me into a public school in Paris at the age of nine without my knowing a word of the language. At 15, my parents again sent me to a public high school in the South of France where classes involved reading the plays of Moliere, Racine, and Corneille, or essays by Montaigne, Pascal, and Descartes. Several summers were spent in Rome and Florence attempting to speak Italian well enough not to betray my nationality — purely out of principle and the love of the challenge; but you can’t easily fool the Florentines no matter how fashionably you dress or the cynical Romans who have seen tourists come and go for thousands of years.)