Do you love travelling as much as wanderlust and are you one? Then, has it ever happened to you, when you are travelling and you don’t manage reading sign boards, having problem communicating while shopping and misunderstanding what the locals are trying to say? Well, if you are a bilingual or if you know the language the language the locals speak (in a country you would most likely visit or want to visit), you would not face such difficulties.Anyhow, let’s find out some benefits of learning a language before you visit a country.
As travelling is expensive and can get very exhausting. Some travel abroad for work related reasons, some go for vacations and spend time with friends and family, some attend events and many go for a new job posting or further studies. So, while being there why not make the best out of it? Now, you must be wondering how to make it more enjoyable and also, beneficial. Well, learning a foreign language can be challenging yet exciting, educational, and has many benefits. Wait a second, but is learning a new language altogether really worth it?
Travelling and commuting in the city
Imagine how easy it would be to visit any place, restaurant, exhibition hall, checking into a hotel and would make all the experiences so much easier, joyful and less stressful! So, learning the language while travelling would be of great help and the best way to avoid miscommunication.
Safety
Everyone wants to be safe, so do you. Have you ever taken the wrong bus or missed your train because you misunderstood the announcement of the platform number?It might have not happened to you but what’s the guarantee that it wouldn’t happen? However, it is highly not likely that you would come across such incidents if you knew the language the announcement was made in, right? This is how learning the language would be beneficial. It is definitely scary and problematic when you get robbed and you don’t know the language so you don’t know understand when a bunch of guys on the road discuss to rob you witnessing and assuming that you don’t their language and a tourist. Contrarily, think of the situation differing if you knew and understood their discussion and quickly got yourself ready and prepared for it by going to a restaurant or a safer place.
Culture
You can build a deeper bond with the culture by learning the language because you get deeper perspective when you mix with the locals and indulge in their activities especially by speaking to them while doing them. Also, they feel more comfortable, friendly and admired, respected when they see a tourist making an effort to learn and speak to them in their language that is why language is the best way to get to know their culture. This teaches you to respect a different culture other than your own.You can also take part in their festival! Also, you will be avoiding cultural faux pas which means (you would know what could be disrespectful to them which a tourist normally wouldn’t know) you would know how to behave in that culture and fitting in among the locals.Plus, they will love and appreciate you for speaking their language. So, if you want to learn to speak or learn a new language you can try learning from Language Mingle as they have free lessons from native speaking tutors that focus mainly on the goals and interests of the learner.
Make it memorable and less expensive
In many countries, tourists get caught up, especially, in very expensive and fancy restaurants because they barely know the city so they don’t have many options. So, by learning a language and having the advantage to converse with the locals, you can always ask them for cost-efficient and tastier food corners. This goes for hotels too because several hotels are cheaper away from the arrival location such as the railway station or airport.
Language Skills
A language is best learnt when practiced in the country it belongs to; that’s because language needs amelioration almost constantly to get better at it especially when it comes to speaking and writing. So, if you learn a new language, depending on the country you are visiting, you will have enough practice and that will improve your language skills automatically. Living there or even spending your vacation there would be help you speak like a native speaker because they would all be surrounding you and have the best live example for you. You could try using your language skills while ordering your food and shopping in a market.
Socialization
Having a close friend in an unknown country is not only cool but also helpful. Learning a language and meeting new people abroad is good to spend time with; you can explore spots which would otherwise remain unknown to tourists and also, this might get you new friends and acquaintance. You could get to meet people who don’t speak English or your native language yet can be amazing people. Who knows, you might even find the love of your life!
Art
In my opinion, life is boring and almost vain without art in it.Wherever you go, you will see the beauty and elegance of art in different forms or even shapeless; yet so meaningful, just like a language and its art of learning. When you learn a language you not only learn the language and grammar but history, culture and art. You learn about great philosophers, architecture, spirituality and a lot more.
Metalinguistic awareness
When I first began learning Spanish, I felt confident and my respect for myself increased gradually. This happened even though I made a lot more mistakes than others, I saw myself improving, gaining more interest and became easier for me to learn a third language. And guess what this actually exists as “metalinguistic awareness”. Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to identify the techniques of learning and break down into a series of steps (a process).The muscle memory (of the brain). Your brain will then understand intrinsically how to learn a language and its structure too through an increased awareness of words, syntax and grammar.Therefore, this is how language learning is very effective and helpful when travelling. So, are you thinking of learning a new language? If yes, please join Language Mingle for affordable customized courses from native speaking tutors just for you, at languagemingle.com all are welcome!
