Have you learned foreign languages in school? Spanish, German, or even Japanese? And have you ever made the experience of travelling to a country where people speak the language you have learned?
If so, you will have noticed: Interacting with the locals in their native language is one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences in life. It gives you the invaluable opportunity to fully grasp a country's culture.
In the Past, Learning a New Language Was Complicated
Until a few years ago, learning a new language was a rather complicated challenge. You had to find a school that offers courses in the language you wanted to learn. And the language skills you could acquire depended heavily on the skills of your teacher.
Almost everybody has heard stories of non-native speaking teachers who transferred their own heavy accent to their students. With the embarrassing result that native speakers had a hard time to even understand the students' pronunciation.
Online Courses Make Learning a New Language Very Easy
Today, the possibilities of online learning give you a vast set of opportunities that earlier generations could only dream about. Online language courses are designed in ways that incorporate the latest knowledge about the most effective learning methods.
Moreover, the teachers in online courses are native speakers. So there is no risk of acquiring this thick accent that nobody understands.
Speaking the Local Language Gives You a Great Travelling Experience
Having learned a new language makes a tremendous difference when you are traveling. Of course, in today's globalized world, English has become the “lingua franca”. No matter whether you travel to Helsinki, Heidelberg, or Hokkaido: The locals will almost always be able to understand English. This makes it easy for you to find your way to restaurants, museums, and sights.
But what would it feel like if you were able to communicate with the locals in Helsinki, Heidelberg or Hokkaido in Finnish, German, or Japanese? I can assure you: speaking the language of the locals is an experience that is truly unique.
To avoid misunderstandings: This is not about speaking the local language fluently. Rather, it is about starting a conversation with the most common expressions that you need in everyday interaction. “Hello”, “How are you”, “Thank you”, and so on. If you master these expressions in the local language—together with a pronunciation that people can understand—even strangers will meet you with a big smile and an open heart.
Language Skills Show your Respect for Local Culture
In many places of the world, especially in regions with a lot of tourists, locals are quite annoyed with tourists who take it as a given that everybody understands English. Some people feel that this behavior shows a lack of respect for the host country.
For sure, one would expect you to be interested in the culture of the country you are traveling to. But how can you appreciate the culture of the country, if you can't even understand the most basic expressions in the country's language?
This is where speaking the local language comes into play. And I am not talking about gadgets that automatically translate your sentences into the local language. Even if this is the “dernier cri”: It will not be the norm until in 20 or 30 years from now. Today, most people still prefer the old-fashioned face-to-face interaction between humans—without a technical device in between.
Mobile Apps Help You Learn Languages Even Faster!
To further enhance your travelling experience, mobile learning apps are a very powerful tool. They give you the opportunity to have a native-speaking teacher with you, no matter where you are. A long history of student exchange programs have demonstrated that you learn a language much faster when you live in an environment, where the new language surrounds you.
Mobile learning apps use this insight to enable you to hone your language skills in a surrounding that inspires you and motivates you, to dive even deeper into the language you want to learn. No need to organize a student exchange: The perfect learning device is always there, on your smartphone or on your tablet.
The more you travel, the better your pronunciation will get. And your vocabulary will increase every day. Travelling and learning a new language at the same time is the perfect way to expand your horizon and to enjoy meeting a new culture.
