{"id":31691,"date":"2016-07-22T10:36:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T18:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heynadine.com\/?p=31691"},"modified":"2016-07-22T10:36:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T18:36:14","slug":"the-benefits-of-traveling-with-a-second-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/the-benefits-of-traveling-with-a-second-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Traveling with a Second Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

The benefits of traveling with a second language, you ask? Well, let me tell you about myself first. \u00a0My name is Jessica, and I am a native, English speaker. \u00a0I love to travel so I learned to speak Spanish fluently. It wasn’t easy, and I still have awkward moments (like the one time I was accidentally on Chilean television and had to sing their anthem…crickets…), but speaking a second language has made me a totally less awkward person (and that’s hard to do!). \u00a0Besides that, speaking Spanish (or any second language!) has many trip-changing benefits, and I’ll tell you about them from my experience: \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting around easier!<\/strong> The most obvious benefit. Let me preface this by saying that I\u2019m awful at directions – IN ENGLISH. Add a different language on top of that, and voil\u00e0! I\u2019m stuck in a bus station all night. Traveling with Spanish increases the chances that someone (please! anyone!) can help me navigate the metros, trains, and buses. I can also read signs with ease, and thankfully, I never have to stress out about finding bathrooms, shops or bars. Ordering at restaurants has become an easy process for me, too. I can order exactly which local foods I\u2019m craving (flautas, get in my tummy ahora!). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tapas,<\/p>\n

By far, my favorite part of traveling with a second language is making friends with the locals<\/strong>! Today, Spanish is the official language in 20 countries, and 410 million people speak it natively (Benny Lewis, fluentin3months.com)<\/em>. Get ready, the 409,999,950 other native speakers I have not yet made friends with – I\u2019m coming for ya! These friendships have transformed my traveling experience. I have been invited to a quincea\u00f1era in Mexico, house parties, a wedding, religious services, family gatherings, barbecues, and more. And not to mention, at an El D\u00eda de los Tres Reyes (Three Kings Day) celebration in Puebla, I found the doll in my rosca bread. SCORE!! And I didn\u2019t even choke on it! I can guarantee that I wouldn\u2019t have had these cultural experiences without speaking Spanish and making friends with the locals. According to Nelson Mandela, \u201cIf you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.\u201d I couldn\u2019t agree more! I mean, who can argue with Nelson Mandela?!<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

SAVING MONEY.\u00a0<\/strong>Have you ever been in a taxi, and you know that the driver is taking the long way home? \u00a0Or your hostel charges you fees that you had no idea about? Traveling with a second language can help keep your money in your pocket! I remember one instance in which I immediately started chatting up my taxi driver in Chile. As it turned out, he used to live where I went to university. He then discounted the price of the ride! YES! When I stayed in Madrid, I was paying TONS of money for food at higher-end stores: Corte Ingl\u00e9s and VIPS. After talking to some neighbors in Spanish, I found the coolest (and cheapest) markets in town. As a side note, many bartenders LOVED my sister and me for talking to them in Spanish! \u00a0You know what that means – FREE DRINKS!<\/p>\n

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Not only can speaking a second language make your travel experiences more memorable, but studies suggest that it\u2019s great for your brain<\/strong>, too! It can improve cognitive skills not related to language and even shield against dementia in your old age (NY Times, \u201cThe Benefits of Bilingualism\u201d<\/em><\/span>)<\/span><\/em>. Also, speaking a second language can improve your love life! Yep, You heard that right. A recent study of 270 dating sites found that 97% of the sites asked customers if they were multilingual, and the most common reason was because learning another language is considered sexy (Phoenix News, \u201cLanguage is sexy: Flex your multilingual six-pack\u201d).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Are you convinced yet? There are much\u00edsimos benefits of traveling with a second language! To end on a philosophical note: \u201cThe limits of my language are the limits of my universe\u201d-\u00a0<\/span>(Ludwig Wittgenstein).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Who is learning a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth!) language? Comment below!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What ARE the benefits of traveling with a second language you ask? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,28],"tags":[810,1648,1649,2496,2817,2880],"class_list":["post-31691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemplations","category-guest-posts","tag-travel","tag-learning-another-language","tag-learning-spanish","tag-spanish","tag-travel-and-spanish","tag-travel-with-a-second-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heynadine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}