Learning a new language is a fun challenge, and offers many benefits, including advancing your vocabulary, increasing job opportunities and improving your memory.
Learning a new language is different for every person and every language. You may find that some languages are straightforward for you to pick up, while others seem a bit difficult. Whatever the language, learning can be made easy with various learning methods available.
Travelling is one of the best ways to learn a language. It gives you the opportunity to learn as you go along by immersing yourself in environments that are more applicable to you. In this guide, we’ve listed some of the ways that travelling can help with language learning.
Language is part of the culture
What better way to learn a new language than to experience the culture of that language? No matter how many documentaries you watch or travel brochures you read, it will never be the same as being physically present in that country. Not only does learning a new culture give better context to the language, but it also helps you approach the language with new insight.
When you place your learnings in a cultural context, it can help you engage with the foreign language. Culture is essential when studying a new language as it allows you to really live the language while you learn. Of course, to learn about the culture, you have to travel!
Learn as you go along
Fully immerse yourself in the language by learning as you go along. Rather than learning online or through textbooks, you can learn from real-life experiences that are more relevant to you. For example, you can pick up significant words and phrases when visiting a local bakery, restaurant, gym, etc.
You’d be surprised just how much you’ll learn by communicating with the locals, and it’s also a great excuse to be able to travel!
A fun way to learn
Learning through apps, textbooks and online courses isn’t for everyone. Sometimes you have to immerse yourself in order to learn quickly and effectively. Travelling is fun, and making learning a fun experience can really help you stay engaged and grasp your learnings!
While travelling, you get to see the world, meet new people, view beautiful sceneries, and explore a culture outside of your own homeland. You can even learn from day-to-day activities and even by visiting new places – not to mention making new friends along the way.
Get a clearer vision of the people
While learning a new language on your travels, you’ll be able to meet new people to aid your learning and help you with little things, such as pronunciation, body language and facial expressions.
When you are in the country, you are better able to absorb the vision of the people. This means that you can learn from them and with them! With the new language, you will communicate and create friendships with others in ways you never thought possible.
Easier to adopt mannerisms
Language isn’t just learning sentence constructions, terminology and grammatical principles and sentence construction, but also unique mannerisms and cultural norms.
If you truly want to master a second language, you really need to understand and adopt the mannerisms for effective language acquisition.
Looking to further your language learning?
Learning a foreign language can be hugely rewarding on both a personal and professional level. It can also open up new career opportunities as businesses worldwide continue to engage with international markets and seek multilingual experts.
If you’re looking for a rewarding career in language translation, there is a fantastic range of language jobs that could be perfect for you!
We also recommend taking a read of our guide, ‘What are the easiest languages to learn?’, to help you decide which language to choose.
