Preparatory to another year in which my travels will take me to countries where Spanish is spoken, I'm making my usual and usually unsuccessful attempts to improve my limited (okay, terrible) grasp of the language. I generally leave a confused trail of baffled waiters ("You want
how many thousand wild boars for breakfast?") in my linguistically challenged wake in Latin America because I tend to forget every iota of any language I've studied when using it alone abroad.
This season, though, I added a new twist to my educational efforts (which, aside from classes, formerly included independent study like
obsessively reading phrasebooks while watching
El Mariachi dubbed in Spanish): I attended a local intercambio, or exchange. Each week, a
group of folks whose native tongues are either Spanish or English and whose home countries span North and South America gathers at our local bookstore to drink coffee and speak each other's language: the Spanish speakers must speak English, and vice versa. And it's successful because learning language in the context of general life works.
Suzanne Barbezat, About's Guide to Mexico, has written a terrific piece, "
Learn Spanish in Mexico," in which she mentions intercambio as one of the many tools for learning the lingo in the land where it's spoken -- Suzanne suggests taking language classes in Mexico and having your language school's administration arrange an intercambio for you with a Mexican who is learning English. Check out the rest of Suzanne's suggestions:
I found myself speaking and comprehending Spanish (for a brief and heady period, anyway) on my
last trip to Mexico partially because I was traveling solo and it was sink or swim patois-wise -- I had to ask for help, and I had to talk. Intercambio is a similar principle:
having to speak a language with people who will help you tends to untie your tongue and (hopefully) all that vocabulary you memorized magically emerges as conversation.
Read up, get motivated and
viaja a Mexico, pronto.
More on learning Spanish in Mexico:
Related Reading: Studying Abroad | What is an exchange student? | "Learning the Lingo" | "Yo suis perdu..." | Language and Travel | Beginner's Guide to Mexico Travel
Photos © Kathleen Crislip
"Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages." -- Dave Barry
It was about this time of year that we were last negotiating Australian roads' roundabouts that rounded the "wrong" way,
learning to drive with the wheel on the right and the road on the left and generally
dismaying other drivers down under,
and we're thinking fondly of Australia's lovely November weather as the snow starts falling here in the US mountains. See, it's summer in Australia -- beautiful time of year for a
road trip across Australia -- and here's the cool thing: backpackers can easily buy and rent cars in the land of Oz. So, want to take the wheel from the other side of the car
and the road and do some serious Aussie cruising? Check out some
Australian driving tips and Oz road trip pix, and learn about backpacker's cars (including renting and buying cars and vans for backpackers):
Related Reading: Australian Hostels | Plugging In Down Under | Driving Down Under
Photo © Kathleen Crislip |
Student Travel Blog Home'Tis the season to think about travel in the US of A and
student discounts, and
Amtrak offers 'em -- students can travel on Amtrak at
15% off with an ISIC card.
With
airport security hassles ruling American air and
holiday plane ticket prices sky high, frazzled travelers may welcome a chance to
pack without worry and kick back with the
view on a train trip. Learn more about riding the rails on the cheap:
Amtrak's routes can be lacking, but the ride rocks. I rode coast to coast on the train last year -- check out the resulting
Amtrak photos for train travel information:
Related: Amtrak Passes Now Available to US Residents | Packing for Airport Security | Train Travel One Solution to Airport Woes | Airport Rules | How to Find Student Discounts
Photo © Kathleen Crislip | Student Travel blog home
You couldn't wait to get home for the holidays -- take a break from stressful studies and see the fam. Travel at the holidays, however much you have been looking forward to it, though, can be a stressful experience in itself, and school stuff (and fam life) can add anxiety to holiday fun. Get some tips for taking the trouble out of travel
and holidays with
helpful holiday stress management advice and don't let the crazy holiday travel scene get you going down!
Related Reading: Holiday Travel Tools | Thanksgiving Travel Forecast 2011 Last Minute Standby Student Airfare | Last Minute Greyhound Bus Discounts | How to Find Student Travel Discounts | How to Get Ready for Air Travel
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