Learning a Country’s Language

On a standard ten-day holiday, you will be able to see a destination’s major tourist attractions, but you won’t have time to immerse yourself in the culture and vibrancy of the people. To experience the full potential of visiting a place, you need to find an activity that will keep you there for longer. Learning the country’s language is a great way to extend your visit and meet more people

Visa and accommodation

If you want to extend your stay beyond a standard holiday, you are going to need a visa and a place to stay. Work visas, which often have elaborate requirements, are more difficult to attain than student visas. An accredited language institute will help you with all the visa and accommodation admin. This perk makes it much easier to settle and to start exploring your surroundings.

Double benefit

Language learning programmes are popular because they offer the two-fold advantage of exploring a destination while learning a new skill. Living in a foreign country as a student allows you to explore further than the touristic safe-zones – meaning that you can scratch deeper than the surface of a country’s culture.

See more, do more

Most students begin their study abroad experience by visiting the standard tourist attractions, but this rarely takes more than a few days. As the language course progresses, you will have several months to explore the city’s unknown museums, bars, music venues and natural sites.

Find local spots

When you are on a short holiday, it’s easy to get caught up in the tourist traps, which locals avoid. Enrolling for a language course gives you the time to work out where the locals prefer to hang out. As your language proficiency improves, you will be able to make new friends and experience life from the perspective of a city’s local.

Many Options

Some people want to visit a certain country, but they want to learn a different language than that which is spoken there. In the past if you wanted to learn German, you had to go to Germany. Fortunately, due to globalisation, this has changed – today, if you’re looking for German lessons London, Zurich and Paris all have great schools with native language teachers.

Teachers as reference guides

At a language school, you will have reference guides at your disposal every day. The teachers, who live and work in the city, will give you honest advice – as opposed to the tourist agencies that only want to make a sale.

Language and culture

Language and culture are interwoven and they develop together over time. When you are studying a new language, you learn about the culture and it allows you to gain a better understanding of the people and the place. For students enrolled in French courses London with St Georges is a stepping-stone to understanding the food, art and culture of France. Many students who complete these programmes are often inspired to see more and explore further once they leave the school.

Keeping the culture in you

When you combine tourism and language learning, you will carry a piece of the destination with you forever. Learning a country’s language is a skill that no one can take away from you. When you hear the language spoken on television or in your hometown, the warm memories of your time in the country will always return.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 1:15 am and is filed under Travel General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.