Tips For Healthy Trips -

Reference & Education

October 25, 2009

Learning Spanish to Travel the World

Tags: , , , ,

Author: Donald Hylton
Source: ezinearticles.com

If you’ve ever dreamed of traveling to the beaches of Cancun, or to the pyramids in Mexico, or the bullfights in Spain, then learning Spanish will help you enjoy your plans. Knowing how to speak Spanish will increase the odds of a successful trip or vacation.

Speaking Spanish will enhance the enjoyment of your trip. You will be able to speak to the hotel staff with no problem. You can let them know you need extra towels or you’d like some flowers delivered to your room.

If you take a taxi, you can ask how much is the fare, to avoid being overcharged. You can ask the local people for directions and get around town without getting lost. You can ask where the best places are to eat.

Cultural sites, such as museums or cathedrals, will be much more interesting if you are able to understand what is written or spoken. The tour guide for your interest may not speak English or speak English well enough to answer all your questions. Being able to ask your questions in Spanish may give you the information you seek.

If you are perhaps going on a mission trip to visit an orphanage, you will be able to talk to the kids in Spanish. Think how much it would help, and how much the kids would enjoy it,if you could deliver your message in their own language.

Knowing Spanish can help you avoid embarrassing situations due to mistranslation of words. Many English words transfer over to Spanish quite easily. For instance, “car”in English is “carro”in Spanish.

There are hundreds of words that translate over into Spanish in a manner very similar to English. However, sometimes ideas don’t transfer over quite as well. For instance a well known airlines used the phrase “Fly in Leather” for their ad campaign. Unfortunately, when the translation was made for the Latin market, it came out as “Fly Naked”. I’m sure there were a few disappointed people who found out that the flights were not clothing optional.

Being able to communicate with people is enjoyable in any language. There will be many people who will try to speak with you in English. They may not get a chance to practice very often, and meeting you provides them the opportunity. Why not make an effort to learn Spanish before you take a trip to a Spanish speaking country? It’s the perfect opportunity for you to practice what you have learned.

Want to learn Spanish? Can’t work college classes into your busy life? Visit http://easyspanishnow.blogspot.com/ for more information on how you can learn Spanish easily.

Leave a comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

You must be logged in to post a comment.