Day 35: Step #11, Speaking The Local Lingo

Dear Student,

You could relocate to most of the countries on my Top Havens list and, at least in particular cities and regions, get by without learning the local language. In Paris, Panama City, Buenos Aires, and Istria, for example, many of the locals speak English; certainly enough of them speak it well enough that you could survive without making any real effort to communicate in the local lingo. And, in a place like Ajijic, Mexico, or Boquete, Panama, you could insulate yourself from the local population, make a new life among fellow expats, and avoid the language issue altogether. I know many who’ve lived for years in these towns without acquiring more than a handful of local words.

In fact, I don’t speak Spanish; Lief does. On the other hand, while Lief speaks but a couple of dozen French words, by the time we left Paris for Panama City, my French had reached a conversational level. I do my best to manage our local life in France; Lief manages our in-country affairs in Panama.

So, yes, you could get by without learning the language in most of the destinations I recommend for overseas living. You could count on a spouse, a friend, an assistant, or a translator. But your experience of the place will not be the same as it would be if you made the effort to learn to communicate with your new neighbors in their native language.

Even a little effort is appreciated. Lief’s couple of dozen French words and my smattering of Spanish allow us to keep face. We can say hello, good-bye, thank you, and please. We can give a taxi driver directions and order dinner in a restaurant where the waiter speaks no English. We can ask for help or for a beer at the bar. If you’re thinking of retiring to a country where the language is something other than English, you should be prepared to make the effort to speak the local language at least at this level.

The more effort you make and the more of the second language you pick up, the more you’ll be able to penetrate beneath the surface of the place and become part of the local community. If you have no interest in doing this and flat-out don’t want to hassle with the challenge at this point in your life, I recommend you consider places where language isn’t an issue.

You may sometimes still feel like you need a translator, but, in a handful very appealing overseas havens, the language is English. Yes, in Ireland, Malta, and Belize, they speak our native tongue, albeit with a twist. Living in any of these places, no language classes (or translation of documents related to the purchase of a piece of real estate, for example, or the installation of your internet service) would be required.

If, though, your plan is to move someplace where the language is something other than English, what’s the most expedient way to learn to communicate with the locals?

The best way to learn a new language is to acquire a boyfriend (or girlfriend) in your new home. My daughter, Kaitlin, studied French as a nearly full-time occupation during our first year in Paris. She learned to speak the language, but she didn’t become fluent until she started dating a young Frenchman.

Of course, this isn’t an option for everyone.

In my case, for example, I struggled greatly with the language all through our first three years living in Paris. I’d studied French in college, but my university skills didn’t get me far two decades later. Finally, a few months before we left Paris for Panama City, I had the opportunity to enrol in an immersion language program. After four weeks of intensive, six-hour-a-day study, I still didn’t speak as well as either of my children, but I was pleased with my progress and no longer felt embarrassed conversing with French friends.

My point is that you aren’t going to pick up the language of your new country by osmosis. I lived in Paris for years, frequenting the grocery store and the dry cleaner, the bank and my son’s French school day after day, and managed to improve my language skills only marginally, because I wasn’t making a real effort. I was working in an office with fellow Americans and running an international business in English. At home, too, we spoke English, which provided a break for the kids and ensured that young Jack didn’t lose his ability to converse with his parents in their native tongue, but it made it difficult for Lief and me to better our French.

While in Panama, my Spanish skills improved at a much greater rate, thanks to my Colombian maid. Olga arrived every morning at seven o’clock, and she and I spent the next 30 minutes or so reviewing the plan for the day. What will we have for dinner? What special chores need to be taken care of? How are the plants on the balcony faring? Should we change the bed linens? What time will Jack be home from school? It was basic conversation, but Olga spoke no English, so every word of it was in Spanish. My vocabulary increased day by day, and Olga patiently corrected my grammar.

I also took to watching the Disney Channel with Jack in Spanish and to watching movies in English with Spanish subtitles so I could read along with the dialogue. I forced myself to read the local paper in Spanish (with a dictionary on hand), and I listened whenever possible to Spanish-language conversations going on around me as I walked down the street or waited in line in a shop. A friend says she likes to find the Spanish lyrics to her favorite songs online as a way of improving her vocabulary.

That same friend continues to explain, “I moved to Panama knowing cerveza, casa, and baño. I realized quickly that the only way I was really going to learn Spanish was to immerse myself in it. The more independent you are, the quicker you will progress.”

If your goal is to learn the language of your new country, avoid other expats as much as possible at the beginning. If you want to put gas in your car, find something at a store, or ask for directions, don’t let yourself seek help from an English speaker. And don’t be embarrassed to use sign language, pantomime, and other antics to make yourself understood. Encourage people to correct you (as I encouraged Olga).

Making a focused effort and putting yourself in situations every day where you’ll have no choice but to speak the new language, you’ll find that you’ll begin to understand what’s going on around you within a couple of months. It will take a year or longer before you’ll feel comfortable at a conversational level. And that’s OK.

Getting down to brass tacks, here are eight tips for how to learn a new language:

1. Download some apps. The best free language-learning apps change with the times. Each year sees a new top 10 list, but one app dominates the #1 spot year after year. Duolingo should be the first stop on your language-learning journey. Duolingo turns classes into games, and a single lesson can be completed in five minutes or less.

Start with Duolingo; it’s been time-tested. Then, when it comes time for you to start your language efforts, do a Google search to find any additional options that claim to be the latest and greatest of the moment.

2. Listen to podcasts. This is something you can do (on an iPod, for example) while you’re doing something else.

Coffee Break Spanish is a good choice for a beginner. Notes in Spanish is helpful if you already know a bit of the language.

These are but two of the many podcast options available. Take a look here for a more complete list. You can search in Google for podcasts in your target language.

3. Connect your language study to other interests. Study French while listening to podcasts about wine-making (in French) or Spanish by reading movie reviews (if you like films)… etc.

4. Don’t sweat the grammar. Your objective is to learn to communicate… not to impress your new neighbors with your understanding of sentence structure or verb conjugations.

5. Understand how you learn best. Some of us are visual learners, some are audio learners, some are tactile learners. Adjust your learning plan to suit. For example, maybe you’d do better listening to a podcast and reading the script for it at the same time.

6. Speak the language as much as possible. This is key. Have conversations with yourself in the shower if you have no language partner. Don’t get stuck thinking, “I’m still not good enough… I will practice when I get better.” Just get out there and use the language.

7. If possible, find a native speaker to practice with and encourage him (or her) to correct you, particularly your pronunciation.

8. Read in the new language. Again, focus on reading materials that interest you. Local newspapers are also good.

9. Try the Ultralingua software dictionary. With this, you can read books online and place the cursor over a word to pop up the definition.