This isn’t a typical blog post of mine where I talk about the latest
things I’ve done or places I’ve been. But its still travel related and I want
to write about it; and its my blog so I can write whatever I want!
When I went to South America with James and Jordan last year
I learned Spanish. I started learning a couple months before we left, and I
continued learning the whole 4 months we were there. I even continued learning
it for about a month after we arrived home because I really wanted to finish
the course. I used Pimsleur.
I learned Spanish because I wanted to maximize my enjoyment of
the trip to South America, and any future trips I make to South or Central
America. It worked – I had more fun because of it.
But only lately (yesterday, really) did I realize how good a
decision it was to learn Spanish. After spending 4 days on Koh Tao diving,
snorkeling, and recovering from the full moon party, I took the ferry back to
the mainland because I wanted to go to a place called Krabi. On the ferry I met
a guy named Dani from Valencia, Spain.
Dani really wants to learn English, and I really want to
learn Spanish. And because of that it turned a boring 2 hour ferry ride into a
great conversation that doubled as an English lesson for him and a Spanish lesson
for me.
If I didn’t already have a solid basic understanding of
Spanish, I wouldn’t have been able to talk to Dani at all.
Yesterday evening I arrived in Krabi at a beach called Ao
Nang. When I went out I met three people from Basque. I know they have their
own language, but I started speaking in Spanish and they followed suit. Although I didn’t speak any English with them,
I got the impression that their knowledge of English is very minimal.
I think they were thrilled to be able to meet someone
without having to go through the challenging (and for educated westerners) embarrassing
process of having to struggle through a basic conversation in English.
Without
Spanish I wouldn’t have been able to meet these people from the very unique and
interesting Basque region.
Now that I have seen how richly rewarding it is to learn a
second language, it got me thinking about which languages would be the most
useful and fun for me to learn.
From 4 months in South America, and now nearly 3 months in
Southeast Asia, I’ve found that young people in pretty much every 1st
world nation learn English to the point that they can speak it fluently. The
only major exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are Spain, France,
and Japan. And for that reason, I plan on learning those 3 languages in that
order during my life: Spanish, French, and Japanese.
On a completely off-topic note I overheard a guy from Quebec
talking to some foreigners about the Quebec student strikes that happened
recently. He told them that the Quebec government is very corrupt and wants to
double tuition.
I couldn’t help myself; I asked the Quebec guy how much he
paid in tuition last year. He said $1,200.
$1,200!!!! For the entire year! I
paid $8,000 a year in Nova Scotia, and I’ve never heard of a University in
Canada charging less than $6,000 for the year.
It seems so weird to me. Do
people in Quebec know that their tuition is insanely cheap, even when doubled
to a measly $2,400? I’m not trying to stir up angry emotions or anything, but
it just boggles my mind.
Today I’m going to a beach that is supposed to have really
good rock climbing. Hopefully a post full of colourful pictures and stories
will follow.
