Countries Influenced by Russian
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 285 million
• Number of Countries influenced by Russian: 16

(Weber, 1999)

Listen 2 Russian: Listen 2 Russian introduces users to the basics of the Russian Language through a series of 10 written lessons.

Russian Lessons - A set of 13 written lessons teaching the absolute beginner the basics of the Russian language.

Russian Spoonful: 23 Russian podcasts for the beginner. Unfortunately there will not be any new podcasts posted to this site until the Fall, however it should be a good place to get started.

Read more about the Six Most Influential Languages in the World.

Countries Influenced by Arabic
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 221 million
• Number of Countries influenced by Arabic: 24

(Weber, 1999)

Free Language Courses: Free downloadable Arabic course. Includes original material developed by the US State Department to train its Foreign Service Officers.

Madinah Arabic: Free written Arabic learning course. Starts with the absolute beginner, teaching them to first the basics of reading the language, then continues onto spoken Arabic.

Arabic Pod: Recently started in March 2007, Arabic pod now offers around 20 podcasts for the beginning Arabic speaker. Each podcast includes a PDF transcript, and is updated with new podcasts every 1-2 weeks.

Read more about the Six Most Influential Languages in the World.

Countries Influenced by Mandarin Chinese
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 1.12 billion
• Number of Countries influenced by Mandarin Chinese: 5

(Weber, 1999)

Free Language Courses: Free downloadable course teaching Mandarin Chinese. Includes original material developed by the US State Department to train its Foreign Service Officers.

Chinese Tools: very good site featuring practical lessons for the Mandarin beginner.

Free Chinese Lessons: Free written Chinese lessons, starting with the absolute beginner level.

Chinese Pod: hundreds of free Mandarin podcasts divided by Level. Levels include: newbie, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced.

Chinese Learn Online: another extensive collection (over 100) of podcasts for the beginning Mandarin speaker. Starts with the absolute beginner for Podcast #1, and includes a written lesson outline for each podcast to follow along.

Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk: over 70 podcasts, starting with the beginner Spanish speaker. Serge also includes PDF transcripts and worksheets for each of his lessons to follow along with during the lesson, and for practice afterwards.

Read more about the Six Most Influential Languages in the World.

The next Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

To be honest, this doesn’t sound much like an excuse to me, but more like a great opportunity to add an incredibly fulfilling new component to your life. If you are anxious about traveling internationally because you never have before, I would say there is not time like the present to get started!

However, I do understand that taking that first step into international travel is a big one, so let me ease your anxiety a little…

There has never been a better time in history to travel: As the world grows “smaller” through technological advancements in transportation and communication, we have never been “closer” to our neighbors half way around the world. Despite new politics limiting immigration in a small minority of countries, on the global scale foreign countries and cultures are more accepting and open to outsiders than ever before. Global tourism is already an enormous industry, but still continues to grow offering us travelers an almost limitless array of travel options for all budgets, interests, and styles. There has never been a better time to get out and actually get to know that planet we are living on!

1. International airfares are dropping: New low-fare airlines are revolutionizing travel across Europe, Asia, and the United States. As demand increases by a new breed of global consumers in developing countries, these fares should drop even further.
2. The internet provides a bevy of resources for travelers: User run websites like Trip Advisor and Wiki Travel, are making site-specific travel information very easy to come by. Guidebooks such as Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, and Let’s Go, to name just a few, are more detailed than ever. You can even log onto online forums like Thorntree or BootsnAll and ask your travel questions to thousands of other travelers around the world. All this information is available at your fingertips, and can make the learning curve to international travel as steep or as gentle as you want to it.
3. It’s now much simpler to ease your way into travel: For better or worse, as the world becomes more globalized it also becomes more homogenized. This allows first-time travelers to ease their way into international travel. You certainly don’t have to begin your experience with a trek through rural Africa. Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and even developing nations such as China, India, Mexico, and Brazil offer the first time traveler amazing new culture and wonders to explore without giving up the lifestyle they have grown accustomed to back home. Even in poorer countries, if you stick to the larger cities, you can usually maintain the amenities and level of comfort you are used to, making the “culture shock” of new environment much easier to handle.

Instead of thinking of your lack of travel experience as an impediment, use it as motivation to get out and try something new! Start slow, do some research, and ease into the experience as I have recommended above, and you will likely begin to wonder how you ever lived without such an exciting and rewarding pursuit in your life!

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For the next installment of the Travel Myth Buster Series I will address another common excuse for not incorporating travel into one’s lifestyle:

If you want to travel and have kids, you basically have two options: 1. You can find someone reliable and trustworthy to leave them with when you travel, since you don’t necessarily need to travel for weeks on end to make it part of your life. 2. Or, take advantage of the more obvious and satisfying option, bring them with you!

There are hundreds of reasons why international travel is a fantastic thing to take part in with your kids, even with your young children. If they can walk and talk, they will love the experience!

Let me start by addressing 2 of the biggest concerns people have for NOT wanting to travel abroad with their children.

1. Safety: An understandable concern for any caring mother and father. However, the unknown truth is that in general foreign countries, even developing countries are not any more dangerous than home. Sure, theft can be a problem, but in general, most countries around the world have lower violent crime rates than we do in the US or in the UK. As long as you take normal everyday precautions, and do some research on potential destinations, you shouldn’t be in harm’s way anymore than you would be crossing the street at home.
2. Missing School The other common and understandable concern is you children missing school. First of all, you can completely dodge this concern by scheduling trips during school vacations. However, if that isn’t possible you first need to decide how long you’ll be able to travel. As I have argued before, you can effectively travel for just 1 or 2 weeks a year, in which case most schools and teachers are usually quite supportive of the child missing a few days in order to go out and actually SEE the world that they are learning about in the classroom. So, what if you want to travel for months, or even a year or more? You still have a number of options, as this is not such an uncommon thing anymore. Homeschooling your children on the road, or even accredited online courses designed for traveling children are both possibilities. See how his family is traveling the world while educating 4 school-age children! Again, the experience and knowledge they gain from traveling the world, will far outweigh any time they miss in the classroom.

Now let’s go over all the possible good that can come from incorporating international travel into the time you spend with you children:

1. Bonding: Having had many a travel partner in my day, I can guarantee with 100% certainty that traveling with your children will be a bonding experience. Even if you rarely see eye to eye with your kids, there is something about being surrounding by a strange new culture and environment that brings people closer together.
2. Worldly knowledge and experience: Like it or not, we live in a global world. Local problems are global problems, and global problems are local. The experience and knowledge your child will get actually seeing other regions of the globe from a young age, will help them immensely in their growth as a world citizen.
3. Compassion and understanding: Going along with number two, the world we live in is far from perfect. However, growing up in the US or Western Europe it is easy to get sucked into the culture of materialism. It will be very valuable for your children to see the problems facing the majority of people on our globe, so that they grow up to be compassionate, understanding individuals.
4. Language learning: Ever wish you spoke a foreign language? Why not give your children that opportunity. Your young children will literally soak up new languages as their brains’ capacities for learning are at their peak at a young age.
5. Diversity: Imagine a childhood in which you have the opportunity to learn the philosophy of Buddhism, the morals of Christianity, and the sense of community behind Islam. Where you meet people and keep up with friends from China, India, Zambia, and Peru. Think of the diversity and multiplicity that would come from such an experience. This is the kind of experience you can give to your child through travel.

Want to hear more about families that have embarked down the great road of travel, TOGETHER?

• Six in the World
• The Carlson Family’s around the world adventure

Or check out these other family travel resources:

• Family Vacations and Travel Blog
• Travelogger.net
• Taking the Kids
• Fun and Educational Family Travel Tips

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With this post in the Travel Myth Buster Series I would like to move away from excuses about money, and into excuses about time. One VERY common excuse I hear people make regularly for not incorporating international travel into their lives is:

To this excuse my reply is usually a simple, “Yes, you do!” The problem with this excuse is that it’s based on some misconceived notion that “travel” is only defined as 6 month backpacking trips across Europe or 3 month treks through the Andes. However, that’s just not true!

In travel as in anything else we endeavor to include in our lives, we work with what we have. If all you can manage is one week a year to go travel, USE IT! Do that 5 years in a row and you you can experience more new cultures, amazing sites, and regions of the globe than most people do in their lifetime. It’s worth it!

As with any other aspect of your life, recognize what you are capable of and take advantage of it. Take one week off this year, and maybe next year you’ll realize you can actually free up two. Don’t stress about not having more time, just make a conscious decision to make the best of what you have. Do you have a little extra time after Christmas, are summer weeks a little slow, can you save up sick or personal days, figure out what you’re capable of and TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!

Make it happen
So, now you have a plan, one week, one new exotic location a year. Now all that’s left to do is to make it happen. Follow these 5 basic steps, and you will embark down a new road as an International Traveler!

1. Set a date: Absolute first step, talk to your boss, coworkers, clients, cat, whoever you work with, and coordinate one week sometime in the next 12 months where you can take off to go traveling. Set this date in stone and work towards it. If not, you will continuously procrastinate, and will never actually realize your dream.

2. Work your ass off: Next step is to work your ass off getting everything in your life in order. You have a goal, you have a time frame, now it’s time to get it done, no excuses. Tie up all loose ends, and use your upcoming trip as motivation.

3. Go enjoy your international experience: Have a fantastic time.

4. Come back ready to work: Come back recharged and ready to work at 110%. Your employer, coworkers, and clients will see this, and it will instill confidence in them for the next time you travel.

5. Start planning for next year’s trip: This is your lifestyle now, get ready for the next amazing trip. African Safari, Trans Siberian Railroad, Fiji?

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Continuing with the Travel Myth Buster Series, and going along with the theme of “money issues” as in the two previous common excuses for not traveling: “I can’t afford to travel”“I have too many expenses, I can’t save money for travel”, is the excuse:

So, you’re in debt, meaning that you have credit cards, student loans, car loans, or some other expense to pay off. Well, your first priority should be coming up with a plan to eliminate debt, or at least getting it down to a manageable level (this all depends on the interest rates you pay and any other counteracting investments you may have). There are literally thousands of resources on the web giving advice and tips on how to get out of debt so I recommend looking over some of the following links to develop your “plan for eliminating debt”.

• 9 Ways to Pay off Debt
• How to Get Out of Debt
• What Debt to Pay off First
• Using 0% Balance Transfers to Pay Off Debt
• How Much Interest are you Paying

After you have a plan for eliminating debt, you can reevaluate your situation, and basically have two options for planning travel into your life.

Pay off all debt, then start saving for travel
If your debt is not too high (under $10,000), and/or you have a lot of high interest rate debt (credit cards) this is probably the best option. Live frugally, make sacrifices, and get your debt back down to a manageable level, or eliminate it entirely. If you cut unnecessary expenses out of your life as I outlined in the previous installment ”I can’t save money for travel”, it shouldn’t take too long to take control of your debt. Once you are debt free you will feel a huge burden lifted from your shoulders, will already have developed some great experience in cutting unnecessary expenses from your life, and will be in the perfect position to start saving for travel. As I have said before, if you truly value travel as an end, you will find that the sacrifices you make in saving will be paid back 100 times by the experience you will get standing in front of the pyramids in Egypt or snorkeling with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands!

Stick to your plan, and save for travel on the side
So what if you owe a lot more? What if you owe $50,000 or $100,000 in student loans? This is a common problem among my generation, as college and especially graduate school have become so outrageously expensive. It seems that half of my friends are now locked in 30 year loan repayment plans to pay off law or medical school. However, due to the nature of these loans, my friends can still afford to travel relatively easily.

The most important thing about paying off a high, low-interest loan, is to have a plan and to stick to it. Because interest rates are low, and the payment schedule spaced out over 15-30 years, it is not necessary to pump every penny you make back into the repayment of these loans. In other words, make your payments, and keep yourself sane! It is not wise, nor responsible to live an extravagant lifestyle while tens of thousands of dollars in debt, but as I have outlined before you can definitely afford to add budget travel into your lifestyle on occasion. Just save a little money on the side by living frugally, and after a few months of saving you will be able to afford that big trip!

*Again, it’s all about recognizing travel as something you want in your life, and making simple, conscious decisions to incorporate it into your routine.

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In the previous installment of this week’s Travel Myth Buster Series I argued the common excuse of “I Can’t Afford to Travel” and showed that you can easily organize an exciting international trip for $500-$600, or even less.

So, that leads us to the next for not traveling:

A lot of people claim that even when offered an amazing travel opportunity for a price as low as $500-$600, that they are still unable to save that amount for travel.

Well, my response to this is Do you really want to travel? Because if you really value travel as an end, if you really want to explore the world, visit new cultures, and see global wonders, then with a few short-term lifestyle changes, saving $500-$600 for a life-changing travel experience should be a breeze!

How it works:
Think about it, how much money you spend on “negligible” everyday expenses at home? And how far could that same “negligible” amount of money take you abroad. A $1.00 bottle of Coca Cola at home can buy you an entire meal abroad in South America, a $7.00 movie could be a night’s accommodation in India, a $70.00 night on the town could support you for a week in Southeast Asia!

Now most of us aren’t willing to just give up soda, movies, and nights out with friends, forever, but what if you just made a few changes for 2 months. What if you stopped buying soda, coffee from Starbucks, DVD’s, or fewer drinks at the bar, for 2 short months? Think about all the money you could save!

Just think of the rewards for 2 months of frugality, a trip to Egypt, Brazil, or Thailand! Is it worth it?

Change the way you view money:
If you are going to adopt foreign travel into your lifestyle, you have to first change the way you view money.

What’s $5 at home? The answer: NOT MUCH! Perhaps a combo meal at McDonald’s.

What’s $5 in Ecuador? The answer: The average Ecuadorian’s wage for an entire day of work. For $5 you can buy a meal, a taxi all the way across town, and a beer at your favorite bar or club!

You have to stop thinking about $5 as “negligible”, and start thinking about how much that meager sum can get you during your travels.

See the following list of examples of common expenses at home, and what you can buy with that same amount of money while traveling:

Conclusion:
Everyone is capable of saving money, it’s just a question of whether the result is worth the trouble. I wouldn’t recommend cutting movies or drinks out of 2 months of your life if the final result was just that you would have an extra $500 to blow on some other unnecessary expense. But if the result of your savings is a travel adventure abroad, I would absolutely recommend the small sacrifices associated with 2 months of frugality!

Further Reading:
I have just skimmed the surface here on the idea of saving money for travel, and am certainly not the first blogger to write on the subject. For more tips and advice on how to save money for travel, the following articles are fantastic resources that should leave you inspired and ready to begin saving for your next big trip!

• 5 Steps to Save Money Like Buddha
• 5 Techniques to Save Big Money
• 7 Small Ways to Start Increasing your Savings Today
• How the Lost Girls have saved and paid for a 2 year hiatus around the world
• 88 Tips to Save Money

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International travel is BY FAR one of the most enlightening, exciting, rewarding, memorable, and fun things a person can do. We all think about it… We dream about it… So, why the hell don’t we do it? Why can’t we turn our dreams into a reality? Why is it that international travel is so “untouchable” for most of us, or something that we only indulge in once every 5-10 years?

Well, the answers to those questions are plenty: “I can’t afford it”, “I don’t have time”, “I’ve never left the country”, “I don’t speak foreign languages”, “I have kids”, to name a few.

Okay, question answered. International travel can only become a reality for those with deep pockets, lots of spare time, and no kids… Right?

NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! There is so much false information floating around about international travel, that most of us have come to believe that it just isn’t an option. Well, that’s simply not true.

For the next 7 days I will be writing on 10 of the different excuses people give as to why they aren’t able to fulfill their international travel dreams, and explaining why those excuses are misinformed and/or invalid!

I will be addressing each of the following individually, and new links will be posted every day.

• I can’t afford to travel

• I have too many expenses, I can’t save money for travel
• I’m in debt, I can’t travel
• I don’t have time to travel
• I have kids, I can’t travel
• I don’t have any travel experience
• I don’t speak foreign languages, I can’t travel
• I don’t have anyone to travel with, I can’t travel alone
• Travel in foreign countries is too dangerous
• I’m a lone female, I can’t travel by myself

The goal of this series is to get all issues associated with the barriers to international travel on the table. So, please make as much use of the comments section as possible. Let me know about your individual situation, and why you haven’t been able to realize your international travel dreams, so that I can address each of these cases specifically. I invite you to challenge me, argue my conclusions, and really get a dialog going.

This series is meant to motivate and to inspire, so I implore all of my readers to get involved! Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Further Reading:

For further reading on common excuses people make for not traveling, check out Travel Minx’s Top 10 Excuses for Not Traveling

The most common and probably the most misinformed reason for not traveling, is:

International travel DOES NOT have to be overly expensive. Let me explain a little further by analyzing the 4 main costs of travel in a comfortable, yet budget travel context: transportation, accommodation, food, and site seeing.

Airfare: First of all, for anyone who has not flown recently, airfare is not nearly as expensive as it used to be. Yes, it’s still a significant expense, but with new competition from low-fare carriers and increased demand worldwide, international fares are significantly less than what they were just a few years ago. And, second, just because you want to travel internationally, doesn’t mean you need to fly halfway around the world. There are dozens of amazing and intriguing international destinations, that are just a short and inexpensive plane ride away.

For example, if you are based in the United States, you could check out Chichen Itza and other wonders on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico ($318 RT from New York, $265 RT from Miami, $394 RT from LA), to colorful colonial Nicaragua for ($345 RT from New York, $212 from Miami, $601 RT from LA), or even make your way across the Atlantic to London on an airfare special ($300 RT from New York). For Europeans, with so many low cost airlines like Ryanair, travel throughout the continent is extremely affordable (even FREE on occasion). Finally Australians, in such close proximity to Southeast Asia (the Mecca of budget travel), your options are endless.

Accommodations: For most of us, accommodations is usually the deal breaker. If we can find a cheap place to stay we feel more inclined to take advantage of that budget airfare we found online. The problem is that most people don’t know how to look for budget accommodations in international destinations. In the US when we want to find a cheap hotel, we log onto Expedia or Travelocity and do a search for our destination city. However, do the same search for a city like Lima, Prague, or Bangkok, and you will NOT find the real budget accommodation deals that each of these cities has to offer, you’ll only find the same international chain hotels available in the US (which are quite expensive by international standards). When abroad, the real budget accommodation opportunities are in small locally owned hostels and bed & breakfasts. Now, often times people assume that these types of places are run-down, dirty, and dangerous, but that is not the case. Just check out the following examples of some amazing hostels and bed & breakfasts around the world, all for under $15 per person.

	Seven Suns Chiang Mai, Thailand $11/person
	Village Royale Goa, India $6/person
	Secret Garden Quito, Ecuador $10/person

To find more budget accommodations in your dream destinations I recommend logging onto a hostel booking website like Hostelbookers.com, Hostelworld.com, or Hostel to get more of an idea what’s out there. If you have the time, it is advisable NOT to book through these sites, and instead wait until you arrive in-country to see accommodation options in person, but if you are in a rush you can take a chance by booking online.

As you may have noticed, the 3 examples I outlined above are from Southern Asia (India), Southeast Asia (Thailand), and South America (Ecuador). In general the cheapest destinations in the world for travel are in Southeast Asia and Latin America. So, what if you want to visit Western Europe, the United States, or Australia? Are you out of luck? No! First of all, you can still find hostels in each of these regions for $30-$40/night, using the hostel locater sites I recommend above. However, $30-$40/night definitely adds up over time, so what do you do if you can’t afford $40/night hostels? Enter Hospitality Exchanges”! A hospitality exchange is a new phenomenon where travelers can search the hospitality network for places to stay the night for free! There are 100’s of thousands of users around the world, especially in developed countries in Western Europe or North America (where coincidently accommodation costs are also the highest). See my series on Hospitality Exchanges for more information about how they work, pros/cons, personal experiences, etc. They are an incredible way to see the world, without spending a small fortune for a bed to sleep in.

Food: The first false assumption that people make about meals while traveling abroad, is that they have to eat all of their meals “out”. After all, you’re not at home, which means no access to a kitchen, right? Wrong! Most hostels also provide “kitchen-use” to their guests, which means you can cook your own food thus saving on restaurant costs.

But I’m on vacation, I don’t want to have to cook! No problem! Depending on where you’re traveling, restaurants are more than likely significantly less expensive than you are accustomed to. In Asia, Africa, South America, and even Eastern Europe, a tasty meal can usually be found for under $3 (including tax and tip) - often as low as $1 (if you don’t mind the basics). Honestly, it’s pretty common to actually spend LESS money on food during your trip than you usually do at home.

Site-Seeing: So what about site-seeing, after all you are going to want to do more than just eat and sleep on your trip, right? Well, believe it or not, visiting some of the most amazing sites in the world, is also extremely affordable. Let’s take the “New 7 Wonders of the World” for example, and see how much each would cost to visit:

1. Great Wall, China - $8.57-$13.86
2. Petra, Jordan - $40.61
3. Christ Redeemer, Brazil - $18.91
4. Machu Picchu, Peru - $109.00
5. Chichén Itzá, Mexico - $24.86
6. Roman Colosseum, Italy - $15.00
7. Taj Mahal, India - $37.90

Surprisingly, 6 of the 7 can be seen for less than one day’s admission to Disney World ($67 for adults). Imagine, it’s more expensive to spend one day in Disney World than to visit world-renowned sites such the Great Wall of China or the Taj Mahal! See my post on Budget Travel Costs for the 7 New Wonders for more information on each of these sites and their associated costs.

Conclusion: In conclusion, let’s look at a possible 7-day international trip and the costs that would be involved in that trip. The example I will use is a trip from the United States to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico to see Chichén Itzá, relax on the beaches of Cancun, and enjoy the unique Mexican culture in the charming town of Mérida.

Photo: Chichén Itzá

Transportation: a flight from Miami to Cancun costs $265 RT, from New York $318, or from LA $394. Bus transportation from Cancun to Chichén Itzá, from Chichén Itzá to Mérida, and from Mérida back to Cancun costs around $38.5. Total transportation: $303.50 (Miami), $356.50 (New York), or $432.5 (LA).

Accommodation: In Cancun you can stay in the Chac Mool Hostel for $15/night (private room, shared bath), 2 nights would come to $30. After Cancun, you can make your way over to Mérida where you can base your visit to Chichén Itzá and the rest of your trip. Accommodation in the Nomadas Youth Hostel will cost you $12/night, 4 nights would come to $48. Total cost of accommodation: $78.

Meals: On the Yucatán peninsula, meals are a little more expensive than the rest of Mexico (especially in Cancun). However, even if you eat every meal in restaurants, you could still get away with paying $3 for breakfast, $4 for lunch, and $4 for dinner, coming to $11/day. Total cost of meals comes to: $77.

Site seeing: Chichén Itzá will cost $7.42 for admission. A budget of $20/day would be more than enough for another 6 days of excursions across the peninsula. Total cost of site-seeing is $127.42.

Totals: $585.92 (Miami), $638.92 (New York), or $714.92 (LA).

*Keep in mind that even these low costs could be further reduced if you found a hot airfare, stayed in cheaper hostels, cooked some of your own food, and didn’t organize an excursion or trip every day of your trip. With a little effort and a couple of tricks, you could pretty easily knock another $100-$200 off of these total costs!

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