Immersing yourself in a language is by-far the best way to learn it. However, the process itself is difficult, frustrating, and exhausting. The following tips are things I have learned through experience to make the process as manageable as possible, while also giving yourself as many opportunities to practice and learn the language as possible.

1. Relax: Learning a language is a long, pain-staking process. You are guaranteed to have a number of highs and lows along the way, including days or even weeks when you feel you haven’t made any progress at all. This is completely normal, so DO NOT let it discourage you. As long as you keep your spirits up and keep practicing the language, your abilities WILL improve.

It is when you get discouraged and shut yourself off of the language that true progress stalls. This is actually a pretty common phenomenon. People get very frustrated by not being able to communicate, and instead of taking a short-break and putting things into perspective, they sub-consciously give up. Therefore the most important advice is to simply relax, give it time, and enjoy the journey.

2. Remember your goal: You aren’t trying to learn a new language so you can hit the best-seller list, write poetry, or even compete with other language learners. You are learning a new language so you can communicate with speakers of that language. Nothing else!

This means there is no reason to fear mistakes or worry about sounding silly, just try to get your point across. If nobody understands you, or you can’t understand anyone else, just keep trying. Your grammar doesn’t have to be correct, and the words don’t have to sound pretty, just get the point across.

3. Make it all a game: Learning a new language abroad is a great opportunity because it forces you to speak the language. Where classroom language students usually only practice the language for an hour or two a day, abroad you have the opportunity to practice 24 hours/day. However, that’s only if you have people to talk to. What do you do if nobody wants to talk to you, or you aren’t the type of personality that likes going up to random strangers as a way to practice the language.

A great way to find people that literally have to talk to you and to put your language abilities to practical use, is to give yourself mini-challenges. These mini-challenges are nothing more than trying to accomplish simple everyday tasks. Tasks like opening a library account, a bank account, buying something, or finding your way across town. You don’t have to actually open accounts or make purchases, but see if you can figure out how the process is accomplished. Salesmen will talk to you no matter what language you speak, and it’s great a good opportunity to practice the language under new but practical conditions.

4. Go out, have a drink: A significant factor in learning a new language is who you practice the language with. Some people can literally talk to anyone for hours, and for them practicing the language is not difficult. However, others, myself included, prefer to talk to people with similar interests.

I have lived with families abroad while learning both Spanish and Portuguese. However, in both experiences I really didn’t spend much time practicing the language with my family. Both families were very nice, genuine people, but we just didn’t have very much in common. As a result we pretty much only ever talked about how dangerous everything was, or the weather. The conversations were often quite boring, and as a result didn’t put much effort into them. For me, a more effective strategy has always been to go out, have a couple drinks, and meet native speakers that have interests similar to my own. I find that I am a lot more interested in fumbling my way through the language for hours at a time, because the topics and conversations are MUCH more interesting to me.

5. Write it all down: Learning a language isn’t about memorizing as many words or grammar rules as possible. It’s about developing an arsenal of phrases and strategies to get your point across in given situations. When out among the people you will encounter hundreds of situations where you don’t know how to communicate what you want, or when you learn the workings of a new phrase to add to your arsenal. This is great, but only if you can remember them. Everyday your brain will be overloaded with new words, rules, and phrases, that’s why it’s important to write it all down.

If you’re interested in global travel, you’re probably also interested in learning a couple new languages. There’s no better where to really get involved in foreign cultures than to talk to the locals in their native tongue! But what language(s) should you learn? There are literally thousands of languages spoken in the world today. After all, language learning is tough. It makes the most sense to learn a one of the more influential modern languages, which you can use to communicate with a high number of people across a vast geographic area.

So, which are the most influential languages in the world? Inspired by Andy Hobotraveler’s recent post on The Six Languages to Learn, I decided to do a little research of my own and contribute to the debate of which are the most useful languages to the global traveler. I stumbled across a 1999 study by George Weber ( http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm) that suggests that the 6 most influential languages in the world are:

• English
• French
• Spanish
• Russian
• Arabic
• Chinese

This study looks at the total number of world speakers, geographical influence, economic power of countries speaking the language, literary and scientific use of each language. These are the same 6 languages suggested by Andy in his post, and consequentially are also the 6 official languages of the United Nations.

Personally I found this information extremely interesting and helpful as a traveler. I unfortunately cannot spend my time learning thousands of different languages, so this study lets us know which languages will give us the biggest “bang for our buck”. All of the factors that Weber considered in his study are not necessarily pertinent to the traveler. However, two big factors he considered, that I think are extremely useful to the traveling community are: Total number of speakers (both primary and secondary), and number of countries that speak each language.

The following map illustrates just how global each of these languages is. Highlighted countries either claim the language as their official dialect, or have a significant percentage of population that speaks that language.

Now I don’t want to discredit local languages here, and certainly would not say that local languages are not worth learning. Languages do a lot more than just communicate, they express feelings, sentiments, and emotions, each in its own unique way. To forget that demonstrates an extreme insensitivity to those populations and humankind for not listening to each native population through its own medium of expression. However, I do think it’s very interesting to visualize, just how far-reaching each of these languages is. It seems that one really could travel the globe, and COMMUNICATE, with just 6 languages!

Learn the other 5 languages online for free:

After putting together the map above and visualizing each language’s global influence, I felt pretty motivated to start learning some new languages. However, 5 new languages is a daunting task, where to start!? I’ve been interested in linguistics for some time now, and have recently done a lot of research on the many online resources available for language learning, so I put together a list of resources for learning each of these global languages (other than English as I assume my readers already have a good grasp on that one). The following links will take you to a list and short review of some of the better free resources available on the web for starting your study of each language.

• French
• Spanish
• Russian
• Arabic
• Mandarin Chinese

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

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 320 million
• Number of Countries influenced by Spanish: 20

(Weber, 1999)

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

Learn Spanish: Learn Spanish offers an extensive set of written lessons, covering all major points of grammar, vocabulary lists, and verb sheets. Each lesson is accompanied by worksheets and quizzes for further practice. There is a premium membership option that costs $9.95/month, but even without it you can still access a large portion of the site.

Outer Spanish: Unfortunately this site has evolved to look like one big advertisement, but if you can ignore the Google Ads that cover its pages, there are some good written Spanish Lessons to be had. The site covers the main points of grammar, in a succinct, to the point manner. This website on its own, likely wouldn’t be enough but coupled with another like Learn Spanish it is quite useful.

Coffee Break Spanish: Good set of podcasts for the beginning Spanish speaker. Some people find the hosts a bit irritating, but in general a good resource for beginners. Hosts are NOT native speakers.

Spanish Sense: Extensive collection of podcasts for the newbie, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced level Spanish speaker. One host is always a native Latin American Spanish speaker.

Notes in Spanish: Until recently Notes in Spanish only offered podcasts for the intermediate and advanced student. However, they have recently starting releasing lessons for beginners as well. The beginner podcasts may prove a little challenging for the absolute beginner, but are quite helpful for someone who has a little Spanish knowledge already. Each podcast is accompanied by free PDF worksheet.

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

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

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 265 million
• Number of Countries influenced by French: 35

(Weber, 1999)

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

BBC French: The BBC offers a great introduction to French, with interactive online lessons for beginners. Lessons cover practical situations and vocabulary that you will need while traveling.

French Assistant: Free written lessons for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced student. Very comprehensive site, lessons include sound files if you register (registering is free and quick).

Daily French Pod: Daily French Pod features hundreds of French podcasts for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced French speaker. Access to the podcasts is free, though you will have to pay a monthly fee of $9-$18 for access to their PDF resources and other learning tools.

French by Podcast: Another big site with free podcasts, though charges a fee of $24.99 for 3 months access to their complimenting written materials and resources

French Pod Class: This site offers over 80 podcasts and complimenting written materials for free. Lessons can be followed by beginners, though may prove a little advanced for the absolute beginner.

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

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.