Traveling and learning languages are two passions that go hand-in-hand for most people. Learning something new by exposing yourself to new cultures and embracing them is a symptom of what we like to call “wanderlust”. This strong impulse to travel and explore the unknown is something that many of us have, especially in the age of technology when we can see all the beautiful destinations of the world by scrolling on our phones.
Some people are lucky enough to abandon the scrolling and explore cool and unique places worldwide for real. If so, you may want to arm yourself with useful foreign language knowledge before your journeys. Here are 5 of the handiest languages to learn if you’re a travelholic.
English
If you could open this article and read it, it means that you have a good grasp of the English language. English is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, with a whopping 360 million native speakers and a billion second-language speakers. Since the colonization of the world by England many years ago, almost every major continent has countries with English as their primary language of communication.
If you’re a passionate traveler who only knows English, you can still travel to many different countries and be able to communicate with their citizens. However, you will have a deeper, more enriching experience visiting a foreign country if you learn the local language. Hence, below we mention other languages you can learn if you’re an avid traveler.
Spanish
Many people are lucky enough to begin exploring the world in their early adulthood. This is why you may find college students backpacking across different countries. You may wonder, can I pay someone to do my research paper and travel the world just like them? You sure can! Students can travel and still keep up with their academics. It involves a lot of scheduling, budgeting, and hard work, though, so keep that in mind.
Coming from another colonizing nation, Spain, the language spread across South America, Africa, and Europe, where it is spoken as a mother tongue. Titled appropriately ‘The language of love’, Spanish is a beautiful, romantic language derived from Latin. Adding Spanish to the list of languages to learn can greatly benefit travelers as you will have opened up an even bigger region to explore and enjoy organically, including most of Central and South America.
Chinese
Winning the title of the world’s most commonly spoken language, Chinese – Mandarin and Cantonese – has around 1.2 billion native speakers, which comes up to a whopping 16% of the world’s total population. This family of languages originated as Han Chinese, an indigenous version of the language spoken by the majority and minority ethnic groups in Greater China.
However, for convenience, we can limit ourselves to learning Standard Chinese or Standard Mandarin, which was adopted as the Republic’s official language. The language is learned by business officials all over the world. It is also spoken across multiple countries and cities in Asia, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tibet, and more. These are all popular travel destinations frequented by tourists from all over the world.
Arabic
Regarding Middle Eastern nations, Arabic is the most commonly spoken language among locals. Some of them speak French and even English but taking part in Arabic culture is the oldest and most sustaining habit in the region. The language is intertwined with the local people, their livelihoods, their civilization, and the monuments that adorn their nations.
Around 25 countries have Arabic as their official language, including the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, and more. Learning Arabic will bring you a greater appreciation of the Arabic people and convenient travels to a vast majority of the Middle East, where there is much to explore.
Hindi
Today, Hindi is one of the most popular languages in the world, even though only about 40% of the citizens of the Republic of India consider it their mother tongue. In addition to India, Hindi is widely spoken in Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and even on the Caribbean islands. India has a very large linguistic diversity, and although only Hindi has the status of an official language today, the country has 29 languages with more than a million speakers.
Many people choose to learn Hindi for study, work or travel. If you need help with translation to or from Hindi while traveling, reach out to the reliable services reviewed by TranslationReport. This service can help you find translators proficient in Hindi and various other languages. They are always ready to help those who can’t call themselves fluent in Hindi yet, so you can rely on their assistance.
To Conclude
In an age of technology, it is very easy to learn a foreign language, all from the comfort of your bedroom. Install the best language learning app for the language of your choice and learn consistently. You will become an expert over time and blow people’s minds whenever you arrive in a foreign country whose language you have mastered. Have fun, and best of luck!
Author’s Bio – Joanne Elliot
Joanne Elliot is a language academician and writer with years of experience in the area. Her work aims to help students, especially travelers, understand the importance of foreign language learning. She does the same by writing articles and texts, many of which have been published in respected journals and magazines. She loves learning new languages, and she is currently learning Ukrainian as her new hobby.