323 Language Learning Through Travel and Immersion

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

Learning other languages can be really hard - especially if you're sitting in your home country trying to learn from a boring textbook. The guests in this episode all decided that they'd learn another language - Thai, French, Polish and Welsh - by travelling and immersing themselves in the language, in varied and interesting ways.

First up, I hear from Paddy Jenkins about his experience of learning Thai - in fact, teaching himself Thai - while he spent six months volunteering in Chiang Mai. Spoiler alert: yes, he would literally take his notebook and dictionary even if he went to the pub or a nightclub! That's dedication.

Next, I speak with Tracy Collins who was told by her French teacher she would never be able to speak French, but proved her wrong when she moved to France to work as an au pair. She also was lucky to be working for a family that helped her out in some perhaps unexpected ways.

Love is often a reason for learning another language and this was what took Thomas Swick to living in Poland. I did laugh when he was explaining the grammatical complexities of Polish, although when you're leaning it you're more likely to cry, I think!

Finally, Pam Petro decided to make the effort to learn the lesser-spoken language of Welsh. She went through some hardcore learning and even took some surprising travels in her pursuit of Welsh fluency.

Links:

• Thai Talk with Paddy https://www.youtube.com/ThaiTalkwithPaddy/
• Tracy Collins - UK Travel Planning https://uktravelplanning.com and Global Travel Planning at https://globaltravelplanning.com - both also podcasts
• Thomas Swick - https://www.thomasswick.com/ - and his new book, Falling Into Place
• Pamela Petro - https://www.pamelapetro.com/
• Pam’s book The Long Field - https://amzn.to/4bt7TGq
• Episode 277 Languages and Connection https://notaballerina.com/277
• Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
• Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
• Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com
• Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/323

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