leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4321 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 1 of 16 20 October 2013 at 8:59am | IP Logged |
I know that learning any language can open up worlds, but what languages are best to learn if you want to travel for cheap? For those with experience what are the languages that are best for those on a budget? This is factoring in airplane tickets, housing, food, public transportation and general leaving expenses. Like for instance, Cambodia is very cheap while Norway is notoriously expensive and has sky-high taxes.
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tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4717 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 2 of 16 20 October 2013 at 9:58am | IP Logged |
You can travel cheaper anywhere if you know the local language, although in Europe the
discount will be less.
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caam_imt Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 4872 days ago 232 posts - 357 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish Studies: German, Swedish
| Message 3 of 16 20 October 2013 at 11:36am | IP Logged |
Mexico :) and you definitely need to know Spanish to get the best out of the experience.
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James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French
| Message 4 of 16 20 October 2013 at 2:18pm | IP Logged |
For an American it, no doubt, must be Spanish. Plane tickets are cheap and many places in Latin America are very affordable. For example, in Ecuador, I stayed in a very decent Quito hotel for $9 a night and another nice place in Cuenca for $8. Cannot beat that. Full course steak dinners for $5 also. Lonely Planet publishes a book on how to travel cheap through South America (I think it is called South America on a Shoestring). Good resource for cheap Spanish learners like me.
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Fenn Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 51 posts - 119 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian
| Message 5 of 16 20 October 2013 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
This is one of the things that is stopping me committing fully to learning Russian.
Travelling to and getting visas for Russia seem like such a pain (both in cost and
effort) compared to a lot of languages.
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espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5061 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani
| Message 6 of 16 20 October 2013 at 9:06pm | IP Logged |
Fenn wrote:
This is one of the things that is stopping me committing fully to learning Russian.
Travelling to and getting visas for Russia seem like such a pain (both in cost and
effort) compared to a lot of languages. |
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You don't need a visa to go to Ukraine (for up to 90 days). Lots of people there speak Russian, and it's a very
beautiful country. Just sayin'.
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I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4183 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese
| Message 7 of 16 20 October 2013 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
Spanish has to give you the best bang for your buck, given that it opens up most of the countries in Central and South America, and of course Spain itself. And from what I hear, it really opens them up too, because they're not as English-friendly as other budget destinations like South East Asia or India. Obviously Chinese opens up a single huge country to explore too, and is another one where a lot of people and services will struggle to deal with an English speaker.
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beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4632 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian
| Message 8 of 16 20 October 2013 at 10:00pm | IP Logged |
Fenn wrote:
This is one of the things that is stopping me committing fully to learning Russian.
Travelling to and getting visas for Russia seem like such a pain (both in cost and
effort) compared to a lot of languages. |
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Russian is widely understood in the Baltic states and they are in the EU. Many native speakers also live
there. It might also be possible get to places like Azerbijan and Moldova without a visa, as well as the
Ukraine.
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