TRAVELING is really good and when one has traveled to another country as a child, makes it a very rewarding experience for you. If you are from Spain, don’t just travel to Puerto Rico or Mexico or Havana because you just speak the same language. Go to the Netherlands or England for example and you will be lost in translation there but not quite though. In any country in the world, you will find yourself immersed with lots of language schools.

These language schools are offering the languages and dialects in their area. For example, a language school in The Hague may offer Danish studies while a language school in England may offer English studies with a little emphasis on the non-rhotic accent that English folks experience. The authorities in these language schools make sure that the subjects they teach are of utmost quality. You don’t find here languages spoken in the ghetto regions of England for example. You will only find here twangs that are unique to what you see on television news presenters. In short, you will find here lessons all about generic English.

Whatever language you’re trying to acquire as a second one, language schools all over the world have the same common features, at least those quality ones. To select a quality language school, you may visit the office of the Department of Education in the country that you are trying to immerse with. In Tokyo for example, they call it a ministry there instead of a department. Try to find out what the best language schools for Japanese lessons around the Tokyo area.

If you find them very expensive, then you may enroll online. Enrolling online is the only other alternative since it is much cheaper. In an online language school, it still takes six academic months to hone acquiring a second language. During these months, you will be asked to log in to your student’s account every day but the advantage of this is that you can log in and log out anytime unlike the traditional classroom patterns where you need to go to class at a certain period during the day.

Also in these online language schools, you will be partnered with another learner. If you are learning Japanese and you’re a Spaniard, you may be partnered with an Englishman. That’s how diverse it is in these language schools because they do not just want to promote language interaction; they are also into cultural diversity and awareness as well. There are other benefits of this scheme too. If your pair is an Englishman, you may share a few words in your respective languages. That’s acquiring a third language already. Teach your pair a few Spanish words and he or she will also teach you a few English words. That’s learning two languages in one session already.

But that’s just one example. Wherever you go anywhere in the world, language studies abound. It’s not just in Japan that online language schools are offered. In Mexico for example, they also offer Spanish language schools for visiting American businessmen.

HERE in Spain, there are lots of foreign language schools. They mostly cater to learning the English and the Danish languages here because there are simply lots of British, Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian tourists here. So learning English is simply an alternative thought here to boost the tourism industry. The rationale behind the many thriving tourists here is that they want to stay along the coastlines of the Mediterranean here in Spain because of its relatively temperate temperature as compared to the unruly weather back in their home countries.

Here in Spain, there are two kinds of English language schools. The first deals with British English which has the rhotic accent. The type of English that they teach here is typical to what you hear from the mouths of the Sky News or BBC broadcasters. On the other hand, there are also English schools here catering to American English culture, the ones you see on CNN. You don’t learn English twangs here like the ones practiced by the ghetto gangs in New York or the distinctive New England accent. English is a rather cool language to learn because it has lots of derivatives as far as pronunciations are concerned.

When you go to the Philippines, they practice American English there but there are people there who pronounce English words with a heavily-accented tone. When you go to Australia, the non-rhotic accent is rather more pronounced as compared to their counterparts from England. Irish English and Scottish English are relatively similar to the British English along with the English that is spoken in Wales. When you go to India, English speakers there use the non-rhotic accent which is associated with Britain. That is true because India is part of the Commonwealth of England. However, there is a member of the Commonwealth who still bows down before Queen Elizabeth II but whose people speak the rhotic accent the way Americans do it – Canada.

That is perhaps attributed to the proximity of the country with the United States. Anyway, there are still lots of interesting languages to learn here in Spain if you live here. There’s Portuguese. Portuguese has many similarities with the Spanish language. In fact, there are lots of words in Spanish that are also found in the Portuguese vocabulary. You know, learning a new language here in Spain is definitely encouraged. Aside from the influx of foreign tourists here, we are mandated with the European Union to learn a second language. That’s because despite its contiguity to each other, European countries do not speak a common language. We have already shared a common currency. It’s now high time for our language to be united.

But if you come to think of it, our languages have derived only from one language – Roman. The Roman language also has German and Frankish influences on it. Thus we can deduce that the current Italian language is also our cousin to the Spanish language. And there are lots of language schools not just in Madrid but also in the Balearic and the Canary Archipelagos.

IF you have retired as a middle executive by the age of 40 and you are earning your pension already, then you can embark on a world tour already and be a professional linguist. Try to drop by Spain as your first country in the travel itinerary. Spain is where the Spanish language has its origin. Hispanics and Latinos, who make up the most minorities in the United States, take Spanish as their native tongue. So therefore, learning Spanish is just like learning a familiar language.

Of course, there are lots of Spanish language schools in the United States and they are as excellent as their Spanish counterparts but nothing beats embarking on a world tour and stopping by a country where the only language used and spoken is Spanish itself. I mean, there are no American English-speaking people in Spain. Of course, majority of them understand and speak English but with a British accent. That is not uncommon since British make the most of the foreign tourists in Spain, especially in the Mediterranean areas as well as in territories off the coast such as the Balearic and the Canary Archipelagoes.

Once you’re in Spain, you can choose which city you want to stay in. There are Spanish language schools in Madrid but that’s too boring admittedly since it is just the Spanish capital. There’s Barcelona and the most compelling tourist attraction there is L’Aquarium where all you need to do is look at the swimming fish in the ceiling – literally. Or you may want to go to Valencia where real estate tourism development there is currently in full swing. There are two summer activities for the next two years which are the reason why Valencia is in such a renovation mode. The two major events are the Spanish Grand Prix in the Formula One car race and the world’s premier sailing event, the Americas Cup.

Or maybe you want to go exotic and learn Spanish at the language school located in either of the Balearic or Canary Islands. In the Balearic, you can choose to be in Ibiza or in Palma del Mallorca. These are very good places to visit. In the Canaries, you can choose to either be in Tenerife or in Las Palmas. One of the most beautiful sites in Tenerife is going to its dormant volcano Mt. Teide via a cable car ride. There’s even one ride there which is booked entirely by the Spanish language school. Sessions are held while the cable is transporting you to the exotic Mt. Teide national park.

Or you may want to learn French and go either to Canada or France. If you’re coming from the United States, going to Paris may admittedly be a little more expensive than just going to Montreal. After all, you don’t need a visa going to Canada but you definitely need one going to France. But it definitely is worth your money. Paris has the most number of intellectual people in the planet and once you’ve mastered your French, you can immediately befriend the locals and engage yourselves in an intelligent conversation.