Learning English: Tourism or from our country?

In these times, English has become an essential language. It is practically essential to know how to speak English to design a better future, whether it is to look for a job or obtain international scholarships. This reality is very common both in young university graduates and in older ones who want to broaden their professional horizons. Learning English outside our country can be a fun and complete activity if we add the perspective of tourism. If we go anywhere in the world, learning English can be much more enjoyable and fun. There are many options both inside and outside our country for those who want to get on the bandwagon of linguistic knowledge and break into new cultures through language learning. We can choose to do English summer courses abroad or book a stay with a homestay Ireland, or we can do it from our country in an English colony.

The importance of learning English is indisputable today. Although from an academic point of view, children are the first to receive a sound education in order to learn a second language, adults must also start studying. The best way to achieve this goal is through tourism and acquiring new linguistic and cultural knowledge that will make us wiser.

For this, there are optimal ways to learn English while sightseeing:

1. Attending Regular Classes: Attending regular classes or taking courses ensures that you have a generous and deep understanding of the language and gain knowledge about aspects beyond language such as the culture, history or biography of the locality. These classes are usually offered at universities, academies and various language centers, as well as the possibility of taking English summer courses abroad.

2. Take an excursion: excursions are a good way to practice your English with experienced teachers and investigate the main tourist sites while gaining new knowledge. These excursions are mainly aimed at visiting various historical monuments or some exotic place.

3. Take a guided tour: A tour led by an English teacher is an excellent resource for learning English since from the first moment we have the presence of the teacher to correct grammatical issues and take note of the nuances of the language that we can find in the chosen destination.

4. Meeting new people: interacting with people who speak English is undoubtedly one of the best ways to learn vocabulary, typical expressions, acquire new grammatical concepts and, above all, discover what life is like at the destination. A good way to do this practice is to stay with an Ireland homestay to have a full experience with native English speakers.
5. Look for conversation classes in places where there are many natives and non-natives who understand the language. In these classes you will be able to learn basic concepts, practice them with others, clarify doubts or simply chat with other students.
6. Attend cultural activities such as theater performances, conferences or other events where English is spoken and try to get into the conversation so that you can listen and speak the language fluently among local and international people.
7. Visit multipurpose cafeterias or restaurants where there are changing scenarios such as workshops, appetizers or thematic tastings to exchange information, stories and ideas with native people and other travelers.
8. Test your score on language tests such as FCE, TOEFL or IELTS, to measure your current level and see what the next step is to move up to a higher level. This will allow you to learn in depth the necessary concepts of the vocabulary in whom you are interested and practice it applied during your trip.
9. Also look for local activities such as cooking classes, outdoor activities and fun games where you can interact with other tourists who speak English as a second or third language.
10. Try to visit libraries, literary workshops or reading meetings, places where there is great potential to read and listen to connoisseurs of the local academic culture, where you can present your ideas and questions, learn new concepts and exchange opinions with other travelers.

Tourism in relation to learning English is a wonderful idea to spend time in a fun way in which several pleasures are mixed at the same time: visiting new cultures, discovering ancestral traditions, experiencing unforgettable moments and linguistic exchanges between foreigners and interculturality around to the new worlds that open before us.

Other ways to learn English without leaving your native country

On the other hand, there are equally effective ways to learn English without leaving Spain. All this journey of learning English can be fun, even in the comfort of our home or sightseeing without leaving our city. There are many free ways to increase awareness besides going on your own sightseeing tour, such as:

• Download podcasts or videos about English culture and history and start listening to them every day to better understand the language. There are always new shows available for free with fun content on all the topics you are interested in discovering.
• Watching series and movies in English: watching original foreign audiovisual content is a great resource from the point of view of understanding vocabulary and meaning. Try to watch the film in its original version with English subtitles to better understand the dialogues between the main characters and broaden your field of interest in audiovisual culture.
• Buy books on historical traditions, novels or read articles to improve your vocabulary and research more about everything you are interested in discovering about English culture through its literature.
• Link your favorite topics to the English language, there are many lists of words related to sports, cooking, flowers or seasons of the year that can provide you with some useful terms and phrases such as an early visa for your next trip abroad.
• If you are also looking to prepare for an official exam, practice your written formulation by answering the questions with the appropriate verb tenses and look for references to ask your teacher for help.
• Educational games: Games specifically created for learning languages are excellent resources for reinforcing previous knowledge and acquiring new narrative skills.
• Linguistic Exchange: Direct practice with a native speaker of the English language is very useful for acquiring new vocabulary, reinforcing grammar and developing communication skills. These exchanges can be carried out from the comfort of our homes through phone calls, video chat or text messages, even promoting the use of old means of communication, such as letters. We can also do this exchange through the colonies in English that our native country offers us, for example, from Spain you can get a British summer Girona or an English summer poblet.

Learning English does not necessarily have to be tiring work, with small steps in the right direction we can greatly improve our skills without losing the speech and fluency we need to express ourselves as adults. So if you have plans to travel and learn something new, organize your schedule and get ready to explore the world outside the limits of your everyday language. If, on the other hand, you decide to do it without leaving Spain, remember that you have multiple options, including colonies in English.

After an intense journey to learn English, the last thing left to say is that learning English is always worth it!!