I was worried that learning a new language as a travel nurse would be too much for me to handle at once. The way I travel nurse requires a lot of planning, forethought, and constant commuting back and forth; when would I find time to practice an entirely new language? After deciding that this was a priority for me, I made the time for daily practice and am starting to realize how many benefits there are to learning this new skill. Here are 3 reasons why learning Spanish gets me excited to travel!

1. Convenience

Speaking the country’s native language makes it way easier to go anywhere!

I frequently think about international destinations and browse through flight costs as I dream about the trips I’ll take someday. Now that I’m beginning to understand conversational Spanish, traveling in a foreign country is already SO much easier!

My Lingoda Spanish classes are teaching me how to navigate an airport, talk to a taxi driver, find restaurant recommendations, and book tourist-y activities with ease.

Knowing that I’ll (eventually) be able to communicate effectively makes traveling to other countries far less intimidating. Spain is on our summer agenda, and Latin America isn’t far behind!

2. Immersion

Diving deep into unfamiliar cultures is the primary reason why I travel.

I want to be completely immersed in new countries. I want to eat local food, go dancing where the locals hang out, explore shops that are authentic to the country, and tour landmarks that are important to the region’s history. By speaking the native language, I will be able to relate to the history and culture of that country much better, and I hope to be more warmly welcomed by the locals!

During my online Spanish classes, sometimes jokes or sayings from a specific country come up in conversation, and I love catching my teachers using them later! That small joy gets me even more excited to immerse myself in cultures other than my own. My goal this year is to emerge from my comfort zone, and trying to speak Spanish with natives is shoving me out of it!

3. Broadening Horizons

“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.” – Aristotle

I am far from being a philosopher, but Aristotle knew what he was talking about! Starting Duolingo was easy, and speaking Spanish felt very attainable. As you might have guessed, there is a LOT that goes into learning a new language! I grow increasingly impressed by bilingual and multilingual people. Someday I would love to be a polyglot!

Bonus: A popular Czech proverb says, “A new language is a new life.”

Diving headfirst into Spanish has me thinking completely differently. People who don’t speak English used to appear less intelligent to me, which is completely unfounded. Now that I am starting to speak Spanish daily, it’s solidifying that there isn’t an intelligence difference at all. In fact, I have a rapidly growing respect for bilingual people! A white girl learning to fluently speak another language sounds impressive superficially, but countless people are learning English in our country every day but don’t gain respect for their efforts. 

I firmly believe that we systematically become more compassionate towards others as we break bread with strangers and fumble through conversations in a foreign language.

A team of researchers in Chicago conducted a study in 2015 to test the theory that multilingualism increases empathy and found that early language exposure significantly increased a child’s ability to infer another person’s intentions, even when they themselves did not speak that person’s language. The researchers wrote, “To understand a speaker’s intention, one must take the speaker’s perspective. Multilingual exposure may promote effective communication by enhancing perspective taking.”

By communicating with others in their native language, we force ourselves to see ourselves and our environment from a stranger’s perspective! I think this is a beautiful thing for everyone, especially travel nurses. We are trained to be flexible, quick on our feet, and adapt to new environments on a dime; navigating a new language should be right along our skill set!

I hope these details encourage you in your language-learning journey or inspire you to try it out! To see what educational resources I use, check out the table below! To read why I started learning a new language, click here: “This Is How Travel Nursing Got Me Learning Spanish!”

Resources I Am Currently Using to Learn Spanish

1. Lingoda – I’m halfway through the Lingoda Sprint challenge as of this post date! Live Zoom classes five days per week.
2. Duolingo – Daily Spanish exercises and vocabulary drills
3. Pimsleur – 30 minute audio lessons for when I’m driving or need to be learning Spanish hands-free (great for commutes)
4. Watching Spanish TV shows on Netflix with English subtitles – Highly recommend “Cable Girls/Las Chicas del Cable”!
5. Reading children’s books in Spanish – Currently finishing Cuantos de la Selva by Horacio Quiroga