You can get massive savings in your travels by learning a few Spanish phrases.
If you are planning on traveling a few weeks or more in South America this article is for you.
Let’s face it, Latin America is a developing region.
As such, many people struggle to make ends meet.
For that reason, travelers become an easy target for sleazy service providers.
People often overcharge foreigners to make a few extra bucks.
Which is understandable, but not fair.
We asked one of our French traveler friends to share a little story with all of us.
Massive savings by learning Spanish
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Story by: Almire Escollier
I’ve done my fair share of traveling.
I’ve been to Asia, North America, parts of Africa, Australia, besides Western Europe of course.
Latin America was one of the last ones because I knew I wanted to spend a good amount of time there.
Now, by that time I’ve already had several friends who had been there, telling me everything about it.
Amongst all the crazy and surprising stories they told me I noticed one of the most recurrent ones had to do with being ripped-off, overcharged, or cheated.
They told me in some cases they were paying as much as 50% or more for the exact same product or service!
Not that I haven’t experienced that before, Asia is also well-known for ripping off visitors,
However, the difference in trying to learn an Asian language compared to Spanish is massive.
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It is like trying to teach a 5-year-old statistical analysis as opposed to the colors.
Which led me to believe that if I took the time to learn a few Spanish phrases I would be able to get better prices consistently, thus significantly reducing the cost of my trip.
Of course, this was easier said than done, at first the hard thing is the find the time to start learning.
Between work, family, friends, and time off it is not an easy task to start doing something else.
But I managed to find a good online course that allowed me to kick-start my Spanish learning process.
After a few months of studying, watching films, listening to music and immersing myself as much as I could into the Spanish language, I felt like I was ready.
Spanish Travel & Learn
Two months later I landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina with the objective of traveling all the way north to Mexico.
Little did I know that Argentinian Spanish is very different than the rest of the Spanish speaking countries in Latin America.
To be honest, I did struggle in Argentina, the accent, pronunciation, and words are different from regular Spanish and it did hit my fragile ego.
Chile was also complicated, the pace at which those people speak is incredible, it is like they are on speed or something.
As difficult as it was to understand people in Argentina and Chile I kept trying and little by little I gained more and more confidence.
These may be the two countries in Latin America with the most difficult accents, knowing that I would probably avoid them if you want to gain more confidence faster.
Don’t get me wrong they are nice and interesting places but the way people speak is not necessarily the easiest one for people learning the language.
It wasn’t until I reached Bolivia that I saw all my effort paid off.
Massive saving learning Spanish
Besides the fact that people are lovely and seem to have all the time in the world, the way people speak and behave encourages you to try more and more.
It was there where I saw my costs reducing significantly, and all my hours of learning paying off.
I was constantly monitoring the prices I paid against the prices other travelers paid.
In very little time (two weeks), I was able to save up to 600 euros, when compared to the other travelers who did not speak a word of Spanish.
Between meals, souvenirs, tours, transportation, mysterious taxes and accommodation, little extra charges add up to a lot of money.
I have to say that I also like to bargain, and in this region of the world, it would be very expensive not to do it.
It is just how it works, in western countries the price is fixed and it usually includes everything.
The person sitting on the other side of the counter doesn’t care whether you are American or Egyptian, they charge the same to everyone.
In Latin America, it is simply not like that.
Most people traveling there discover that sooner or later.
How much Spanish do you need in order to start saving?
“you don’t need to learn the language fluently”
Obviously the more you know the better it will be.
Learning 15 Spanish phrases very well, and working a lot on pronunciation can help you get massive savings.
Simple things like how much is it? or Can you drop the price a bit? can really make a difference.
Once you get use to bargaining it becomes like a sport and who doesn’t like to win?
The bottom line is:
Invest a bit of time in learning Spanish before you travel.
Alternatively, take an immersion course on-site as soon as you get there.
It is not only helpful and useful for traveling, remember there are +400 million Spanish speakers in the world.
For more reasons about ‘why it is important to learn the local language‘ read Theculturechameleon’s article here.
Alternatively, read ‘6 reasons travelers should learn the local language before a big trip’
Latin America has countless professional opportunities in all kinds of industries.
I haven’t been in a place where people are so open, carefree.
We hope you’ve like the article about save tons in your travels by learning a few Spanish phrases.
