What do you want to achieve on your gap year?

Planning your gap year, you realise just how diverse and exciting the world is. And it is all out there waiting for you. African jungles, Latin American beaches, towering mountains, snaking rivers and all of the world’s great cities are within your grasp. The question is: where do you want to go?

There is another question you should be asking yourself: what will I take back with me? Mementoes, of course, to adorn your shelves and remind you of the adventures you had. You will probably come back with a taste for travel and adventure. And memories that will last a lifetime. All of these are enriching reminders of the time you had, but we believe you should take something more tangible too: language skills.

You will probably never have a better chance to learn a language than during your gap year. This is time dedicated to you. Dedicated to working out what you enjoy and where you belong in the world. Learning a language will give you a much broader perspective because speaking a language is the only way to really understand another culture. Until you have experienced this for yourself, it is hard to grasp how much of a difference it can make.

Learning a new language on your gap year will dramatically enhance your experience of spending time abroad.

You will be able to communicate with people who don’t speak English. You will be able to really follow what is going on locally without the need for translation, which always alters the original message slightly. These skills will come home with you too. They will go on your CV and improve your life, your employability and your self-confidence.

You don’t even have to spend your entire gap year in and out of classrooms. While you would make fantastic progress if you did (most European languages could be learned to an impressive level of fluency in that time), even a month of classes at the start of your trip would make an enormous difference. Learning Spanish or French, for example, that should be enough time to give you a grasp of the various tenses and the use of gender, along with the most important verbs. This is a foundation that you can build from.

The typical counterargument is that everyone speaks English anyway. And there is some truth in that. Even if you only speak English, you will probably be able to get by everywhere except the very remotest parts of the world. But why “get by” when you can do so much more? It is arrogant to expect everyone to speak English to you.

Even worse is the feeling that you don’t know what is going on. If this is your first real trip away from home, you may well be a little intimidated at first – this is perfectly natural. When news from distant lands makes it onto the TV or radio in Britain, it is usually the bad stuff: kidnappings, landslides, wars, major traffic accidents and so on. This absolutely does not represent the reality of everyday life! But you can only understand what you are hearing on the streets if you learn the local language. Those people standing next to you at the bar are not discussing how to kidnap you, they are discussing football, food or who they saw dancing with who at the party last night. Or if they are discussing how to kidnap you, at least you know it’s time to run!

ESL – Language Travel offer languages courses around the world with no price mark up. Call the UK office on 020 7451 0943 to find out more about making the most of your gap year.