• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Panama
      • Portugal
      • Colombia
      • Northern Cyprus
      • Belize
      • Spain
      • Mexico
      • France
      • Indonesia
      • Vietnam
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home How to

Total Immersion: How I Learned A New Language, Even At 70+

Think You're Too Old To Learn A New Language? Think Again...

Doug Rosecrans by Doug Rosecrans
Aug 06, 2021
in How to, Lifestyle
0 0
0
Guatemala sign for Spanish language school where individual classes are taught one-to-one to foreigners

Alamy/Sean Sprague

228
SHARES
3.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Does moving overseas mean having to learn a new language?

Well, unless you choose to move to one of the few countries worldwide where the language is English (Ireland, Belize, or New Zealand, for example)… I’d say yes.

Living in a place where the people communicate in a language other than English, I’d say you need to be prepared to make the effort to learn at least a little of that new language.

I’m planning a move to a Spanish-speaking country. I’m not quite sure which country yet… but I’ve narrowed down my list… and in every country on it, the folks speak Spanish.

So I figure I should, too.

How Best To Learn?

I decided to try total immersion and recently finished the last week of an eight-week program at a Spanish-language school in Antigua, Guatemala…

It was an amazing experience.

If you decide to go this route, too, expect much more than a language-learning experience. Expect to learn about the richness and the challenges of a new culture. Expect to fall in love with people you meet.

And, if you grew up a Baby Boomer, expect to develop an appreciation for how modern technology has made the whole process of traveling and communicating across our globe so much easier.

Having just completed my eight-week immersion program, here’s what else I can tell you:

Yes, you will be able to communicate using your new language.

You won’t be fluent, but you will be able to do a lot more than ask for directions to the beach.

And you’ll enjoy other benefits that could well change your life forever.

I am more convinced than ever that living in another country is not only possible at any age but desirable and truly a great adventure.

My Experience In The Immersion Program

I studied with a teacher, one-on-one, four hours a day, five days a week. We talked for three of those hours in Spanish about almost anything—our lives, our plans, you name it.

We told jokes (mostly I did). Old jokes in a new language become fresh and really funny again.

My grammar isn’t perfect, and sometimes I struggle for how to approach a sentence, but, bottom line, communication is not a problem. I could now live in any Spanish-speaking country and get by fine, make friends, etc.

Wherever I end up, I will read, study, and likely take more lessons, but this program was a great start.

Now… I’m 70-something years old. Was it as easy for me to learn as it would be for a 10-year-old?

Sorry, no, it was not.

One of my fellow students was a Harvard grad neurologist. He says kids have plastic brains especially equipped for learning language. Someone my age doesn’t.

OK, doc, no argument here.

If you’re up there in age like me, don’t despair. Believe me. It will be well worth your time and effort. The additional benefits can be extraordinary.

My teacher and I (she is a college graduate in language) became best friends.

When you talk for hours every day for eight weeks straight, you come to know a person well. And by extension you come to know that person’s culture and customs and all the “do these things and do not do those things” that come in very handy. The cultural education is worth the price and time all by itself.

Each day, my teacher and I sat outside in a lovely jardin (garden), under an umbrella (the birds are not housetrained), at a small desk with two facing chairs. We did formal training, I had lots of tarea (homework), I conjugated, I wrote frases (sentences), and we told stories to each other.

The biggest benefit for me? Being able to talk to these people and then falling in love with them. I lived with a Guatemalan family. Theirs is a big house, with three generations (two grown daughters, a son, a son-in-law and two nietos (grandchildren) under roof… plus a full-time cook and up to five students.

The father of the house was ill and in the hospital when I arrived and died soon after. I watched and became a participant in the grieving process. These are strong families, with deep love for each other. The whole community grieved. The funeral, the procession, the traditions… it was something very special to be part of.

These people are strong, and they work very hard.

Our cook fell and broke her arm. It was put in a cast, and she was back to work that afternoon with her usual big smile and great sense of humor. My salsa teacher (yes, I studied salsa, too… don’t ask), I learned, has overcome incredibly difficult obstacles in life yet remains an energetic, passionate, kind, and patient person.

Through it all we (me and my adopted family, teachers, etc.) learned how wonderful it is to discover our common humanity. We just need to be able to communicate.

And now, for me, communication is so much easier.

Plus, remember, in the real world you have those two marvelous inventions to help you—the smartphone and the internet.

Google Translate, Spanish Dictionary, electronic maps with directions in different languages, WhatsApp, Skype, SIM cards, Google Maps, and on and on…

Smartphones and the internet have changed travel and relocation forever. It is so much easier to communicate, to find a restaurant or a hotel, to speak with the in-laws back home, to find out when the local soccer team is playing… to do anything you want to do anywhere in the world.

It is truly amazing. I don’t know another word for it.

So, as you might have guessed by now, I enjoyed this adventure. Indeed, I did.

You will, too. Just go do it.

Study a language, and you’ll learn so much more. I predict it will be the beginning of your Great Adventure.

Doug Rosecrans

Tags: language schools in Antigua Guatemalalearning a new language when moving overseasSpanish study in Antigua Guatemalatotal immersion language studytotal immersion Spanish study
Share92Tweet57
Doug Rosecrans

Doug Rosecrans

Doug Rosecrans is a retired civil engineer who helped plan and design active communities in and around Park City, Utah. Though retired, he remains active, enjoying hiking, yoga, golf, and pickleball. His interests include enjoying warmer climates and experiencing other cultures. He is now studying Spanish and is planning to live somewhere in Latin America.

Related Posts

iStock/espiegle
Lifestyle

Live On An Island Like Royalty For A Bargain

by Bart Walters
March 21, 2023
0

About 20 years ago, I made a trip to Vancouver, Canada, in February. It was cold, rainy, dark, and miserable....

Read more
View of the seaside town of Dunmore East, County Waterford, Ireland.

How We Made Friends While Living Abroad

March 12, 2023
Senior couple sitting on chairs at summer beach

Your Plan For Retiring Overseas Can It Be Part-Time?

February 28, 2023
Tavira in Portugal

The 5 Best Places To Live Overseas In 2023

February 2, 2023
Cyprus: Better Than Your Neighbor’s Retirement To Florida

Life On Cyprus: The Secret Brits Don’t Want Americans To Know

January 26, 2023
A beach in Los Islotes, Panama

Los Islotes In Panama’s Pacific Coast—A Unique Community In One Of The Safest Havens

January 23, 2023
Ferragudo, Portugal

How One Couple Discovered A Great New Life In Algarve

January 20, 2023

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas ...

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2023

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2023 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Download your FREE report on

The Best Places To Retire In 2023

New Year, New You, New Life Overseas

Sign up for FREE and learn how to live the good life on a modest budget, find bargain property, and more. Plus, check out our free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE.

RETIRE OVERSEAS AND LIVE LIKE ROYALTY