Here are the basics…

What about you? Do you have any tips for blending in with the locals?

Lucky for you and me, there are alternative ways to learn a language that are more dynamic than the average textbook or audio CD.  In this article, I’ll share with you the methods that served me well in becoming fluent in 3 languages – Spanish, French and Italian.

First I’d like to say, the key is that you have to take your language learning into your own motivated and creative hands. 

As you may know, there are many different programs out there to learn a language on your own like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Transparent, Living Language, Mango, Fluenz, and the list goes on.  However, I prefer classes with a live, native teacher who can give me personal attention and be responsive to my needs.

But just going to classes and doing your homework is not enough to get you conversational in the real world.  You need to make it fun, relevant and even a necessity for you to use your new language.  And if you implement the following tips, you will find you’ll pick up the language faster and with less actual work.

1. The Basics

At first, however, you’ll have to take some time to learn the absolute basics. Take it upon yourself to memorize the basics from “hello”, “my name is”, “nice to meet you”, “thank you”, “you are welcome”, “goodbye”, “excuse me” and “I don’t speak x language.”  Learning these and other basic phrases will get you excited to learn more.

Start practicing your newfound phrases as much as possible.  Be that annoying guy/girl at the office who says, Gutten Morgan (good morning in German) when you get to work. Or do whatever you can to insert these phrases into your daily life. The point is to just start using what you learn.

Also, it is important, when you are starting out, to get an overview of the language because every language has a blue print that it follows.  So learn the structure of sentences by getting acquainted with the subject, verb, and adjective order. Learn the sounds of the alphabet.  Find out if it is a tonal language. Know the way the language shows tense and deals with conjugation. And have a loose understanding of the way it uses masculine/feminine and singular/plural. You don’t have to memorize this information but it helps to familiarize yourself with it so you know what you are working toward.

2. The Relevant

Once you learn the absolute basics, focus on arbitrarily memorizing how to say things that are relevant to your life. Like if I were learning Italian, I’d memorize: “Sono una giornalista di viaggio.” That means, “I am a travel journalist.” And I’d know how to say, “habito a New York,” meaning I live in New York.

So, be able to say what you do for a living, where you live, if you are married and/or have siblings or kids, and what your hobbies are. These phrases are more likely to stick in your head because they mean something personal to you.

Once you have those preliminary phrases down, continue to build your vocabulary around subjects you find interesting and would naturally want to talk about or naturally need to talk about.  Don’t get caught up on lots of grammar until you build a foundation in vocabulary about things you care about.  Once you do that, then you’ll want to focus on refining your grammar.

3. The Obvious

My next tip is an obvious one, but it is also the most important.  And that is, create frequent opportunities to interact with native speakers of the language you want to learn.  Whether you can take an extended trip to another country, find people in your community to exchange with or even find a Skype buddy – make it happen because there is no replacement.  This is what will take your language learning to the next level.

Of course, traveling is the best environment to learn a new language, as you’ll be forced to use it for survival.  If you choose travel, be sure to do the basics before you go.  And if possible, take a language class while you are traveling.  Also, remember to find ways to interact with native speakers without fellow Americans present, so you are really forced to sink or swim.  It’s the only way to go.  Also, taking a trip to work on the ground with volunteer organizations can help you get in with a local community and up your chances to have meaningful interactions.

As for non-traveling language learners, look online for language exchange opportunities by searching any combination of the following terms “language exchange,” “Skype,” and “meet-up group”.  And put your city name in the search for organizations near you.  You should most likely find someone to barter with where you spend some of your time interacting in the language you want to learn and some in English.  Both experiences will help you learn your desired language.

And remember, acquiring a new language is a wonderful thing – don’t be ashamed of your beginner status.  The more you let yourself freely gab, the sooner it will be natural.  So, in your exchanges with other language learners, cultivate a supportive environment where you feel comfortable. And even if you are speaking with native speakers who are not learning, they will appreciate your interest in their culture. So, do not worry about sounding like a novice.  You will find, most often, they will want to help you.

4. Music

Use songs in your desired language as learning tools.  Start with one song you love.  Go online and find the lyrics to that song.  Then translate it line by line.  Maybe start with an easy one with few words.  And you can always use google translation or other online translation services to help you.  Once you know what the song is saying, learn it word for word.  Listen to the song every day.  Sing along or better, sing it on your own.  And every phrase in the song will soon be part of your vocabulary.  Voila!

That is not the only way you can use songs to help you learn a language.  Try writing your own simple song in the language you are learning.  I remember when I was studying Spanish, I made up a silly song to remember words and grammar for a test.

It started off “Yo quiero ir a la playa con me perro.  Pero you no tengo un coche. Pero si tenia un coche….”

That is, “I want to go to the beach with my dog.  But I can’t because I don’t have a car.  But if I had a car…”  I know that sounds super, super nerdy.  But it stuck, and that’s the point, isn’t it?

5. Slang

Learn slang.  It is more fun than what’s in your textbook. Try to get a grasp for what scenarios these slang words or phrases are used in, where they came from and what type of people generally use them. To learn slang, you’ll hopefully do that by interacting with a live human being. Plus, you will most likely remember it easier than an average word because its exciting insider information.  And lets face it, slang is practical.

6. Friendships

Be open to and allow yourself to invest in relationships with people who speak the language you want to learn. The experience will help you in many ways.  For one, you’ll make new friends. And that is always a plus.  Two, you will learn about the culture through your friendship with this person/these people – making the language that much more appealing to you.  Three, languages are like living breathing things– they need to be nourished and exercised to be kept alive. And if you keep your foreign-language-friendships strong, you will likely continue to improve your language with them.  So don’t be shy!

7. Recommended Refresher Resources

If you are looking to just brush up on a language for which you already have a foundation, I like the Michel Thomas Method (no relation).  You can download it on iTunes – and it helps you revive a language in a way that other programs don’t.  For example, he doesn’t start the first lesson with “hello” but rather he starts with the word “Possible.”

Also for people looking to continue learning or brush up on their Spanish, there is an educational show I’d recommend. It is a telenovela or soup opera produced by WGBH Boston in ’92, called Destinos.  To be honest, it is a little old school but the narrative helps you stay engaged while it teaches you Spanish.  You can get it here.

Another great source is the BBC.  They are getting creative in finding new ways to help people learn languages. They have an interactive series called Mi Vida Loca for learning Spanish that is great.  They have a similar one called, Ma France, for French.  These require a bit of background in the languages.

Also from the BBC you can find language resources of all kinds for Mandarin, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, German and many others. Go to their language site and pick your desired language.

Overall, remember to be persistent and have patience with yourself.  Learning a new language is no small feat, despite what all those advertisements for language programs tell you.  But the fruits of exploring the world from a new language perspective will reward you ten fold.  So do stick with it and challenge yourself to achieve your goals.

It is the extraordinary people and the natural beauty of Ibiza that has brought me back time and again. 

Ibiza sits in an island chain off the east coast of Spain, near Valencia.  And it is beautiful with white sandy beaches, turquoise waters and lush mountainsides.  It is a perfect spot for beach vacations when sunbathing and chilling out is your MO.

There are small islands in the near vicinity that you can sail to on day trips or stay overnight. Additionally, there are numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the castle in the main port of Ibiza Town.  And there is hiking and camping for days.

But there is also a very active social life to be had on the island of which you can choose to be more club oriented or more laid back.

The beach culture in Ibiza is quite special with all it’s beachside restaurants and bars. Reclined in a hamaca (beach chair) or sprawled out on a towel on the sand, you are surrounded by interesting people from all over the world. It feels like heaven when you are relaxing to chill-out music pumping out over the waves.

And on the beaches in Ibiza, bathing suits are optional.  So why not shed your inhibitions, so to speak.

On the topic of clothes, I was always so amazed by the personal style of the people on the island.  During the day, I’d call their style “sexy-beach-bohemian.” And of course, the golden brown tan, ever present, perfects the look.

In the nightclub scene, I’d compare the attire to stepping into Rio during Carnival, or some theatrical and hedonistic world where absolutely anything goes. The more out there, the better.  And the more you let yourself indulge into the Ibizan way of life, the more you start to feel the undercurrent of the island’s people.

Citizens from all over Europe come together in Ibiza creating a fiery culture of it’s own, different from Spain’s mainland.  During the high seasons it is bustling with visitors and there is an ease of social interaction. Friends are made quickly and people have their guards down.

I have often imagined that the experience in certain pockets of Ibizan life is like slipping back in time to the 60’s where everyone felt so connected.

But Ibiza, I envision, feels less politically charged than the American movements of the 60’s and more like a pan-European, non-political wonderland where freedom of self-expression and indulgence are king – and where the real world feels like a far-off, distant land.

The culture I am referring to may not be what you see at first glance.  Once on the island, you may initially see the English or German tourists who come with their families to enjoy the beach.  The Spanish government is always trying to bolster this kind of tourism over the club scene.  Or you’ll encounter the less soulful, party crowds looking forward to and facilitating cliché, drug-induced vacations they’ll be recovering from for weeks.

Probe further into the island’s culture and you’ll find deeper stratum of society. 

There is one important group I’ll call the Ibizan nomads.  Generally, these people discovered the island in their early travel years and were captivated by its beauty and energy.  Their transient lives are lived half the year, May to October, working and residing in Ibiza. The rest of the year, they go home, wherever that is, to make money and save up to come back. Of course, there are also others who come back every year during their regular vacations. And there are the Ibizans themselves, Spaniards and ex-pats from all over, who call the island home year round.

It is this deeper level of society from the nomads to the residents I found to be most captivating.  Parts of this community carry with them an island-inspired, hippie sensibility.  Among them, life is celebrated with perpetual indulgence. And Ibiza provides a perfect oasis for the enjoyment of beach, sun, nature, world-class electronic music, beautiful people, food and spirituality.  They are a distinct community of people I wish I could be more like.  They seem to worship all things beautiful and when they are on the island their faith seems to manifest for them a life of beauty surrounding them.

I often think, if I didn’t have big, ambitious goals and obligations more important to me, I’d find a way to slip into this world indefinitely.  But alas, my real life calls.  So while I don’t indulge in the Ibizan life like the nomads or the residents, I still carry the spirit of Ibiza around with me in my heart.

And I look forward to going back soon to connect with the Island and it’s people again.

And this app did its job. But it also caused some seriously undesired consequences.

In defense of the app, it helped me find my favorite restaurant on the trip (Canteen, detailed in this post).  And I admit, I did like knowing in-depth information about where I was at all times. But I also became dependant on the app, and I referenced it way too often. In bed at the hotel, in every restaurant, on the Golden Gate Bridge and even on Alcatraz I was searching the app for what next to do.  Talk about missing the point!

Here’s the thing.  The app, Lonely Planet’s guide to San Francisco, has so much interesting information about every neighborhood that, quite naturally, my curiosity and love of instant gratification got the best of me.

We go on trips to viscerally explore the world, to unwind, to disconnect, and plug in to something new -but not this time.  With my newfound app-addiction, my smart phone was always in hand. This made it way too convenient to check my work emails and to text.  And beyond that, I missed that truly exciting experience I get when I am soaking in a new place and following my instincts.

Lonely Planet did a really great job providing well-organized, practical advice, context, activities to engage in, and good places to eat.  The app can even help you get off the beaten path.  The only fault I encountered is that there is so much detailed information, I found it hard to digest all of it before the trip.  But knowing I would have the app with me, I planned to reference it along the way.  That was my downfall.

The app has one particularly engaging feature that immediately became my go-to activity.  With it you can locate yourself on a map and it will highlight everything around you Lonely Planet finds noteworthy.  Restaurants and bakeries, vintage stores, museums and nightclubs, that I had no idea existed, were suddenly mapped out around me.  And I compulsively used this feature even after I told myself to stop.

To be honest, I rarely, in my travels, use guidebooks on the ground.  But a travel guide-app seemed innocuous, especially because the app was weightless in my purse. Unfortunately, it caused me to break my number one rule as a traveler.  And I became a guidebook (or guide-app)-dependant-tourist closed off and inhibited from actually exploring the world around me.

My advice to you and to my future self:  Keep the above in mind. If you must get one of these apps, maybe designate days when you vow not to use it.  And know, you app at your own risk!

Here are four restaurants we enjoyed that helped me draw this very bold conclusion.

1. Canteen

Canteen is a 20-seat, diner-style restaurant (4 booths and bar seating along a red Formica counter facing the kitchen). Walking in, your expectations might naturally be pretty low. But I found that the chef, Dennis Leary (formerly of Rubicon) is a master of bringing together surprising ingredients, putting his own twist on classic recipes and sending his patrons home thoroughly satisfied.

The dinner menu itself is short – it has four appetizers, four main courses and four desserts to choose from. I had the winter veggie salad garnished with a mild horseradish mayo and the Guinea hen with homemade red cabbage slaw and applesauce.  But the menu changes often, so check it out on their site.  I hear the vanilla soufflé has been on there since the beginning.

Brunch at Canteen is great too! We couldn’t resist coming back for it on New Year’s Day.  We had eggs Benedict and Fish Hash (a unique dish of white fish and potato in a buttery, curry sauce).  Both dishes were outstanding.  Then there was a half order of French toast for desert! It was light and flaky – and it was gone in a flash.

Canteen is open for dinner Monday through Saturday and for brunch on Sunday. Be aware that two nights a week they only serve a prix-fixe menu. And do call ahead to make sure they have a seat for you.

Something I really loved: From any seat of the restaurant you can see the chef and sous-chef working away in the kitchen.

www.SFCanteen.com

817 Sutter St between Leavenworth and Jones in Lower Nob Hill

415-928-8870

2. Radius

We went here on a whim after we couldn’t get into my top choice at last minute’s notice.  And I am glad we did.  The place is called Radius because all of the ingredients – from the Calistoga sparkling water and wine to the duck and oysters – come from a 100-mile radius from the restaurant. You can see a list of all the local dairies, wineries and farms Radius sources on their website.  I always love the locavore concept because I think local food does taste better.

I really enjoyed dinner there.  To start we had a zesty Dungeness crab salad and a beet salad with persimmons and mâché . For our main, we split the duck special.  The crispy skin was done just right!

Something I really loved: The wine!  It was a blend from a local winery.  Here’s a photo of the label. Click on it to enlarge.

http://radiussf.com/

1123 Folsom Street at Langston in SoMa

415-525-3676

3. Wayfare Tavern

 This place has a very rich ambiance.  I’d describe it as: comfy historic San Francisco meets saloon meets swanky downtown bar.  As soon as you walk in, the atmosphere exudes a real sense of luxury. And even though it is a large two-story restaurant with a bar downstairs and upstairs, it feels cozy.

Wayfare Tavern is the first of three restaurants opened by Tyler Florence.  You may know him from the Food Network.  The cuisine is upscale American comfort food with a French flair.  There’s deviled eggs, bone marrow and mussels.

I had the steak tartare served with a garlic popover. That was really fun to eat with the unexpected popovers. And the tartare was well seasoned.  Then I ordered the fried chicken which I expected to come with veggies.  But it didn’t.  It was simply a mountain of fried chicken that I could only make a small dent into.  And the chicken was good but not outrageously so.  Lucky for me, a very sweet waitress took pity on me for my protein overload and brought over a complimentary side of Brussels sprouts cooked with pork belly.  And, wow, those Brussels and pork were the best thing all night!

Wayfare Tavern was a great experience overall because the ambiance was so homey and grand, the food was satisfying and the wait staff was super nice. I want to go back!

What I really loved: A waitress perpetually walked around with a basket of fresh-out-of-the-oven, perfectly puffy popovers for your bread plate. 

www.wayfaretavern.com

558 Sacramento St at Leidesdorff St in the Financial District

415-772-9060

4. Brenda’s French Soul Food

To die for brunch! At this place, delicious French staples, Soul Food and American breakfast classics fight for room on your plate. Their signature dish are huge doughy beignets of all kinds from plain or chocolate filled to crawfish.  You’ll also find croque monsieurs, grits and gumbo. But I opted for their eggs Benedict with Creole hollandaise sauce on a perfectly flaky biscuit. This brunch actually has me daydreaming about it.  I’ll be going back there for sure.

Brenda’s French Soul Food also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. So come any time. But brunch, oh that brunch.

Something I really loved: Their fresh rhubarb jam to slather over my biscuit.  Oooh-ey!

http://frenchsoulfood.com

652 Polk St at Eddy St in the Tenderloin

415-345-8100

Bon App.

I think that foremost it is a state of being. It is a place I reach where I’m my best, where I am truly alive and ready to experience the extraordinary. It is like falling in love with a place and with life itself.  When I travel, everything is new – and so am I.  I feel new because I can look at my life from a different perspective and I can reflect on what I appreciate and what I don’t appreciate. And I can see what I want to change.  Beyond that, traveling has provided me with the most exciting experiences of my life.

What a gift travel is.  And it is something that everyone can do.

I discovered travel when I was 18.  My boyfriend at the time invited me to Italy during the summer before college.  I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

And once I got there, it was shell shock. I’d never spent time immersed in another culture. And lucky for me, my boyfriend, who had family and friends there, led me around and served as my liaison into the Italian way of life.  We spent a week in Torino (Turin).  We ate the most fabulous food (the gelato, ugh), toured the countryside by motorcycle and, most exciting to me, I got to see a real authentic side of Torino.

One of the greatest parts of the trip was that my boyfriend introduced me to his group of friends. And immediately, they welcomed me in like I was already part of the gang. All of them are artists, dj’s, and singers.  They had a following and the teens in town would go to see them perform drum and bass music in underground clubs.  And they let me be up on stage with them where I’d look out over the youth of Torino.  But what impressed me so about this group of friends was that they were doing what they loved and there was no preoccupation about “making it”.  They were simply enjoying themselves.  This, to me, was a new concept.

Another outstanding part of the trip was staying with my boyfriend’s uncle who is a very talented interior designer and architect.  His house is decorated in a modern and minimalist style but it is wild.  Like at the door, you are greeted by a 15-foot painting of a red serpent in a large great room.  And the uncle himself was Mr. Cool with his black jaguar with a skull stick shift, sleeve tattoos and tough-guy attitude.  He was also a wonderful host who made me feel right at home.  But as far as the image he gives off, he is who he is, and there is no apologizing and no censoring himself.

It felt like everyone I met was like that.  Not that everyone was badass but they all seemed to be so authentic to themselves.  They all seemed so present and active in their passions. There was no American Dream they were chasing or prescription for life that they strove to fill.  I’d spent my whole life trying to force myself into a mold.  And here were all these people casting their own.

The trip awakened me to the existence of other life, or better, of other ways of living life. I found myself toying with the concepts of no longer being bound by the society in which I was raised.  For the first time I thought, “What would it be like if I didn’t make decisions based on the expectations of my family? What if I dropped the pressures of needing to fit in with a certain crowd?  Or what if I decided to live my life according to my own standards and not according to what my American society told me to do? What, then, would my life be like?”

Suddenly, it hit me, I can be the master, the artist, of my own world.  And I realized my life can be more fulfilling than I ever imagined before.  

The seed of wanderlust that was planted in me on my very first trip to Italy led me to later live in Florence, then Paris and road trip across Spain.  It took me to places as varied as Egypt and Lebanon, Australia and countries throughout South America, the Caribbean and more.

Along the way I discovered something really exciting.  I found that not only do I like travel because it is a great escape and gives me the space to reflect constructively on my life but it is also profoundly enriching to me.  I immerse myself into other cultures and other ways of life and I come out the other side with my hands full.

By that I mean, I have acquired new skill sets, learned invaluable life lessons and experienced the extraordinary.  I learned how to speak French, Spanish and Italian.  I’ve become an avid salsa dancer.  I’ve tasted exotic foods, grooved to all sorts of music, seen the most beautiful vistas, and learned how to become a cultural chameleon seamlessly slipping into other worlds.  And I’ve collected a group of friends spanning across the globe with whom I’ve shared very special moments.

On this blog, I’ll be writing about my travel experiences past and present.  I’ll be providing cultural features about dance, music, food, design and festivals worldwide.  I’ll be posting videos with travel tips I’ve picked up along the way.  And I’ll be creating videos documenting my travels abroad and exploring my hometowns of New York and Los Angeles.  Other posts will include trip ideas, guide information, travel news and interviews with entrepreneurs on the forefront of the travel industry.

My goal is to inspire you to travel in a meaningful way, give you tools to do so with ease and confidence, and finally to empower you to amplify your life’s journey with travel.

I’ll leave you, for now, with this quote from Pico Iyer, “…if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”

(That quote gets me every time.)

I am very excited about this new year because it marks the kick off of my blog. That is regular posting on my blog.  I’m transforming my site from simply a place to see a few of my old works to now publishing regularly.  Please stay tuned for my upcoming posts.  I’ll have video and written content all about travel and culture.

I can’t wait to start sharing with you.