Should You Learn Spanish Before Vacationing In Mexico?
You have made the reservations for the hotel and bought tickets for your flight. You are looking forward to enjoying some leisure time for walking along a beach, dining at an authentic Mexican restaurant, or just exploring the narrow streets of a small Mexican village. But if you have never traveled outside of the United States, you might wonder if you could get along in a country where very few speak English outside of the resort community. So, the question is, should you take the time and effort to learn Spanish?
Certainly you would be able to enjoy certain aspects of your vacation much better if you spoke the same language as the nation that you are visiting. Being able to read advertising and newspapers in the region would lend itself to a better appreciation of Mexico and its culture. Speaking Spanish to the locals would make life much easier as far as ordering food, negotiating a price for that souvenir you just can’t live without or even asking for simple directions. Being able to understand what is being spoken around you would let you immerse yourself in the culture even more.
However, it may not be necessary to become fluent in Spanish to enjoy yourself while vacationing in Mexico. Most service people, especially in resorts and restaurants, will have at least a rudimentary grasp of English. Many resorts will have signage and menus printed in English as well. And there have been many tourists that have experienced speaking to someone who doesn’t speak the same language by using a combination of sign language, body language, and inflection of common words like “no” and “auto”. Total comprehension may not be there, but the point usually comes across.
The most common approach people traveling to Mexico use are to have a pocket size Spanish to English dictionary and memorize basic words or phrases. Knowing how to ask where the rest room is or to ask the time can be handy. Having the ability to pronounce Spanish words is helpful and can be a lot of fun to practice. And even knowing a word to use in the right situation, such as “alto” for stop, can be very helpful.
Memorizing certain key words will be the easiest way to get your point across to a local and keep your brain from overloading learning Spanish. Knowing the “banyo” means bathroom is a big one and “policia” for police is good for the other type of emergency. Learning the cross streets or area where your resort is located will, properly pronounced, give a taxi driver or police officer enough information to help you get back to your base of operations.
Learning another language is a lot easier today because of the proliferation of technology. The best type is what is known as immersion learning. Results say it can be learned relatively quickly, but it doesn’t seem to be necessary for enjoying a vacation in Mexico. So instead of slapping on headphones and trying to learn Spanish in a week before you travel to Mexico, just learn a few key phrases or words, pack your Spanish to English dictionary, and just wing it while vacationing in Mexico.
I went to Mexico on vacation without Spainish. I did memorize certain key words as you have suggested and I managed to get by.
I really regret not having made more of an effort before I went though….
Great..
I think learning a different lnaguage is not so easy, you know we’ve French classes in our college but I don’t take those!
We visited Peru couple of years ago. There even the hotel stuff spoke no english. But it was fairly easy to learn the basic spanish phrases…
I experienced the same thing when I went to China. Speaking the language of the people literally opend doors to me.
Seems like this is true for all the countries on this planet.
que bueno que ya hablo espanol! makes traveling to spanish-speaking places sooo much funner and more interesting. plus people cant try and screw you over and charge you more money.
Correct! Immersion is the key to learning quickly and efficiently, however, you should at least understand the basics before traveling.
Ciao,
Tristan
Well, if you want to meet some new friends in there…you might better know some spanish.
Of course, Not much maxican can speak english. you should learn to speak at least easy conversation dialogs.
It is not so easy to stusy another language, you have to take time and the most important is practice! you know we’ve Spanish classes in our college but I forgive to continue..cos no time
It’s a good question. You can have a good time without learning any Spanish but getting a rudimentary understanding can really help when trying to read things or communicate.
The one thing that is great about Mexico is how kind and patient the people are. They are so excited you are trying to speak their language that they love to listen to you try. I went to Mexico with a little bit of Spanish and came back with so much more because of all the opportunities I had to speak and all the wonderful people I met.
Another cool thing about Mexico is the people talk really slow. In Spain they talk like a machine gun. It’s insane, watching movies in Spanish class with subtitles sometimes they’d talk so fast you couldn’t even read the subtitles!
Luckily Spanish and English are pretty similar. So you can usually say it in English and they’ll get what you are saying. Not sentences but verbs, are kinda similar. Also, if you go to a touristy part, you’re totally right everyone speaks English.
Well, being surrounded by Spanish you will certainly learn how to communicate, of course it doesn’t harm to study a little before arriving.
It is great if you can learn a language before you go on holiday. I remember a trip to Spain where I couldn’t speak the language but in the hotels in Barcelona nearly everyone was speaking English. Of course they appreciate it if you can speak a few words. I say if you can learn some then go for it.
I agree that it probably is not necessary to learn Spanish before going to Mexico. Provided you stay in the tourist areas, most people will be speaking english. If you travel much, Spanish is one language that would be especially helpful to know. A large portion of the world does speak Spanish. So learning it could help you out on future trips as well.
In this day and age with such a deluge of simple language courses available in books, cds, podcast & on websites in general there is really no excuse for not picking up the basics before your trip. The BBC offer an free extensive 12 week language course on their website which will give you the confidence to be able to convey all the basics that you will need on your trip. Most business’ throughout Central America impose an artificial price rise for foreigners, simply knowing the basics allow you the get a much fairer price.
thanks you for advice, because I’ll plan go to Mexico
If you can speak the local language you typically get much better service and prices. The locals appreciate the effort and will go out of their way to help you. If you go to a foreign country without being able to speak their language, you become very vulnerable.
Locals will appreciate and respect tourists more if they make an effort to speak the native language. I have run into a problem trying to speak in Mexico though. I know some basic Spanish and when I start a conversation or attempt to respond in Spanish, they think that I speak Spanish. Then I can’t understand what is being said in response.