Starting in May, I’m taking a year off to travel throughout Latin America in order to achieve full fluency in Spanish. There is no set itinerary (the soul of adventure is the unexpected) but the general plan is to start in Mexico and head south all the way to Patagonia. This first post will detail my motivation, learning strategy and goals for the trip.
Motivation
I’m originally from Houston, Texas – 18 years, born and raised. When I applied for colleges, I was determined to move out of state, eager for a new adventure. The application for the University of Southern California (USC) featured a bonus question at the end: describe yourself in 3 words. I thought hard for 2 minutes and wrote “student of life.” It might be the best personal summary I’ve written to date.
Since then, I’ve optimized for learning – a broad, balanced definition of learning. At USC I majored in Business Administration, and joined three key clubs while I was in school – Los Angeles Community Impact (LACI), Global Brigades at Marshall, and Lavalab, each of which helped me dip my toes into different potential career paths – management consulting, international development and technology startups, respectively.
I chose consulting, staying in Los Angeles after college to work for Accenture, supporting strategy, operations and analytics challenges across private and nonprofit sectors. My first day at a client site, I had serious butterflies in my stomach – I was unsure of myself and whether I would “add value.” I’ve had an incredible run, and grown more than I ever could have imagined. I’m indebted to Accenture for the experience, because 3.5 years later, those first day butterflies have largely gone extinct.
It’s time to get them back.
Item #47 on my bucket list is to achieve fluency in another language, and Spanish has always been the low-hanging fruit. I studied it for 3 years in high school – just enough knowledge to feel terribly awkward while placing halting food orders. Between college and work I took a trip to South America, travelling a meandering overland route from Lima to Buenos Aires for 3 months. The trip was punctuated by a visit to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca, where within 24 hours I weathered a blackout caused by extreme winds, found passage on the only boat willing to navigate the choppy waves, helped the crew of the boat excavate it from gunky marshes along a hidden, wind protected inlet, accidentally stepped through the windshield of the boat while assisting with the extraction, got extorted for repairs to the tune of… 10 dollars, and met a Colombian dude, Wilmar, who insisted on playing the tracks of his favorite reggaeton group, Plan B, while hiking through the sacred worship route of the Incas at daybreak, inviting passing muleros to sing along. He also taught me cumbia steps on the beach while we waited for a boat back to shore. I never learned more Spanish in a shorter period of time, and quickly fell in love with the language and culture.
Since then, I’ve maintained and improved my Spanish with the help of the flashcard app Anki (check it out!!) and Netflix soccer dramedy Club de Cuervos 1 A redditor on r/Spanish once described this show as “perfect for learning to speak like a Mexican valley girl” – I highly recommend it..
Item #6 on my bucket list is to complete an extended, overland trip across an entire continent. Central and South America is optimal for this as well. Mexico City is only a couple hours flight away. Despite regional variations and the existence of Brazil, people largely speak the language I want to learn. The countries are inexpensive relative to the United States, and are filled with enough volcanoes, waves, hikes, history, and friendly people to satisfy any explorer. The time zones aren’t even that different, which will make weekly facetime calls with Mom and Dad easy.
I’m at a natural inflection point in my career, where I’m ready to transfer to something new, but I’m not sure what that is. I have no major responsibilities – no significant other, no kids, no home ownership – to hold me back. I’ve saved up plenty of money, since my manner of travel will be inexpensive. I’m still young enough that roughing it, whether in campgrounds or 20 bed hostel rooms, doesn’t bother me. I’m privileged to be in such a position, and I intend to make the most of it.
It’s time.
Travel and Spanish Learning Strategy
There are a wide variety of smaller, complementary goals as part of the trip – be more vulnerable, improve at salsa dancing, see the world, gain random life skills doing odd jobs, figure out what to do next, etc. – but the main goal is to become fully fluent in Spanish. The test of fluency is whether I can say “yes” to each of the following questions:
- Can I get a professional role in a fully Spanish-speaking environment?
- Do I understand the slang? Can I sound remotely like a local?
- Can I understand what the hell Bad Bunny is saying in any of his songs? 2This one is obviously the hardest.
Since strategy is about tradeoffs, I’m willing to give up any of the minor goals to achieve my main one, and that includes making it all the way to Patagonia. If I think my best learning opportunity is to stay in Mexico, that’s it. If I find the right community in the Darién Region of Panama that will push me to full fluency, no Colombia for me.
To accommodate for the regional variation in the language from country to country, I plan to spend the first 3 months exclusively in Mexico so that I don’t have to worry about different slang or pronunciations while I’m getting up to speed (it doesn’t hurt that Mexico has the world’s largest population of Spanish speakers, the most relevant accent / slang to understand for a US citizen, and is still very inexpensive relative to the US; can you say optimal?)
My learning philosophy is: the best way to learn is to put myself in a situation where I need what I’m trying to learn (aka – immersion). Travel works better than school in this case because:
- Done right, it’s significantly cheaper
- Done right, the experience is harder to “cheat” (you can study for a test, but conversation is improvisational)
- Done right, it’s way more fun
But to do it right, there are several pitfalls I’ll do my best to avoid. Specifically:
- Traveling too quickly. I’d define “too quickly” as a pace that doesn’t allow for flexibility. The classic example is a 1 week trip across 3-4 cities, perhaps even countries. The key drawbacks in the speed-travel approach are:
- No time to see anything but the biggest highlights, which will inevitably be the most touristy and English-friendly. I’m not exactly putting myself into a situation where I need to use Spanish if everyone speaks English.
- Forced prioritization of tourist attractions over relationship building. With 2 days in Cusco, it’s tough to rationalize skipping out on the one chance to see Saqsaywaman because you meet someone cool on the street and they want to get coffee.
- It’s expensive and unsustainable, especially over the long period of time needed to master a language.
- Staying exclusively in Hostels. Hostels are a keystone of the backpacker community, and a great way to meet people. The only issue is that fellow travelers hail almost exclusively from other wealthy Western or Asian countries, where the common language is… English. I’ll definitely stay nights in hostels occasionally, but the hostel experience is unlikely to force me into a situation where I need Spanish.
Instead, I’ll be traveling slowly, interacting with the locals as much as possible. I’ll go with the flow – to accommodate unexpected opportunities such as befriending cool strangers on the street, who surely offer insightful perspectives in addition to delicious coffee.
This is the “adventure” in adventure travel: dealing with uncertainty, even hankering for it, to find a genuine connection. Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, random side quests, odd jobs, Tinder dates – it’s all on the table so long as I’m forming authentic relationships and I’m forced to use Spanish.
About the blog
I want to use this blog to tell the story of my trip – in narrative fashion.
Lots of travel blogs consist of incredible photos, with content focused on guiding other travelers 3I.e. “Top 10 things to see in Buenos Aires” or “2 week itinerary for Cuba”.. These guides are useful, high quality, and no doubt bring in tons of unique visitors who are key to monetize. However, the internet is saturated with guides for every conceivable niche, and the people working on them are far more passionate about top 10 lists than I could ever be.
Instead, I plan to focus on narrative. There might be a photo or two per post, but my intention is to tell a story, to try my hand at creative writing like the adventure books that have inspired me, such as Wild, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, Shantaram, The Invention of Nature, A Walk in the Woods, and Turn Right at Machu Picchu. It can serve both as a personal keepsake of the experience, and as a “deliverable” to share with others when they ask me about the trip.
This trip is a climax and a new beginning all in one. It’s both senior thesis and gap year – a meticulously planned expedition and a complete leap of faith.
It’s going to be a blast – I hope you’ll follow along.