While many guest posts here are from people I’ve met in my travels or been in touch with online a lot, occasionally I’ll be sent a topic so damn interesting that even if I don’t know the person yet, it’s definitely worth sharing. Today’s is an excellent example of such a topic, which takes a fantastic twist to language learning of thinking outside the box that I hope will inspire some of you! It combines music and language learning, which is also a passion of mine.

It was written by Idahosa Ness, who writes at mimicmethod.com, and who you can see in the video below, going to a “roda” in Rio. Take it away Idahosa!

While living in Rio de Janeiro last year, I would religiously attend the “Rap na Farani” hip hop event every Thursday in Farani park, a block away from Botafogo beach. In these gatherings, amateur musicians would break off into separate “rodas” or ciphers and rap improvised lyrics over live guitar and percussion instrumentals.

I randomly stumbled upon the event on my way home one evening, and once I realized what it was, I knew I couldn’t leave without kickin’ a little sumthin’ sumthin’ real quick in English. Taking advantage of the fact that I look more Brazilian than most Brazilians, I threw the audience for a loop when I started my rap in Portuguese and transitioned smoothly to an English freestyle:

Ninguem me entende, quando eu falo/ Eu sou americano com sotaque carioco/ oops *carioca, por favor desculpa/ mas deixa-me speak English and I promise you no Bullsh*%t!

English: No one understands me when I speak/ I am an American with a Rio-native (Rio-native intentionally pronounced wrong) accent/ Oops I mean “Rio-native,” please excuse me/ but let me speak English and I promise you no Bullsh*%t

The audience was impressed, but I was disappointed in myself. I had considered myself “fluent” in Portuguese and prided myself on my English freestlying ability, but it took me almost 15 minutes of serious mental exertion just to conjure up those two mediocre bars of Portuguese rap. I had a strong sense that my Portuguese was missing a certain “something,” and I resolved there and then to find out exactly what that something was by hunkering down and stepping up my Portuguese rap game.

Unexpectedly, after an intense week of listening to and rapping Portuguese, my normal Portuguese skills improved drastically. I no longer needed to actively listen or think of things in my head first before speaking.  Portuguese just felt easy to me all of a sudden.

The “something” I was after was starting to take shape within me, and now that I know what exactly that “something” is, I am convinced that it is THE most valuable asset for a language learner to have.

Read the Rest!

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Erin and Simon are a British couple who I had been talking to for some time, and following their really cool blog “Neverendingvoyage.com” until a year ago when I actually got to meet them in person and hosted them as my Couchsurfers in Medellín! I’ve used the advice on their blog about eating vegetarian to help me quicker in particular locations, and Simon helped me to tweak some technical issues on my site.

To contrast with my most previous post about solo travel, the thing is they are a couple who may usually speak English to one another, but still want to learn the local language! As they say, it’s different to what I have to do, so I was very happy to have them explain their twist to language hacking… for couples! Have a read of what they have to say:

Learning a language while travelling as a couple can be more challenging than for solo travellers. Benny’s biggest language learning tip is to stop speaking English and immerse yourself in the target language as much as possible. This can be difficult if you are with your partner all the time as it’s hard to break the habit of speaking to each other in your native tongue. Plus, successful language learning comes from having the right motivation – you have to need to know the language, not just want to. Solo travel can be lonely if you can’t speak to the locals but couples don’t have this same need to get out and socialise.

There are some advantages of learning a language as a couple though, and you can definitely overcome the disadvantages if you are committed enough – don’t use it as an excuse! Read the Rest!

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