THIS year, how about learning a foreign language as a hobby. Consider this – you are a fresh high school graduate from Salamanca and you have just been successfully enrolled in a hotel school in Switzerland. As everybody knows, the hotel schools in Switzerland are the most reputable in the world. One of the things that you will ultimately learn is to acquire several languages. You can call yourself a linguist if you have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in a Swiss hotel school.

Even though you come from Spain, you will not just be exposed to European languages but you will be taught various languages in the world because you may be employed to a resort that is located in Tahiti or Phuket. There are definitely differences in culture in those places that I have mentioned. But expect the Swiss hotel school to teach you first the dialects in your own country. Thus you may encounter studying Basque in Bern. That is not so far-fetched though as Swiss hotel schools are equipped with the most competent linguists in the world. That definitely is not an exaggeration. It’s simply the truth.

If you are from Salamanca, the tourists in your home country of Spain usually consist of people from England, Portugal, Germany, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Thus, these are the languages that you are at least familiar to learn. Aside from English and Portuguese, these other languages are called Scandinavian languages which all have origins in the German language.

Another way to learn other languages while at the same time having fun is getting a degree in international relations at the Universidad de Madrid. Once you have an advanced grasp of the French language, you may be awarded a slot in the foreign student exchange program and you can experience a very fruitful and meaningful visit to Paris for one semester. You will not only bask in the limelight at the City of Lights, there will also be spiritually refreshing visits to such sites as the Our Lady of Miraculous Medal near the outskirts of Paris.

Or if you want your specialization to be English, then you may go to London someday and ride the London Eye or marvel at the amazing architectural style of London City Hall which is neither Gothic nor medieval but simply futuristic. You may even enjoy a concert with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at Hyde Park or watch the IMAX version of the heart-wrenching (figuratively of course) movie Atonement. Or if what you are learning is the rhotic form of English, then you may get to be involved in another foreign student exchange program but this time in Georgetown University in Washington, DC. You will get to have a tour at the White House or at Foggy Bottom where the State Department holds its offices. See? There are indeed tons of opportunities if only you learn a second language at the right time.