Spain Spanish Schools was the term you just googled, and "OMG" was your reaction when Google informed you that there are 8,700,000 results to your query. You thought you were over the hard part, you had finally found the time, the money and had even chosen Spain as opposed to umpteen other Spanish-speaking countries. You were ready to learn Spanish in Spain! It was going to get easy from here... but 8,700,000 results.
1. Buying & Bargaining. Shop
owners insist that they are giving a variety of discounts to you and only you.
i.e. the “Pretty Girl” discount,“First
Customer of the Day” discount, “Last Customer of the Day” discount, etc. You
can easily spot “touters” after getting taken once or twice. Often times, the
hotels and taxi/rickshaw drivers work together and they make commissions at the
shops. Bargaining is a must. If a street vendor tells you 50 rupees for some
bananas and an orange, he probably would have told a local 10 rupees. Never
accept a first offer. Walking away is the best way to get a good deal. If they
want your business, they will call you back over. When riding in rickshaws,
negotiate a price prior to getting in. Bigger cities like Mumbai have rickshaws
with fare meters. Also avoid buying tour packages until you get in country.
Many hotels have travel agencies on-site that can organize great tour packages
for reasonable rates.
2. Saris. Saris range in price from
15 USD to hundreds, even thousands of dollars. When Sari shopping, opt for
something more elaborately decorated if attending a nice function like a
wedding. The more intricate detail the better. Saris can also be extremely
difficult to wrap, so consider asking for help from a local instead of
attempting to do it yourself. Remember, you may only wear it once, but there is
tons of fabric so you can always get a nice sari turned into a fabulous western
style dress or wall tapestry upon return home.
Watch a video of AmeriSpan's volunteer program in Kenya. We offer volunteer opportunities in medical and community projects in Kenya, for both medically qualified and non-qualified volunteers. Click for more information about AmeriSpan's Volunteer Programs in Kenya.
The Winter Olympics begin in just 9 days. Celebrate by registering for one of AmeriSpan's Language & Sports programs and save $125* (see below). In these fun programs, participants combine learning a language with learning or participating in a variety of athletic activities.
If watching all of the skiing in the Winter Olympics makes you want to get out and hit the slopes, we offer three different Language & Skiing programs: German & Skiing in Munich, Germany, Spanish & Skiing in Mendoza, Argentina, and Spanish & Skiing in Santiago, Chile.
As part of the sustained public awareness campaign to promote language
education, the ACTFL Board of Directors has designated the month of
February as Discover Languages month. This
effort will be celebrated annually as a time when language educators
can help to raise public awareness by focusing on language programs and
the important benefits that people of all ages gain from learning
languages.
In the spirit of this effort, ACTFL will be posting interesting language study based "Daily Facts" on their site and their Twitter page!
Here is today's Daily Fact:
"Did you know there are approx 6,500 languages spoken in the world? However, about 2,000 of those have fewer than 1,000 speakers."
