The Instant Community a Language Hands You
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What is the instant community you gain by speaking a new language?
Welcome to the Language and Travel Hacking Podcast from Fluent in Three Months.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Language and Travel Hacking Podcast. I'm your host, Benny Lewis, and today I want to talk about the instant community that a language hands you once you've learned it. So basically, right across the road from where I'm staying in San Luis Potosi, which is my 18th state of Mexico, there's a couple who turned their front room of their house into a little Cafe some mornings and a few days after I arrived
How did a simple breakfast in San Luis Potosí turn into lasting friendships?
Knowing nobody in the city, I wandered over for some huevos rancheros and ended up staying for an hour that time and came back again the next morning and then again a few days later. And at this point, they're basically my tio nacho and tia cale. They've also traveled all over, they have an interesting story to share, and none of this discovery would be happening if I couldn't sit down and talk with them in Spanish. You see, we tend to sell language learning on the wrong kinds of things. We talk about the job prospects, the brain benefits, how you can order a coffee without pointing at the menu, which is all well and good. These are very real benefits. But the thing that actually changes your life when you travel, especially.
Why does language matter more than tourist attractions or photo‑ops?
isn't necessarily being able to read the sign. It's that the language hands you people instantly, a whole community you had no claim to before you knew the language. What I mean is that without the language you're essentially behind glass. You can go to a new country and see a lot through a tour bus window. You can eat where there's an English menu and you can go home having taken some really pretty photos. But having met almost nobody who wasn't on the tour with you, with even a little bit of the language, that glass breaks down, and the same trip turns into a string of real people. As I got out of the city visiting the iconic Wasteka Potosina, I did actually get to see those beautiful sights the tourists would prioritize, like gorgeous waterfalls.
jungle, a surreal pueblo mágico.
How can beginner‑level Spanish break the “glass wall” while traveling?
which are certified cultural icons in Mexico. And I did the whole thing self-guided, just me and a friend, with no tour guides helping us. And the entire experience was stitched together by conversations. Chatting to the guides about the river, asking the locals which cave was worth the swim, bumping into families who were touring the same spots and telling them about Ireland, and maybe fabricating a little to the six-year-old. Girl that we have leprechauns all over the place. And of course, hearing about their home states. Every one of those was a person I'd never have crossed paths with through a tour bus window or protected in my private English-speaking bubble. The language didn't just translate the trip, it was the trip.
And you don't necessarily need to be fluent for this. People assume that.
What real‑world benefits did Benny experience in Malaysia and Taiwan with minimal language skills?
The friend making only kicks in once you've reached those very high levels. But it doesn't have to wait until that long. I think back certainly to earlier this year, when I was in Malaysia and Taiwan, where I was working with a beginner level of Malay and a really rusty level of Mandarin that I hadn't properly used in 14 years. Despite this, I still made loads of. Friends and I got invited to things and I had locals light up the second I tried to speak, even if poorly, in their language. That willingness to try is what does it. The grammar can be a mess, the accent can be all over the place, but people don't care. What they respond to is that you came towards them instead of waiting behind that glass.
But here's what's really Going on, in my opinion, when you speak even a little of someone's language, you're essentially telling them something before you've said anything of true substance. By speaking their language, you're telling them that you care. You're meeting them at their level rather than coming in as a conquering foreigner. And people open up to that in a way they almost never do for the tourist who stayed comfortable. The tío and tía across the road didn't necessarily adopt me for those breakfasts because my Spanish was good, even though my Spanish is very fluent.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the instant community you gain by speaking a new language?
0:11–0:49
2
How did a simple breakfast in San Luis Potosí turn into lasting friendships?
0:49–1:41
3
Why does language matter more than tourist attractions or photo‑ops?
1:41–2:38
4
How can beginner‑level Spanish break the “glass wall” while traveling?
2:38–3:32
5
What real‑world benefits did Benny experience in Malaysia and Taiwan with minimal language skills?
3:32–6:15
6
Why should you learn enough of a language to make just one local friend on your next trip?
6:15–7:15