Welcome, aspiring polyglot! The other day someone on social media told me that the tourist tax doesn’t exist. This is a belief that can only exist while paying the tourist tax. All that means is paying a little bit extra for everything because the locals know you cannot speak the local language. In tourist areas this kind of exploitation of tourists is particularly common. Almost everyone you meet in a city like Barcelona, Paris, or Brussels can speak English. But will they? If you have enough money, certainly they will.
What does the tourist tax look like?
Of everywhere you may travel throughout your life, the one place you need to be most aware of tourist tax style exploitation is at the airport. Taxis are notorious for scamming people, though I have met incredible and honest taxi drivers frequently. At the end of the day, new arrivals are simply easy targets and, where there are easy targets, there will be people there to prey on them.
Learning the local language is your best defense against taxi drivers seeking to take advantage of you. As you gain experience traveling, you might begin to notice that taxis seem to gather around tourist areas. This is for several reasons not the least of which is that many people want to get to the tourist locations. Unfortunately, there are also people at many of these tourist locations who will work in conjunction with taxi drivers to take advantage of wealthy tourists.
Private tours are incredible, but there is no shortage of horror stories from people who paid for a private tour only to get walked down the street and back. While there are things that can easily give away bad tours, often within the descriptions, sometimes when you are trying to save money you just go with the cheap option and hope for the best. I understand this tendency, I am much the same.
That is why speaking the local language is so important. Aside from sight seeing, the tourist areas are by and large not worth spending time visiting. What seem like good deals within these areas turn out to be extremely over priced relative to other areas around the country that are just as, if not more, beautiful. But if everyone is continuously coming to these places then it certainly does not incentivize any change to the systems.
Learning the local language will protect you from all of these things while granting you access to parts of the world that most people will never have the opportunity to see. Not because it is impossible to go visit these places without speaking the language, but because it is far more difficult since you will likely be the only English speaker in a 20 mile radius. While this is an effective way to learn a language, it can also be extremely isolating. Plus, without the ability to communicate, developing relationships is impossible.
The friends and family discount
Meeting new people is one of the most enriching parts of traveling, but only when you can be sure they are not trying to make money off of you. When you can actually communicate, rather than respond exclusively to price negotiations, you will find that, for every person trying to exploit you, there are 1000 who want you to have an incredible experience in their country. You will only find them when you are able to speak their language, but they are waiting.
After a much shorter time than you might expect, and with far weaker language skills than you anticipate needing, people will largely be happy to welcome you into their lives. In that, you will also get insights into the country that they would never share with a random stranger. Nobody wants to have their country seen in a bad light and most people are well versed in the problems within their country. Until you can speak with them, in their language, however, even pointing things out feels like an attack.
I talk a lot about how much grace people will give you when you are learning a new language. However, I have not quite discussed the requisite grace people whose country you visit merit from your end. Everyone has stereotypes of tourists in their mind. Especially American tourists. The best possible way to overcome these stereotypes is to be anything but what people expect. No one is ready for a bilingual American who respects their country and culture to show up in a small town to appreciate lesser known culturally significant places.
Proving people wrong by subverting their expectations is one of the most disarming things you can do as a tourist. By simply being aware of what you are doing and where you are doing it, you take a step that millions of people miss every single year. The first step to being forever welcomed everywhere you go. Of course, a relationship that is one sided is rarely successful.
If you are reading this, I probably don’t have to tell you, but hosting the same people you spend time with while abroad is always worthwhile. Reciprocity is something that extends beyond language and requires nothing but action to communicate. By showing the respect of learning the local language, you received an invitation into the lives of the local community. That can be where the relationship ends, but it doesn’t have to be.
Effort is rewarded
As I mentioned above, you do not need to be fluent in order to find yourself on the good side of the locals. All you really need to do is show consistent effort and gratitude. Some people try to make this so complex when it really doesn’t get more complex than that. Perfect is the enemy of done and perfectionism alone has held back more people than almost anything else when it comes to language acquisition.
Most people know how difficult learning another language is, especially in countries other than the USA. In fact, most of the people you meet will have at least tried to learn English and so the fact that you aren’t forcing them into an uncomfortable position is already a win. Above all, when you try it will inspire others to try as well. Where you may normally find that people are trepidatious when speaking with you, once they see you try they will respond in kind.
Conclusion
Just or not, things like the tourist tax exist because tourists are generally pretty easy to take advantage of in a new city. The advice to “look like you know where you are” has probably saved me hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars over the decade or so of travelling I’ve done. That said, nothing compares to the benefits of learning to speak the local language. Even just showing that I was trying to learn led to trips that I will never forget. You deserve those adventures, too.
Everyone knows how challenging it is to learn a new language, especially as an adult. The fact that you are here reading this, working to add another language to your repertoire, means that when you land in your country of choice, people will be more than happy to help you. They will recognize your effort. Unfortunately, this is only something that you can experience by, well, experiencing it. Next time you get a chance to speak your new language, give it a try. I think you’ll be surprised by the results. I am rooting for you.
Requests
If you have anything you would like covered you can reach out to me on X, Instagram, or at odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com.
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