Sixty-five percent of the spoken English language is just 300 words. And the same is true in other languages, too, if you open them up and look inside. 300 words is something you can learn in a single afternoon. Especially in a language like French or Spanish, where a lot of the most common words […]
The sun, a brilliant shade of orange, is setting over the coral desert. I watch it dip down out of my sight, sinking into the awesomeness of that big stone hole, the Grand Canyon. I am caught off guard by the memory of another setting sun in a desert very far away, under an acacia […]
It’s not your fault if you tried to learn a new language and you failed. The system isn’t set up correctly. And that’s the problem. The truth is, scientists figured out how to teach you a foreign language years ago… way back in the 70s. But their research was buried. So, we dug it up […]
There’s always a little tinge of fear I feel every time I travel… and certainly to places like Africa where the internet is rife with stories of all the things that can go wrong. But I push past it, of course, and I’m sure you do too, because unlike vitamins, a new skin care regimen […]
Black smoke spews from my car beside an empty highway in rural France. It’s 2 a.m. Roadside assistance is sending help. What could be wrong? This is a brand-new car. We were in the countryside, a couple of hours from Paris. Rural France is quite different from the big city. Sparsely populated. Especially at 2 […]
They’re classic stock characters—the American tourists. You know them when you see them—no matter the weather, they’re wearing sunglasses and visors. He’s all decked out in a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of rumpled shorts. She’s got her worldly belongings tucked into a neon-bright fanny pack. They’re loud. They’re rude. They’re demanding that everyone accommodate […]
A friend of mine was on a short vacation in Ireland and was spending the day bicycling the length of the Aran Island of Inishmore. The day was drawing to a close, and she was cold and tired and looking forward to a nice hot dinner back at the Pier House Hotel. But then a […]
I don’t know about you, but I intend to keep “thinking young” for decades. As scientific research has shown, there’s a way you can keep your brain youthful and healthy in a way that’s fun and doesn’t involve eating a mountain of walnuts. Babies’ brains grow at a rapid pace when they’re learning how to […]
There’s a Pizza Hut near the pyramids… A McDonalds in Vatican City… … and tourists throw more than 3,000 euros/day into the Trevi Fountain in Rome—totaling more than $1.5 million in revenue for the city each year. If you stick to these tourist traps, you need to get used to $12 burgers and $8 coffees… […]
In Swahili soksi means socks but ushuzi means to fart. I’m gearing up for another trip to Tanzania in two weeks and I’m brushing up on my Swahili. Languages are important to me for all the reasons I said yesterday. They make me feel safer when I’m traveling… I like the challenge of learning new […]
