A lot of people when they travel South America, they generally take advantage of already being down south and visiting at least 2 different countries, if not more, spending easily more than 1 month traveling through these countries. So, having some basic knowledge of Spanish would really help you along the way.
Everyone uses internet to research for their travels nowadays, looking for hotels, booking transportation, destination information etc. You can for sure find a lot of tourism information on South America online but you´d be surprised to find out that many businesses have websites in Spanish only; even if they have the ‘English’ option, most of them would still say ‘coming soon!’. You could stick to the ones that have English version but you may miss out on the opportunity to compare deals and prices. Learning simple Spanish words like tarifas (rates), ubicación (location), horarios (schedules) would definitely help you navigate to pages with essential information that you need.
Another real benefit is to minimize the chance of being taken advantage of. One thing you could easily prepare yourself is to learn the numbers! Know how to count to at least a hundred so when someone tells you, let’s say, how much a soda costs, you could more likely to catch the right amount and most importantly, pay the right amount.
Last but not least, personal safety! Unexpected things always happen and when they happen during your travel in South America, knowing a little Spanish may actually save your life. Learn how to ask for help, like “ayudame, por favor?” In case you don’t feel well, you can say “no me siento bien”; or simply, knowing the word “salida” means “exit”, you would at least know which way to go if you need to run out of a place!
Becoming fluent in a language is no easy task but you can see from the above that you don’t really need a lot to make yourself a smarter and better-prepared traveler. Pick up a basic Spanish book with an audio CD, spend some time with it before the trip. Or, if you have time, take some Spanish classes at the start of your trip to get yourself familiarize with the language. Even if you don’t have a lot of time, look into taking a ‘condensed Spanish class’ like Spanish Crash Course, where you will learn some useful basics and tips to get you geared up for a great journey.
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