Surprising Takeaways from my Spanish Immersion Trip

Posted On June 19, 2020

I first had the idea for this blog a few years ago and always envisioned that travel would be a big component since travel brings me a lot of joy, perspective, and growth. Unfortunately, it looks like that’s on hold for the foreseeable future. So in the meantime, I wanted to reflect on one of my most recent trips – Spanish immersion in Guatemala. I did a lot of blog research to plan and prepare for the trip so I figure I should share my takeaways for anyone else who is thinking about this someday or wants to hear about the experience.

Spanish immersion was at the top of my list whenever I retire or take a sabbatical. I am TERRIBLE at languages and figured I needed probably a year of living in a Spanish-speaking country to become even remotely conversational in Spanish. I took Spanish in school from about age 13-16 so I had a few years of background but I’ve mostly lost it all now. I’ve tried to practice on various trips over the years and it was noticeable how much my Spanish was deteriorating with time.

Rather than waiting till I retire, I figured I may as well do a ‘mini’ Spanish immersion experience now.   We never know how much time we have left or what circumstances might come up in the future, so I didn’t want to keep putting off the things on my wish list. I did a ton of research on which country to go to. An important factor for me was going somewhere with a relatively neutral accent, where the common pace of talking isn’t too fast. I have a hard enough time as it is and don’t need added challenges at this point! I also wanted to go to a country I hadn’t yet been to, ideally with a beautiful setting to learn. I finally settled on San Pedro La Laguna on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. There are tons of Spanish school programs across Guatemala but after some research, I found a lot of recommendations for a school called La Cooperativa. I read consistently great things about this school and there was very reasonable pricing for 1:1 instruction. My sister was interested as well so we booked a trip for December 2019 for a few weeks.

Though it had seemed like a good idea when we first planned it, as the trip approached I started to feel tired in anticipation. I tried to brace myself for the sheer exhaustion on my brain, trying to keep up with hours of school each day. We had decided to do a homestay which seemed like it would take away the vacation element. Trying to cobble together awkward broken conversation at every meal? I wasn’t sure I had the energy for this after an especially busy stretch at work.

However, I am happy to report that this ended up being one of my favorite trips of all-time. I was having such a blast, I considered trying to extend the trip by a few more weeks since I had enough vacation saved at work. (I ultimately did not because I realized I had a work deadline I couldn’t miss). All in all, there were a lot of things that surprised me about the trip or that I wish I had known beforehand:

Homestays are awesome!  I’ll be honest: I initially did not want to do the homestay. My original plan was to get an Airbnb so it would feel more like a vacation. My sister was inclined to do the homestay because she thought it would help accelerate our learning and in hindsight, I am so glad she pushed for it.  It turned out to be such an important part of the overall experience. It was so much more meaningful to stay with a local family, get to know them, and learn about their experiences. We each had our own room and the photo at the top of my blog homepage was taken from our terrace – we had a stunning view overlooking Lake Atitlan just outside of our bedrooms! For folks interested in FI (financial independence), the value was unbeatable. We each paid about $240 per week. That included 5 hours a day of 1:1 Spanish school, accommodations, and 3 meals a day all week except Sundays. That is an exceptional value! Our family was so welcoming and even dressed us in traditional Mayan attire for our last day of school.

Duolingo actually works:  I’ve heard some people joke that you don’t learn all that much from Duolingo. But we ended up with a controlled experiment: My sister and I had gone to Colombia together about 3 years before Guatemala and our Spanish was almost exactly at the same level (equally weak). She did over a year of Duolingo every single day before our Guatemala trip. I had done a few months but given up, thinking it wasn’t making much difference and that I would learn during the trip. But her Spanish was significantly better than mine in Guatemala.  She knew WAY more vocabulary and I felt like she was able to keep up with the conversations better. I kept thinking I would catch up to her during the trip but I don’t think I did. It seems the time she put in beforehand really made a difference. It has inspired me and I’ve been doing Duolingo every day since getting back. Pro tip:  Duolingo has an awesome free podcast option, it is intermediate Spanish so I usually need to use Google Translate along with listening. I think it’s a very useful way to learn in addition to the daily lessons, and there are also really interesting stories about people in different Spanish-speaking countries. I learned that the CEO / cofounder of Duolingo grew up in Guatemala and his aunt was kidnapped when he was in high school.

Journaling in Spanish was super helpful: I mentioned in an earlier post about how I write in a journal every night. I brought my laptop to Guatemala to document the experience and had the idea to write in my journal in Spanish. I had to rely heavily on Google Translate since I only knew a few tenses but it was an awesome way to practice and learn!

Staying in one place for an extended period feels like a real vacation: I realized that before this trip, my travel style was to move around constantly. On virtually every trip I’ve taken, I had an aggressive itinerary and was only in each place for a few nights. That means constantly packing and unpacking, getting my bearings in a new place over and over again. I don’t think I realized how much that detracts from a sense of relaxation. Much as I thought the homestay would make it feel like less of a vacation, it was the opposite: feeling settled in our home gave us time to explore the area and we found some awesome gems.   On New Years Day, we went to the pool at Sababa resort (even if you aren’t staying there, it is only $3 to lounge at the lakeside pool for the day!) That evening we went to these magical thermal baths. I highly recommend both if you make it to San Pedro La Laguna someday!  

Learning was a joyful experience: I mentioned earlier that leading up to the trip, I wondered if it would be draining to learn Spanish for hours a day and be forced to talk in Spanish at every meal with our homestay family. However, it turned out to be surprisingly refreshing. I realized I have not just focused on ONE thing as far back as I can remember. Our culture and society in the US have conditioned us to be constantly multi-tasking, on the go, etc. This trip was a chance to slow down, and just focus on one thing – learning Spanish. The teachers were incredibly patient and supportive and it felt GOOD to focus and concentrate on learning something that doesn’t come naturally to me. I could practically feel new neural pathways in my brain being developed. It was far more energizing than I expected. I did get frustrated during the second half of the trip because I didn’t feel like I was making progress as fast as I wanted to. But it was a lesson in patience and a reminder that I will have to spend more time there to see significant progress.

I am deeply grateful that I had this experience before the pandemic brought all our travel to a halt. I had several other trips to Spanish-speaking countries this year that were canceled but after seeing how useful it can be to practice on my own, I am carving out time to do Duolingo lessons every night and listen to a podcast every weekend. La Cooperativa has Skype lessons with a very good rate ($10-12 an hour for private instruction) so I am considering doing that as well. I also think this is a good time to continue learning more about the history of Guatemala because I definitely want to go back there. One book I recently bought is Silence on the Mountain.

I’m so glad I didn’t put off this experience until after I retire!  This was almost like a scouting trip and I feel like I learned a lot that will help me get prepared for the next opportunity to travel. I also realized I can use this pandemic time to continue learning and shouldn’t wait until I can be in a Spanish-speaking country to practice.  Is there anything you’ve been putting off?