Cabo spring break. It’s the epitome of every year in college. Beautiful beaches, authentic Mexican street tacos, and a legal drinking age of 18? Um, yes plz.
But there’s only one problem: a language barrier that’s gotten me ignorantly ripped off too many times. The number of times being a strictly English-speaking basic American girl has gotten me f*cked over in Cabo is actually sad. But when you don’t know the language of a country YOU’RE visiting (rude), it’s so much easier to just shake your head yes and drunkenly fork out all the pesos you have in your pocket. Not a smart idea.
So, whether it was my love for the Mango Deck or the fact that I’m already surrounded by Spanish speakers in my daily life, I decided learning Spanish would give me the best Cabo experience to date.
Unfortunately for me, and so many of my sorority sisters with the same intentions, I want to learn basic Spanish for travel, and when it’s convenient for me, not take an extra class that will probably pull down my GPA.
So that’s when I started using italki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px6TQ0ZMIsw
italki let me choose from hundreds of online Spanish teachers around the world, who use Skype audio to give me 30-, 45-, or 60-minute lessons on basic Spanish. My incredibly sweet Peruvian teacher began working with me on the basic skills needed to navigate my way through the Cabo streets. She’s taught me everything from greetings to sentence structure and is more than understanding of my stressful schedule.
What’s more, she’s even gone the extra mile to teach me more Peru-specific language skills for my visit during the Fall voyage of Semester at Sea.
The entire site is so easy to navigate, and planning my lessons is easy. Extra plus? No need to look cute because I literally learn Spanish over a microphone, in bed with popcorn.
My next plan is to pick up a little bit of Portuguese for my stop in Brazil. But first, Spanish in Cabo! And the list doesn’t even end there – italki has language teachers for over fifty languages like French, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic and so many more.
If you’re like me, and don’t want to be “that dumb kid” who doesn’t understand what’s going on, click here to get yourself onto italki, and become fluent in any language.
