IT’S so easy being a language teacher. You just enroll in three language classes – basic, intermediate and advanced. They are all worth one academic semester each. That means you will be in school for a total of 18 months. That’s not bad if you are studying online. There are also online language classes and they are all accredited by the proper bodies. In English, there’s the so-called IELTS and TOEFL. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System while TOEFL stands for Teaching of English as a Foreign Language.

After you’ve graduated from the advanced classes, you can now embark on your own as a language teacher. There are abundant opportunities of being a linguist whether you become a language teacher or not. For example, there are lots of call centers in the Philippines that are catering to clients from other countries. Majority of the people here speak English and so there’s a lot of supply of English-speaking employees here. What’s a rarity here is the existence of Mandarin and Spanish-speaking employees. These people who are linguists are the ones who are paid high.

When you are a Hispanic in the United States, you can make yourself a successful business by launching your own Spanish language school. The most prolific Spanish language schools in the United States are located in El Paso, Texas because of its proximity to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The students in El Paso are usually Caucasian businessmen who have stakes in Ciudad Juarez thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Other successful Spanish language schools in the United States are located in Florida. They are mostly manned by Cuban refugees.

In Canada, there’s an influx of French and English language schools. In French speaking regions such as Quebec, there are lots of English language schools there while in English speaking provinces such as Ontario, there are also lots of English language schools. This has created the culture of ingenuity in a Babel-like world. Take for example, Europe. Even if it is the smallest continent in the world, Europe is made up of countries speaking different languages.

But the people there have used it to their advantage. Anywhere in Europe, there are language schools set up which look like a one-stop shop for all language studies. If you are in Spain for example, you may find a language school that has an offering for Portuguese, English, Italian, German and French language studies. Whether you’re an entrepreneur setting up your own language school or whether you’re a teacher here, money surely flows for you.

In Dubai which is a largely-English speaking city yet peopled with diverse foreigners, English language schools are sprouting up. Their students are people from Azerbaijan, Russia, Israel and Pakistan who don’t know any English word or two. These students are usually sent in by their employers to enroll in language courses to prepare them for white-collar tasks ahead. So wherever you are in the world, being a linguist can be a fun opportunity not just for learning purposes but also for excursions in the places where you are assigned.

GOING abroad and learning another language is really a fun experience that one will surely cherish for a lifetime. If you have been born in Valencia, Spain, please go to other places that speak Catalan or Basque. Studying other dialects in your native country is fun indeed. If you go to other places beyond mainland Spain like the Balearic and the Canary archipelagoes, then it’s heartwarming to learn how the people there speak Spanish. Try to compare whether they have the same passion in speaking Spanish the way it is spoken in the mainland.

Try to read the books indigenous to those islands too. Try to research on whether they have prolific and productive authors. This may well be an experience worth enhancing. Of course, everybody knows that people have their day jobs so it’s nice to go there once in a while like during a weekend or on an extended holiday break. There are a few extended holiday breaks around especially if the holiday falls on a Friday. That was what happened on November 1 and 2, All Saints Day and All Souls Day respectively. Take that opportunity to study in a foreign land.

And by studying, I don’t mean formal studying. I mean studying in an atmosphere of actual learning through immersion. Try to befriend the locals in a particular place. You go to Mexico or Cuba or Puerto Rico, they speak the same Spanish yet they have their own unique vocabularies indigenous in that area. The twangs also differ. Try to study that and have a fun life. Once you have your own capital, how about establishing a language school as your own investment?

But first, you must immerse yourself on whether you want to really be a linguist as a pastime. If you’re on your two-week holiday break, try to spend it in a non-Spanish speaking country like Portugal. Portugal is just around the corner – at the same peninsula where you live, the Iberian Peninsula – yet people there speak another language. Then go beyond the Iberian Peninsula and look at the countries fronting the Mediterranean like Italy and France. More or less, they have the same culture such as yours although France is a little bit more liberated. But try to study the languages in those countries because they are definitely diverse. They may have the same origin – the Roman language – but the French and Italian languages are as different as they are.

French is said to be the most romantic language in the modern era. Try to find out why. Try to find out too by enrolling yourself in a French language school. A French language school may be located anywhere – whether in Nice or in Paris – but they offer the same programs. They want students to maximize their learning of the French language by using state-of-the-art technology such as language tapes and computerized lessons. You will also be paired with language partners so you can both tutor each other. So go out into the world and have fun learning languages.

START learning a second language while you’re still young. You’ll really have an advantage if you’re the son or the daughter of a diplomat. I first had a close encounter of another language when my father was assigned in Japan as a diplomat. I enrolled in an international school in Tokyo where my classmates are also sons and daughters of diplomats. I have Portuguese classmates, I have American classmates and I have Filipino classmates. Aside from learning the native Japanese language at the early age of seven, I was also exposed to the languages of my classmates such as Portuguese, English and Tagalog.

After that, I spent my elementary years in the Philippines. It was there that I was exposed to such tourist spots as Boracay and Siargao and Camiguin and even white water rafting and rappelling in Cagayan de Oro. I was also exposed not only with Tagalog words but other dialects of the republic such as Cebuano and Maranao. I was also exposed to unique Filipino delicacies such as roasted pork, fish paste, sweet rice cakes and chicken fetuses.

Then I spent my high school years in Thailand. I was again schooled in an international school in Thailand unlike the one I spent in Manila. In Thailand, I was studying in Bangkok. It was such a crowded city like Manila full of pollution. The real beauty in Thailand lies in the provinces. However, the most interesting place in Thailand that I have visited so far was Phuket. It was in Phuket that the movie The Beach was set. And it was really so wonderful and serene there even during nighttime that I was able to see glowing planktons all around me. In Thailand, I was able to learn their native language and eat their native delicacy which is frog.

In college, my father was assigned at the Spanish consulate in Quebec and it was there that I took my international degree in public relations. Because my English was relatively poor by then, they made me enroll in a refresher course before admitting to regular college. And because Quebec speaks French, I was able to learn the French language too. As part of my immersion in the degree that I took, I was able to go to Tahiti for a month. The capital of Tahiti is Papeete. I love being there, the beaches are cool although not as compelling as the one in Phuket. But I was also able to learn the languages of the people there which is French because Tahiti was a former French colony. Of course, I was able to learn three words in Tahiti, their really native language, because my stay there was just two weeks long. At least, it was memorable although at times, I was wary of tropical diseases such as malaria.

After graduating from the University of Montreal, I moved to Toronto and study for three academic semesters TOEFL or Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. After that, I’m ready to take on the world and apply my learning of English. And I’m Spanish. Now, do you see the relevance why learning a language is important?