On Saturday, we returned to Canada, after seventy-seven days in Venezuela. We even got diplomas from the Instituto Universitario Jesús Obrero for our language study.
In lieu of describing our final days in the country, I thought I might compile some of my experiences of studying a foreign language in the form of advice: not advice on how to study another language, but rather advice if you find yourself on the other end, as a host to a foreign student. We were very hospitably received in Venezuela by the Society―and the society―and so much of this comes out of positive experience. So, although I’ve put these tips more in the form of negative prohibitions, much of the content was gleaned from what my Venezuelan friends were doing right, and then inferring the opposite. But, of course, some wisdom comes from the more frequent of the frustrations of being a child in a new language.
