Have you ever wondered: “how can I travel to a country and get to know their real culture through real local people, while spending little money?”. And let me ask you another question: have you ever wanted to go abroad to get some real practice with local native speakers in a foreign language you may be learning?
Well, I think I can provide you with an incredible solution to both questions that involves making friends abroad with whom you can talk in their native language (or a language you’ve both learned and want to practice) about your countries, your cultures and yourselves. It’s called Couchsurfing.
The Polyglot Club
Many years ago, back in my native country Brazil, I got to know a website called “The Polyglot club”. There, I could share my experience with learning languages on their forum, and learn from everybody else’s expertise. Apart from online discussions, they also organized weekly meetings, all over the globe – even in Brazil!
However, their headquarters were too far away from where I lived. So, to my disappointment, I never had the chance to take part in their events. Consequently, when I moved to Poland, this changed! I not only could finally attend their gatherings, but also organize some myself. Well, that is exactly what I did, I organized my first meeting of “The Polyglot Club”.
Finally, my first meeting!
I was super excited as I had been waiting for this moment for so long! I was excited to meet all of the local polyglots and exchange languages! Well, that day only ONE person came to my meeting. His name was Bartek. We discussed our travels, and I learned that he had been to many countries. In fact, he preferred to visit small and remote places, where there were no other tourists. The reason he did this is that he wanted to be sure that he wouldn’t end up using English during his stay in a foreign land. Instead, he could practice one of the other languages that he knew – which included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and German. He was a real polyglot!
Bartek was particularly excited about his next destination: Sweden. That’s why we not only chatted in my native Portuguese that day but also in Swedish (it’s one of my favorite languages). That guy amazed me. His language level was quite impressive, and his learning techniques were similar to mine. Also, we shared the same learning style element: “Fire”. That explained why he traveled a lot in pursuit of intercultural experiences and linguistic input. However, I was curious how he managed to put aside so much money to finance his adventures abroad. I also asked myself how he could find his way in completely unknown villages and towns.
That’s when I was introduced to “CouchSurfing”.
Couchsurfing? To surf on a couch? Huh? What is it all about? Well, Bartek explained that it’s a website, or rather an online community of travelers, language geeks and culture freaks. Either, you can look for a “couch” to sleep on for free where you’re planning on visiting, but most importantly you can find a really cool local host to learn about the local culture, history and people.
If you’re learning a new language, it’s a fantastic opportunity to practice this language by going to a country where this language is spoken. You can also find a host that knows this language, as this information is always indicated on their profile. You can discuss different topics in another language, like cooking, traveling, your life stories, etc. Alternatively, you can offer to host people interested in visiting your place. However, if you’re not able to welcome them as guests at your home, then you can at least propose to guide them in your town or city, or to offer to help them somehow.
This “Couchsurfing” concept sounded perfect for me!
It was everything I wanted in one place. And they also organized weekly meetings! In fact, these meetings were more popular than the Polyglot Club’s ones, since CouchSurfing was a much more widely known web service.
That same day, I created my profile and two days later I got a message probably from a Lithuanian who wanted to come to Poland and spend some three weeks here. Unfortunately, in the end, he decided to instead stay in Katowice – the capital city of Silesia, which is only 15 miles from Gliwice, the city where I live. I felt great disappointment given I was really looking forward to having my first Couchsurfing experience.
Anyway, let me cut to the chase of when my first Couchsurfing trip actually happened. I was planning a trip to Kiev, Ukraine and I thought: “why don’t I try Couchsurfing here?”. After looking through several profiles and sending a few messages, I was successful in finding my first host – his name was Vanya! I stayed at his house, which was located not far away from downtown Kiev.
Three birds, two languages, one man
I don’t want to brag, but with this host, I was able to “kill three birds with one stone”, not two! “What do you mean”, you might ask? Well, first, I was able to learn some Russian from Vanya, because he was actually born in Moscow. Secondly, I didn’t have to pay anything to stay there. Kiev was quite expensive from my perspective, so I was particularly happy about this. And thirdly, Vanya was a positively crazy and wholehearted Esperantist! Given I also knew Esperanto as well, we talked in this language when I had trouble conveying any ideas due to my limited and poor knowledge of the Russian language.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Esperanto, it’s the world’s most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Polish ophthalmologist Ludwik L. Zamenhof in 1887, Esperanto was intended to be a universal second language for international communication.
My stay with Vanya
During my stay, when he had some free time, we’d spend some hours walking down the city together, while he told interesting historical facts about the buildings and the people. I was lucky enough to learn about the local history and culture, while practicing another language – I thought that this was incredible and I felt so lucky for this opportunity.
During some moments of my trip, Vanya was quite busy with his work, so when he wasn’t able to spend time with me, he asked his Esperantist mate Andrij to help with hosting me too, which was great because I then got to practice speaking with another person in Esperanto during my trip. Our conversations were about many different topics, especially about the famous Taras Shevchenko – their greatest poet, whose literary heritage is deemed to have laid the foundations for modern Ukrainian literature. Our conversations lasted a few hours, but they were so interesting that it felt like barely any time had passed.
When in Kiev…
During this Couchsurfing trip, another funny thing happened. One day, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, I spotted a young blond Ukranian girl who looked very attractive. Her name was Irina. I bravely started talking to her in Russian. To my surprise, she answered in Ukrainian and not in Russian.
“Ukrayinska mova prekrasna, i neyu treba gavariti!”, which means “Ukrainian is a beautiful language, and it should be spoken”.
It happened that she preferred to speak Ukrainian instead. No wonder! We were in Ukraine, after all! Due to my poor level of Ukrainian, I had to use Polish, because it is more similar to Ukrainian than Russian.
As a result, Irina proposed an experiment: to go sit at a nearby snack bar to have something to drink and eat there. However, on condition that during this time I would talk to her only in Polish, while she would only answer in Ukrainian. Our tandem style language exchange lasted more than 5 hours talking in this “hybrid” way!
Reflections after my first Couchsurfing trip to Ukraine
Overall, I really enjoyed the time I spent there. It was a great first CouchSurfing experience. I talked, noted down many things and learned a lot at the same time. Vanya even gave me a Bible in Russian, which I kept and read once in a while still today.
When you decide to stay at a CouchSurfer’s home, you should be open and willing to create situations to talk to and learn from your host. I commented on the house, the town, the people – trying to compare them with my own “world”. I shared my hobbies and interests with my host in pursuit of finding out theirs.
Actually, I could keep on telling you about other trips and other interesting hosts I’ve had. However, it’s better to stop here today. Just to sum it up, I encourage you to try CouchSurfing out. You can feel like an “ambassador” for your country, because you are representing your nation abroad. Hosts are always willing to find out something about your culture and everyday life. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet people who speak many languages and to practice a language with them. Also, you can always learn something new that you wouldn’t if you had traveled the “normal way”.
Once you’ve done your first trip, don’t forget to write your opinion and review of the experience on the host’s profile at CouchSurfing.com. This way, more people will feel more confident to go and stay at this host’s place.
