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3 Steps to Language Hacking with Google Translate

As I deal with day to day life here in Costa Rica, I find myself needing to understand more and more things in Spanish. It’s true that we live in a world today where we can literally learn anything online.  While there’s no doubt that a few language tapes and courses would help ,I’m finding Google translate to be quite a good Spanish teacher. Fluency is definitely a goal of mine during my time here in Costa Rica, but I also have to deal with situations today and using Google translate has been helping to improve my Spanish rapidly.

Know Your Daily Routine

I have a daily routine that involves surfing in the morning, the grocery store on occasional afternoons, and more visits to a mechanic than I’m proud to admit.  You might be wondering what the value is in knowing your daily routine. Knowing your daily routine will enable you to start thinking about learning the local language in the context of your every day life. As a result you’ll start to learn your vocabulary accordingly.

Think About Who You Interact With

The 3 people I interact with most that don’t speak English are the grocer, the parking attendant at the beach and the mechanic who owns my ATV.  I’m dealing with each one of them in very different contexts and as result I’m expanding my vocabulary rapidly.

Learn Phrases Accordingly

After figuring out your daily routine and thinking about the people you interact with you’ll be able to start developing a list of frequently used phrases and memorizing them.

  • The Grocer: The town I live in doesn’t have an ATM machine so when I need cash I have to tell the the grocer to charge me more than my bill and give me cash. The first few times I needed to do this I used Google Translate and now I actually know what I need to say when I go to him. I’ve also been able to starting bringing in variations based on my knowledge of Portuguese and my high school Spanish.
  • The Mechanic: I’ve learned more automotive terms in Spanish than I’ve ever wanted to thanks to a series of ongoing issues with starters,  batteries, oil leaks, flat tires, and more.  After a week of all these issues and a little bit of help from Google Translate, I’ve  managed to get to the point where I can tell the mechanic exactly what I need without getting completely confused. The mechanic who owns my ATV even told me  that I’ve learned quite a bit of Spanish since the last time he saw me.
  • The Parking Attendant: The parking attendant at the beach is fortunately the easiest person that I get to talk to since I all have to do is hand him a tip and say Pura Vida. But the other day when my bungee chord snapped I had to ask him if he had something I could tie my surf board with. Fortunately when I went to the hardware store to buy the bungee chords I had looked up the phrase “do you have something I can tie my surf board with” using Google translate.

While it won’t eliminate the need for some in-depth study of a foreign language, when you’re in a foreign country immersed in the local language, using Google translate can help you step up your game and fill in the blanks a bit so you don’t come off like a completely clueless foreigner.

PG

Srinivas Rao

Srinivas is an avid surfer and personal development blogger at The Skool of Life. He's also the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast for bloggers.

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