{"id":549,"date":"2012-12-11T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=549"},"modified":"2017-12-19T03:23:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T03:23:05","slug":"what-will-your-first-foreign-conversation-consist-of-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/what-will-your-first-foreign-conversation-consist-of-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will Your First Foreign Conversation Consist Of? (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I learned my first words in Spanish in Ecuador but I have to confess that I never had a real conversation in my new language there. I was travelling with other Brits and never really got into a situation where I could speak to the locals for any length of time, although I did once ask a man in a market how long it took him to craft a stone bird we was selling. I forget the answer.<br \/>\nAnyway, the first proper conversation came when I had to try and change my flight in La Paz. It went well but when I lost my bank card in the ATM 10 minutes later the subsequent conversation didn\u2019t pan out so well. So what will your first conversation in your new tongue be?<\/p>\n<p><strong>An Argument with Customs Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I passed through customs easily in Ecuador and I don\u2019t remember anyone saying a word to me. What if an overzealous official takes umbrage at your footwear, however? This happened to me years later in Roma airport and I was lucky that he saw the funny side when I deftly flicked off my sandals without bending over and sent them spinning over to the other side of the conveyor belt for him to inspect. If you are taking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/chinese\/\">Chinese lessons Aberdeen<\/a> teachers will tell you to keep your footwear on in Chinese airport security lines, and I reckon this is good advice for anywhere in the world except Rome really.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4621\" style=\"width: 269px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/descarga.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4621\" class=\"wp-image-4621 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/descarga.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4621\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/93378328@N00\/6508009\/\">Flicker<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I learned my first words in Spanish in Ecuador but I have to confess that I never had a real conversation in my new language there. I was travelling with other Brits and never really got into a situation where I could speak to the locals for any length of time, although I did once(\u2026)<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12 text-right\">\n\t \t\t\t\t<a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-xs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/what-will-your-first-foreign-conversation-consist-of-part-i\/\">CONTINUE READING &raquo;<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[23,21,22],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-learning","tag-language-experience","tag-learn-spanish","tag-spanish-lessons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Will Your First Foreign Conversation Consist Of? (Part I) - Listen &amp; Learn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/what-will-your-first-foreign-conversation-consist-of-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Will Your First Foreign Conversation Consist Of? (Part I) - Listen &amp; Learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I learned my first words in Spanish in Ecuador but I have to confess that I never had a real conversation in my new language there. 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