WHEN you retire at 40, it is like having a second life. What with the thousands of dollars every month as pension plus your own personal trust fund, you can tour around the world for the rest of your life. If you gauge your own life expectancy to reach 90, then being at 40 simply means you haven’t yet spent one half of your life.

What better way to spend the rest of your life in retirement than tour around the world with your spouse and kids. And while touring around the world, spend some moments studying the various cultures around you at the same time acquiring their languages. You can start your tour to exotic countries such as Spain.

Spain was once upon a time the ruler of the world for 500 years, navigating both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Today, Spain is peopled with individuals known for their being hospitable and being careful about their heritage sites. In fact, there are hundreds of these sites which have been proclaimed by UNESCO as heritage sites. When you travel to Spain and you’ve got the proper documents at hand, there’s one more thing lacking – learning their language.

There are lots of language schools sprouting around the country and not just in mainland Spain but also in their other territories overseas – like the Canary and the Balearic islands. These islands are home to both British and Scandinavian tourists so there must be plenty of Spanish language schools here. The interesting thing about the Spanish language is that it is split into several dialects here in Spain such as the Catalan and the Basque.

Spanish itself is a Romance language, meaning it originated in Rome. In fact, all languages in Europe derive from the Romance as the mother tongue – languages such as German, French and Italian. Learning them all would be superb but consider six months of learning and touring a certain place to acquire a second language.

But let’s learn Spanish first. Spanish is a language that has crept its way from the Spanish mainland to the peoples of its former colonies like about 20 nations in South America or so. That’s why there are many language schools in these countries and they are really useful not just for tourists but also for businessmen.

Consider this example. You are a Caucasian from El Paso, Texas and you are considering having some investment at nearby Ciudad Juarez in Mexico which is an all-Spanish speaking place. Because you have been born and bred in El Paso at an exclusive English-speaking school, you have never bothered yourself educating in Spanish. Now is the opportune time to learn Spanish. There are lots of Spanish language schools in El Paso. And it’s not just in El Paso that one can find Spanish language schools. Across the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, there are also lots of Spanish language schools. These are mainly manned by Cuban refugees who have escaped to the country. We cannot deny that there are lots of Cuban successful stories there in Florida. Among the celebrities who are Cuban in origin are Gloria Esfefan, Jon Secada and Andy Garcia.