Travel Wisdom Podcast -travel and learn languages for success and money

This is a country that I didn't know existed a few years ago. Although I consider myself good at geography I could not have told you where it was!

One of the coolest things in this country is that it is functionally bilingual. Both Russian and Moldovan / Romanian are languages you can converse in within the country. I had never really seen a place like this especially with such different languages.

Otherwise I didn't really venture too much outside of the main city of Chisnau and didn't spend too much time in the country. But the impressions of the place are still interesting!

In this first country report I talk about the first country that I went to after being deported from Germany. I came into Ukraine about 2 years after the revolution that brought the country to its knees. However, you can hardly tell and it is very beautiful in many parts. Of course there are many areas that are still unsafe but generally these are hard to get to.

This country is very nice and very cheap. Bad news for the country means good news for you and the result is one of the cheapest countries in the world! Also some of the stories of the war from some of the locals are some of the most interesting thing you will ever hear!

I recommend checking out Ukraine!

I had the privilege of talking with the Socrates Philosophy club a few weeks ago. They are a group based in India who want to see personal growth among their members. They share inspirational stories, watch talks, play music and generally try to make their lives better.

I play some of the amazing music they recorded for me and have been humming it all day!

I also talk about the aspects of social life you need to be healthy: family, neighbors, friends for hobbies, friends for fitness, and friends for charity. Once you have friends in all of these areas you can be much more happy!

Have you been inspired to do something to improve your life because of this podcast? Or was this podcast inspiring? Write to me at [email protected]

After being deported from Germany and then having computer issues I have finally resolved everything and can start recording again!

I will be recording episodes weekly now about the countries I have been going through on my way to Siberia!

After coming back from India and successfully finishing my Masters degree, I found out that I had overstayed my visa. So I am being deported from the whole Schengen region of Europe for the next 3 months before I am able to come back.

I was going to go travel in Russia and Siberia anyways so this may not be the worst thing. I guess it just forces me to do it a month earlier than I had expected.

I will be talking more about an idea to make money while on the road...selling tacos in Siberia!! I will be talking a bit more about this later on.

Lots of plans and lots of crazy things going on this month. How about you? Have you ever experienced anything like this?

Jan van der Aa is originally from the Netherlands and has been working location independently since his graduation from college in 2012. His work has allowed him to live on 4 different continents and to visit over 85 countries. Besides his native Dutch, Jan also speaks English, Mandarin, German, French, Portuguese, Cantonese and Spanish. This allowed him to help found Language Boost, a language learning method which helps learners get to an intermediate quickly. In this episode we talk about how he started his language translation company and how simply being bold allowed him to get together this group of people to translate documents. He then talks about what he learned by learning his own languages and finally realizing that he himself is a good language learner. From this he explains how he put together his startup as well as the struggles behind it.

Troy Erstling is the founder of Brain Gain which helps young professionals find employment and internships with startups in emerging economies. What started as a simple Facebook group led to questions flying in from all over the world. Questions like “How did you find a job in India?”, “How are you working for a start-up?”, “I hate my job and I want to travel, what should I do?!”. Seeing that there was a significant demand of people just like himself who want to travel and work abroad, he was inspired to start this service. In this episode we first talk about how amazing and serendipitous travel and living abroad can be. While talking to a friend at a cafe in Bangalore India, another local friend overhears them and hires them for sound recordings for cartoons in India. Then we talk about how he made his way from the US to teaching English in Korea when he noticed it was difficult to transition into a new career. He then applied for an internship in India and saw the value in this. So he has put together a company which helps young talented professionals get internships in the developing world. Although the pay may look lower, based on the local costs, it could actually give a better quality of life. Also, the responsibilities given can be much higher, essentially giving you the experience of someone 10 years your senior. I wish this had existed when I was young and I would highly recommend anyone looking to start their career to look into this.

CJ Hunt is an independent filmmaker who created his 2012 film entitled “In Search Of The Perfect Human Diet” that takes a look at what nutritional approach our bodies were made to run most efficiently on. He travels through time and around the world on an unprecedented global exploration to find a solution to the exploding epidemic of overweight, obesity and diet related disease. The Perfect Human Diet takes us on a 2-million year evolutionary journey to discover breakthrough scientific facts that could change the way we all think about food in the first ever 'Paleo Diet' documentary. In this episode we talk about what Paleo actually means and what the research from around the world shows. Scientists have shown that hunter-gatherer societies which were successful and survived subsisted mostly on animal foods and very little starches. He started out as a raw food vegan and eventually found that he wouldn't have the energy to manage the stresses that life requires. He then talks about how the foods we grew up with may not be the best foods for our bodies. They could be normal and good but they may not be optimal. Then we talk about how he made the movie and how he spent 10 years and $250k to create it. Finally we talk about how travelling allows you to have a deeper respect for lives around the world and their ways of life.

Connor Grooms is is location independent at only 20 years old, traveling and living around the world as he runs his business online, from Saigon to Barcelona to his new homebase in Medellín. In November 2014, he gained 26 pounds of muscle in a month after a lifetime of being skinny. This past June, he achieved conversational level of Spanish in a single month and self-produced the film, "Spanish in a Month: A Language Learning Documentary" about the experience, which has been featured in outlets like Forbes. Following the success of his Spanish in a Month documentary, Grooms founded BaseLang.com - unlimited Spanish tutoring for $99 a month, which follows the same principles he used to learn so quickly. In this episode we talk about how much easier it is to learn things when it is done all at once. Instead of doing a little bit of studying or work over a long period of time, we both find it is more efficient to learn it all at once. When you have this level of focus, it is possible to do things like learn Spanish in a month. He also talks about how much he learned through his experience of learning Spanish in a month and what he has applied to his new company to help new learners. Then we talk about how many things that are taught in school or are generally thought of as common knowledge is either wrong or not completely true. He suggests learning things yourself and to get many sources of information. The next thing he talks about is maybe one of the best tips for becoming location independent. His advice is to find a skill people will pay for whether it be design, writing, writing code and to become "really really really really good at that." So simple yet so profound.

Karen French is the founder of Karen French Floral Designs which provides floral arrangements and designs to boutique hotels and private homes. She makes weekly individual arrangements which she matches according to the environment and desires of the customers.

In this episode we talk about how Karen was born abroad and lived in some places like Dubai, Bahrain, and Singapore many decades before they became big and popular. Then we talk about what her job as a floral designer means in relation to what a florist does. We talk about her designing process and what it means to work with a customer. We then talk about the 'Trailing Spouse' which often comes along when one person in a couple gets a job abroad. These people often are not allowed to work and can be bored staying at home all day. We talk about how this business has given her meaning in life while she had financial security. We then talk about the power of social media and how she was able to get to 30k follower within a year. She then talks about how travelling can be great and how languages can help you get into the local population better