If you’re planning on a trip to a future Olympics, money may be one of your top concerns. Another consideration that you may want to keep in mind is the language barrier.

If you can read this blog without the extensive use of a dictionary or google translator, then you don’t really have to do a lot of language study. Most tourist areas have employees that speak at least a little bit of English. If you’re planning on a London trip, nearly everyone will speak English. One of the primary languages used in the Olympics is English. If you’re traveling to the London games, or just want to get to the Olympics, see a few sports and go home, you’ll be okay.

However, if you plan on going to Russia or Brazil, and don’t want to be confined to the touristy areas and want to venture out a bit, you may want to start looking into learning Russian or Portuguese. In particular, the average Russian does not speak English.

Don’t let the Russian Cyrillic alphabet scare you off. While the different letters look intimidating, every Russian letter has an English-sounding equivalent, and you can learn to read it in an hour or so. From then on, it’s like learning any other language (I’ve taken a year of Russian). Portuguese is not the same thing as Spanish, but a background in Spanish could help.

You don’t have to be an expert in a language in order to get by in a foreign country. I lived in Italy for three years, and although I do speak and read some Italian, I am certainly not fluent. I do know enough to go places, order at a restaurant, and leave the impression that I’m at least trying to speak their language. In order to engage in conversations with the locals, you’ll want to learn more; but if your main goal is to get out a bit on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, you’ll want to learn at least some of the language.

My favorite language program is Rosetta Stone. I’m currently using it to brush up on my Russian, in the hopes that I might get the chance to go to Sochi in 2014. It really makes learning any language fairly easy. Even my seven-year-old is using it to learn Chinese.

While knowing a foreign language is not a prerequisite for visiting, it certainly helps. I have seen firsthand how attempting to speak in a foreign language will earn you more respect than just speaking English. While it does take a little bit of effort, it can make your Olympic experience more enjoyable.

If you’re like me, you’d really like to go to the Olympics someday. However, for the vast majority of us, the Olympics are not likely to go to your home city, at least not any time soon. To go to the Olympics will take a lot of planning. For the next couple of Tuesdays, I’m going to discuss planning a trip to the Olympics. Although it’s too early to make arrangements for any trip other than the 2010 Singapore Youth Games, it’s never too early to make long-range plans to attend the Olympics in 2012 London, 2014 Sochi, 2016 Rio, or even 2018 (which I’m guessing will be in PyeongChang, South Korea).

What probably keeps most people from getting to the Olympics is money. I know that’s what has prevented me from going to the Olympics since I started wanting to go. Going to the Olympics can be expensive, and can take quite a while to save up for. Depending on how fast you can put away money, you may be able to save up for a trip to the Olympics as early as 2012. I personally am shooting for 2014 or 2016. Here are some tips for saving:

1. Take care of necessities first. For the last few Olympics, this has been my biggest hurdle. It makes no sense to have your car repossessed or have your home foreclosed upon in order to save to go to the Olympics. In this economy, job losses and underemployment could keep you from saving for a trip to the Olympics. Once you can take care of your needs, you can concentrate on saving.

2. Find creative ways to save. If your basic necessities are taken care of, you can start saving; however, there still may not be a lot of extra money to go around. This is where you can start finding creative ways to save.

• Give up your morning latte (or purchase a smaller size) and save the difference
• Keep a spare change jar. As a kid, we used to have a big, 5 gallon glass jug in our living room. My mom would put spare change in it. When it came time to cash it out, it had hundreds of dollars in it. It can really add up.
• Use coupons. My mom funded several vacations by using coupons. She put the money that she saved by using coupons into our vacation fund. We were able to pay for a trip every few years this way.
• Set aside money when you get the chance. Try to set a goal to set aside $5, $10, or any other affordable amount on a weekly basis. The more you can set aside, of course, the faster you will be able to save for the trip you want.

3. Don’t pay to save your money. Depending on where you live, your bank may charge you to have a bank account. While you may want to start a savings account specifically for saving money for your Olympics trip, it makes no sense to pay for the privilege, especially with bank accounts paying no interest. Find out what the minimum amount of money you need for a free account, and open one when you have that amount.

It takes a lot of planning and determination to save up for a large trip like going to the Olympics. Hopefully these tips can help.