Elderly ladies = best language practising partners

Some students are very motivated to practise their newly acquired language and are able to overcome their fears to initiate discussions with complete strangers when they go to a foreign country. I admire this kind of courage and believe that it's a big step toward fluency. However, unfortunately it's not easy to meet people who have the patience it requires to talk to students who are not very fluent. For these people, what is important is to move the discussion forward, so they will quickly switch to English and completely disregard the efforts of the poor student. But students, don't be discouraged! I know people who will be very happy to talk to you and let you practise your new language!

Next time you go overseas and want try out your new linguistic assets on somebody, find old people, especially ladies. Yes that's right, old ladies. These beings have all the attributes of the perfect language practising partner:

1) The mere fact that they are women means that they will tend to like talking. That's a good start.
2) Most old people have time.
3) They are more patient and understanding.
4) They have so much life experience to share.
5) Your chances of meeting an old lady that speaks good English are much lower than if you met a young person.
6) If they have slight hearing problems, that's even better, because you then need to learn to articulate clearly and speak loudly. (How's this for out-of-the-box thinking?)

When I went to Ecuador, my Spanish was still in its infancy. But my buddy Greg's host family, including the grandpas and grandmas spent hours talking with me. When I visited Portugal some decades ago, I stayed in a B&B run by an old couple. I still remember one night, I was watching TV with the old lady, and there was a wedding scene. So she started talking to me about her daughter's wedding and enthusiastically took out photo albums to show me. I had so much fun and practised so much with the very limited Portugueuse vocabulary that I had.