The Importance of Being Able to Haggle in a New Language
Haggling is the ability to casually, calmly and effectively negotiate for a lower price in the local marketplace. This is where your language skills are really put to the test, and where you can get the greatest financial reward from your language learning efforts!
Whenever I travel to a new place, specially the one where haggling is the norm, the first thing I do is get a guide on how to haggle. You can tell a lot about people by how they haggle: are they relaxed and friendly or are they greedy and stressed? Are they easy going or tough negotiators? Is it a process of finding a fair price that makes both parties happy, or is it a race to the finish with Victory as the only objective?
It’s the first thing I learned to do when I came to Indonesia, and it’s now the first thing I do when I travel anywhere.
Prices for foreigners are higher if you can't speak the local language.It’s also one of the first things we teach you when you learn Indonesian language with us at Cinta Bahasa, and at the end of our Group Beginner Course, we take you to the local market to learn to bargain for lower prices in your newly-acquired foreign language.
Prices for foreigners who can’t speak Indonesian are higher than those for foreigners who can speak Indonesian language. Actually, you’ll notice that this is true in many countries in the world.