Cookery in Tuscany? Horse-riding in Ireland? French language school in Paris? Boring! If you’re going to combine a trip with learning a new skill or talent, you may as well push the boat out and pick up something a little more unique…
Master martial arts
Remember in Batman Begins and Kill Bill, when the protagonists go away to the Far East in order to immerse themselves in a different culture and learn to master deadly martial arts? Well that can be you, too, albeit without the torturous servitude and mysterious beardy types demanding total devotion. Martial arts schools and courses are available all over Asia, whether it’s judo, karate or tae-kwon-do. Perhaps the sexiest, however, is Aikido, where swords and staffs are all part of the mix once things get to the advanced stage. The Aikikai Foundation in Tokyo, Japan runs classes all day every day and can tailor courses for visitors.
Learn how to handle birds
There is no CV that can’t be substantially beefed up with the addition of falconry in the skills section, and any sane employer has got to be impressed with a candidate that turns up with a tamed hawk on his or her arm. No? Irrespective of how useful it is, the National Birds of Prey Centre’s five day course is certainly something different. Based in Gloucestershire, the course trains participants how to handle, care for and hunt with winged predators, including owls and eagles. The course costs £450 per person and by the end, you should know how to train a bird from scratch.
Join the circus
Whilst not exactly constituting transferable life skills, being able to juggle, unicycle and leap about on a flying trapeze are undoubtedly very cool things to do. Whilst certainly not recommended for ill co-ordinated types, there are circus schools across the world that allow wannabe clowns and acrobats to pick up the basics. And, if they really want to, they can stay on for longer term courses. Many of the courses and camps are aimed at children, but the Trapeze Arts Circus School in Oakland, California and Circus Arts in Sydney, Australia cater for bigger kids. Prices depend entirely on which skills you want to learn and for how long.
Speak an obscure language
Live abroad French, Italian and Spanish classes are ten a penny, and thus boring. However, there are language schools in most countries, so would-be linguists can disappear for a few months and come back speaking something truly obscure and impressive. Perhaps Luxembourgish at the Ecole privée Grandjean in Luxembourg City? Or Lithuanian at the Klaipeda University in Lithuania? Alternatively, how about going to Senegal and learning Wolof? Le Pôle Linguistique de l’Institut Français Léopold Sédar Senghor offers two two-hour sessions a week for 13 weeks.
Get licensed to kill
James Bond fantasists can convince themselves that they’re the star of a 007 flick in the glamorous environs of Northampton. A day long spy skills course is available through Virgin Experience Days for £225, and takes budding secret agents through the essentials. This means defusing bombs, firing machine guns, picking locks and operating covert listening devices. Along with the surveillance cameras and axe-lobbing, there is also the chance to learn some pretty unnerving unarmed combat techniques.
This article was originally written for AOL UK.
Copyright David Whitley.
