(CNN) — Relocating to another country is a dream come true for many people, yet when the language is a nightmare it can be a major deterrent.
But a 36-year-old former gardener from California who flunked Spanish language at high school embraced his fate when a short-term stay on the island of Mallorca led to him finding the love of his life and starting a flourishing business – one that he’d never have dreamed of starting.
Ted Purdom, from San Anselmo, California, graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in English and enrolled in an overseas language program, aiming to learn Spanish.
He ended up in Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic islands off the east coast of Spain, for the nine-month program.
That should have been an interlude before returning to real life. But 13 years later, he’s fluent in Spanish and Mallorquin, the local Catalan dialect, and has opened his …