Gap year case study: learning a language A better plan, I soon found, was to swap conversations over coffee with people I met through expat.ru, an online community for English speakers in Russia. Today's young Russians have grown up watching Friends and so usually speak humiliatingly good English. But what really got me up to scratch was some individual tuition in a dark corner of Moscow State University, beneath a Stalinist tower that reminded me of Thunderbird One. Moscow's Red Square After three months in Moscow, I had gained an insight into Russian culture, met some memorable characters and learnt to cope without 24-hour access to Mum, with her unconditional promise of clean clothes and sandwiches. Which, after all, is part of the point of a gap year. Recent reports would have us believe the gap year is on the wane. A poll of almost 1,200 UK residents, aged between 16 and 23 for GlobalVisas.com, showed that only 22 per cent of recent school leavers plan to take a year out travelling, compared with 41 per cent of current students and recent graduates. For 45 per cent of those who had decided against a gap year, financial concerns were the main reason . I was lucky to get some financial help from my parents because pulling pints would not have covered it. Few people have this luxury: the poll show s that only a third of those planning a year out have access to such funds. One day in the next decade I intend to pack Mum off across Africa as a reciprocal gesture. If money is a worry, then the increasingly popular option of a working holiday makes a lot of sense. New Zealand's immigration office this week claimed that applications for working visas are up by 13 per cent on last year. The next big reason for ruling out a gap year, according to 36 per cent of the students, is the desire to get straight to university without wasting time. I have endless respect for the friends who moved from the school desk, through lecture halls, to the office in an unbroken stream, making me feel lazy and jobless in equal measure . But I know they'd welcome a break. Many of them have squeezed their travels into their university holidays, or booked a few months in the interim that some companies offer between graduation and job. The hard workers who have had no time off at all acknowledge that burnout could be lurking just a few years down the line, and fantasise about going away once the accountancy exams are done. David Stitt, managing director of Gap 360, said the 24-30 age group is responsible for its biggest increase in bookings. The other big turn-off when considering a gap year is the stereotype of the braying buffoon with a rucksack and a false sense of independence. Backpackers can look so carelessly unoriginal. Going to the same parties, skiing the same slopes, manhandling that same poor anaconda who hangs out at the wrong end of the Amazon. In the social-media age, what tracks are left that haven't been beaten, photographed, tweeted and "liked"? I even put Lyubov's kitchen counter on the internet. But why do we sneer at the image of old schoolmates bumping in to each other in Thailand? The fact that everyone treads the same paths is surely a reflection on the places, not the people. Omission from the Lonely Planet guide isn't necessarily shorthand for paradise with a poor marketing department - I know, I've been to Murmansk. One way to set yourself apart is to make the effort to do something genuinely worthwhile. Something not just of benefit to you, but to potential employers who will one day have to find a use for you. Picking up or passing on a skill goes a long way towards justifying your wanderlust. Personally, I learnt enough Russian to get me into university, which means the homestay was worth it. And while my three months trekking across Africa afterwards may not have made me conspicuously more employable, my time in Russia means I've widened my job search by a whole country. I can now look for work in two languages. If you're not concerned about your CV, at least consider the poor people who will have to give your wedding speeches and throw them a bone by sobbing over a bungee jump in New Zealand. You're at least guaranteed some great anecdotes. That anaconda that bit my friend? He still has its teeth. Dr Kingsley Sage, a tutor at Sussex University, points out that if you have the itch to get away , "you certainly need to get it out of your system before you settle down to a job." Better to clear it while it's a whim than let it grow into regret. However self-indulgent it may seem to delay the inevitable march towards responsibility, I can say as an older and marginally more responsible man that I'm glad I took my time out. It was a welcome swing away from the ladder, a bit of free-climbing. While the schooldays and essays blur into one, I'll always be able to look back and see myself running from those dogs in Moscow, reading Pushkin with Lyubov, or sitting alone at dawn in the Namib desert. Host Families Association provides Russian homestays with carefully selected families and can also arrange visa invitations (hofa.ru). Two weeks" basic accommodation with a host who speaks only Russian costs from £350. Additional private lessons cost from £13 per hour. Alternatively, those keen to learn Spanish could try Utatlan Language School in Guatemala, which offers an immersive language experience , with one-on-one tuition and accommodation with a local host family, as well as extra-curricular activities such as cooking classes. A homestay, including 20 hours of classes, costs from £100 per week. (spanishxela.com).