The empirical study aims to examine language travel from the perspective of adult education regarding its suitability for competence development and to derive conditions and perspectives for competence development in general. The methodological approach is characterized by the development of an innovative research approach for the field of adult education. To this end, a foundational theoretical discussion of the concept of competence is undertaken, aiming to develop a procedure based on a critical engagement with established tools for competence assessment in adult education. This procedure allows for the documentation of an objective competence development that targets societal competence expectations, as well as a subjective competence development that takes personal competence experiences into account. In doing so, the author, drawing on the increasingly significant theory of implicit knowledge by Michael Polanyi in current discussions, focuses her attention on the possibilities for analyzing implicit (unconscious) and difficult-to-articulate, as well as scientifically describable, competence experiences.