When I first moved abroad I had just obtained my B.A. in French and decided that I wanted to live and study in Paris. By chance, I managed to get accepted to the Sorbonne Paris IV and secure a room at the American dormitory at the Cité Universitaire. At first I was thinking of taking French classes as a foreign language, but then considered that my lessons might just revolve around grammar and pronunciation, so instead I threw myself in at the deep end and opted for French literature studies at the university level. I was way out of my league and unprepared to write university-level essays and exercises with my mostly conversational level of fluency. However, by pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I was forced to improve rather quickly. Later on, I decided to switch back to music studies and then my language learning improved even further because I was combining my interests and hobbies with French. Overall, I actively used all four skills for speaking with native speakers, listening to the radio and TV, reading newspapers and books, and writing homework assignments.

 
In stark contrast, when I moved to Mexico City, I was no longer in a student environment and primarily going to offices and businesses to teach English. Most of my business emails were directly in English and I began to neglect reading the local newspapers or watching the news or listening to the radio. As I do not actively journal or write in Spanish, my overall level has started to stagnate. Now that I primarily teach online, I often stay at home most of the day, spending the day speaking English to my students or to my family. Despite having lived in Mexico for a much longer time than in France, the level of integration and contact with locals is radically different.

 
Having perhaps reached a plateau with my Spanish, I turned my focus to learning Russian at a local language school for 2 years and then began to study independently and with private teachers online and offline. I have joined online language learning challenges such as Language Heroes, the Add1 Challenge, and even started my own 30-Day Speaking Challenge for extra speaking practice. I have never once been to Russia, but through regular, consistent study and practice online with feedback and support from native speakers, I’ve managed to reach about an intermediate level, so it is entirely possible to reach a conversational level without traveling abroad, but it’s also possible to live abroad and if you neglect being fully immersed or integrated that can affect how well you speak.

Jonathan is a language coach and TOEFL trainer who motivates and encourages language learners to become independent and self-sufficent. He is the founder of the 30-Day Speaking Challenge, a free program where learners can share short daily recordings in their target language(s) for feedback and review.

I’ve lived abroad, in the UK, since 2005, which is when I moved there to study for an undergraduate degree. Being able to take a university course in an English-speaking country was the main motivation for my move. I was already fluent in English but I was looking for a bigger challenge – to use my target language to pursue academic study.  

 

I certainly don’t think you need to move abroad to achieve fluency. I’ve already spoken about this topic in a video I made about how I learned English. In the video, I cover the different activities I did to get to fluency when I was still living in Poland – my home country.

 

I also wouldn’t recommend choosing to move to another country just because you want to be fluent in a language. Moving abroad is a big step that needs to be considered carefully because it has an impact on many areas of your life (your family and social life, your finances and professional opportunities being the main ones).

 

Having said that, living in another country can be a very positive and enriching experience – not just linguistically but also culturally. The latter aspect of living abroad is what I believe I wouldn’t have benefitted from fully if I only ever lived in Poland. When I moved to the UK, I was surrounded by British people, British popular culture, British everything. You learn a lot from it. These cultural aspects of learning can help your language as well – you learn to speak more like ‘the locals’, for example.

 

What also helped me in developing more native-level fluency is the fact that I only ever used English in my everyday interactions – first with my classmates and friends at university, and then with my colleagues at work. Having a partner who’s a native English speaker also helped, I believe.

Because I was already fluent in English when I moved abroad, my biggest challenge was retaining a good level of spoken Polish, and not – as you may expect – improving my English. When most of your daily interactions take place in a foreign language, this does have an impact on your native language. I’ve written about this phenomenon on my blog.

Agnieszka Murdoch is a language coach and the founder of 5-Minute Language. Her mission is to help and motivate language learners worldwide so that every person in the world has a chance to learn a foreign language. She shares her language learning advice on her blog and YouTube channel.

In truth, my move abroad was only partially motivated by languages. When I finished university, I decided I wanted a new adventure and made up my mind to hit the road. Given that I had recently started studying Spanish at the time, South America was a natural destination. A few months before travelling, I met my now girlfriend who is from Argentina, and so Buenos Aires became my first landing spot.

 

When I first arrived in Argentina, my Spanish was decent but not great. In Spain, I was able to get by and although I made lots of mistakes and couldn’t understand everything I heard, I could stumble through a decent conversation with a patient native speaker.

 

But in Argentina, the accent and Argentine vocabulary left me completely flummoxed at first! I didn’t recognise a lot of the lunfardo (Argentine slang) and the accent took me a couple of months to truly adapt to.

 

And yet here I am two years later speaking fluent Spanish (I’ve even been complimented a bunch of times recently on how Argentinean I sound!)

 

So, did living in Argentina help me improve my Spanish? Undoubtedly… BUT, I don’t really think it’s quite that simple.

 

In Argentina, I was regularly exposed to Spanish and that’s what allowed me to learn to understand and speak it really well. But the reason I was exposed to the language is that my girlfriend’s family only speak Spanish and we would visit them regularly. I spent many hours listening and speaking to Spanish with them and this ultimately is what led to my success.

 

Could I have spent just as much time speaking and listening to Spanish if I wasn’t in Argentina? Yes, definitely!

 

Living here made it a bit easy because I wasn’t as reliant on motivation to keep me practicing every day. When there were birthdays parties or other events to attend, I just had to speak Spanish, like it or not. And so the ‘magic’ number of hours I needed to be exposed to the language probably passed faster than they would have at home.

In reality, if you can find and connect with a group of native speakers in your own city, there’s no reason this can’t be equally as effective for learning as moving abroad. It’s you and the specific situations you put yourself in that ultimately make the difference.

James is a language coach fascinated by the mindset side of language learning. He’s the founder of Lingua Materna and the Russian Learners’ Support Group on Facebook.

Working on my French is why I came to France in 2007 – I wanted to perfect it and I thought moving would be the best way to do that. I’ve now been living here for 10 years. Before moving I had spent 2 month-long periods in France, but not in the city or even the region I ended up moving to. I was probably around a B2 level I think so I could express myself, just not in a very idiomatic way. That’s what I wanted, to develop more native-like fluency when I decided to move.

 

I thought I would progress more quickly than I did, especially in spoken French. My listening improved rapidly. I actually think getting a sudden blast of all this new input messed up my language skills in the first few months. It probably took me 2 years to really feel good about my French.

 

There was some culture shock when I first arrived because I was working in a French university and they’re completely different to UK ones. Also, French people can be a little reserved or “cold” even so it’s hard to get to know them. Neighbours don’t really talk to each other like they do in the UK and people socialise a lot with their extended families so it can be tricky to meet people.

 

If I hadn’t moved abroad maybe I could have achieved the same results with the Internet, etc. It wasn’t quite as developed when I was learning French. I left the UK in 2007 and obviously online tools, smartphones etc. have exploded since then!

 

Both my old flatmate (who I lived with for 2 years) and particularly my partner, both native speakers, have had a huge influence on my French. I use a lot of the same expressions as them which can be problematic because I picked up a lot of informal or even coarse language from them!

 

I’ve received corrections from native-speakers, although French people can sometimes be a bit too direct with that. Some people have corrected informal/vulgar expressions I’ve used, even though I was using them with friends, not in front of the President or in a formal situation!

 

I came to France to teach English and my colleagues had a much better level in English than I did in French. So I often ended up speaking English! I used to write a lot more when I was an export assistant in a company as email was the main mode of contact with many of our customers. I write a lot less now. Speaking and listening are the skills I use daily.

 

I would recommend moving abroad, but before moving abroad I wish I had known more about the culture.The main advantages of living abroad are that you get so much more input, but it’s hard work meeting people and integrating yourself into the culture. Everyone assumes you’re just going to leave anyway!

 

If I had my time again, I would probably use the “English speaker” angle to my advantage more by finding more exchange partners and things like that. I also would have participated in more activities that involve talking and meeting people. Enrolling in yoga lessons, which was one of the things I did in my first year, isn’t the best way to chat to like-minded people for instance!

 

It also helps if you’re not working in an English-speaking environment i.e. teaching English!

Cara helps advanced English learners who love TV and cinema fall back in love with their favourite films and series by getting subtitle free. Here more about Cara at Leo-Listening.

Lena Mutonono

The first time I came to the US was in 2002, and I had a false sense of security because I believed that being able to communicate on an advanced level was enough. Soon I noticed some apparent gaps in the language learning we had been exposed to at college back in Ukraine:

• Little understanding of accents and how they change the way we hear and then produce our speech (after 1 year in Kentucky people could tell I had a “sweet southern twang”).
• Vague ideas about the new culture (what is appropriate or not, for instance I didn’t know that it was expected in the US to write “thank you” cards after someone invites you over for lunch).
• Lack of knowledge about simple everyday things like food and money. For instance, Americans don’t eat the same food we eat for breakfast, so I always got strange looks at the cafeteria. Also, on my second trip to the store I discovered that the coins had no numbers on them, so I had no idea which one was 10 cents, which one was 5 or 25.

 

After 8 years of living in the US I still sometimes find myself wondering if I’m “crossing all the cultural t’s.” I send thank-you notes just in case and pause before I say difficult words like “entrepreneur” or “aerobics” or “astronaut.”

 

I dread getting on the phone and asking a question that the person on the other end may not understand, especially when I call my bank or an electric company. I hesitate when I say “hang up,” “hang on,” and then of course I have to be extra-careful with the word “beach.”

 

I found that language can never be completely “learned,” and the beauty of learning isn’t in the “end-goal,” but rather in the journey. I also believe our journeys can only be successful when we remain curious and forgiving.

Elena Mutonono is the author of 2 accent styling courses for people who want to sound more natural without working on endless and boring drills. You can check them out here. Currently she’s helping online teachers and coaches work smarter by building scalable businesses online. Learn more here.

Jared Gimbel

I was primarily motivated by something else each time that I did end up moving abroad. If there were two times in which learning the language was MORE necessary, it was in Israel (2009) and in Sweden (2012-2013). I had net gains in all of my languages as a result of having lived there, but I saw the most gains with Hebrew and German. My time in Sweden brought me from virtually nothing to A1 level. My time in Poland did help me mostly with passive rather than with active vocabulary.

 
Sweden was the place where I was most motivated. German and Hebrew I made significant gains with but then I was sort of half-hearted with my efforts later on. For some odd reason I ended up fluent in both of them. Poland I had a LOT of motivation at the beginning that then petered out for a number of reasons, probably because my microenvironments were filled with foreigners who generally had little knowledge of Polish.

 
In terms of achieving the same results without moving abroad: Active vocabulary (e.g. being able to have conversations) yes. Passive vocabulary (e.g. being able to recognize signs) no. Living in these countries meant that I was entering a living dictionary and that is a huge advantage…for those willing to take it.

 
Moving abroad to learn a language can help, but it depends on your macro- and micro-environments AND whether learning a language is your primary goal or not. For a language in which English proficiency is high, such as former British colonies in Africa or Oceania or in Northern Europe, I would recommend getting a good grasp on the language beforehand to a degree.

 
Is language the primary goal or an added bonus? You’ll have to think about that. The key is to do SOMETHING. But realize that you also have to put work in yourself. At home. Sometimes in Sweden I wondered “why learn Swedish at home when I could just go outside?” That’s not a conducive way to think. You need to use ALL available resources.

 
Also, don’t be easily discouraged. You may encounter some people telling you that learning the language is a waste of time. You may get answered in English at times if you mess something up (happened everywhere). Don’t let it get you down.

 
For your preparations leading up to your trip or move put more effort into it beforehand rather than expecting “most of the work” to be done on the other side of the pond.

Jared shares his stories and experiences of his language journeys on his blog A World with Little Worlds, which he hopes will encourage you to do the same.

Jamie Graffman

In the summer of 2015, I moved to Madrid, Spain to teach English in a local school. I’d always wanted to travel abroad but was always stuck in the States with school and such; after graduating I was ready to go! I’d taken your basic Spanish courses in school – the ones where you learn how to conjugate ser, estar, and tener, and not much else – which meant even though I wasn’t even close to fluent in Spanish, it was still the foreign language I had the most experience in. Therefore, I decided to go to Spain, travel the world, and be bilingual (because how awesome does that sound?!)!

 
I spent 9 months living in and traveling around Spain. The first three months, I came down with a really intense case of the holy-crap-speaking-in-another-language-is-terifying’s and spent most of my time alone in my room. Suffice to say, I didn’t learn a lick. Immersing yourself in a new country is a really fantastic way to gain fluency in a foreign language, but to do that you actually have to, you know, immerse yourself.

 
Fortunately, when I came back home for Christmas, I realized that I had moved to Europe just to waste my time scrolling through Facebook. So, when I went back to Spain after the New Year, I returned with a vengeance, signing up for classes at a language school and getting involved in language exchanges. Of course, now that I was putting myself out there, I really improved; by the end of my time in Spain, when I spent my last month traveling solo through Andalucía, I was so comfortable speaking Spanish that when my phone got stolen I had no problem asking the strangers around me for help to make sure I caught the bus that brought me back to my AirBnB.

 
Would all this have been possible if I hadn’t moved abroad? Probably not. But I do believe that depends on every individual person’s personality. I was terrified of speaking the language (I mean, I was shy in English, and I knew that language!), and the best way for me to get past that crippling fear was to jump right into it face first: move to another country that lives the language, totally alone. I faced my fears, and even if I didn’t speak the language again for another year or so when I left, I haven’t been afraid of speaking since.

My name is Jamie. I struggled for years with the excitement to learn a language, but without the tools or motivation to get me there. I could rock a Duolingo tree, but what was the next step? While I work towards the goal of taking and passing the Spanish C2 DELE exam in November 2018, I also help others who may struggle with what I struggled with for years. Every day, you can find me in my free daily Spanish accountability Facebook group, making sure you stick to your goals.

Koko the Polyglot

I create an ideal language learning environment at home because when you are unable to travel and have an incredibly busy schedule it is absolutely crucial to create an immersive environment for yourself. What does this look like? It consists of relevant content that is engaging, interesting and appeals to what I need to use the language for, such as content relating to my skills and how to effectively articulate these skills to interviewers when looking for jobs overseas, regular contact with native speakers both online as well as meeting them in person locally, and making the most of my “dead” time listening to entertaining podcasts, watching YouTube videos, participating in online discussions on social media, blogs and forums, and keeping a handwritten diary or typed out blog of myself practicing the languages and getting corrections from native speakers.

 
I limit how I use my native language by making sure I have a flexible routine that allows me to use my target languages regularly rather than only speaking my day-to-day language (English!). I make sure to have a daily commitment to each of the languages I learn in a manner that’s consistent, meaning that I am not immersing myself intensely one day and only spending ten minutes the next day. I have noticed from my own personal experience that not doing this leads to better results and feeling more confident in the language. Learning the languages both in an active and passive manner is what has helped make substantial progress in my target languages. I try to make at least monthly contact with a native speaker either in person through a Meet-Up group in my local area or through a tutor via italki. Keeping a diary or blog has also illustrated to me where I still struggle with in the languages.

I am an aspiring polyglot discovering fun and engaging techniques and resources to help you learn a language fluently. I have also tutored students in English, Swedish and Danish for three years with my informal lessons. Check out my language journey, useful language resources and refreshing topics about learning languages here!

Erminia Pedata of The Language Rose

When I moved to England I experienced some culture shock. Everyone was speaking fast. Winter in England is very dark (but Spring is so nice!). Weather isn’t great and shops closed soooo early. Plus, people drink far too much on Friday night. However, I looked beyond this and managed to find like-minded people who have become my best friends – and still are nowadays! In my masters’ degree year I took every opportunity to discover the culture and practise the language:

 
I volunteered in a museum as a customer assistant, I went with a group of volunteers to paint the walls of a school, I attended a creative writing worskshop (to improve my writing skills in a fun way), I helped to put up a festival at university… Many of these things were not really possible in my home town, and I am glad I was able to experience so much. My fluency in English was a byproduct of all these experiences.

 
I am competely integrated, even more integrated than in my native country, I dare say. Learning and speaking a new language has allowed me to speak to so many different people that it’s not hard to make long-lasting friends. The trick is to create opportunities to get integrated (as I also explained above), such as joining clubs, signing up to a course to learn a new skill or going and working in a coffee shop and socialising with the person sitting near you! I would definitely recommend moving abroad as long as you study the basics of the language first in order to make the most out of your journey abroad!

Ermy is a qualified language coach and her mission is to help creative language learners with a free spirit embrace their “mistakes” and turn them into “experiments” that will unravel their path to fluency and…to their next foreign country. Find out more here.

Gary McCann

At home life in general gets in the way. I have a family, home, work… and I like my life. I have a good job in a nice area with good schools. I have no reason to move at this point in my life. I think being abroad and practicing once you are at a more advanced level is beneficial but, until then, focused study is better. Much of the input when you move will be out of your depth and completely overwhelming which is counter-productive.
 
I’m not sure there is such a thing as an ideal learning environment at home. Needs change as you progress so you have to move with it. I feel like I now have a comfortable routine that I am able to stick to. I have tried a lot of strategies. I think the best way for me is to have a stack of resources and then pick one from each “section” to work from for reading, writing, listening and speaking. If one starts to get a bit dry, I switch it out for something more interesting. It’s important to give each resource at least a number of weeks though or you will lose a lot of time just switching.
 
In terms of motivation, honestly, there are times that I really want to learn and other times I just don’t. Doing something on the days that I don’t, even just 5 minutes on memrise is enough to keep a hand in. Stopping is never a good idea as, before you know it, 3 months have passed and the routine is gone. I think my environment helps me learn faster, but I am learning for fun so the urgency to learn isn’t really there.
 
I occasionally reach a plateau, but then I just switch it up and use other materials that take a slightly different angle. As long as you always use materials that are slightly above your level, you will always be learning something. Recording videos at intervals is a good idea too. It’s common to feel like you are not progressing, but if you compare videos you are doing now to others that were completed some time ago, you can really see the difference.
 
I feel that speaking to random natives while abroad can be intimidating, especially at lower levels. I’m not a fan of group classes as they don’t necessarily focus on what I want to learn. Lessons online are cheaper and more focused. In this day and age, there are so many resources online, I can read books, listen to radio and podcasts, watch TV and take as many lessons as I like all from the comfort of my living room.

A couple of years ago, I had a lot of difficulty finding good resources online. Much of what I found was nothing more than clever marketing and very costly. To save others the same pain, I created the Language Learning Library so we can all find, share, rate and review language learning resources.

Luke Truman

The idea that we need to move abroad in order to learn a language is one of the biggest misconceptions in language learning. The idea of moving to a new country, speaking to people on a daily basis, and somehow just absorbing the language seems more like a romantic fantasy than reality. If you are a beginner in learning a new language then moving abroad could be detrimental and not beneficial to your progress. You have all the stress of moving to a new place, finding a place to stay, sorting out your visa, and all of this in a language you can’t speak yet.

 
If on the other hand, you already have conversational fluency in a language, then travelling abroad can be a huge help. You can integrate yourself into a group that speak your target language, and get exposed to real authentic language how it is actually used, and practice every single day. But this is not mandatory to learn a language to fluency.

 
Learning from home we have a lot of advantages, we are familiar with our surroundings, we have routine and structure. To learn a language successfully past the intermediate stage you need to integrate it as part of your daily life, if you are watching tv or reading in English, stop and do it in your target language instead.

 
Because you will have less opportunities to speak and practice your target language, to learn from home you need a much bigger emphasis on input. On top of this, if you live in a major city then there will be lots of meetups and opportunities to find speaking partners in your city, using things like meetup or facebook. Once you have found the right people, you can create many of the same advantages of living abroad in your home city. Not to mention using online tools to practice such as italki or discord you don’t even have to get out of bed!

My name is Luke Truman, I learnt Cantonese in 7 months, won the Add1 Challenge, went to Hong Kong and survived without using any English for two weeks. All around full-time job without ever leaving England, and I want to share with you how I did it. Learn more here.

Patricia Popert

The mere act of moving abroad won’t make you fluent in a language. As humans, we tend to make ourselves as comfortable as possible and it is the rare amongst us who will throw themselves into the deep end. You can see this in traditional communities such as Chinatown or Little Italy that often can be found in large cities. Native English speakers also seek out ex-pats in a new environment and it can be very easy to live in a bubble outside of work and your basic needs. Outside of that bubble, people will attempt to speak English with you either to make the conversation easier or because they want to practice their English skills.

 
Another problem that ex-pats run into whilst living abroad is that a lot of your conversations will be basic and repetitious, things like introducing yourself or ordering something to eat. You will get exceptionally good at these conversations but you rarely get the chance to practice the depth of conversation required to achieve a sense of fluency.

 
However, the expectation that you will simply pick up vocabulary by osmosis is correct. Having said that, the vocabulary you learn may be more practical than applicable. Have you ever tried to work “traffic circulation is fluid” into a conversation?

 
If you do have the chance to go abroad to study a language, you must have a plan and you must learn to create your own opportunities. Books and courses will only get you so far. Joining social groups can be helpful. Perhaps the biggest aid in learning any language is a tutor or knowledgeable exchange partner to help explain the nuances of the language and the culture. Of course, much of this can be replicated at home without the disruption of moving abroad.

My name is Patricia. I teach English as a Foreign Language and I spend as much time as possible with my head in a language book. My (nascent) blog is where I write about the English language.

Jefferson Netto

I had the opportunity to learn languages as a missionary, as a language student in a study abroad program, and a language student in a local program. The differences are enormous, and the outcomes very distinct as well. All these experiences overlap somehow, which provides a clear contrast of the results in each environment.

 
Starting with English, which I studied at a public school for several years, parallel to my own personal studies based on the translation of video game stories and dialogues, and parts of movies. During this time I had some considerable motivation to learn the language for two main reasons: first, I liked the language; and second, because I wanted to understand the games and movies. With this I was able to build a good introductory vocabulary, but no speaking skills. Years later, as a missionary, I wasn’t only sent to an English speaking country, US, but I also had all the necessary material, teachers and tutors, studied and practiced for nearly 15 hours a day, I lived with my “language study-buddy”, and our support system consisted of dozens of people confined to the same geographical area with the same and only purpose: to learn English (among students of other languages). It is clear that in this environment my development in the language broke all limits and took me close to full fluency in 10 weeks.

 
Next, Arabic, which I studied at college for three semesters in one of the best Arabic language programs in the country, but with one critical difference: I was taught TWO different dialects at the same time in the same class. “Chaos” is an understatement to describe my mental status. During that time I decided to focus on the Egyptian dialect, which lead me to move to Egypt for four months in order to improve the language. That did happen, but became less and less evident as the time was passing and I didn’t have anybody to keep me motivated. I was away from my family and didn’t have a steady study group or study buddy, those factors influenced the decline in learning motivation. On the other hand, when I decided to study Modern Standard Arabic in order to develop reading and comprehension in news and politics, with a goal to take a national test I was able to progress very fast in six months, without traveling anywhere and actually get a good score in the test.

 
And the third example is a mix of several language studies I did both at a college level and self-study locally and abroad. These last ones seem to vary in effectivity depending on amount and quality of available material, as well as my personal purpose in learning it. I studied Greek by myself for three months and I was able to learn a fair amount. Enough for a 30-minute conversation with a native speaker about common subjects, I was then able to use some of the language when I traveled to Greece, but felt really shy about making mistakes in front of people. On the other hand, I studied Korean for several months, by myself while living in Korea, but I worked mostly with Americans, thus I developed very little of the language.

 
In conclusion, the factors that influence one’s development in language learning are very diverse, but focus, good resources, inner and outside motivation, and a constant support group seem to be the key to lasting success in learning a foreign language.

Jefferson is an accomplished and inspiring polyglot who aims to inspire fellow language learners who are invited to join his Step Up Language Program Facebook group. Find out more and join here.

Anna McVeigh

When we went to live in Greece I was a child so it wasn’t my decision to move and in fact I missed all my friends so much I cried a lot. The result was that I can still speak Greek 30 years later and the experience of living in another country inspired me to learn four more languages.

 
When I lived in France, I went there to study real-life French. I had been studying it at university for three years and I wanted the French experience to improve my language skills. I also had a French boyfriend and I wanted to be able to speak to him and his friends and express myself better. I wasn’t fluent when I moved so moving was the best thing I could have done to improve my French, people would say that they couldn’t tell I wasn’t French when I spoke. I lived there for three years and worked there, finding difficulties along the way related to language, but towards the end of the stay I was helping others to do the things I struggled with at the beginning. After three years, I wrote my final Master’s dissertation in French and found that I was able to write academically. I could express myself on a variety of topics and understand everything that was said. I don’t think that I would have ever achieved the same level of language had I not moved abroad, but now there are a lot of techniques with online learning and online communities that were not available then. All in all, the experience was fascinating and helped me to inspire others to get the experience of a different country and language at a young age. It builds you and you build bridges too.

Anna has a passion for language learning and strives to share this passion with others. You can follow her on Twitter.

Thomas Randle

While there are benefits to living abroad to learn a language, it is not a necessity and certainly not a magic pill. I have a friend in Germany and others who studied abroad in France who struggle to learn or use the language. When I talk to these friends their feedback is that they did not need it in the large cities where they stayed and didn’t make efforts to use it when they had opportunities. I am more capable at using both languages despite only spending a few weeks in both countries. I have never lived outside the US.

 
My first language experience outside of school was Norwegian, arguably one of the least useful languages for the traveler or exchange student that would find comfort in just letting foreigners accommodate their lack of language skill considering the high skill of Norwegian natives in English. I spent a year focusing 80% of my time on Norwegian (with the other 20% split between conversing in French and learning basic Italian.) When I visited I could almost exclusively use Norwegian and now have friends from Bergen who communicate with me in Norwegian. I did this by surrounding myself with the language, reading the news every day in Norwegian, listening to Norwegian hip-hop/pop, speaking on Skype twice a week, and working my way through the books typically used for immigrants in Norway (context, dialogue and culture focused, not grammar books or American oriented speed learning books).

 
When I first arrived in Norway for my 2-week vacation, I could barely understand what was spoken around me and had to rely heavily on context and guesstimating how to respond, and my spoken fluency and guess work allowed me to slip by passably as a Norwegian speaker. I continue to work on closing this gap by shifting my studies towards audio input using native materials (I am currently developing a transcript of a Czech cooking show where they make Svičkova, a few 3-minute shorts on Czech history, and videos of interviews with Olympic athletes among other things.) When I left Norway I had much better comprehension and benefited by being surrounded by the language because I was already motivated, had the foundation and could absorb it. I think I personally would benefit greatly from living abroad because of these things.

Tom is an engineer living near San Francisco. His polyglot hobby started in 2013 but had previously learned French in school. He can converse at varying levels in French, Italian(C1-CELI), Norwegian, German, Russian, Japanese and Czech and has studied some Farsi and Thai. His newest project is Hungarian. He tutors English and helps beginners in Italian and German. You can follow him on Facebook, Linkedin, and Italki.

Kate Bilyk

My name is Kate, I’m from Ukraine. For the first time I came to Poland to make a research (postgraduate studies). My task was to study the letters of the Ukrainian writers in Warsaw libraries, so I needed Polish to communicate with people only, not to write. I learnt some basic expressions and went (I didn’t have time to attend language courses). I had stayed for one month in Warsaw, and this was important for my listening and speaking skills.

 
Everybody was willing to help me, and this attitude was one of the main factors which influenced my decision to take part in the Program for Young Researchers, again in Warsaw. The Program is one year – first the Polish language and culture course, then different courses in your field, then researches. First I attended courses in English, then in Polish too. My supervisor who spoke 7 languages helped me with understanding articles, my Polish friends helped with everyday language. I took part in the language tandem (exchange) – Polish-Russian.

 
But I lived in the university dormitory for foreigners and made friends with people from all over the world. Sometimes there was a salad of different languages in my head that created obstacles for learning Polish.
After I had finished the program I came back to Ukraine, but I was continuing learning Polish, on my own, reading articles, talking to my Polish friends on the phone or over the internet.

 
Two years later I went to visit them, fell ill, and found myself in hospital in Warsaw. Everybody spoke Polish there, so it was a great occasion to improve my Polish. After I had recovered I made a decision to stay. Now I’ve been living in Poland for 3 years, have fluent Polish (but with a Ukrainian accent), and feel well-integrated. However, I’ve still used English at work (I’m an English teacher and translator), and speak to my family and friends in Ukrainian and Russian.

 
In conclusion, I’d like to underline the things which helped me:

An encouraging attitude
Native speakers corrected only important mistakes
Being in the language environment and being involved in everyday life
I’m a language teacher, so I applied my knowledge how to teach to my learning.

Tatiana Chumakova

I have been connecting with languages almost all my life. Two years ago I began to learn Spanish, without any teachers, by myself as an adult and just for pleasure as a hobby.

 
I feel very relaxed talking with native speakers, even for the first time. Moving abroad I think is a good practice to improve speaking, but it depends with whom you speak and where, and their level of education, for example. It wouldn’t be useful to practice speaking with people who do not care to speak correctly in their language. I used to correct many native Spanish/English speakers when they write incorrectly in their native language so it made me bored and frustrated so I stopped communicating with them as I prefer to be corrected by them not vice versa. I like when the people with whom I talk correct me and explain something that I don’t understand. And I don’t learn many grammar rules now and prefer speaking and listening practice. So I used to have some friends to practice with and I hope to meet them in real life one day. So by this reason I would go abroad to get to know people in life, to visit some places in Spanish speaking countries, some museums and theatres. There are a lot of language schools abroad and I think it is a good way to learn there, but the practice is important for improving your target language.

Carol Todd

Time and money, of course, limit my ability to move abroad, but also that I’m needed by family. I’ve been very involved in homeschooling my 3 oldest grandchildren, and I have no desire at present to sell my home and move abroad. I would like to own a home abroad where I could spend several months or more each year; that’s “in the works” for a couple of years in the future. I would definitely consider studying abroad for up to 3 months – but not yet. I have aging pets that can’t come with me, and family obligations as well.

 
I probably don’t work hard enough at actual learning. I’m just having a super good time and enjoying meeting people online, getting to know them, talking, and of course reading and listening. Reading and listening seem to be breaking through the plateau.

 
It’s very different to hear the language all around you when you are abroad. That’s an advantage because you become accustomed to hearing it and it pushes you to think in the language. When we were in Spain last year for 2 weeks, by 2/3 through the trip, I was thinking in Spanish and was able to converse pretty well with a Spanish-speaking driver we hired for a day. I can hear Spanish every day in Houston if I try to put myself in the position to do so, but time is limited. French is trickier, but I have just joined a meetup group to meet at least every other week to speak entirely in French. I am sure that is going to help – a lot. A big disadvantage, though, for me, is that it’s just not quite “real,” because I can’t actually be with the person I’m speaking with. It’s easier than in person. I find that type of conversation much more difficult, but it’s getting easier. I plan to visit one of my French exchange partners either this year or the next. He’s invited us to visit – can’t wait! We met in Paris for a 2 hour visit about 1 1/2 years ago – that was amazing to actually speak French and English with each other. I’m using my online exchanges to set myself up so I can actually meet and speak with these folks in person. My very first exchange partner is Colombian and I hope to visit him, too. The others are French or Swiss.

 
I think moving abroad is ideal, but not necessarily easier as a learning method. The problem is that you are an expat. Folks treat you like a foreigner and often for a long time, especially if you aren’t fluent. I think moving can be the perfect solution, but you need ideal conditions. The most important is to gain acceptance as a member of the local community and that’s probably very difficult for most of us. It takes a lot of time unless you have an « in » and sometimes it still doesn’t happen to the degree you need to become fluent quickly. So as much as I would like to say « move abroad, » I don’t think it will be better than learning at home. I think most can acquire languages without moving.

Jonathan Huggins

Agnieszka Murdoch

James Granahan

Cara Leopold

Lena Mutonono

Jared Gimbel

Jamie Graffman

Koko the Polyglot

Erminia Pedata

Gary McCann

Luke Truman

Patricia Popert

Jefferson Netto

Anna McVeigh

Thomas Randle

Kate Bilyk

Tatiana Chumakova

Carol Todd