The idea of going to another country to learn a language seems like the only option for learning, but things have changed thanks to the abundance of content online nowadays.
Living in the country to learn a new language is certainly an option, however, achieving this on your own from home has become very possible due to the advances in technology and the internet.
We will look through some of the biggest traps with learning in the country and how you can do this all from the comfort of your home.
Can You Learn A Language Just By Living In The Country?
Absolutely. Immersing yourself in the language is, of course, an important part of learning any new language. Surrounding yourself with native speakers, culture, and people can provoke a lot of inspiration and motivation for you to learn and flood your brain with a load of input from that language.
If you immerse yourself long enough in the country to which you are trying to learn, you can probably get to a fluent or native-like level (not guaranteed though) in the language, but unfortunately, there are quite a few difficulties that will arise if you choose to take this path.
The main pro is you will have access to an enormous amount of input (reading, listening) going into your brain, all day, every day which will give you the ultimate immersive experience. However, you can’t just go to the country as a complete beginner with no previous understanding of the language – it will be complete gibberish to you and not be advantageous for your learning progress!
The Cons Of Learning A Language Abroad
As mentioned before, there are many difficulties and challenges that will occur if you decide to travel to the country to learn the language. Here are 3 problems you should consider before traveling:
1. It will be gibberish at the beginning
To elaborate on the last point, yes going to a country for the immersive experience can be wonderful and hugely beneficial, the downside to this is you’ll need a certain level of understanding of the language before embarking on this venture.
If you go to the country as a complete beginner, all the words and sounds will feel like gibberish (won’t make sense) – there is no reference. You will be constantly looking up words and translating. Because you don’t have a strong foundation in the language, it will feel incredibly difficult at the beginning stage of your time abroad to get the language into your brain.
2. It will be stressful
It seems really exciting to just go to the country and be immersed in the language but coupled with the previous problem, if you are a beginner in the language (or starting from zero) not only will you not know anything but you will also find it incredibly stressful.
Just imagine you are a total beginner, you know a few words, and you are at the airport and you need to read the flight times. If you think this is stressful enough in your native tongue, can you imagine how hard it will be in a brand-new one? I could go on about all the really stressful and unpleasant situations you could put yourself in during your time abroad but I think this says it all!
3. It will cost a lot of money
As this is a long process of immersing yourself in the language, you have to expect it to take a while for progress to happen. Therefore, you should expect to be paying a lot of money on travel, flights, and hotels during your time in the new country.
Creating an immersive environment from your home will save you a ton of time, effort, and stress. Even though it seems like a great idea to learn the language and have an awesome vacation at the same time, in reality, learning this way especially as a beginner will turn into a living nightmare for you.
There is, however, a time where you could and should go to the country for that immersive experience. When you are an upper intermediate, you have a strong foundation of the language, and you can speak a little, then this is a good time to go abroad. But even then, it’s not vital you do so, it can be done at home.
What Is The Best Way To Learn A Language Without Living In The Country?
Immersing yourself in the language – but not by going to the country! How do you do this? Online!
You probably thought “Hmm, maybe I could do this from home?” You would be 100% right! With the huge advancements in technology and the invention of the internet (especially in the last 10 years), it is so easy now to get an enormous amount of amazing and rich content from any new language (some are easier than others).
Firstly, you have your mobile phones and computers. You look at these two devices every single day more or less, so start immersing yourself in using these today. I always recommend to my students to change their settings from their native language to the target language – this is very powerful and easy to do!
Then, look online for rich and compelling content – YouTube is your best friend. Use YouTube, Podcasts, and Articles (just like this one) to get a huge amount of input into your brain every day. Find material that is your level +1 which means find material that is just a little bit above your current level. If you are a beginner then look for beginner-friendly content such as graded readers (levelled at A1 for example).
The other very important key to finding material is making sure you enjoy the content. Find material that you are engrossed in, whether it is topics about music, sports, movies, nature, psychology, etc., just find content you actually love to know about, but instead of doing this in your native language, simply start doing it in your target language from home. If you want a complete package of content tailored to your specific level then check out our InterFluent course.
Conclusion
There is no reason for you to go to the country to learn a language; not only is it unnecessary, but it is also detremental to your learning and well-being. The bottom line is you can immerse yourself in the language all from the comfort of your home using YouTube, Podcasts, Articles, and awesome software such as LingQ that keeps all your material in one place and shows your progress daily. So whichever way you find your material, find it online.