Travelling abroad in order to learn languages is incredibly rewarding and can be a very effective way of learning a language. There are many ways to learn languages, including classes, studying at home, and language immersion by living in-country. Travelling abroad, which can include travelling to study, live or visit another area. If there is an opportunity to travel abroad, it is highly recommended that this opportunity be taken, where at all possible. The availability of time, money and ties to home can make travelling abroad for long periods of time more and more difficult throughout life.

Without a doubt, travelling abroad is one of the most effective methods of language learning because you will become immersed in the language and culture you are learning. This immersive experience can be replicated to some degree outside the country, but with never compare to what would be experienced by travelling.

It is important to know that just living in the country does not necessarily mean that you will automatically learn the language. You will still need to actively engage in learning. Depending on your circumstances and where you are staying in the country, it can be easy to associate only with other English speakers and hinder your learning.

Try to be as social as possible, and if you are given the opportunity, try to stay with a host family to maximize exposure to your target language and culture.

What Are The Benefits Of Studying A Language Aboard

It’s very easy when studying at home to forget the reason why you are learning the language in the first place. If this happens, motivation quickly reduces. Words may not seem to stay in your mind and learning grammar and repeating exercises become boring.

If you are in the country, however, new words stick in your mind easier because you have memories of when the word was used. By learning words and associating them with specific circumstances, you will remember those words much more easily.

Grammar can more easily make sense allowing you to understand it better. This is because you’re able to see how the grammar can be applied and how you can add it to conversations you are having in the country.

Perhaps for some, you are learning a language to meet new people, experience different cultures and ways of life, and travel. The benefit of learning a language abroad is that you are fulfilling the very reason you are learning the language, even while you are still learning it.

How Long Does It Take To Learn The Language When Living In A Foreign Country?

If you are studying abroad specifically to learn a language, the chances are that it will not take very long the learn that language. Unfortunately, there’s no hard and fast rule as to how long it may take to learn the language. The bottom line is that you will learn it faster in-country than in your hometown.

Nobody could give an exact time to achieve fluency because there are so many variables. Do you know any other language before arriving in the country? Are you staying with a host family or with other native English speakers? Are you taking language learning courses? Are you a social person who interacts easily with new people? All of these are factors that will affect how quickly you will learn the language.

What is sure, is that if you are in the country and you are actively trying to learn the language and immersing yourself as much as you can with native speakers, you will learn the language.

If you have several options for how long you can stay abroad but aren’t sure how long you should go for, I would recommend going for as long as you can. This is because if you’re wanting to achieve fluency, you are much more likely to achieve this by staying for six months instead of three. Even if you did achieve fluency by three months, the additional time will only make you more fluent.

How Easy Is It to Learn Another Language As A Study-Abroad Student?

This is also a difficult question to answer, as there are so many factors that come into play. Like before, variables such as your living situation and your social life will cause your language learning to be either easier or harder.

The more you engage yourself in the community around you and try to use your target language, the easier and quicker the new language will come to you. I have experienced foreign students attending my class during a year at school and seeing their progress over just the first 10 weeks showed just how much living in the country can improve your language.

This student went from barely understanding anything to being able to join in lunchtime conversations and making jokes. It took a lot of practice, engagement, and mistakes but she was able to see the benefits after only a short time.

By comparing learning a language through a study abroad program and studying at home, studying abroad will definitely be the easier option. This isn’t to say that it is the easiest thing you will do in your life, but you will get a boost from doing it abroad.

Is It Worth Studying Aboard If I Don’t Know The Language?

There are so many benefits to studying abroad, even if you don’t know the language spoken in that country. This is a great time to meet new friends and experience different cultures and ways of living, while also getting yourself ready for a career.

Often experiences gained while studying abroad will stay with you for life.

Who knows, maybe you’ll find that you don’t want to go home and will have found a place that you would prefer to stay, or a person you would prefer to stay with. Living abroad is the perfect opportunity to meet new people and make life-long friendships.

Having a time of study abroad on your resume is also a benefit because it shows your potential employer that you are open to new things. It shows that you are open to trying new experiences, you are independent, and you have experienced the world outside of your own hometown and country.

Even if you don’t know the language, often you’ll be held to get by with a mixture of words and hand signals. To make the most of your time abroad, I would recommend that you learn at least the basics, even simple words and phrases like “How much”, “Hello”, “Thank you” etc.

If you spend some time in the country actively learning a language, you will be surprised by how much you are able to pick up while being there.

There won’t be many other times in your life when you will have the freedom and time to study abroad. If you are given the opportunity I would highly recommend that you take it. It is a great way of testing if you are able to stand on your own two feet and be independent.

What Are Some Other Ways To Travel Abroad?

You may decide after reading this that you want to give studying abroad a shot. But perhaps you’re worried about how you will go committing to a semester away from home or if you’ll enjoy the experience. I’ve listed below two other options that you’ll be to consider because there are so many different ways to go abroad, even if you’re not connected to a university.

Summer Camps Abroad

If you’re not sure where to start looking in order to do a study abroad experience, or perhaps you want to try testing the waters before you go all in, a good middle ground is summer camps, for example, camps run by Education First, which enable you to go abroad for a short period of time and experience an immersive, language learning experience in a more controlled environment.

The point of these experiences is to enable you to live in another country, experience living with a host family (if you’re up for it), sightsee, and take part in activities that you could expect to do at home while being immersed in a different language. The camps are targeted at different age brackets and go to different lengths of time, so you have the comfort of knowing the activities are targeted for your age.

Working For Accommodation

A completely different way of going abroad is to stay for families and people in exchange for working for them. There are programs that help organize this such as HelpX, which states that a typical arrangement would mean you would work about 4 hours a day in exchange for food and accommodation and can vary in duration.

These places can be in a wide range of settings and the work can range from hands-on, outside work, to English teaching or childminding. The benefit is that you become integrated into that family’s home which gives you a hugely immersive experience. This is also a low-cost benefit for you, as you are exchanging work for accommodation and food. It could also mean you could essentially travel a part of the world very cheaply by moving from location to location, doing different work, and experiencing life in a new country in a very real way.

Can You Learn A Language Without Travelling?

Travelling, and by extension, hearing and speaking the language by native speakers is very helpful in enhancing the learning process. Despite this, you can absolutely learn a language without travelling. There are some particular pages that may help you find more information about learning at home. Specifically, a page about how to learn languages at home more effectively.

Alternatively, if you are considering language classes but you are not completely sure, you can consider if language classes are right for you. Besides learning at home and taking language classes, another way of learning is through a language tutor.