What is the strangest place you've every studied a foreign language? | Success stories and anecdotes | Forum
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01:01
July 5, 2011
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There is lots of advice about the "best" places to study a foreign language, but I would like people tell about the weirdest, most unusual, craziest or strangest place that they have ever studied a language.
And I'm not talking about cities or countries, but somewhere that you found yourself in and decided to pass the time improving on your language skills, even though it wasn't the theoretical "best" place to do it.
I've studied in buses and on trains, on the subway, but nothing as wild as studying in a Chinese jail like this guy did:
http://blogs.central.edu/abroad/2011/11/28/another-fun-bike-tale/
One of the reasons I wanted to bring this topic up and to get people's stories is that sometimes you hear people tell you not to study in certain places. I think that any place is a good place. Anywhere you can focus on improving your speaking and understanding of a language is an "appropriate" place. It may not be the theoretical perfect place, but if you are actively working on getting better, it's all good, right?
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02:36
Experienced Language Hacker
July 25, 2011
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Ancient Greek on my driveway. Or maybe Latin on the night train out of the city.
No. Just kidding. That's not all that exotic, but I recently read an article suggesting that one should mix up your locations while studying. It wasn't specific to language. And I wish I could remember where I read it, but this link will do the trick.
Of course that said, the best study is to vary where you speak your language. 
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My blogs: Dead Linguist, Latin, Ancient Greek, Old English My YouTube: sipes23
03:01
July 9, 2011
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I have used flashcards for kanji and kana while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store.
I have also done some reading in the bathroom.
And I agree… any place is good for active learning. It was great to have my cards with me when waiting. It helped prevent boredom and it reinforced the learning. I should make some more cards to tote with me.
03:43
February 3, 2012
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I've studied on pretty much every place I've been to for more than 5 minutes, haha – grocery store lines, nightclubs, bars, working on an office, on the backstage of a show… Any place is a good place especially when I can find natives to speak with.
Now that I'm taking German very much seriously I'm experiencing the obssession all over again, studying flashcards on the bathroom and speaking alod as I cook in the kitchen.
It's an odd obsession – and it does pay off.
04:02
Experienced Language Hacker
August 9, 2011
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I have French books in my bathroom so anytime I go for a bath or do unnamed other things in there I can brush up on my French.
-Native English (Toronto)
-French
Mission/Learning-
-Spanish
10:52
February 3, 2012
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Does it count as practising if I needed to use it while giving birth? (Some of the midwives ended up being native English speakers, and all the doctors could speak it fluently, but I was definitely speaking Hebrew to some of them, and they nearly all spoke it between themselves, and I wanted to know everything they were saying about me.)
18:44
November 27, 2011
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kaet said:
Does it count as practising if I needed to use it while giving birth? (Some of the midwives ended up being native English speakers, and all the doctors could speak it fluently, but I was definitely speaking Hebrew to some of them, and they nearly all spoke it between themselves, and I wanted to know everything they were saying about me.)
Like
"So they were pushing me into the delivery room, and I was busy giving birth and all, but my hands were free so I managed to review some conjugations".
Learning: 
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21:05
Experienced Language Hacker
August 2, 2011
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I like studying in trains. OK, sometimes I went on train only to use it as a place for learning. I think it's because at home I much more distracted by noises made by my neighbours or the Internet, or other things to do.
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Polska strona języka walijskiego
03:03
Experienced Language Hacker
July 22, 2011
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I studied on a plane before… nothing better than a 3 hour flight and nothing to do but sit and study while the clouds pass outside. A coffee shop if it isn't too busy though is usually my favourite. No other distractions. No internet, just me, my book, and a cappucino (and nut flapjack!). But frankly, anywhere that leaves me completely procrastination free and forces me to concentrate everything on my studies is great, I like the idea of a train…
Gaeilge, 
English
Studies: 
Polish
On Hold: 
Spanish
Next: 
Italian Is cainteoir dúchais Gaeilge mé. Same with English. Zacząłem uczyć się polskiego, y ahora, he dejado aprender el castellano.
04:59
November 9, 2012
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I've pretty well gotten in the habit of whipping out my smart phone and doing Anki review any time I'm in the bathroom. Probably a little gross, but I figure I recapture a lot of time I would spend just sitting there out of each day doing so. I've also studied my Anki decks in a health clinic waiting room recently.
03:55
January 16, 2013
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In high school (I was home schooled), I used to study Spanish in one of the various mulberry trees in our yard. Mulberry trees are great because they have massively thick branches; take a cushion, though--the bark is deeply ridged and can get uncomfortable after a while.
Now I like to study Italian using audio courses while I cook… I cook pasta really often, I wonder if there's a connection there… :/
Really any place is okay, as long as there's no one distracting you. I think it depends on your personality too. Some people like to study alone (I do), and others prefer to learn in an organized group, or just "on the ground," i.e., in the street in the country where the target language is spoken!
I live in Malta, and a lot of people choose to come here to study English, and also to practice it, as it is one of the official languages here. English courses in Malta
10:18
June 29, 2011
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I've studied a LOT on the train and several times in a plane. I've studied (listening and repeating stuff on mp3 player) while walking to and from the train station or around town in general. I've practiced rolling r's in all conceivable outdoor places as long as I thought no one could hear me. I've studied German in Norway and Norwegian in Germany.
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04:35
February 12, 2013
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Well, on a roof, maybe.
17:53
February 19, 2013
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In a little club in Munich called 'Sexyland' just around the corner from the Hofbräuhaus. I was actually in Munich for an advanced Russian class and was chatting with some of my classmates about the lack of opportunity to converse with real Russians rather than our professors and somebody mentioned that they had heard there was a Russian girl named Ida who worked at that club. I really wanted to test out my Russian in a natural setting with real people as I've found that speaking with language teachers can give you a false sense of security. Naturally I had to check it out. I walked into the place and in German asked the first girl I saw if she knew the Russian girl named Ida. And it turned out that was Ida. I probably spent $100 (and this was in 1988) buying drinks the rest of the night but I did get to practice my Russian conversation for the next several hours. Wish I could remember any of it today. Whenever possible I highly recommend putting yourself in a position where you have to use the language to communicate and a noisy club like that chatting with a young lady was perfect for forcing me to stretch my Russian abilities into areas and contexts that were never part of my formal instruction. I did that almost daily in German and that is the reason I can still speak German more than 20 years after leaving the country but have forgotten most of my Russian even though I did about the same amount of formal study in both.
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