Why Moving to a Country May Not Teach You the Language

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Archive note: I wrote this in 2011, when I was moving between countries frequently. The travel examples and Orkut reference belong to that period, but the central lesson still holds: location creates opportunities to practise; it does not create a language habit for you.

Moving to a country for a few months or even years does not guarantee that you will learn the local language.

Given my travel-heavy lifestyle at the time, you might expect “move to a country where the language is spoken” to top my advice. It did not.

Living abroad can be culturally rewarding, but simply being there is not a learning method. You still need regular contact with the language and reasons to use it.

As I travelled, I met local people as well as many foreign residents and short-term visitors. Some learnt little of the local language and consequently found it harder to build local friendships.

A plane ticket, like paid learning materials, can create an opportunity. It cannot do the practice for you.

In the years before this article, I lived in Amsterdam, Rio, Berlin, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Montreal, Rome, Paris, Manila, Bangkok, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Prague. In each place I met foreign residents who never moved beyond a few phrases.

I even met people who had lived in the same place for over a decade without moving beyond that stage. Those were my observations, not a measured claim about foreign residents as a whole.

Luckily there are exceptions, and today I want to discuss what I feel leads to many people not learning a language despite living in the country. I also want to reiterate that you don't need to travel in the first place, but if you are already in the country, perhaps seeing these reasons will help you find ways around them.

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Why is this?

There is rarely one cause. Practical pressures, confidence, habits and the social environment can all matter.

• Beliefs about ability. People may assume they lack a language gene, are not smart enough, have a bad memory, are too old or do not have time. These beliefs can discourage experimentation. The claim that one place has the “most difficult language” can do the same.
• Overestimating how far English will carry you. English may be widespread in tourism or professional circles without reaching every person or situation.
• An English-speaking social bubble. If most of your friends and routines work in English, daily life can reinforce the idea that English is all you need. Deliberately creating some spaces for a life without English changes the opportunities available.

• People switch to English. In countries where English is widespread, learners may struggle to keep an interaction in the local language. My experience in the Netherlands was more encouraging when I made my intention clear. A prepared phrase can help you ask someone to continue in the language; nobody owes you practice.
• “I'll do it later.” Accommodation, work, study and building a social life can consume the first weeks. A small speaking routine begun before or soon after arrival is easier to protect than an undefined plan for later.

Moving abroad can also create pressures that are easy to underestimate:

• Making friends may be harder than expected. A new culture brings unfamiliar routines and expectations, and other newcomers may initially feel easier to relate to. Treat language and culture as intertwined, stay curious and avoid treating your own norms as the only standard.

Another issue is treating the move as the whole learning plan. Some people prepare only through private study and expect arrival itself to turn that knowledge into speech.

You can use a small vocabulary to begin conversing. If possible, start practising before the move: the learning process begins when you decide to learn, not when the plane lands.

(Note: I start learning on arrival since I decide shortly before moving somewhere that I'll learn its language, but that's because I get a buzz out of an adventurous and certainly challenging travel lifestyle. As I keep saying, my goal is not language learning, but authentic travelling based around meeting as many locals as possible. Waiting until your plane lands before you start speaking is definitely not something I'd recommend as part of a good overall learning strategy).

Start learning and speaking now and you'll hit the ground running on arrival.

Two questions also help clarify the goal:

• Do you want to use the language with people? If speaking is your goal, build activities that involve other people rather than assuming proximity will create conversations.
• Is speaking actually your goal? Reading, history, radio and television are valid interests too. Be clear about what you want, because living in the country may matter differently for each goal.

Speaking before travelling

As I said above, I strongly feel that if you can start speaking now before you go to a country, then you will have the momentum behind you to speak on arrival. Even though it's not my usual strategy, due to my own particular unique travel style, I have indeed done this before myself!

I made the decision that I was going to move to Brazil for the first time several months in advance, while still living in Toulouse in the south of France, and decided that I didn't want to slow myself down on arrival. So I started learning Portuguese then. Yes, you read that right I learned Portuguese while living in France.

When I say “learned” I don't mean that I simply bought some grammar book, or downloaded some ultimately useless pirated audio or software. I went to Orkut.com (which at the time [2005] was the main social networking site in many countries… Facewhat?), found the Toulouse community of Brazilians, saw it was pretty active and posted that I wanted to meet up to speak Portuguese. Someone answered, met up with me and helped me along.

We met up several times a week, and I struggled at first but did indeed manage to reach a rudimentary stage of speaking without simply using Spanish instead. Then when I arrived in Brazil I had the best possible start ever in a country, where I could communicate my thoughts and make deep friendships right from the start; something that is still a challenge for me at the very start when I arrive with no preparation. I still had a long way to go, but that head start lead to one of my best travel experiences yet.

Speaking is the key, not being in the country

At the time, I enjoyed moving to different countries and getting to know local people by learning their language, often well enough for deeper conversations. This was my style of travel, which I called “language tourism“. I thought of myself as a traveller interested in the social aspects of culture before I thought of myself as a language learner. Languages were a means to that end.

Because of that, I often found it useful and fun to learn on arrival. I made mistakes in the process, some easier to explain than others. Moving to a country can bring challenges you did not expect, so allow time for settling in as well as language practice.

Being in a country does not guarantee that you will learn its language. Work, family, confidence, access and your social environment all shape the result. Changing latitude and longitude creates opportunities; your routine determines which ones you use.

If you are not in the country yet, find ways to speak now so the first conversation after arrival is not also your first attempt. If you are already there, look at what keeps the language outside your daily routine and change one practical thing this week.