Recreate Abroad Experience at Home to Learn a Language

I’ve been asked this question many times after my post about setting up for success. I mentioned that you should buy a plane ticket and go to another country.  But what about those who don’t have the money, or don’t have the legal ability to leave the country, such as an average Chinese person that makes only a couple hundred RMB / month and it’s nearly impossible to get a visa to go anywhere?

You are not doomed.  Here are some things that you can do to make up some of that HUGE disadvantage.

1) The first thing you can do is consider going to one of the less prominent countries (cities) that speak English (insert language).  Can’t go to America / Canada / England / Australia?  What about Hong Kong or Singapore?  Would it be easier to make plans to go there?  The majority of the population speaks English, not to mention that these cities are very beautiful and offer things outside of language that most other choices don’t.

2) Move to a bigger City in your country, that way you can meet more people who speak the language you are looking to learn – 1 isn’t enough!  If you are in China and live in a place with very few foreigners, you need to get your butt to either Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou.  For Chinese learners in North America, consider San Francisco, New York, or Vancouver (Canada).   If you can’t, then you might want to ask yourself if right now is the best time to learn a language.  Go back to “Should I learn a new language” and see if it’s right for you.  There aren’t many reasons for a person to be able to speak German in the rural areas of India (I don’t think so at least). Work on improving your life in other ways first, then chase after your dream of language acquisition.  Trust me, you don’t want to find out after 10 years of English that you still can’t have a conversation with a native speaker (as many Chinese have found out).

3) Surround yourself with speakers of the language from where you are.  You may find this difficult to do because you already have your own routines and friends, which is why I mention going to another country or another city; however, if you are determined enough you do have a way to make up a bit for not being in another country.

Meeting foreigners is really easy to do.  You can meet them online at expat websites, at foreign hang out spots, or around colleges and universities that have a large population of foreign students.  Foreigners are in your country usually to learn language, so they are usually extremely willing to make friends with locals.  Keep that in mind if you are afraid to ask someone if they would like to hang out.

Note**  Girls have an advantage here, at least in Asia, as foreign men may be interested in dating them and thus any conversation or activity will be OK.  For males, it is best to not just say “let’s be friends” with other males, but rather suggest an activity that would be mutually enjoyable, such as basketball, or going to a bar.  Guys are more interested in doing things together, while those of the opposite sex will be happy simply in each others’ presence.

Surround yourself with foreigners and frequent popular foreign hang out spots.  If you are serious about learning a language, then you will have to summon the courage to put yourself in unfamiliar situations.  If you can’t just buy a plane ticket and “jump into the water”, then it will take even more determination to not constantly revert back to your original routines.Which leads me to the most effective way…

4)  Find a foreign boyfriend/girlfriend.  This may sound like an unmoral thing for you to do, but really think about it for a second.  If you are so interested in this language, doesn’t it make sense that you’re also interested in these people as well?  Once you find a foreign boyfriend/girlfriend, you will have instant 24/hour access to the language and access to other foreigners – it’s your key to the language learning hall.  Not only will you have access to the language, but your boyfriend/girlfriend will likely offer help voluntarily.  Try to find one that doesn’t speak your language better than you speak his/hers in order to ensure that you get the most benefit.  Hopefully you actually do like the person, but that’s beside the point.

5) Frequent online Chat programs: This does not mean Myspace, Facebook, or their spin offs, but rather real-time chat programs and voice-chat programs like skype.  This doesn’t come nearly close to the benefits of being face to face with someone, but in some circumstances this is the best you can do, and you can also use it in combination with the above – face to face meetings during the day and then online chatting at night (this is what I commonly did).  Make sure that you aren’t simply saying the same basic things over and over again, but actually communicating.

MSN / QQ / AIM for chatting
http://www.livemocha.com/ is a site that sets people up to chat and learn language (remember, this is only a small part of your language learning)

6) Watch even more TV shows and movies.  I have a friend that learned English amazingly well without going abroad, although I’m not sure if most people can follow the footsteps.  She watched American Pie so many times that she memorized it, and did the same for other movies.  Since you won’t be able to find many other activities to do using the other language, at least you can watch a ton of TV to get used to how people speak, and when you memorize it — you can speak it.  This friend of mine can use slang as well as any American.  Don’t just write out the script and try to memorize it that way; you need to be interested in the material and memorize it passively.

Remember: this is not a replacement for going abroad, but is the best you can do if you don’t have the means to do it.  Also, if you simply have a love for languages and don’t care about the speed that you learn it or if it will be useful, then ignore all of the “reconsider if it is the right time to learn” statements and simply start learning at any point; there is no point in putting off something you love to do when you can do it now.  I love learning languages, but I am not in love with the language itself, but rather what the language skill affords me – the ability to communicate with more people.

自从我发布了“如何学习外语：做好准备”的文章，我很多中国朋友向我提起了这个问题。 在那篇文章里，我建议大家直接买张机票往国外走。

那么，那些因为钱不够或法律上有阻碍而无法出国，比如每月只挣到几千几百块钱的普通中国人，如何学习外语？

别绝望。在下面我写些方法可以作为出国学习的代替方式。

1）首先你可以考虑去其它说英文的国家(城市）。不能去美国、加拿大、英国或澳大利亚吗？那香港或新加坡怎么样？这两个地方也是用英语的国家，但是签证会好办些而且这两个国家有其它有趣的特色。

2） 搬到国内大城市，所以你能够遇到更多外国人 – 一个不够。在中国的话，最好是搬去北京，上海或者广州。在这三个城市的外国人很多。如果你在北美，你可以考虑去纽约，旧金山或者温哥华（加拿大）。如果这 个也没办法，那你得好好重新考虑现在是不是学习外语的好时候？再去看一次“我该不该学外语”的文章重新再思考下。对一个住在印度的农村农民，学习德语没有 多少用。先专注你生活的其它方面并改进，再考虑你学外语的梦想。 相信我，你不要学习10年英语之后才发现你根本听不懂外国人说的话。

3) 多多交外国朋友。这个有一定的难度，因为你已经有你自己的朋友和习惯。出国的话，身不由己必须突破自己的习惯，所以我建议这么做；不过如果真没法出国，并且你很坚强，你还会有其它办法快速地学习外语。

其 实认识外国人很容易。你可以通过针对外国人的网站认识，去外国人常去的地方认识或者去留学生多的学校认识。大多数外国人在你国家是为了学习你的语言而来 的，所以他们也很愿意和你做朋友 – 对他们也有好处。如果你害怕问他们想不想和你交朋友，你只要想“其实是他们更想和我交朋友”就不怕了。

备 注**女孩子更容易认识外国人，尤其是在亚洲，因为外国男孩也许会想和当地的女孩子约会交往，所以随便聊天做什么都可以。男孩子最好是别直接问能不能做朋 友，而是建议和他们一起玩，比如打球或者去酒吧。同性朋友喜欢一起玩，就是不光为了在一起所以在一起，但是对异性朋友来说做什么都行。

多 多和外国人接触，也常去外国人常去的地方你就可以补充不出国留学的一些劣势。如果你想认真学外语，你得拿出勇气进入一个新的环境。如果你无法买一张机票直 接“跳入水”，为了不回到原来的安全习惯中，你所需要的坚持力就要更多，但是你要注意不能老说同样的话，而是要真正的沟通。

4）交一个外 国男/女朋友。这个可能听起来有点不可思议，但是你好好想想，如果你对学这种语言那么感兴趣，不是还会对这些人也感兴趣？交了男女朋友之后你有24个小时 的接触语言机会及更多机会认识新的外国朋友 – 这是语言走廊的钥匙。你不仅仅会多多接触这种语言，而你的对象还会主动帮助你。尽量找一个会你的语言胜过你会她的语言的对象，这样才能保证你的练习机会多 一些。最理想的是你也喜欢这个人，但是那不是重点。;)

5) 常用及时聊天工具：这不包括Myspace和Facebook之类的网站，而是及时的或带语音聊天的聊天工具。这个不能完全代替面对面的沟通，但是在有些 情况下你只能用此学习方法，而第三个方式和这个方式可以混合用 – 比如白天面对面，晚上及时聊天 （这是我常做的）。

MSN / QQ / AIM 及时聊天
http://www.livemocha.com/ 相识、聊天、学语言的网站 （但是要记得这只是你学习的一小部分）。

6） 多多看电视和电影：我认识一个中国人，她的英文超级好，但是从来没有出过国，大家不一定能像她一样学习，因为她是通过翻来覆去地看《美国派》及其它电影并 背下来了学的英文。如果不出国，你可能找不到太多的用英文的活动，所以你最好是多多看电视剧和电影来学习听力，背下来之后就会说。我那个朋友说的俚语说得 相当好。不要把对话写下来那样背，必须是通过看的次数多而自然记下的。

记住：在你自己的国家做上面的1-4不能代替出国的价值，而只是如 果没办法的时候作为一点的补充。还有，如果你只是热爱语言而不管学习的速度或者实用，你可以忽略我提起的“重新考虑学习语言是不是时候”，并且现在开始 学；你爱做的事情如果今天能做不必要拖到明天。我爱学语言，但是并不是为了学语言而学，而是语言本身所带来的沟通能力 – 我可以和更多人沟通。