Studying English Abroad | What they don't tell you

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here from Englishfulltime.com

in this video I am gonna be answering the very popular question will studying

English abroad in an english-speaking country make me fluent well the simple

answer is no it won't make you fluent but it can definitely help or maybe it

won't right so we're gonna talk about what this depends on how you can have

the best experience possible and make the most of your trip if you decide to

go and maybe by watching this video you'll also learn that hey you don't

need to study English abroad to reach your fluency goals so first of all lots

of people think that by studying English abroad that is going to make them fluent

now why do we think this we think this because it's almost like common sense

right you you think if I'm just immersed in the language long enough my brain

will be able to absorb it and process it and boom I will be fluent right and in

theory that is correct by being immersed in a language you will absorb it your

brain will absorb it and you will achieve fluency the problem is that when

you go study abroad it's often not the experience a lot of people are expecting

you end up being in a class with a bunch of other English learners many of whom

probably have worse English than yours maybe some of them have better English

but basically when you study English abroad in a traditional setting which

almost all language Institutes have this traditional type of teaching

you're basically going to have a teacher classroom worksheets homework it's

almost going to be the same exact experience that you could have in the

country where you live so what you're really trying to do is immerse yourself

in the language not necessarily go for the classes because you can do classes

where you're at you can do classes online you can do courses online but

you're going to immerse yourself in the language so it's going to be super

important that if you study English abroad you need to find ways to connect

with the native English speakers that are there the locals okay now this can

be a lot you know harder than you might think

but it doesn't have to be right I've heard stories of people going into

stores just to talk with the associates there and ask questions to practice

their English or you could try to find an internship position while you're

studying depending on how long your trip is if it's like two weeks and that's not

enough time but if you're going there for six months

or more my advice is really just get yourself away from the other students

and find ways to interact with the locals because that interaction is what

will improve your fluency it's not the classes it's not the worksheets it's not

even what you learn about the grammar because you need as much interaction as

possible you need as many opportunities as possible to speak and the schools

what they do is they advertise to get you to their program right because it's

a business hello they're trying to make money okay they get you to go into their

programs but they're not always thinking about your extracurricular activities or

how to help you connect with the community around you so that's gonna be

on you and there are so many people that spend thousands of dollars to go study

abroad and then the experience just is not what they expected because they're

like wait I'm just in school again I'm just doing worksheets again I'm just

doing a homework I could have done this back home and I'm with a bunch of other

English language learners and we're all struggling with the same thing how is

this supposed to help me okay so these are things you need to consider when you

are studying abroad you can't depend solely on the program and on the

teachers and all of that you are going to have to branch out and do things on

your own make friends yourself because that's what it's going to take so from

my personal experience in 2013 I went to study Spanish in Argentina I did a

semester long program so it was about four months and it was interesting

because I did some classes with Argentine people and then I did some

classes with other Spanish learners now my grammar class was very helpful I did

learn a lot of things there that was awesome but obviously when you have to

go into a store and talk with people it doesn't matter

how much grammar you know if you're too afraid to speak right so the cool thing

about going abroad is it gives you more opportunities to speak but in my case I

was too afraid to even take those opportunities okay I had a lot of issues

with my mindset so you are gonna have to work on your mindset and a lot of people

don't even realize this they think oh when I go study abroad I'm gonna speak

as much as possible and I'm gonna improve and I'm gonna get fluent that is

exactly what I thought when I applied to the study abroad program in college I

had every intention of going to Argentina for six months and coming back

fluent but did that happen no my Spanish did improve my pronunciation improved my

vocabulary improved but at the end of those six months I didn't feel fluent

because I still struggled with my confidence and if you can't speak

confidently that will make it so you don't feel fluent so basically even

though I was living in Argentina for several months and I had opportunities

to speak I was often too shy to speak I wouldn't take advantage of those

opportunities and you don't know how you will be in a place until you get there

you can think oh yeah I'm gonna take advantage of every opportunity but then

once you're there you clam up and you don't speak and you don't want to talk

to anybody or you realize oh my gosh my English isn't as good as I thought it

was or I definitely don't understand people as much as I thought I did and

all of that can be very intimidating also something people never talk about

is how your brain gets overwhelmed when you go from living in your country and

speaking your native language everyday to living in a foreign country it's like

you go into culture shock you get so much overwhelm and you know people's

brains handle it differently I shut down basically okay I didn't want to speak

Spanish practice it learn it anything and it was weird because my lifelong

dream was to go to Argentina and learn that language and become fluent because

my family was from Argentina and I didn't learn the language growing up so

even though that was my dream and I felt like I had all this motivation the

second I got into the country practically I was just like oh my gosh

my brain got so overwhelmed it shut down I didn't like I said I didn't want

study Spanish I didn't want to speak Spanish I didn't want to practice so

that is a reality you do not know how you're gonna respond in a new

environment until you get there and again you can have all the best

intentions in the world to practice but when you get there you might be so

exhausted from the trip from the homework from the schedule from the

traveling from everything that you shut down and it's very difficult to control

that when it happens so personally for me I don't feel like I achieved fluency

after studying abroad for six months I lived in Argentina for five years and

I'm fluent now but I'm still improving I'm still learning new things you know

but what really made the difference for me was my confidence when from one day

to the next I had this shift in my way of thinking

in my mindset and I was so tired of not being confident in Spanish I just

decided enough was enough and I said okay from now on I don't care about my

mistakes I don't care about any of that I'm just gonna open my mouth and speak

and whatever falls out falls out that is good enough for me okay

ever since I changed my way of thinking about my own language skills that's

really what made the difference for me when it came to fluency because I

finally was able to speak freely you might not realize this but if you

lack confidence that robs you of your freedom to speak because you're

constantly second-guessing yourself you're constantly doubting yourself

you're constantly thinking you're making mistakes when you're not making mistakes

okay I know all about that because I lived it okay so the last thing I want

to say is just be careful with your decision whether you decide to study

abroad or not if you go really prepare and really try hard to make the most of

your experience and you know just don't feel like that's the only answer that's

really what I want to say don't feel like your entire future depends on you

studying abroad I can tell you right now that I know a bunch of people who have

never set foot in an english-speaking country and their English is phenomenal

okay there are so many ways of achieving fluency of improving your English and

just getting better and speaking with people you don't even have to study

abroad if you don't want to or if you have the money to a lot of people watch

videos on YouTube to improve their English because they just don't have

money to study abroad okay and so the good news is you don't have to study

abroad if you can't afford it or if you don't want to or if you don't feel like

that's the answer it's not necessarily the answer it really depends on each

individual and their experience it depends on the program you go into the

country you go to the teacher you can choose your program you can choose the

country that you go to but you won't be able to choose your teacher you won't be

able to choose who else is gonna be in the program with you and you know what

maybe you get a teacher you don't really like or maybe you're surrounded with

students that you just you don't really like it could happen it has happened to

people and so just be very careful with this decision choose wisely and know

that studying abroad is not the answer it is not that one thing that will make

you fluent you know as humans we always think that we just need that one thing

that one extra course or that one extra secret that one extra hack that one

extra experience you know it's like people that buy gym memberships so they

can lose weight but then they never go they think oh if I just get that gym

membership or if I just do that class or if I just work with that personal

trainer that's the answer but usually everything starts with yourself you can

improve so much just on your own but really it comes down to your mindset and

what you do with your time so where I'm at now in my life I'm studying

Portuguese I'm studying Italian I love languages but personally I don't think I

would ever go into a language learning program I just know so many other

methods now that I think are so much more effective

I would only study abroad maybe if I'm studying a language that I would be

completely new to like Japanese or Chinese or German maybe then I would do

an introductory course just to get the basics down and then I would do the rest

on my own because at this point in time I know that for me and the way I learn I

don't like learning in a classroom I don't necessarily like having a teacher

I'm very independent in the way that I learn and I can consume

video after video and then apply what I learned I want to talk with other people

I want to immerse myself in the culture and in the day to day life I would

rather go to a foreign country and do an internship or work as a volunteer and be

connected to the people there than be stuck in a school learning in you know

traditional education systems that frankly I don't think work very well

anyhow there's lots of information in this video for you to consider and think

about what I would love now is if you have

studied abroad can you please share your experience in the comments I want to

know where you went how long you went for what the

experience was like did you enjoy it or actually what did you enjoy and what did

you not enjoy what did what happened that was unexpected and would you do it

again was it worth it okay because I know for a fact that so many people have

had amazing study abroad experiences and it probably sounds like in this video

I'm basically saying don't go it's not worth it but the truth is so many people

have had amazing study abroad experiences and then other people have

had really bad study abroad experiences I've had my own experiences and I've

heard about all these other experiences from people but by you sharing your

experience in the comments what you're gonna do is you're gonna allow everybody

else to read about your experience and then make a better decision okay so if

you have studied abroad please share with us please tell us what it was like

that would be amazing and if you haven't studied abroad tell us in the comments

what are you considering what are you worried about what are your questions

and I'm sure people can come in and help answer these questions for you and give

you advice based on their experience so let's turn this into a forum right where

we can all share our information and experiences and get the answers that we

need alright so that is it if you want a guide on practicing your English with

native speakers meeting native English speakers online interacting with us so

you can practice your English improve your English learn new vocabulary build

your confidence etc I have a guide on my website I'm going to link it here in the

description I always share this guide because it is literally the most popular

one on my entire website Englishfulltime.com

that's it you guys have a great day and I will see you in the next video bye