Immigrating & Learning A Foreign Language | Interview with Adriana from EnglishTeacherAdriana.com

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

today I have a guest with me English with Adriana Adriana welcome how are you

doing today I'm doing fine thank you Stefanie for having me

no problem I'm so excited to interview right now we already did the interview

for your channel so everyone can check that link in the description but I'm

excited to interview you because I think you have some stories that a lot of the

people here following my channel are gonna be able to relate to so first why

don't you start by just telling us a little bit about where you're from I'm

from Melbourne Australia and I moved abroad so here I've been living abroad

in Croatia for about almost eight years now so you're in Croatia now why did you

choose Croatia you're born and raised in Australia you're in Croatia now how did

that happen well at the moment I'm 28 years old I moved overseas 8 years ago

so I was 20 years old I finished my university education you know I had a

choice work full-time or live abroad I decided to move abroad and if somebody asked me to do

this all over again now I'd be like you're crazy

because it's been hard I can totally relate to that because as you know I

went to Argentina studied Spanish over there and I chose Argentina because

that's where my family was from my family immigrated from Argentina to the

USA so I'm curious why did you choose Croatia my family is also from Croatia

so this was also one of my main reasons but I was travelling quite regularly so

as I was traveling so often I saw the difference between how young people were

living life here in Zagreb in comparison to us in Melbourne and I liked how

people were more relaxed they enjoyed life you know they still studied they

were still working and they still had commitments but i was a little bit jealous

I'm like hey I want that my if I want that work-life balance like they can

just go for the weekend to Italy or they can go to Slovenia they can go to

Austria Germany and whereas in Australia everything's so geographically far away

and in two hours I can hear a different language I can experience a different

culture you had to learn Croatian right you did not grow up speaking it well to

be fair I did have an understanding of

Croatian but if somebody's watching at least now and if you can understand 50%

of what I'm saying I wouldn't be able to understand

conversation like these in Croatian so basically what my parents did speak

Croatian at home so it was a little bit like hey what's there to eat at home what

are we doing tomorrow yeah just really basic stuff nothing you could use in a

professional meeting or anything like that no so how did you feel when you got

to Croatia and all of a sudden you were just like oh my gosh they're using words

I don't know how am I gonna learn this I just feel like crying, sorry but I just

remember watching TV there's no subtitles here and if there are

subtitles then the subtitle is in Croatian so I couldn't understand the news for

example I wanted to know what was happening all around the world but I

couldn't understand because they were speaking in Croatian they were speaking very

fast and also my parents migrated to Australia now about 35 years ago so they

were using a very old form it's not that old but their words were little bit

different the language has evolved some of the words I couldn't even understand

and I was just so frustrated also slang that was a headache I think I spent a

good part of the first six months being frustrated I wanted to cry now why don't

you go ahead and share some of the methods that you used to improve your

language skills did you use traditional methods non-traditional methods and what

advice do you have for other language learners I came here didn't have a job I

didn't I didn't know what I was doing like I said I knew then I wanted to

migrate here this was my goal when you're learning a language understanding

why you're learning a language is very important my goal was migration so I

realized the first two weeks I was at home I'm a very social person and I got

bored so I was doing this master's thesis I had to stay focused write

everything but I'm not socializing with people I'm not interacting with people

so I decided to enroll myself in a language course this was at the Faculty

of humanities in Zagreb and it was great as I said before I did have an

understanding of Croatian but I couldn't understand the TV shows I couldn't

understand news reporters I could have a

conversation but people laughed at me so much I can't even I could just cry

how much I was laught at but it made me a better person today oh definitely

it always does basically I enroled in this course and then

I had a problem the problem was that I could speak in Croatian my level

wasn't that bad I had problems with Grammar I could speak at an intermediate

level I was actually at A1 level but I couldn't understand the news so I was

in the highest group they had at this course but despite this I had problems

in grammar and problems in writing and then after a few weeks I realized that

okay I'm going to this language course I've made friends but I'm still not

integrating into society because the friends I'm making their first language

is English and you know people we are lazy and we're lazy beings so we'd go out

coffee we'd go to theater we'd go out and we'd

be speaking in English and then I told my friend like I love you guys really

but I enrolled in this course to improve my Croatian skills and we're speaking in

English so this really isn't working for me then I started Zumba classes I even

did Croatian folk dancing I enrolled in a German class I just did these random

activities because I'm like okay where do Croatians go and let's do Croatian

things and then that way I can speak Croatian and can improve my Croatian

skills so I've had more success doing these things I'm very active in meetups

I go to regular meetups I go to a lot of business cafes here in Zagreb I go to

just anything where people are talking in Croatian and yes they do tell me I

can hear in your accent are you from Australia? It's like oh that's a cute that

word you use but I just tried to ignore this because I know that this is how

I'll master the Croatian language and it's in my opinion immersion surrounding

yourself with people making these mistakes being laught at laughing at yourself it's

fun absolutely well I think that is fantastic advice especially for people

who are already living in an english-speaking country because you

know how many people do we know in Australia in the USA everywhere where

they've been living there for decades and it's like they still don't speak

English and the difference you know is what you said is just forcing yourself

into the society forcing yourself to speak with people even if you make

mistakes even if they laugh at you or whatever because you will improve and

you'll speak the language and you'll always you know carry a part of your

native language with you so you may have an accent you may use words from your

native language every now and then but who cares right it's about using the

language and using it to move your life forward I always think about my language

skills like as long as I get what I want to get done I'm happy that's success for

me and then as long as I'm able to communicate my point across that person

and do what I need to do this is success for me I always tell my students

or anyone learning a language language is the means of communication and if

you're talking to somebody they understand you and they reply to you

it's succes yeah I absolutely love that mentality and I agree with you and I

think what happens is since a lot of people come from a traditional

background in education where they are graded and they're tested if you mess up

on something it's considered negative they get it ingrained into their mind

and their mentality that oh my gosh if I make any little mistake it's horrible

and you're coming here with a new message and you're saying no this is

about communication and as long as you understand the next person then they

understand you then it's success and I love that and I think we need more of

that in the world of Education and on language learning specifically do you

have any like big mistake you've made in a foreign language maybe at work or

doing something in your everyday life due to miscommunication in your foreign

language I'm positive that I still make mistakes you know my Spanish language

skills are great but I still make mistakes every now and then I remember

one of the earliest mistakes I made was I said I'm pregnant instead of I'm

embarrassed the thing is that I was I think 15 years old when I made this

mistake because so 15 year old saying oh I'm so pregnant instead of I'm so embarrassed

so I was like oops what about you is there like a big mistake that you've made I've made

mistakes I've gone to the wrong location I met at wrong times because they use a

24-hour clock here whereas we don't use that or just mainly directions

especially talking on the telephone getting the wrong direction

and I think that I remember these mistakes more and then I do those red

crosses that have got on a piece of paper that's why I asked you this

because those mistakes I made they cause me to not have some success in my life

exactly we learn from the things that cause us pain and I tell my students

this too sometimes I'm like sometimes I teach I don't teach you everything I

just give you enough to be able to implement and then fail because once you

fail and you come across some sort of obstacle then you're even more eager to

learn the next part of whatever I have to teach you so failure is honestly in

my opinion a really great thing now that we're talking about this why don't you

tell us a little bit more about what you're doing online with your students

at the moment I'm creating an online classroom and online community to give

English learners around the world the opportunity to make mistakes to learn

from their mistakes most importantly to connect with people and basically

everyday English this is what I'm bringing about in my online communities

so yes I am working a lot on developing vocabulary so seeing a plain grammar and

emphasizing the use of these most importantly getting people to speak we

are connecting in group calls and live chats just building up confidence

because you know Stefanie I don't like recording we were talking about this before everybody struggles with

something we all have our weaknesses but these are skills that also English

learners will need for the work force say that public speaking skills I am a

native English speaker I don't like recording videos but is something that I do

for my job and this is something which why shouldn't an english learner be able

to do this as well it would improve their presentation skills develop their

confidence this is what we do I think that is like highly admirable that you

put yourself out there in a way that makes you nervous

uncomfortable scared or just you like you said you do not like recording

videos if you didn't have to do it you wouldn't do it but you know that you

have to do it in order to expose yourself and let people know hey I'm

here and I'm available to help you with your English if you need the help so

you're putting yourself out there in a way that you're uncomfortable but that

means that you're also being an excellent leader for everybody in your

communities because guess what they're scared too they're scared of putting

themselves out there they're scared of making videos

they're scared of all kinds of things and you're like look so am I so If I can do it you can do it

And I think that is super

fantastic I use a finger pointing I'm like if I can do it you know that's right, that's right

oh that's great all right Adriana so tell us where can we find you on social media and for

those that want to follow you and go to your website where can they find you you

can find me on my social media accounts English with Adriana I'm on Facebook

Instagram and on YouTube and on my website EnglishTeacherAdriana.com

awesome so I'm gonna link all of those in the description so people can find

you easily thank you so much for doing this interview and for all of you guys

that watch this and enjoyed it be sure to head over to Adriana's channel so you

can watch the interview that she did with me thank you for having me no

problem take care