Do You Have to Move to an English-Speaking Country to Become Fluent?

- [Jack] Hello, this is Jack from it Tofluency.com

and this is episode 26 of the To Fluency Podcast.

Welcome to you.

It's fantastic to have you here.

Now, before we get into the episode

where we are going to talk about,

if you need to move to an English speaking country,

in order to learn English.

Got little announcement

that we have just hit 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Now this podcast episode is on all the podcast apps,

but it's also on YouTube.

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So the goal now, the next goal,

I guess is a million subscribers.

I don't know when that's gonna happen

or if it's gonna happen but it would be fantastic if it did

and we're currently producing a lesson a week on YouTube.

And then also some of those short videos too,

30 second or 45 second lessons on YouTube.

Now let's get back to the topic today

because this is something that a lot of learners ask me

if they need to move to the US the UK

or Ireland, Canada, et cetera, in order to learn English.

And I think there were two important things here.

Firstly, most people who live

in a non English speaking country cannot move to the UK

or the US due to visa restrictions.

and also in 2021, when I'm recording this,

things are difficult for other reasons too.

I'm sure you'll know what I am talking about.

So this question is not always the easiest to answer

because for most people it's impossible

to move to one of these countries.

And right now it might even be impossible

to go for one of those six week immersion courses.

Okay.

So that is out of the question,

which means that it's not something you can do.

It's not an option available to you.

So I think that's the first thing to just realize that,

well, it's a silly quote or not a silly question,

but it's a question that I'm asking

where I can't actually do it, if that is the case.

So if let's just say,

yes, you do need to go to an English speaking country,

you can't do anyway.

But the good news is this.

Okay, are you ready for the good news?

I know so many people who have reached a high level

of English without moving to an English speaking country.

And I also know many people who live,

for example, in our local area, in North Carolina,

they have come from different countries

from all over the world

and their level of English is still basic or intermediate.

So the key thing here, it's not about where you live

it's about what you do.

It's not about where you live it's about what you do.

This is the most important thing to know,

that it's about what you do, not where you live.

And like I say, most people can not at this time go

to an English speaking country.

Now you might be thinking,

yes, but it's probably better, right,

to go to an English speaking country?

Perhaps.

In most cases, if you're going to do similar things,

then yes, you're going to get more opportunities

to practice your English.

And just to get that natural conversation

when you're living, let's say in London,

because when you go to the store,

you're going to speak in English.

When you're in a tube and somebody asks you a question,

they're going to do it in English.

When you join a club and anything,

if you go to work, et cetera, is all going to be in English,

which means that you'll have more opportunities to speak.

But let's just say I lived in Spain for two years

and my Spanish went from basic to pre-intermediate.

When I moved to the US in about 12 months,

my Spanish went from pre-intermediate to upper intermediate.

I made more progress in less time while living in America

than when I did when I was living in Spain.

And the reason is I did different things.

I did things that actually made a difference,

things that actually worked when I moved to the US.

So when I was in Spain,

I was teaching English as a second language.

I was living with an American.

I had lots of English speaking friends,

but also I just didn't really do the things

that made a difference.

I spent a lot of time doing grammar books, workbooks,

and listening to things that I didn't understand.

I was listening to things I didn't understand.

Now, this is important

because I've talked about in the past,

how to read for fluency

and how really make your listening more effective.

But before I go into all that,

what we're going to also talk about today is

how to create that environment

so that you can learn English no matter where you live.

And also some extra tools and resources for you.

If you want to explore this further.

But like I said, it's not about where you live,

it's about what you do.

And a good place to start is thinking,

okay, what am I doing on a daily basis in order to improve?

And how quickly do I want to improve?

Okay.

So what am I doing on a daily basis to improve?

And when do I want to have a specific level by?

Now if you haven't got my book yet,

"The Five-step Plan for English Fluency,"

this is free to download.

You can download it on my website.

I'll leave a link in the description for you

so you can go ahead and do that.

But we're gonna talk a little bit about goals now,

also just what you can do no matter where you live.

And I've got some more good news for you as well,

because today it is much easier

to create that English immersion environment,

no matter where you live than it used to be in the past.

So people think, okay, I need to move to the US or the UK

in order to learn English,

because I'm going to be surrounded by English,

surrounded by English, where English is all around me,

but you can do this no matter where you live.

And I think a good place to start here

is to make this one change to do whatever you do now,

but do it in English instead.

And this is going to allow you to create that environment

in which you're constantly listening

and seeing and watching things in English.

So I won't go into too much depth here.

I've got an article on this.

Again, I'll leave the link in the description,

but basically it's this to watch the news in English,

to listen to music in English,

to listen to podcasts like this one in English,

to read blogs or articles or newspapers in English,

to watch television in English,

to research new purchases

or research anything you're interested in in English,

to learn in English and to participate

in discussions and debates in English too.

And so this is just one change you can make a simple change,

but it's gonna take a little bit of getting used to

a little bit but have time to become familiar with this.

And then what you're doing here is your immersing yourself

in English no matter where you live.

It's such a key thing to do,

because this is going to give you the input you need

in order to get used to learning English.

So that's step one.

So just to summarize so far,

I've talked about how you don't need to move

to an English speaking country

to reach a high level of English.

I've known many people who have got there

without doing this,

and also this isn't available for you right now.

And the number one reason why people want to do this is

to create the environment

in which they are constantly exposing themselves to English,

but also a way to get natural practice too.

We'll talk about natural practice later.

So the first step here is

to create this English learning environment,

no matter where you live,

which means changing the language of your devices

into English, for example.

And another thing you can do as well is

just if you like computer games, play them in English.

There's been a couple of people who got in touch with me

to say the way I learned English was

only through computer games.

So I played lots of computer games and I did it in English.

And then therefore, I just reached a high level

because I was learning without thinking

about grammar or anything else.

I was just exposing myself to English

and really wanting to know how to do it

and how to use the right language,

because I wanted to get better at the computer game.

So I'm sure you can think of all these different things

that you do now, but do them in English instead.

Now let's talk about natural practice

because the other reason people want to move

to an English speaking country is

to get that natural practice where you're constantly talking

to people in English and having those conversations.

And this is an important thing to focus on.

Now, we'll also talk about ways

you can improve your speaking without doing this.

And I've done that in an episode before.

Again, I'll leave a link to that episode in the description

so then you can follow up on this.

Let's make a note of that now,

but the natural practice thing,

again, it's so much easier to do these days

because we can do this online.

We can find people online to speak to in English,

and there are two main ways you can do this.

You can get a teacher and pay a teacher

for their time to speak to you in English.

And then the second way is to join a language exchange.

And again, due to the current crisis going on at the moment,

the easiest way to do this is online too.

So all you need to do,

and I'll leave this again in the description for you is

to type in language exchange partner online,

and find somebody

who wants to learn the language that you speak

and also somebody who can speak English.

So then what you're going to do,

let's say you're from Russia.

You can spend half an hour speaking in Russian

to help your partner learn Russian.

And then you can also spend half the time speaking

in English so that you can practice your English.

Now, this is just a way that a way for you to make it free.

So you don't have to spend money on a English teacher,

but if you can afford it consider hiring an English teacher

so you can practice with them.

And I'll leave a link to my favorite platform to do this.

And this is an affiliate link.

So if you decide to take lessons through this platform,

then I will get a little commission, a small commission,

but this is one of the best platforms to use.

People use it and really like it.

So I'll leave a link there.

So far we have talked

about how to immerse yourself in English,

how to get natural practice.

Those are the two main reasons to do it,

but I also wanna spend a little bit of time on

how you can use specific techniques

in order to improve your English in general

and how you can do this on your own.

Because again, you can do this from anywhere in the world.

Now, the first way is writing practice

and writing is such a great way

to help you practice creating sentences in English

in a way that isn't rushed.

So you can take your time and do this.

And I made a podcast episode on this

I'll leave a link to that,

but basically what you're doing here is

you're taking what you have learned so far.

You are creating sentences

and you're getting feedback on this too.

And there's a great tool for this.

Check out the description for it,

which will actually correct your grammar,

correct your sentences when you make mistakes,

not just the spelling, but your sentences.

Now, the next way to do this is what I call the LRC method.

And this is where you take audio phrases in English,

and you repeat them out loud.

You are working here on your pronunciation.

You're working on all the sounds of English,

intonation, rhythm, and stress connected speech.

You're working on your listening

because you're listening to the phrases.

You're working on your reading because you're reading them.

And you're also working on your speaking

and you're working on your grammar.

You're improving your grammar because the best way,

in my opinion to learn grammar is through sentences.

That's how you're going to naturally acquire the grammar

in a way that doesn't make you think

about the rules all the time.

So that grammar just becomes natural to you.

So those are two methods that you can work on.

There are other things like shadowing,

where you can listen to audio in English and repeat it.

In this way you're not repeating single phrases,

but you're just listening to somebody speak

and you're repeating it.

And it's a skill because you have to be able to listen

and say what they're saying

and continue listening and continue speaking,

just look up shadowing on YouTube

and just to see some examples of this,

if you want to learn more about that.

And then another method that you can use is

what's called the centers method.

And this is very similar to the LRC method.

And I like to link these two together.

So let's say you find a phrase that says,

"I'm excited about going to the party."

Okay.

And you wanna learn this phrase,

but you also want to learn this over the longterm.

So what you can do is repeat this phrase several times,

listen to how you say it, record it

and compare it to the original,

make changes so you improve in the way that you speak.

But then what you can do is and repeat it today,

tomorrow in four days, eight days, 16 days, et cetera,

so that you memorize this phrase

and memorize isn't the right term here completely.

It's more like you acquire this phrase,

you internalize it so that you can just say this naturally

and getting that repetition means

that you're going to acquire that phrase, the grammar

and the vocabulary and everything else

in a way where you can then repeat it naturally

and you can use it flexibly.

So this is a really powerful way to do that.

So those are some of the techniques you can use

from anywhere in the world.

The idea here is to use methods that work,

because again, if people go to an English speaking country

and they don't practice, they don't get lots of good input

and then they don't use these methods I've talked about,

then they won't improve.

But if you stay in the country,

you currently are living in now

and then you get lots of input,

the right type of input too.

You get natural practice.

You do some shadowing, you do some mimic method

or imitation method and sentence method.

And then you do some writing

that I'm sure you're going to see

some really good improvements.

So again, it's not about where you live,

it's about what you do.

And I know many people

who have gotten in touch with me to say,

yep, I learned English to a great level

by doing this by staying in my own country

and just immersing myself in English.

And another person I'd like to introduce you to is

I forget his name now,

but he's got a blog called All Japanese All The Time.

And it's a really interesting blog

because he talks about how he learned Japanese

by listening a lot.

He did it by listening a lot,

and he did it with his headphones in.

Now he talks about 10,000 hours of listening,

which is a lot.

It's gonna take you a long time to get there.

But the key here is just to say,

the more you do the more you immerse yourself

in the language from no matter where you live,

the more you will improve,

but then we can also be really smart with how we do it

by focusing on the right type of input for your level

and then also getting repetition, using the speaker method,

using all the methods I've talked about here

and will list in the description

so that you can really just fine tune your learning

to make it more efficient and to improve at a faster pace.

And also what you can do is try these different methods

and see where your weaknesses are,

which areas you need to improve

and really work on those areas

so then you can become stronger there.

Now, if you found this useful,

then please share it with a friend.

And I highly recommend go into that description.

I've mentioned this a lot.

I'm very aware that I have said

the description probably 20 times,

but this just allows you to go deeper

into the different methods

and things that I've talked about.

And if you just do one thing, get my book,

"The Five Step Plan for English Fluency,"

it's free to download, just enter your email address

and your name and I'll send it to your inbox.

Okay.

Thank you so much for watching this.

If you are on YouTube or listening,

if you are on the podcast apps.

And yeah, I'm so happy 500,000 subscribers.

It's great to have you here.

And I look forward to giving you lessons

over the next 12 months and beyond.

Okay.

Speak to you soon.

Bye-bye.