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Hi again. Today I am going to do a video on if you actually decide to go to another country
where you don't speak the language yet or you're not completely fluent. And there are
so many levels to language. In the European Union there's -- or maybe just Europe actually
-- there's I think six levels, seven levels. Most people when they study only get to about
Level 1 or 2 which is not sufficient for living in a country, I can tell you now. Absolutely
not going to work for you. And it's going to make things really hard, which is why I
have said before and I will say again, get to intermediate before you come. Find out
your level. There's lots of tests online. If you do a search for -- you can do it through
actually various things. There's lots of different things but if you do a level testing, if you
search for level testing for German or French or whatever then they can tell you your level.
You can find out what that means and you can keep improving until you get to intermediate.
If you're just going to go off the cuff and move to a country like we did where we didn't
speak the language -- and we worked on it some but we didn't really have anything going
for us. We had a really hard time, especially in the beginning. I'm not even sure now how
we managed to survive in the beginning because we didn't understand anything. We would get
on buses and not even be able to say, "Does this bus go to this city?" And we would just
hope for the best. I remember one night when Dorian got on a bus and he didn't come back.
And I thought, "My husband is riding around on the Italian countryside. It's dark. He
has no idea where he's going and he can't talk to anybody. He can't ask anybody where
he is." And I thought, "I've lost my husband." And it's terrifying. It is really terrifying
when you don't speak the language. So I really suggest getting to at least intermediate.
Study however. You have to find out how you learn a language because different people
do it differently. My husband learns by reading books and studying a lot, learning vocab,
listening to things, etc. I'm so much better with scheduled things. If we even are meeting
with a friend, it's better. If we have an hour and we have it set aside for Italian,
I'm really good. Otherwise I'm totally unmotivated and I could care less even though it's really
hard and I know I need to study, I'm really bad about it unless I have something that's
scheduled or penciled in, if I have a class to go to or whatever. So find out how you
learn language, find out how your spouse learns language. Do it together, do it apart. Whatever
works for you. Study it before you come, and while you're here.
I would suggest taking moments when you're really motivated, especially at the beginning.
At the beginning you will be really motivated because you're thinking, "We're going to Europe!
We're going wherever. And this is great! It's so exciting! We're going to learn a language!
It's going to be so much fun and it's going to be really cool!" So take all that first
beginning energy/motivation and put it into a lot of work. I really strongly suggest anytime
you get moments of motivation that you use them and just push yourself further than you
want to go then because you are going to have moments once you get here of not just not
being motivated to study but actually feeling anti-studying and anti- the language and just
thinking, "I just can't be bothered. I can't be bothered. I want to talk to people in English.
I don't want to talk to anybody. It's too much effort. I have to think too much. They
all think I'm a complete idiot," etc. So just help yourself and take a lot of that pressure
off. Do a lot of studying while you're motivated and when you're excited about it, etc. and
while you're not under the pressure of living in a country yet.
Let me see. Also, I would say, try not to be -- I call them old learners or adult learners.
I teach English and I'm not really fond of teaching adults. And it's because adults are
so much more fixed in their own language and in their own heads. Maybe it's because adults
are used to routines. They've gotten settled. They know how life works and what they're
doing. But it's so impossible for them to understand that another system doesn't work
like theirs. And so if they come across a word that doesn't translate or a phrase that
they don't have it's like they can't even take it on. So try not to be an old learner.
Try not to be an adult learner. Kids are really happy and free and easy-going and they don't
always quite understand you but they'll learn through situations and they'll learn through
different sorts of things. So be more like kids. Be more open and if you don't get something
don't get totally freaked out about it. If there's not a word in your language that connects
to theirs or a concept, try to learn their own concept. It's not going to be the same
and you have to approach it in that way. You have to realize, "Okay, this is not English.
This is not what I know. They don't have a word for this or they don't have a concept
for this. I have to work in a different framework. I have to deal with a different way of thinking
here." And it takes a really long time. It's not easy. Learning a language is not easy.
It's one thing to learn something in school when you're just reading and writing and there's
no necessity, but when you're living in a country and you have to know how to speak
to people it gets really hard-going really fast. And that's good and everything. Also,
I would say -- my husband wanted me to add this in -- because there are young people
who will just run through things and they won't understand it and in some ways that
makes young people faster because it means they don't have to know everything right off.
And with a language you sort of have to let some things go until you get further along
in the language. You can't know everything right at the beginning. But at the same time
you don't want to be like teenagers who are just dropping everything and letting things
go and not paying any attention and not getting things settled in your mind. If something
keeps coming up you need to figure out what it is or whatever.
Also, just some random ideas about your perceptions of people who speak other languages, because
I've found that living in Italy and learning to speak a different language has completely
altered my view of people with accents and people who don't speak perfect English. And
not that I would have said before that I thought that they were less than me or whatever, but
you know what? It's really hard to sit across a table from someone and listen to them say
things like, "He like shoe," instead of "He likes shoes," or "I'm wear a tie black," or
something. It's really hard to sit across from a [person] like that and then realize,
"This person's a chemical engineer and a complete professional in his own right. And he speaks
his own language perfectly." And it takes awhile to get that in your head, that you
can listen to somebody who sounds like they're speaking worse English than a four-year-old
and this person is an adult and this person has their own life and their own thoughts
and they're completely developed. It's really hard to get that in your mind and get that
in your head and have it as a fixed concept, I think. Anyways, and so our view of people
with accents and people that are learning English has completely altered, even though
we never thought before that we would have looked down on people who couldn't speak English
or even just being annoyed. I'm not even annoyed anymore when I hear accents. I really like
it and I really appreciate it actually. And I have so much respect for people who have
accents in English because it tells me that they learned English as an adult and not as
a child. And it's much harder to learn a language as an adult because your mind changes as you
get older and it's a lot easier to take on a language when you're young. But as you get
older it does get a lot harder and if you have an accent, as I say, it means you learned
it as an adult so it means that these people have managed to master something that I haven't.
And I just have a lot of respect for that. I have a lot of respect for anybody who's
trying to do that because it takes a lot out of you and I'll go into more later, about
what it's like when you get to the country and living among people that don't speak your
language, etc. and having to adapt to them and everything.
But anyways, for those reasons, I think you should try to find videos of people who speak
your level of French or German or whatever in English. And that's slightly confusing
but if you search for videos of people doing exams, oral exams. If you do a search for
oral exam B1 which is intermediate English for Europeans -- I'm not sure what it is in
America but it probably wouldn't be hard to find out. And then you listen to them. I think
it's probably just something good to think about to hear somebody that's speaking your
level of the language. Sorry, this is slightly confusing because I'm not sure how to explain
it. But if you listen to someone speaking intermediate English and then think, "This
is my level of German." And then you can think about how you feel about them, what you think
about them and that whatever you're thinking about them, what your family would think about
them, what your friends would say about them that those are the same things that people
are going to be thinking about you and saying about you and feeling about you. All those
things that are just there without even thinking about being there, they're just there. I think
it's really important to have that idea in your head, that people are going to be viewing
you as a person who doesn't speak a language very good and they're going to have all sorts
of preconceptions about you and they're going to presume all sorts of things. And if you're
not able to converse -- really because people won't even say that you can speak the language
until you're past intermediate, until you're upper-intermediate or almost fluent. So they're
going to have all sorts of things that they're going to put onto you and you have to just
live with that until you can be a different person basically and stand on your own in
their language. And that is really hard to do. It's really hard to take on and to be
put in that position. But I'll talk more about that later. But before you go I think it's
good to get that idea in your head.
I also think it's probably a good idea if you have any friends who are not native-English
speakers to ask them about what it was like to learn English, if they found it difficult,
if they found it easy, when they learned it, when they started learning, how their transition
was -- just anything. Generally when you move to a country where somebody's speaking a different
language I imagine you're going to be facing the same things. You're going to be having
all these sorts of bad experiences with people. People are going to treat you differently.
Some people are going to be patient with you; some people are not going to be patient with
you. Most people are not going to understand you. And they're not going to know anything
about you. They'll think they know you when really you just think, "Well, they don't know
anything about me because they don't about the person I was before I came here," unless
you're able to actually have conversations with them that are really in-depth which you
may or may not be able to do when you first enter a country. Of course, your language
is going to change as you get there. It's going to become easier and things are going
to be smoother but there are going to be lots of moments that are not smooth and not easy
and it's a lot to put yourself through. So talk to people who have done it before and
see what they say about it. See what their advice is. And I think you might learn a lot
because I don't think a lot of people are even questioning that sort of thing. I don't
think a lot of people are viewing the people that they know that have accents or that are
not English, they're not thinking, "You know, they had a life before this and I wonder what
that was like and I wonder how their transition was and if they find it really easy here."
A lot of people just don't think about other people very much. But I think you can learn
a lot from people that you didn't realize and you can maybe see what your life could
be like and different things that you might face if you choose to move to a different
country where people don't speak English. And I think that's it for this one. So, as
I say, I will make a different one concerning once you get to the country what you'll have
to go through depending on your level of your language for that country. Anyways, hope it's
helpful. Talk to you later.