It is commonly said that going to study English abroad is useful. I agree with this. And I want to add that, in my opinion, when you are studying a foreign language, taking at least a trip to the country where it is spoken is strongly recommended.

I want to make clear I am not saying that this is the best or the only way to learn a language. Neither I am saying it suffices to learn a new language from the ground.  A person can certainly learn a new language on his/her own, by moving to a new state and without knowing anything about it, but it would surely request more commitment, tenacity and time. The ideal situation, would be a travel to the foreign country preceded by at least a basic grammar/lexicon course, taken it your native language to understand it better. Language schools and private courses offer a wide range of possibilities to learn a new language. They can even suffice if you are not interested in using your foreign language knowledge  as a primary tool in your life/work.  But if you are going to constantly interact with people coming from abroad, you absolutely need to make practice listening and speaking the new language, and going abroad is the only very efficient way.

Even only spending your time in contact with native speakers and listening to what they say is a great exercise for your brain: it automatically processes the information and learns to recognize sounds belonging to the foreign language. In short time you will be able to catch more easily the meaning of the words when they are said and you will spend less time to switch from your own language to the foreign one. For example, you will answer more promptly when questioned about the time in the metro. That is because we all are used to think, talk and listen to the same language at the same time, so our brain needs a certain amount of time to recognize a language if it is different from out usual one. But you can reduce this amount of time by listening to the new language. Just after a few days, your brain will spend less time in recognizing the language in which sentences are said and therefore it will have more time to understand the meaning of them.

Moreover, coming across with everyday’s needs will force you to speak, find new ways to interact with the others and make yourself understood. Your speaking skills will therefore improve, together with your vocabulary.

But living abroad will influence not only your listening, comprehension and speaking skills. It will give you the possibility to interact with a whole new world: different codes, different base-behaviours, different priorities and life-styles. Living abroad will make you aware of these differences, and will give you something more: something important for your personal knowledge and for your future.

To sum it up: if studying and learning the basis of a language at school is important and going abroad to listen to the real language is useful; studying the language abroad, in schools and in real life is a complete experience, that is not going to fail in enrich your knowledge and skills.

For the ones who think it is only an expensive way to lose your time, I agree with them. If they are not motivated and interested in acquiring new information, living new experiences and using all this as a future resource in you work or everyday life. As I said before, going abroad is not the only, the best, the easiest way to learn a foreign language.

But maybe it is the most complete one.