Is studying a foreign language abroad better than studying in your home country?

At Home

Let’s start by addressing the option of studying a foreign language in your home country. The whole idea of “study abroad” entails some sort of long-term project, and anyone making the decision usually has to weigh a lot of other factors before deciding whether or not the experience would be worth it. It is neither a small nor easy question to answer, as everybody faces their own reasons for both wanting to go or being unable to do so.

Numerous positive reasons for studying a new language in your country centers around the idea of convenience. For example, if you’re just starting to pick up foreign languages, you may want to sample what different languages have to offer as opposed to committing straight away to one. The teachers in your home country are more familiar with the local demographic, and are thus likely to be more adept at meeting your personal student needs. Studying in your home country is by far the more comfortable option, in all senses of the word.

Abroad

Here’s the kicker for studying a foreign language in its country of origin: it’s the best environment you could possibly hope to find.

In essence, studying a new language is more than just vocabulary lists and grammar rules. Learning about its culture and the way its native speakers perceive the world is also part and parcel of it — simply being in a foreign country exposes you to the local customs and mannerisms. A step forward from that would be interacting with the people there with acts as simple as buying food over the counter. When you are immersed in a foreign country’s culture, language learning becomes a much more intuitive process, as you pick up tons of information through your sight ears whether you’re consciously aware of it or not.

A Compromise?

What’s a good compromise, then? You could start by picking up the language in your own country, and give yourself a year or two of proper education to get your basics covered — up to the point where you would feel confident enough to be able to obtain survival necessities (being able to pay for transport, buy food, etc.) before signing up for a language course conducted in a foreign country.

We also have another solution to offer: FluentUp! Our secret is that all the language schools we have on our platform are based in their respective countries. That’s right — signing up for any one of our digital courses gives you the best of both worlds: allowing you interaction with entrenched native-speakers from the comfort and convenience of your own home. From your desktop (and Skype account), we are able to offer you the options of studying English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Korean and Latin, on top of the ability to customize your course to your timetable and proficiency level, with accordingly adjustable and affordable rates.

Ultimately, the answer to the big question of whether or not to take your learning experience abroad or not will also hinge upon other highly personal factors. If you ever find yourself in a position with this question to answer, we hope you remember that we’ve got you covered on both fronts.

Tags

• Study Abroad
• Language
• Learning
• Exchange
• Language Learning