How Language Makes You Local – The Benefits Of Language Lessons When Moving Abroad
Guest Post by BiCortex Languages Team
Moving to a new country comes with many challenges, and transitioning into a new society is challenging due
to numerous factors. Often, the biggest challenge of moving abroad is that you and your spouse or family do
not understand the local language. Not understanding the local language creates many sub or additional
challenges, which is why learning your new country’s local language is an important part of acclimating,
integrating into society, and acculturation. This article discusses how language lessons can help you navigate
the many challenges that come with moving to a new country. Some of the challenges that will be discussed
include the following:
- how language lessons help you communicate at work in the country you moved to
- how language lessons alleviate the stress associated with daily tasks
- how language lessons lead to socialization, such as making new friends to build up your support
network - how language lessons help you understand how culture is inherently linked with language.
Language lessons are absolutely crucial to adapting to your new home country, getting to know the locals, and
integrating into society successfully. Learning the local language is the key to slowly starting to feel like a local.
Language Lessons Enable You To Work In The Country You Moved To
One of the most important reasons people take language lessons when they move to a new country is, of
course, to be able to communicate effectively at work in their new country. The language ability developed
from language tests before moving abroad is often insufficient to communicate effectively at work. While
learning a new language might not be required to perform daily job functions, it makes it easier to
communicate with colleagues and clients who speak the local language. Additionally, it simplifies
understanding the industry jargon and how business is done. Another benefit of language lessons regarding
the work environment is that many language teachers provide business language courses tailored to your
needs.
For example, you can contact seasoned experts like BiCortex Languages, who employ native language
teachers, and ask for business language teachers to focus on specific topics like industry jargon, finances,
negotiations, and presentations. More often than not, especially if you moved abroad specifically for work,
your new employer would be happy to pay for your language lessons, so do not hesitate to ask them if they
would be willing to pay for a business language teacher for you and your family. They could also put you and
some of your colleagues in a group to have language lessons together. Soon enough, your new language ability
will help you start feeling like a local at work.
Language Lessons Help Simplify Daily Tasks
Grocery shopping, reading traffic signs, and having your hair cut or going to the doctor can feel hard when you try to explain them in a language that is not your native language. Having to adapt to working in a new country, one also has to adjust to daily life activities. Simple tasks like grocery shopping, reading traffic signs, or communicating with the person cutting your hair in your new country might prove challenging and stressful if you don’t speak, read, or understand the local language.
Language lessons can effectively help you simplify these tasks by improving your verbal communication skills. While everyone moving to a new country can appreciate occasional miscommunications and often laugh about it, developing vocabulary and basic conversational abilities in the local language can make the difference between ending up with orange hair instead of red when you go to the hairdresser! Being able to read road signs and street names might be the difference between reaching your destination efficiently and taking a long
detour.
Many experienced language teachers adapt their methodology to the student’s needs. For example, if
you want to learn a specific vocabulary, like foods or ingredients, to help you navigate shopping in a grocery
store, a language teacher can help you. Similarly, if you want to focus on common traffic terminology to help
you read road signs and navigate your way around town, then language lessons are your answer. Quite soon,
you will be able to read the food labels in grocery stores, know exactly where you’re traveling to on the road or
in the subway, and tell your hairdresser exactly which haircut you want. You’ll be like a local – someone who
knows their way around town!
Language Enables Socialization
Adapting To A New Environment Requires A New Support Network, And
Making Friends Is A Big Part Of This
Moving to a new country means leaving behind your support network, including family, friends, and work
colleagues. Losing your support network is often the most difficult part of moving to a new country because
you miss your family and friends, and they are no longer just a short drive away. You can’t just quickly make
plans to see each other or meet up at a coffee shop a few minutes from your house. While moving admin,
focusing on work, and trying to navigate daily tasks are extremely important, socialization must not be
neglected. You must develop a new support network for successful integration into the community in your
new country. Making acquaintances and developing relationships to develop friendships is the first step to
building this new support network. However, meeting new people might prove difficult if you speak a different
language than they do. Even introducing yourself might seem daunting because you’re unsure if you’re saying
it right, let alone trying to strike up a conversation and make a new friend! Taking language lessons to improve
your conversational ability will enable you to start building your new support network. Being able to talk to
someone at work, in a store at the mall, as you pass them on the street, or wherever you meet someone in
your daily life will enable you to start making friends and integrate into your new community. After a few
lessons, you will have a few key phrases in your pocket and enough confidence to invite friends to your new
home to share a meal and talk to each other comfortably, just like other locals do!
Language Lessons With A Native Teacher Reveals Culture
How Things Are Said/Things People Say In Their
Language Reveals Traditions, Demeanors, And Cultural Traits
Language, culture, heritage, and traditions are intricately intertwined. You might think that language lessons
will only teach you new vocabulary and grammar and equip you with new sentences. However, this cannot be
further from the truth. Language is much more than that. Because distinct cultures have spoken specific
languages for centuries, language and culture have developed in parallel over time, and both can only be
understood by learning the other. Language lessons are where culture and language meet, local dialects take center stage, and age-old cultural traditions reveal themselves. The relationship between language and culture
can be demonstrated by many examples, such as dialect and local language nuances.
Taking language lessons
from a native language teacher in your new home country will enable you to learn words and phrases that
mean something different than their dictionary definition. You will be able to understand the local language
nuances, taking shape in variations of word choice, expressions, and speakers’ demeanor. Language lessons
will also help you understand dialects. The differences between the dialects often stem from history,
traditions, culture, and origin. For example, there is a difference between Egyptian Arabic and Gulf Arabic,
European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, and between Standard Afrikaans and Cape Afrikaans, you
can request a language teacher who can speak and teach a specific dialect, which will help you integrate into
society and feel more like a local.
Language Makes You Local
Whether you take language lessons to communicate more effectively at work, to help you navigate tasks in
daily life, to develop a new support network by making new friends, or to help you understand local language
nuances and dialects, the benefits of language lessons are endless. In each of these cases, language lessons will
help you feel more like a local, making the process of moving abroad (and the many difficulties that come with
it) much easier to manage. Your daily life will be much easier, with fewer language-related work challenges,
fewer hair-dressing catastrophe risks, a new group of friends with whom to enjoy your hobbies, and the ability
to communicate like a local! Even so, you do not have to do it alone! There are so many resources for expats
and immigrants that can be life-changing and make a move abroad so much easier. Language schools like the
one mentioned in this article are there to support you and help you find the right language teacher.
People like Angie Weinberger at Global People Transitions can support you in your journey abroad. The key is to take advantage of
resources and reach out when you need help!
BiCortex Languages is one of our partners from RelocateTheProfit.
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