Many people move abroad to places where English is spoken, but struggle to learn the language.
Have you ever known someone who went to London or Dublin to learn English but didn’t improve as much as expected? Maybe they picked up some local slang, but that’s about it. The problem? Big cities attract people from all over, and birds of a feather flock together, which means that it’s easy to stick with others who share similarities. In this case, it tends to be people who speak your language. Making English-speaking friends can be tough, and expecting strangers to teach you for free isn’t fair.
These days there is a lot of pressure to be focused on learning all the time, but in reality, people can only really concentrate for about 5 hours a day. If you’re not doing everything at once, it’s because you’re a human being.
So, can residential courses work?
Let me tell you about my own language learning experience. I had spent two and a half years in Spain but only reached a basic level of Spanish. Then, I worked on a farm in Asturias for a week, where everyone spoke Spanish. It was tough at first, and I felt embarrassed not understanding everything. But after a few days, something clicked, and I started to improve. The key was to stop being hard on myself.
This farm experience was like a crash course in Spanish. It wasn’t easy, and I was lucky the people there were patient with me.
A residential English course gives you focused practice without the pressure. You’ll have teachers dedicated to helping you improve, and you’ll be surrounded by English speakers. It won’t make you perfect overnight, but it’ll give you a good kick start and show you that improvement is possible with practice in the right surroundings.
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