Moving abroad and language learning

People who move to a country abroad can be classified in two different groups, when talking about language learning. The first group is composed by those who are eager to assimilate the new culture to some extent, while people from the second group always show very little interest in their new social environment, most likely longing the uses and ways of their native land. These attitudes mark the pace of progress on learning the new language. Those who enjoy socializing will interact more intensively with the natives of the visited country, and just because of this they will learn colloquial expressions that couldn't be found on books, but beyond that they will feel compelled to learn new words and phrases. These people do not always need to use a dictionary to learn new words, but they always will ask the meaning of them to other human beings. They are attentive when listening other people speak, and absorb every little bit of sound issued by those who already speak this new language. On the other side, people who, by their own volition, opt to strengthen bonds only with their own fellow nationals and disregard opportunities to talk with natives of the host country, usually reach a very narrow command of vocabulary and grammar.

Immersion is an idea often resorted to when pondering about the ways to accelerate language learning. But as we see, a long stay in a country abroad cannot be considered the basis for an immersion program. Moreover, I learned my Russian in an American city in Florida. Therefore, I didn't need to move to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to "get immersed". My immersion relied on "doing my homework" (a self imposed one, of course) by studying vocabulary and grammar, and then "immerse" by socializing with Russian friends and acquaintances.

The attitude towards socializing is as important a factor as motivation is, and perhaps overlapped in its nature to it. Naturally, if one is opposite to any socialization with people from the host country, their language skills will stagnate. If somebody lacks a powerful drive to socialize (I myself am not that extrovert), then he can build his moves towards socializing on his own motivation to learn the language. In this case, although this person is not an absoulte extrovert (again, that's me!) he will act social as a way to practice his freshly acquired language skills. When we socialize in a host country, besides making lots of friends we also strenghten our new language skills.