Should you move to the U.S.
to learn English?
Is that the secret to becoming fluent?
Is that what you need in order to reach that high level and to speak more like a native speaker?
Well this is a question that I receive a lot.
many students have asked me about this and just people in general ask about this.
Should someone move to a country that speaks the language?
language that they’re trying to learn right?
In your case you’re all learning English.
So should you move to the US or to some other English speaking country?
Well I’m going to give you the short answer first and then we’re going to talk in more detail about this okay?
So you don’t need to move to the US.
I’m going to talk about why that is why you don’t need to move here to reach a high level in English.
However there is one really big advantage of living in a country that speaks that language in this case living in the U.S.
where we speak the language that you’re learning there is one really big advantage that most people never even think of.
They never think about this and I’m gonna talk about that towards the end.
So first about why you don’t need to come here okay?
However I will talk about that one really big advantage at the end.
That’s at least worth considering and keeping in mind okay?
Before we move on I know that some of you ask for the subtitles on these types of videos that I’ve recently started doing.
I’m not gonna put the subtitles on there I’m sorry
But you can click on the little button down below the settings button and you can turn on the automated subtitles.
They’re pretty good good.
It’s going to be correct most of the time.
So ahead and do that if you need to.
Click on that Settings button and turn on those subtitles and then just try to understand
me without looking at the subtitles because I’m speaking slowly and.
clearly but if you need to see a certain word or a phrase that I used and you didn’t
understand then you can just look down below.
Oh
and I don’t mention this a lot
but if you want to practice your pronunciation
if you want my help to train your pronunciation to speak more like a native speaker
to sound more like a native speaker
then you can join my seminar and join the tier that says
listening time super member or any tier above that and you’ll get my pronunciation seminars.
So those will really start to see the patterns and notice the patterns that you’re not pronouncing correctly
and I help you pronounce these things more like a native speaker okay?
So the link to that is down below.
All right let’s talk about why you don’t need to live in the US if you wanna learn English.
Well the first thing to consider is that living in a foreign country doesn’t automatically
make you fluent in that language and it doesn’t even guarantee that you’re gonna improve.
in that language.
I know that for some of you that sounds a bit strange like you would imagine that if someone lives in the U.S.
and supposedly they’re learning English that they would definitely improve a lot while being here.
That can definitely happen of course.
And I think in most cases it probably does happen to an extent.
However it’s not automatic.
Let me talk a little bit about my experience living in Mexico.
I lived in Mexico for six years.
Okay.
During that.
I met multiple people who were from the U.S.
or some other English-speaking country and who moved to Mexico for whatever reason.
and they had very different levels of Spanish okay?
And people have been living in Mexico for years right?
Let me first talk about an instructor that I had.
She was the instructor of the Tefel program that I had to pass in order to get my teaching certificate.
to teach English as a foreign language.
So at that time
that instructor that I had she had lived in Mexico for I think it was six years the amount of time that I spent there.
She had already lived in Mexico for six years and she could not say one sentence in Spanish.
I know that sounds crazy but it was true.
She couldn’t speak a word of Spanish.
And how can that happen?
Well she didn’t make the effort.
Spanish.
She didn’t spend a lot of time with people who were speaking Spanish to her.
She spent a lot of time with English speakers and she didn’t put in the necessary effort to actually learn and it wasn’t you.
goal I don’t think.
So I think it’s pretty obvious.
If you go to another country and you don’t have the motivation to learn
you don’t take the necessary steps to learn and you just don’t even pay attention to the language that’s you you’re not going to learn.
We’re not sponges.
We don’t just absorb everything and then suddenly it’s inside us.
That’s an idea that people have about language learning that is definitely not true.
Okay if you’re not intentionally the thing making the effort doing what you need to do we are not sponges like that
especially as adults okay?
So one example of a person.
And then I remember a friend I had who he was going to live in Mexico for like two years.
years he knew he was going to go back to the U.S. but he didn’t really have the goal
of learning a lot of Spanish and by the end of those couple of years he to He couldn’t speak any Spanish.
He have the ability to say sentences or have a conversation with someone after two years of living there.
And I remember one other friend who was married.
She was married to a Mexican.
Okay?
And she had lived in Mexico for years.
And she at least had some Spanish but she could not have a long conversation in Spanish.
She probably couldn’t even have a short conversation in Spanish.
She could probably more or less communicate and avoid.
way.
And that was the extent of her abilities.
And I thought you’re married to a Mexican.
You live in Mexico.
How is it that you’re not learning this language?
talking to her and I think that she was answering a question.
I think we were in a group and someone had asked her like about maybe taking Spanish classes to
improve her Spanish and she said something like I just want to learn naturally.
I’m just gonna absorb as I go.
I’m just gonna acquire Spanish you know just in a natural way living my life here.
And I thought you’ve already lived here for multiple years.
You’re married to a Mexican and you still barely speak any Spanish.
Like this obviously isn’t working.
So why am I talking about all of this?
Why am I giving these examples?
Well it’s to show you that whether or not you live in the country that speaks that language doesn’t really matter if that’s the only factor.
If it’s just I’m going to do the same thing here.
Let’s pretend I live in Mexico and I say
okay I’ll do the same thing here but I’m going to live in the US and then absorb all the English.
it doesn’t work like that.
So what’s the problem?
Well people overestimate how much language that they’re absorbing.
People tend to think of themselves as sponges and I can just go and live in another country I’ll absorb the language.
But the problem is that when you’re living in another country
many people aren’t really doing things differently from how they would do them in their own country.
So if people from the US move to Mexico But they have their same life that they live in the US.
They work using their computer
they work remotely
they have their team in the US that they’re in the They
I don’t know have friends that they’re still interacting with in the U.S.
or maybe they have friends in Mexico
but those friends have to speak English to you because you don’t speak Spanish or whatever
and you just live your normal routine you’re actually not getting a lot of Spanish in that case right?
Because you’re not spending your day interacting in Spanish with people around you.
Very few people do that when they move to another country.
I’ve lived in another country.
I’ve met many people that have moved and lived in a and very few people do this.
Okay that’s just not how people normally act when they move abroad.
They don’t just move now they just surround themselves all day with people who are speaking Spanish
to them or sorry whatever language that they’re learning and then they’re
speaking to them that’s not a very big percentage of your day okay so
people overestimate how much they’re absorbing and they overestimate how much of that
language they’re even hearing right when I lived in
Mexico I was able to live a large part of my life there without even really talking to people in Spanish okay?
Because know if you work from home you spend many hours at home you’re not spending your day with that language.
Does that make sense?
So in the same goes for people who live in the US so Mexicans who come and live here for example right?
There are millions of people in the US that don’t speak English even though they’ve lived here for years.
Even decades there are many people that have lived here for 20 years 30 years 40 years and don’t speak English.
That’s just not going to happen by putting yourself in a country that speaks English.
There’s nothing automatic about it.
Now let’s talk about learning from where you are right now whatever country you’re
living in
whatever city you’re in right now
what can you do to learn without coming to the US and how can you learn even Okay
because sometimes you learn even better if you don’t come and one way to do this is
Immersing yourself with the language and you might think well but I’m still in my country How do I immerse myself?
Well it’s easy because if you have access to the internet And if you have books you can immerse yourself very easily in English okay?
For example I’m learning French and learning French is not my ultimate goal in life.
It’s not my number one priority.
you know throughout my day.
It’s below a lot of other priorities.
However I’m still able to do hours of French practice every day.
Not actively the whole time but Okay?
Because we have our phones we have our computers we podcasts YouTube videos books articles things like that right?
So you can immerse yourself without going to another country.
You can constantly have a podcast playing in the background for example right?
While you’re doing other things you hear this podcast in the background and sometimes you’re paying attention and sometimes you’re not but it doesn’t matter.
The immersion is there right?
Because if you go to another country
and you’re just expecting the English to just come and arrive here
you’re probably overestimating how much English you’re hearing
because like You’re probably working
or you’re doing some type of study
some course
so you’re spending many hours just isolated or with your computer
and then afterwards you’re not going out and then just you know interacting with English speakers for the next six hours.
That’s probably not going to happen right?
wherever you are you can just use podcasts and videos and books and things like that.
And you can get tons of immersion tons of exposure to English wherever you are right?
I’ve probably listened to hundreds
many hundreds of hours of French over
I don’t know how long
but I’ve probably listened to many hundreds of hours of in my recent year
last couple of years
or I don’t know
maybe the last year
let’s say I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of French without needing to listen to people in France without needing to live in that country.
Does that make sense?
It’s logical if you just think about it like that.
You don’t need to be there physically to hear all of that French for example.
You can be at your house in your own country.
So the immersion is easy.
You can just have English playing in the background all day if you want.
When you’re taking a shower when you’re getting ready for bed you’re just hearing English just all day.
That’s pretty easy to replicate if you have Wi-Fi right?
So there’s your immersion.
And then you might say well how about speaking?
Because that’s just listening or reading or whatever.
Well with speaking I already said when you go to another country and you live in another country you’re not
going to be speaking that language as much as you think.
Trust me I’ve had so many students throughout the years that live in the United States they live here.
here and they would still take classes with me every week or twice a week or three times a week.
And I would say you’re living in the U.S. why do you need to take classes with me?
You’re already in the U.S.
there are English What’s the deal?"
And would say well I actually don’t really speak a lot of English in my everyday life even though I live in the U.S.
And I’ve heard that so many times.
I’m not exaggerating.
I’ve heard that so many times.
And that’s what happens when you go to another one.
You go with the idea that you’re going to be speaking so much of that language and usually it doesn’t happen like that.
You don’t have a routine and a lifestyle that just makes you talk all day in that other language.
Usually there are some cases where that happens but that’s not usually what happens.
And so you’re not speaking that much even if you’re in that country.
Unlike unlike unlike like me me like me me me me You like marry someone from that country like me.
That’s different.
But most of you aren’t going to get married to an English speaker okay?
So that’s a different case.
But in a normal situation you’re not going to be speaking as much English as you think you will be.
So what can you do from home?
Well you can take conversation classes on online.
This is great.
This is an amazing time period for language learners.
You just go open your computer schedule classes with native speakers and talk to them.
This is what I do.
Okay.
Right now I’m learning French like I said.
I started speaking regularly
five or six weeks ago I think and during that time period I’ve been talking two or
three times a week to a different French or Belgian person in completely in
French and we have conversations and I do this right here right where I’m
sitting right now and it’s super easy it’s really
And I’m doing consistent French speaking practice for the first time in my life because I’m just making the effort to take conversation classes.
So I highly recommend that you do this for English okay?
Use a website for example like Italki.com.
I always recommend this website.
And take classes with native speakers and do it twice a week if you can.
And try.
to keep a consistent rhythm with that.
And yeah maybe you’re not speaking quite as much as you would be if you lived in the US for example.
But in all honesty
in most people’s They’re really not going to be talking a lot when they move here unless they marry someone from here okay?
So yeah
you probably won’t be able to talk as much even with those conversation classes
but still it’s not going to be that big of a difference Again unless you have some case different situation okay.
But I’m just talking from my experience
you know people have this idea that they move to another country like someone is going to move to Mexico.
Mexico and they’re going to just be talking Spanish all day to the lady who’s selling
tortillas and the cashier and the waiter and that might be true.
But when you really total up the number or the amount of time that you spend talking to these people
the mailman or whoever you see when you just do your it’s very little speaking.
Okay like here in the U.S.
not counting my I speak very little to strangers here.
And I speak the language here so it’s easy for me.
I speak very little like maximum like four or five minutes a day in my daily routine.
That’s like the maximum that I spend talking to cashiers and waiters and workers and the person at the gas station and
you know neighbors like that just isn’t a very big part of my day.
Okay.
So in reality
if you do three conversation classes a week from where you are
you’re probably talking almost as much as you with a normal routine in the U.S.
Like there’s probably not that big of a difference okay?
Because least with conversation classes you’re forcing yourself to speak like 30 minutes right now or an hour tomorrow.
And that’s a good amount of speaking time.
So take conversation classes make friends even with the tutors that you’re talking to up talking just for fun with them.
There are a lot of ways that you can connect with native speakers.
talk to them right?
Okay.
Before we get to the end of the video
I want to talk about the one very big advantage of living in the country that speaks that language.
And that is that you will learn specific vocabulary specific phrases and expressions.
arise they appear because of situations that you are physically in like your body is there you’re interacting in that situation.
Not like me talking to someone you know having a conversation class and that person is in another country right?
I’m talking about like you are standing there with the person.
You have some physical environment around you too.
A lot of vocabulary and phrases and expressions arise from this type of physical situation.
Like here’s a good example.
In Mexico there are these…
that will stand in the streets where there is street parking and they will kind of like
help you park your car and watch your car for you to keep it safe and then you give them a little money.
It’s not a formal job.
but people just kind of do it to make money right?
If you’re from Mexico you know exactly what I’m talking about.
So this is something that is not from Mexico or doesn’t live in Mexico has zero idea about okay.
So the first time you go and you’re in Mexico driving and you want to park your car
and this person starts saying things to you and starts helping you park your car and giving you instructions.
there are going to be some phrases some words that this person uses that you’re probably never going to hear in any other situation right?
Talking that specific movement of turning your wheel to get into the space and going more and then stopping.
These are physical instructions that someone will probably never give you unless you live in the country and you’re
parking your car there by the curb.
You talking to your English tutor in a conversation class
you’re probably never going to even think about this type of vocabulary and this physical situation.
And if you do the same words won’t come out of that conversation as when you’re physically there doing that.
So I use this example because sometimes I go to Mexico with Mexican Americans
friends I have here who are native Spanish speakers they grew up speaking Spanish but they’ve never lived in Mexico.
So they only speak Spanish like to their parents okay?
And I’ll take them down to Mexico.
And in situations like this might not even understand what this person is telling them right?
Because they’ve never been in that situation before where someone is helping them park their car
and telling them to stop because another car is coming.
Like they never hear these types of like phrases and slang that is used by these people that are helping you park your car.
heard that before.
And though these friends of mine are native speakers they have never lived in that physical environment in Mexico.
So there are certain phrases and expressions that they just don’t know and I have to teach them
Even though I’m not a native Spanish speaker.
It’s pretty crazy right?
I teach a lot of phrases words expressions to my native Spanish speaking
friends who have never lived in Mexico before and so that kind of shows you that there is
a certain advantage of
living in the physical environment because certain vocabulary will be learned from having those physical situations of you being there and interacting with the environment around you.
Does that make sense?
So that’s something that you will If you don’t live in the country but in all honesty that’s not the most important thing.
That’s something you can learn in the future when you travel to the U.S.
or whatever.
You can learn that.
that as you go.
But it is something that you probably won’t be exposed to until you have that physical situation.
Okay so I did want to mention that because I think it’s something really interesting that most people never think of.
But I think of it all the time because every time I go to Mexico with my Mexican-American friend.
friends they’re like lost like they don’t understand a lot and I’m like having to describe
and help them understand certain expressions and things like that they just never learned because they’ve never physically been in this environment.
Okay?
Alright I this was interesting for you and I hope it uh in
To know that you can learn English from from wherever you are okay?
You need to come and live in the US All right
and remember like I mentioned before if you want help improving your pronunciation If you want to sound more like a native speaker then remember to sign up for my membership and become a listening time
super member family member and you’ll get my pronunciation training.
And I know that it’ll be really helpful for you.
People really like it when they try it out for the first time.
So the link is down below if you wanna sign up for that.
And thank you so much for watching this video and I’ll talk to you in next