Are you planning to go abroad to learn English? Or are you even now in another country striving to learn English? Whether you are planning or currently living in another country, it is always good to know some tips about learning English effectively. Today, I like to share with you 10 tips for learning English abroad so that you can improve your English faster.
Here we go.
Tip 1. Do not study English, but learn English
The biggest difference between studying English and learning English is whether or not it involves practicing with sound, which means listening and speaking in English.
You didn't really have to speak English in English classes in Korea, and you were exposed to English listening for a limited amount of time for listening tests.
If you're in an English-speaking country, you need to learn English not only with learning materials, but also with other native folks or foreign friends.
Studying with a grammar book or a vocabulary book can be an important part of the learning process, but it must not be something that takes most of your time and energy.
Tip 2. Do not try to memorize difficult words that you wouldn't use often.
You're often tempted to learn difficult words from news articles or English books as you believe it helps you get to the next level of your English proficiency.
However, without understanding of easy and daily-used words, those difficult words can likely be useless since you don't know how to use them.
Easy words that you need to learn first can be the ones from your textbooks, easy-to-read English books or even school children books.
Sometimes, you run into some difficult words attending English classes there. You don't have to skip them. Just do not spend too much time on it.
Tip 3. Practice speaking in English as much as you can.
Never believe that words will come out of your mouth all of a sudden as you keep listening and reading. Even if it happens, it occurs very little and is not worth your effort.
When you try to speak, your brain starts training and learning the process of picking out words and choosing a proper sentence structure.
Getting used to this process takes your brain quite a while and requires you to have persistence.
Tip 4. Prepare enough before you leave Korea.
When you start learning English, you need some time to get familiar with English sounds and, not to mention, to memorize some basic words and expressions. If you didn't spend some time for this in Korea, you cannot avoid spending that amount of time in the foreign country. It is important to take full advantage of the benefits the expensive environment gives to you.
It is like you start a sprint 10~20 meters behind someone who prepared more in Korea.
Tip 5. Do not hang out with Korean friends too often.
I am sure that the time period you live in another country would be one of the most memorable times in your life. You can make great Korean friends there and share useful information about how to live and learn English. But think again why you are there spending a huge amount of money.
It is so sweet to meet your friends when you're really busy and don't have enough time. While you're there, you should try to feel the same. After having an uncomfortable time with local folks, you will really enjoy hanging out with Korean friends once in a while.
Tip 6. Write your journal in English as often as you can.
Writing is not something for everybody. Even if it's in the Korean language, some don't like it.
But the thing is, your ability to utilize English writing reflects your ability of speaking. If you cannot write your thought in English, you would never be able to say it. It is not that difficult to understand why it is so. When we write, we have more time to think than we speak. We should make fewer mistakes and use more words that don't really pop up when we speak.
Except for some words, most of the words we first learn are stored in our brain as passively-used words, which means you can understand them when you see or hear them, but cannot say them out of your mouth.
Writing can help your passive words turn into active words.
Tip 7. Explore the country not only with excitement, but also with intention.
Going somewhere over the weekend would be a great opportunity to have fun, experience the culture and test your English with local folks as well. But with no intention, you may not have the most productive time while traveling.
Before leaving, you can have a meeting with your travel buddies and talk about details for the trip. Of course, you should be talking in English. It would be also helpful to learn about the destination and attractions by reading information online.
Another thing to do is learn vocabularies related to renting a car, reserving a hotel room and buying an attraction ticket.
In addition, you guys can come up with a mission demanding a little challenge, for fun and a memorable learning experience. How about asking a few fun questions to local people to get answers? Or how about asking them to tell you one historical event that happened in that area that they know about?
You can think of tons of creative ideas that would give you a fun and learning experience.
Tip 8. Be aware of the importance of English pronunciation.
Some of your English teachers may be willing to correct your English pronunciation. However, since they know it's not a good idea to interrupt you every time you make an incorrect pronunciation, some of them will just let you keep going with your wrong pronunciation.
For some English learners, it might not be as important as improving other English skills such as listening, grammar or vocabulary, because they naturally pronounce English well enough to make native people understood. Unfortunately, Koreans are not in that group.
You don't have to invest a lot of time on it. Just 10~20 minutes of daily pronunciation practice would be enough for you to communicate your thoughts clearly.
Tip 9. Do not focus too much or too less on grammar.
Grammar is essential for English learners, especially Korean English learners. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to study grammar "for grammar". We've done it already in school. Instead, we should learn grammar rules for better speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Much like pronunciation practice, it would be wise to learn one or two grammar rules a day continually. If you still have any questions about the grammar rules you've learned, you will be welcome to ask your English teacher or your native neighbors. Another important thing is to try out the rules you learned in your conversation.
Tip 10. Do not keep up with all the things happening in Korea.
At certain times, you get to miss your family, friends and your country, Korea. The thing is that you asked for it and paid for it. You are supposed to miss people and things back in Korea. It's not a good idea to keep up with all the events happening in Korea to get away from the feeling of homesickness.
Whether it's six months or one year, you know you will go back to Korean at last.
You need to put yourself in a situation that not only makes you speak English all the time, but also to think in English all the time. Immersing yourself completely in that country will eventually make you love more what you have back in Korea.
Instead of Korean news, browse for local news spoken in English while you're there.
Effort First, Then Methods.
