With rapid globalization and varying competitive advantages of universities around the world, a growing number of students are choosing to study abroad.

Away from family and far from home, you might feel like an alien among people with different cultural traits, habits, and lifestyles. Not speaking the domestic tongue will only exacerbate those differences and further distance you from the natives and their way of life.

A language barrier will be a problem and a hindering nuisance every step of the way and will severely compromise your overall foreign experience. To establish a comfort zone in a new environment and sync with the locals, you will need to quickly get up to speed on the basics of a local language and find ways to communicate effectively with the people around you.

To help you achieve this, here are a few language tips for students headed for foreign universities.

Live outside the box

Unwilling to venture outside their cozy comfort zone and expose themselves to the new and unknown, many foreign-bound students try to share a flat or a dorm room with someone they have a language in common with. But living and studying abroad is all about subjecting yourself to new experiences and personal growth.

Awkward and uncomfortable as it may be at first, opting to live with a native(s) is a much better option for cultural immersion and personal growth. It is a widely agreed-upon fact that sustained native experience is by far the most effective way of learning a language, in stark contrast with the dry, formal, and clinical process of learning from papers.

Foreign language aside, mastering your own native language to a high degree is hard and rare enough. Average people are fluent in the basic and casual use of their language but are usually ill-equipped to produce high-level written work efficiently and with quality.

When you feel like the requirements of your assignment are above your pay grade, trust Writing Universe to compensate for the difference between your and required skills and provide winning essays for any academic needs.

Language apps

Learning or at least sneaking a peak into a new language doesn’t have to be a long-term, arduous journey and a full-time commitment.

Apps typified by the likes of Duolingo are fun with productivity and offer a much more laid back, yet potentially as, if not more effective, way of learning a language. Not an unimportant factor for a struggling student, they are completely free too, adding to their convenience.

We spend our modern lives staring at gadget displays anyway, so instead of mentally idling or ever degrading while consuming an endless stream of social media junk, think about diverting some of that screen time to doing something useful.

These apps also usually offer a lot of positive reinforcement, like giving you daily challenges, goals, and achievement bonuses.

As technology continues to bridge gaps in global communication, there’s a rising trend in language education through online platforms that connect learners with individual, native-speaking teachers, particularly for Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

For example, platforms offering private Japanese teaching cater to those who seek a more personalized learning experience. These sessions with native speakers not only enhance pronunciation and conversational skills but also provide cultural insights that are crucial for truly understanding and mastering a language.

Learning communication basics is one thing, but writing skills take much longer to develop to adequate competency levels. If you need to translate a text with quality and nuance, you can rest easy knowing best translation services have your back. Ensuring you are dealing with a truly high-level and trustworthy translation service is especially important, as you can’t check the quality of work by yourself.

Befriend Natives

Although going against the natural instinct of sticking with your own in an unfamiliar region, making new friends among the locals is a much better option for assimilating with a foreign culture. Being in close contact with native speakers will have you automatically pick up language cues without spending much conscious effort. As a result, you will shortcut your way to language competency and expand your network of friends to international levels. Forming friendships within the native student population is no doubt among the best advice for students planning on studying abroad. What’s the point of placing yourself in a new environment if you are going to cling to the one you left and shy away from opening up to new experiences?

So when studying in a foreign country, never cocoon yourself in a safe sub-population of English speakers and spend too much time video calling your friends back home. Instead, try to expand your circle of friends with some fresh foreign blood and subject yourself to the local way of life. More on that up next.

Engage in Local Activities

We are a product of our habits. People are naturally conservative and resistant to change. Stubbornly clinging to your established lifestyle will keep you out of touch and isolated.

So, instead of bringing your daily habits, leisure activities, and an established routine along for the ride, try to engage in the local way of life. Find out what people in the region like to do for fun and go along. Languages are intertwined with the mentality and lifestyle of their beholders, so altering your lifestyle to fit the local ways better can have a profound effect on your language acquisition.

Final thoughts

New languages are about much more than making alternative noises when referring to things. Languages reflect the qualities of societies they stem from, providing a window into another culture and widening your perspective, which can be a deeply spiritual and enriching experience. So learning a language is not just about raising employability and facilitating communication with the locals, but also, and much more, about becoming a more refined and complete human being.