When someone asks me my top moving abroad tips, my answers typically involve schooling, financial packages, and which language you would have to learn (if any). You really should at least attempt to learn the lingo wherever you end up. It’s not just a question of getting by, it’s about quality of life whilst you live somewhere, and your confidence too.
Granted that it’s not always easy, even more so in countries where the language can be sooo difficult to pronounce and where the people take one look at you in your attempt, smile sweetly and answer you in perfect (usually accent-less) English (yes Denmark I am looking at you)…
Whilst this made it all quite effortless for me to “survive” in my first country abroad, our small people were exposed to a lot more Danish thanks to school, and can still remember a fair bit. Yes, a lot of it seems to involve their favourite Dansk foods, but I am happy at least they won’t starve if everyone suddenly refused to speak English there (even though their teeth might fall out of their heads eventually, it seems to be all sweet stuff!)!
Fast forward to a couple of years later, when Mr R (the only person in our family who had succeeded in learning a decent amount of Danish!), suddenly announced he had a new job in a new country with yet another new language! Only this time, the population in the part of Germany we now lived in didn’t speak much English at all, or if they did, they weren’t about to let us know…
Whilst my children quickly began to overtake me in their Deutsche lernen (they must learn several hours of German a week by law at school), there was nothing for it but for me to head to the local Volkkschule for a few classes. The upside to this (despite never having envisioned finding myself in this kind of classroom environment again), was that apart from expanding my grey matter, it helped expand my social circle too. It also provided many a belly laugh at some of the role plays and odd translations that we came up with during the lessons. One of my favourites involved us acting out “einkaufen” (shopping) scenarios. My friend Linda was the shop assistant, and I was on the lookout for a winter coat. I thought we did pretty well struggling through which colour I wanted (Schwarz), which style (warm – same word just said differently!) and whether I would be wearing it in the snow (it was Bavaria, stupid question!) – right up until I asked to buy a particular coat, and she shouted back in broad Liverpudlian “not without trying it on your not”. Still makes me laugh now…
Anyway, a polyglot I’m most definitely not, but I was adamant that we would all continue to learn German once we moved back to the UK. It would be a huge waste of time to just suddenly give up learning a language we had once slaved over in order to experience a more integrated life in Bavaria. Plus it’s great for our return visits and is a kind of insurance policy in case we end up living there again one day. It’s also great for the small people to have another language for whatever they choose to do in the future. To just forget it all would just be really sad (children can learn new languages quickly, but it’s just as easy for them to forget if they don’t continue!)…
And so, whilst we have a lovely tutor who comes to the house to help my older two get their GCSE’s out of the way early, I still watch a lot of German TV (with subtitles – it’s one of the best ways to learn!). We also use brilliant sites and apps such as LanguageTrainers (really helpful thanks to the native tutor aspect), Duolingo and Babbel.
It’s not just the fact that I think it would be a shame not to continue, learning a second language has been proven to be good for memory, for critical thinking, concentration and problem solving, and quite frankly I need all the help I can get in nearly all of those departments.
And whilst they might not always be over the moon about the extra lessons I force upon them, having read in the news that German has now overtaken French as the employers language of choice (apparently vacancies specifying German Language Skills have increased by a tenth in the past three years…), my children may well thank me one day…
As for me, my shopping German is especially good, and if you need a new coat I’m definitely your girl…
I could not agree with you more! Language skills are key and learning another language is always a good thing xx
Thanks Melanie! (:
I loved learning new languages at school. In juniors I did German and remember some basic words now, high school was french and I did a year at uni learning Spanish. I never stuck with it though which was a shame. I do want my daughter to learn a language as it’s such a good skill to have. Love your story with your friend and the coat try on!
Thanks Kirsty. We did have a laugh in our lessons! :D x
In the job I do we work in a team that covers loads of different languages and I really wish I had more knowledge of some languages but it’s finding the time to learn. Good luck with your German x
Thanks Rhian! :) x
Languages are so important and I think we are terribly lazy about trying to learn new ones here in the UK.
I think we can be, until we absolutely need to learn them! :D Thanks Jenny! :)
I totally agree with this – why start to learn something and then give up when you move back home? Doesn’t make any sense! Those sites and apps sound like great resources.
Thanks Rebecca, it would be such a shame wouldn’t it?
It is amazing how much better than us other countries are at learning to speak other languages. Sadly I can only speak English, I did do German and French at school, but I struggled badly thanks to a mix match time with moving schools and my dyslexia.
I think we have an advantage with English being our native language in that we don’t always need to learn anything else! Thanks Sarah! :)
I started trying to learn Romanian at the end of last year (My husband is originally from Moldova and the language is close) however, I keep forgetting to get back into it!
I would love to learn something like Romanian. Go for it! Thanks Micaela!
I learnt French while I was in school and have always regretted not carrying it on past my GCSEs. I can still recognise the odd word/sentence but would love to take proper lessons to pick it back up again.
My sister lived in Barcelona for a year and learnt conversational Catalan (and the odd word in Spanish). I know she used Duolingo and really rated it!
It’s never too late to take it up again! These apps really really help too! Thanks Samantha!
speaking another language is so amazing, and I’m in awe of people that can. I like that you will watch some shows in German – that is a really great idea. My brother lived in the French speaking Caribbean area for a couple of years, and now luckily uses French in his job
Thanks Rebecca. That’s great that your brother could continue with French too! :)
And that’s one almost guaranteed A grade in GCSE for both your older children. My daughter has a very good friend who emigrated to Canada last year. A few times a month they face chat and I wondered how long before the friend’s English became good enough for them to switch languages. But then I realized that she gets valuable practice in keeping up her Hebrew during these phone calls so it’s better not to switch.
Thanks so much! Here’s hoping! :D