Yesterday, I linked to Flavia Lozano’s blog, which is about Flavia’s experience studying abroad in Italy. As I said in my comment yesterday, I’ve always been interested in traveling to different parts of the world. Getting to see a glimpse of what is out there is very inspiring.
I am currently studying French as a freshmen in college, but would love to get the opportunity to travel to France and actually experience the language rather than learn the language.
As Flavia expresses in her most recent blog post, living in Italy has been quite the experience for her. To her surprise, the Italians actually speak English, and quite often respond in English. Yet what she says at the end is what’s important.
If your plan is to actually learn italian, my only tip is: get away from the Americans. Or the Brazilians. Or the people that come from your country. Immerse yourself in this new culture and absorb every bit of it, you’ll be an almost-native in no time (because, let’s get real, you’ll never dress as well as an Italian).
This speaks volumes to me, because I have a genuine interest in the French language and culture, but have only learned it from an American perspective. I often find myself thinking “man, it must be difficult for French people to learn French,” only to realize that it’s their native language, and they don’t actually have to think about what they’re saying.
Immersing myself in their culture and learning their language would provide so much greater opportunities than what I have now in America. My French teacher is great (she lived in French for a few years and can attest to the differences) but I still want to experience the French language for myself. Don’t forget the culture, too.
For now, I can learn about Italy, their language and culture through the eyes of Flavia and her blog, but getting the chance to actually experience it would be amazing. If you share the same interest that I do, I would certainly give her blog a follow, and do whatever you can to experience a new language, rather than learn it. Hopefully someday I can too.
All-Pro Sports Talk 
Hey Tyler! I’m so glad you could relate to my blog, it’s really important to me to see that I’m actually reaching people and not writing to myself! As I said before, make every effort to go to France and explore it. You’ll learn not only the language, but the culture, live several new experiences and learn so much about yourself and your strengths as well. Hope you can make that dream come true soon! Let me know if you ever come to Europe, and I hope you keep reading my posts. Let me know if I can help you out with anything!
LikeLike
Thank you so much! Hopefully an opportunity will arise that brings me to Europe. I certainly won’t stop trying to get there!
LikeLike
It’s my goal to be able to study abroad for my bachelors or masters degree. I would love nothing more than to live at least a part of my life in Europe or South Korea. I’m currently trying to make connections to Scandinavian colleges and can’t wait to get the opportunity to experience all that can be experienced before I can no longer move. Too many people create dreams without achieving them, but to me, travelling is more than a dream. It’s something I have to make a reality.
LikeLike
Wow, that is awesome! South Korea would be a really neat place to visit. Hope you are able to find those connections. Good luck!
LikeLike
Being able to see many parts of the world through other people’s eyes is one thing that I also like about blogging. I like it so much that I am always on the lookout for people blogging from the weirdest and most faraway places. Hope you’ll get to learn French in France one day – it’s a beautiful country with amazing food.
LikeLike
Thanks for reading!
LikeLike
I studied French from 8th grade onward (back before we had French Immersion schools), and loved it. I majored in French at uni (but never finished the degree), too. But even though I live in Canada and all our labels are bilingual, I live in the least French part of Canada: British Columbia. Foreign languages are something that you have to use, or you lose them, and I get very little opportunity to speak French out here. We were recently on holiday in the Maritimes, though, and there’s plenty of French spoken back there. All their road signs are bilingual. Depending where you are in the US, you could be closer to French speakers than you think; Quebec is where most of them are (and their accent is very different from the Parisian accent you’re probably learning), but there are francophone populations in Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia (where the Acadians are from), and Newfoundland.
But yes, no substitute for living in the culture, whatever the language.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Canada is easily my second favorite country, after the USA, of course. Seems like a neat place to visit. I have a friend that travels there every summer (in like, the middle part of Canada, just above Minnesota, so maybe Ontario or Manitoba region. Thank you for reading and commenting!
LikeLike
P.S., nice use of the “read more” tag!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice post. I’ve been to Germany and the German’s would respond in English. Interesting.
LikeLike
Thanks for the read and comment!
LikeLike