Hello everyone

You are going to get some useful/effective tips on how to make a strategic decision on taking a foreign language course. This is important step before moving into the integration. Furthermore, I will be giving you some practical hints on how you can easily integrate into a social community in a foreign country.

Guys, I have the belief that most people in the world speak English. However, being able to speak English so fluently, people have to make serious efforts. So assume that you wish to have a good level of English or any foreign language but you only learn it for 2-3 hours per week at school. Of course this is impossible unless you’re superb genius individual. Therefore, you will need to find the best, the most economic language learning center in your area. Now I let you think of where you are living and where you wanna enroll in say English or French course.

And let’s say once your English proficiency is at an advanced level or your English level is more likely close to a native English speaker then you will probably like to learn other foreign languages. But again it depends on your objective and motivation. 

Some time ago, I learnt German for two semesters in the course of my bachelor programme. I finished at A2 level and to be honest I enjoyed learning German. It’s fun. And before learning German I took some French lessons. My level was between A2 and B1. Due to the fact that I was so busy with my academics assignments I had to procrastinate my intention to learn French. 

So in fact, I wanted to continue on learning German. However, I had to reconsider the advantages and disadvantages so that I can make a strategic decision on these two options – German or French.

So what I did was that I conducted some research and found an article from the local Europe online newspaper, that pinpointed that French language was the fifth most spoken language after Mandarin, English, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi. And French has been the official language in 32 countries this means that approximately over 270 millions people in the world speak French. The projection of people that is about to speak French would be more than 750 million people in 2060.  

So I’m thinking of having an international business in the future or I’ve the chance to work in the international organization, French would be the most feasible language to learn. And therefore I’ve decided to improve my French. Now let me give you some tips how to make a strategic decision on learning a foreign language and in this case is French. 

If you are sure with your level then proceed the following steps, otherwise you can take the placement test at the school you aim for and then follow these tips: I suggest that you use spreadsheet so that you can make a benchmark:

Most private schools/institutions allow you to give it a try and in most cases you are invited to join in one of the classes that corresponds to your level. This allows you to get some impression like how you find the course, teacher, potential classmates, etc. 

I myself collected four institutions, they’re all very good. Some are more expensive than the others, timetable issues, durations of the course per meeting is different from one to another, etc. So finally, after having a free trial course for 3 hours at Ecole de Langue Française et d’Informatique (ELFI) I met and had a discussion with the secretary. I told her that I’d send her an email to confirm whether or not I take the course at ELFI. 

1. Look for the language school that offer specifically French language or any language you want to learn for example. Make an appointment with the secretary, adm. staff or just walk-in and if it’s necessary you can discover the school. Then…
   
2. Define the location – how far it’s from your place or from where you live, how to get there for example; using your bike, on foot, or if you take a public transport consider about this additional cost in your budget.
   
3. Ask about the price per level say you’re beginner or intermediate depending on your placement test result, does the price include the registration fee and how much it is. 
   
4. Ask about the price of the learning material if the schools sell it, if not then ask about which book store you can go and buy.
   
5. Ask about the timetable whether the course is offered in working days, morning or afternoon, or evening. Also make sure that you select the schedule that fits you.
   
6. Get yourself informed about the duration per meeting. You know that some schools offer 1 to 3 hours per meeting. Semi and full intensive course. 
   
7. Find the reviews of the language schools that you have collected, like what kind of comments, recommendations they obtained from their former students, in review you can see how many stars they have. You can do this through using your social media, google review, or ask people in the forum for instance.
   
8. Compare them and consider wisely before opting for the best language school. Good luck !!

You know that learning a foreign language at school will never be sufficient to boost your language skills, this happens because of time constraint. So what I am doing apart from learning French at ELFI is that I’m following some online tutorials from YouTube and subscribing to the channels. One of the youtube channels that I like most is Français Authentique. Johan the pioneer, has also created an Apps called Français Authentique that you guys can download from google play (I am using android) but it is applicable to apple store and install it on your smartphone. Aujourd’hui mon niveau c’est B2.

J’ai apris le Français chez ELFI pendant plus d’une année, je crois. Du lundi au vendredi, 3 heures  par jour. Et maintenant je suis a’laisse pour parler français avec tout le monde. Grace à mes enseignantes Justine, Julienne, Maurice, Laurenne, mes camarades, ami(e)s, et bien sûr Monsieur Johan de la chaîne YouTube – Français Authentique. Mon but est d’améliorer mon français et d’obtenir le DALF ou C1 pour que j’aie une valeur ajoutée à mon CV ou j’aie plus compétences par rapport aux autres.

Look at the video that I put it on my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/6mTwoPDPF2c

Now let me ask you this question: How many of you have ever lived in other cities within your home countries or in certain foreign countries?

Well, I am sure that some have and don’t have experience in living in other cities/ other nations. Let me give you an example of myself: When I was in Indonesia, I used to live in different cities, either in the island of Java such as in East Java, central java., or Bali island for a couple of years. 

Speaking of integration into communities in other cities within the countries. I certainly have no big issues to deal with. You know why? it’s because I’m Indonesian and Indonesia has one single national language – the so called Bahasa Indonesia. Nevertheless, if I wanted to be more welcome by the local community in Bali for example then I needed to learn the Balinese language. Like the other tribes in Indonesia, Javanese, Sundanese, Papuanese, etc. The Balinese people prefer using their native language to Indonesian language on their daily basis. 

Now, perhaps you might want to know about how many native languages which are spoken in Indonesia. Well, more than 700 native languages are used in Indonesian archipelago. Fortunately, we have one unified national language otherwise you can’t imagine how polyglot we would be. Lol.

The very intriguing part is about integrating oneself into a social community abroad!! Let me take myself for example as an expat in Switzerland, As a student, I don’t find difficulties in engaging myself with the other scholars because they all speak, write English fluently. However, living as a student isn’t literally encircled by students’ community. I need to engage with other communities. The local communities in Switzerland are similar to the societal communities in Indonesia where they prefer using their own native languages to English such as German, French, Italian and Romansch – these four are the native languages in CH. 

To communicate nicely with the local communities in Switzerland, I took some language classes for instance when I studied and lived in the German speaking cantons – Olten and Basel, and currently I am brushing up my French since I live and study in the French speaking canton that is Geneva. Does this help integrating myself into a social community? Of course yes!! 

By the way, do you know what drive people to leave for other cities/countries? If you want to contribute to this topic then you’re welcome to comment – telling me about the drivers. To me, there are many factors that bring people to move from one to other places for example your parents are assigned by the company/organization they’re working at to run the business, or simply you reside to other cities/countries for the purpose of your studies. 

Well… if one of you guys have never moved / lived in to other cities or other countries. So you don’t have to struggle with the communication as everyone in your new city/country understands the language you’re using. 

But consider yourself – residing in a country where the language is completely different from your mother tongue. Don’t you think that learning a foreign language is important and useful? It is definitively important and useful. Is it enough to speak only a certain foreign language? No, I don’t think it’s enough. 

So learning a new foreign language based on the country you’re about to live in is recommended because it’s going to be quite practical instrument to integrate yourself into a social community. I realize that learning a new language may take some time. But let me assure you that it depends on your objective and motivation. If you have clear objective and are really motivated, then you’ll find the way to make significant progress more rapidly. 

Even though you speak the native languages but often you feel unconfident to integrate yourself into a social community for some reasons. Anyway, you don’t want to be bored so here I share with you some hints on how you can start integrating into a social community in the new city of a particular foreign country?

1. Find and Join in the Sport Clubs (e.g. Badminton, Indoor/Outdoor Football, Pingpong, Martial Arts, etc.) and you can use meetup apps.
2. Become Volunteer in one of the social activities -> humanitarian acts (e.g. to the needy, charity, etc.) and you can go to glocals or expat community in your area.
3. Join in the student’s activities at university (e.g. indoor volleyball, hockey, etc.)
4. Go to library, Bar, Pub, etc. (e.g. Public, municipal library, cafés, etc.)

So let me know what you think whether or not learning a foreign language is useful to integrate yourself into a social community. You can write your comment down below.

See you again in the next topic.
Thanks a lot for reading.