Most young people see spending a gap year abroad as the ultimate freedom. While travelling is never a waste of time, if you give it a bit of structure it can end up being even more valuable. Use the trip to work on yourself and polish your language skills and don’t let the opportunity go to waste!
Personal Development
A lot of parents have concerns about their children travelling to a foreign country. However, if you explain that travelling is for personal improvement, it's unlikely they'll be able to say "no". If you want to keep their mind at ease, book a specialised course with a reputable institution in the country so that they'll know you're safe. There are a lot of programmes designed for foreign students who want to learn the language including accommodation and other activities.
Cultural Immersion
Culture is an important part of language and seeing a language as a group of words and rules is the wrong approach and can only get you so far. If you want to become truly fluent, you'll need to understand the native speakers and their backgrounds. Perhaps your language skills are close to perfection but your intonation is off. You'll never be able to express yourself well enough without the right tone of the voice, sense of humour, compassion, and irony. These finishing touches can only be learned when you get a feeling of the culture.
Learn Faster
The best way to learn a language is to be completely surrounded by it. Regardless of how many hours in a day you spend with it, if you don’t get to use it, you'll never be able to recognise what you're doing wrong and find ways of improving. Your brain will be faster in picking up new words and uses of certain grammatical forms. It's important that even if you're in a group with other foreign students learning the same language, find ways of interacting with the natives and don't just stick with the group!
Improve your Chances of Getting Residency
If you end up wanting to move to your new country, knowing the language is essential. Most countries in the world require you to speak the language before they grant you permanent residency. It's not uncommon for countries to prefer those who have studied the language and developed skills within the country. If we consider, Australia, for example, they have a set point system where English language skills play a significant role. If you attend a course such as IELTS in Sydney taught by native speakers, you'll have better chances at nailing it and getting the maximum points for the language.
Career Prospects
Speaking several languages has been revered since the ancient times. It is still so nowadays, and it is much preferred, often even required by employers. If they see on your CV that you have studied a certain language in the country where it is spoken natively, they will have little doubts about your communicational skills in that language. Also, it does provide an excellent explanation for the gap in your CV. While employers know that taking a gap year is quite common, they also like to know that it hasn’t been wasted.
Without a doubt, if you move to another country, it'll be like a whole new world. You'll have new opportunities for fun and exploration. First of all, you'll be able to travel.
You could also engage in new hobbies which aren’t widely available where you come from and develop new tastes with the local cuisine. You'll start enjoying all the little cultural differences.
Leila Dorari is a freelance writer and self-improvement enthusiast from Sydney. She is passionate about exploring the limits of self-growth through challenges and living a fulfilled life. In her spare time, she is either window shopping or hiking with her furry four-legged friend.