How to overcome the language barrier if you move to New York

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you don't know English at all, it will be difficult and scary at first. These tips will help you quickly adapt to a foreign language environment.

Six months before moving to the USA, I could not connect even two words. Today, after 9 months, I can maintain a conversation and understand the interlocutor. The situation is still difficult, but much better than in the first weeks, when every exit from the house was like landing on the moon.

Here is a quick guide on what to do if time is running out and you are still confusing as and ass.

1. Stop Panic

New York is a city of immigrants. No one will laugh at you or ignore you. The Americans will help, explain everything to you and bless you in the end.

Memorize 5-10 simple phrases that will come in handy in an emergency. Those that you will use if you get lost on the subway, on the street, want to eat, drink or feel bad. Memorize your home address and the phone number of the person you can call in case of force majeure.

2. Prepare in advance

Before boarding the plane and leaving for the United States, I had six months. During this time, I took lessons online twice a week. True, without constant practice, the information did not linger for a long time in the head. But this is better than sitting and waiting for knowledge to appear by itself. I can recommend Raymond Murphy's textbooks - they are a guiding star in the world of English grammar.

3. Attend training classes

A month after moving to New York, I enrolled in a free language school. If you look, there are a dozen of them in the city. Courses last two months, classes last six hours a day. The main idea is daily communication. With a teacher, classmates, volunteers. It helped a lot to overcome the conversational barrier. You immerse yourself in a friendly atmosphere, meet the same newcomers, and the fear goes away.

I am currently attending courses at Columbia University. Only two hours a day, convenient if you combine study with work.

By the way, conversational classes are also held daily in city libraries.

4. Forget about embarrassment

The more I spoke, the more I remembered. Have the courage to chat with all the strangers. Americans love small talks.

Russians are always waiting for some kind of trick, entering into such dialogues. It’s still unusual for me that anyone on the street or in the subway can have a casual conversation, as if you’ve known each other for ten years.

The first days in New York were remembered for an interesting meeting in a cafe. A couple of hippies in love came up to me, and a dialogue of my pathetic attempts and an inspiring stream of speech from people I see for the first time in my life ensued. In parting, they hugged me five times, wished me luck and success. This is how I realized how open society can be in New York.

5. Eliminate communication in Russian

Some people have lived in New York for 10-15 years but have never learned anything other than “London is the capital of Great Britain”. This is not a call to avoid Russians, but be careful. It's very easy to get into your native language funnel - simply because it's so comfortable.

Some of the Russian-speaking guys at my school were especially persistent. Due to the lack of friends here, they craved attention and sincere conversations. If words didn't help, I just sat down with the speakers of other languages in the group. Value your time, learn to separate communication and learning.

6. Visit bookstores more often

Choose a piece that will be of interest to you. Don't miss The Lord of the Rings. Take small books. I started with Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

Do you like magazines or comics? Read them. They will also help enrich your vocabulary. If it is very difficult, pay attention to children's literature or use Ilya Frank's reading method.

One chapter a day is one step to success.

7. Take time to write

If you have half an hour, spend it listening to a clip of the film, writing it down on paper. Listening to writing is like dictation at school. Then you can correct the mistakes and note what is easier and what is harder. Another way is to keep a diary and write down your day before bed.

I really liked our teacher's translation assignments. Take your favorite passage from Russian literature, translate it into English and write it down in a notebook.

8. Don't give up on entertainment

The key is to turn boring language learning into a game. I warn you right away, at parties it can be difficult to maintain dialogue due to loud chatter and music. However, one glass of wine helps to get even an introvert like me to talk. (This is not a call to drunkenness. If such a method is not part of the plans, see the next point.)

9. Use art

Often, special meetings are held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Museum of Modern Art. Of course, listening to a lecture on Picasso is not easy, but try to enjoy the complexity. Pay attention to what you are really interested in, tell your friends what you have learned.

Watch movies with subtitles, or better without them. Choose dynamic plots, revisit your favorite TV series in the original.

Go to the theater, start with children's performances. At school, the teacher took us to an experimental production of "The Metamorphosis" based on the novel of the same name by Franz Kafka. After the audience has seen part of the play, they can ask the actors to replay the scene again. The action does not last as long as in an ordinary theater - no more than two hours.

I also recommend Google Art Project - the largest online platform with detailed descriptions of art objects from more than 184 museums around the world.

10. Ask to correct your mistakes

It is very difficult to get Americans to play teacher. All with one voice will repeat about your excellent English, even if you speak it for the second day in your life.

Rest assured, the local population does not know all the grammar rules. Imagine my surprise when a teacher at the university - a graduate of the faculty of poetry, for a minute - a couple of times could not correctly write a word on the board.

Just remind friends or teachers occasionally to point out your language gaps. Their tips will improve your knowledge.

11. Use technology

There is a lot of content about slang and set expressions on YouTube. Write out phrases, individual words, use them in conversation.

Change the language on your devices, use translators and applications useful for language learning, make a general chat in the messenger to communicate in English with friends.

12. Communicate by phone

For a long time I was confident that this danger was over. But it was not there. If you do not use the call function, this does not mean that they will not call you. Do not give up this opportunity: step by step, call after call, the discomfort will disappear, you will have the opportunity to understand.

By the way, some American banks have a service where you can connect an interpreter to your line, who will translate and explain difficult points.

13. Improve your pronunciation

Nothing hurts your ears like a strong accent. This was an unpleasant discovery. Indeed, for a person who hardly understands the speech of an American, it is several times more difficult to understand a speech distorted by an accent.

At first I was very afraid of Asians. I did not understand them at all, but they seemed to deliberately surround me with a tight ring: they served me in a hairdresser's, became my neighbors, met in stores. I was afraid until we became friends.

14. Overestimate your abilities

Always storm a level just above your knowledge. The first week at Columbia University was challenging. Our teacher - a real American from Missouri - chattered in such a way that every day I felt an irresistible urge to run to elementary school. Over time, I got used to it, and the brain began to perceive information by ear. Rest assured, our memory can do more than you think.

I do not want to slip into the banal phrases "believe in yourself, do not compare with others and concentrate on success." No, study is always hard work, sometimes everything is completely incomprehensible, and no one can avoid embarrassment.

My first teacher repeated: "Step by step, and you will come to what you want."

Even after 9 months, I also forget the words, I also scold myself for incorrect grammar, I get angry if I cannot express my thoughts the way I want. However, day after day, English ceases to be the enemy and becomes a little closer. Learn languages and discover a new world!