If you have moved abroad, or to the UK, and have to function in a different language

[Hellokittymania]

I have a few questions for you, first of all, how much time do you spend talking with friends or family in your native language? What language do you posting on your social media? I’m asking because I live in Greece, but Greek for me is actually my ninth foreign language. I am at about C1 in terms of my level, I am trying to reach C2, but I get distracted very easily, and especially if I’m tired, I have to work to try and communicate what I need to. I do have social media, but I’ve stopped using Facebook, almost entirely, and mainly focus on my Greek platforms, because I have a disability, and I think it’s important for people here to see how somebody with a disability lives, and I can also practice my Greek and I have been learning things from people. I bought a home here in March, after spending a good chunk of the past six years here, but this year in particular has been very, very difficult. A lot of things have changed, I’ve been through some really difficult situations, including two floods, which I have posted about on here quite recently. Sometimes, I feel like giving up, but then I remember how hard I had to work to learn Greek, to get my residency, it was no small task. I remember studying for 10 hours every day for about one year to learn Greek in order to pass the exam to enter the local university here, which, unbelievably, even with a visual impairment unlimited access to material, I did. So I am trying to find ways to make life easier, and not throw in the towel just yet. I am generally a very resilient person, and I don’t. I don’t give up that easily.

did you find that diving right in and just doing everything in English if he moved to the UK, or doing everything in German or Chinese or whatever, really helped you to settle? This is not the first time I have moved abroad, but this is the first time I am a homeowner and, having a very fluent command of Greek would make life a lot easier. My Greek is very good, but it wasn’t good enough for example, to explain to the repairman that they had placed the AC in the wrong location and I didn’t know the words for the supplies for the AC, or the technical terms I needed to explain things when my place was flooded and I needed the tip the ceiling to be checked. There is a free Greek course being offered for advanced learners, so I might try and join that. Anyway, I was just wondering if you try and limit conversations with family and friends who don’t speak Greek. I find that I have a hard time to switch back into Greek mode, after speaking English for a long time, and vice versa.
by the way, I’m sorry for the typos, but I’m using dictation.

I don't have any personal experience but from friends that have done it, I think you have to throw yourself into it and when you're talking in Greece, stick with speaking greek no matter what. And don't let them speak English back to you.

But it sounds dangerous to limit your contact with English people, that sounds like a recipe for loneliness?

I’ve lived in France for four years and am ashamed of how basic my french is. I understand loads but I hate trying to converse.
We have lovely neighbours who are v helpful but also pull me up a lot on my speaking which makes me terrified to try.
My dh waves his arms and they understand every word!

Set you free, it’s a tough one. I do have Greek friends, all of them work, so we don’t always see one another face-to-face. I have been trying to join some activities, which would help a lot. There is a disability group that meets a few times a week for cycling, etc., but it was delayed due to the floods. I will have to check if it is up and running, but that would also be a way to meet people and go out for coffee or food or what not.

I don’t know if it would be worth may be speaking to friends and family twice a week at a certain time, rather than every day throughout the day and just explaining that it does really have an impact on my Greek and I can’t concentrate. I’m one of these people who really needs to be able to focus, otherwise my mind goes here there and everywhere

Oh poppy, I understand totally. Sometimes, especially when I’m tired, and I get things really really wrong, even basic things, and people are waiting for me to finish my sentence, it’s difficult. They do correct me, but I think it is well-meaning, and I do want to be able to speak fluent Greek. I am trying to set up an organization on disability, and I am doing a layout for the website, which needs to be in Greek… Of course, I can’t think of the links in Greek. So I have been googling other peoples websites, and checking out their side links to try and match the equivalent for our own website.

British, living in France, big city so plenty of different cultures and languages around. My French is nothing like as good as it should should be after 15 years here. We all speak English at home (DH, 2 x DS). I have a big English-speaking group of friends from when the boys were babies and I wasn’t working. And now I’m working, it’s in an anglophone environment so I get by with using DeepL at work for anything written and just muddle along with spoken French.

I’m partially deaf and this makes it a lot harder to learn a language - I don’t just pick things up, and I find it hard to jump in to conversations when I’m not sure what I’ve heard and make a tit of myself: I do that enough in English, it’s hard to make myself do it in French too.

so I haven’t immersed myself at all despite living here so long and I definitely don’t limit myself or reduce time with English speaking friends - that would be miserable. I don’t have time to have ‘French’ social life as well as an English one, with work / family / house / etc. But unf I think that’s what it takes to become fluent, especially with a disability: proper immersion.

what’s your background / personal situation? Have you got time to move in both the English / Greek worlds?

One issue with being a native English speaker is that everyone I meet actively wants to speak English with me! To demonstrate or improve their own skills. So we end up in a silly situation of them speaking bad English to me, and I respond in bad French 🤷‍♀️. I inevitably switch to English in that situation, as it is easier with my hearing loss.

Fourth, it’s interesting. You say this, because I have a deaf, blind friend, who was working in Vietnam, and I remember him telling me how hard it was to learn Vietnamese, and there was almost no material that was accessible enough for him. It’s difficult when you don’t have enough, or no vision, because we rely on communication to do so many things. my first year here, I was living in the blind association, hostel, but my Greek was next to nothing, and I vividly remember, my friend telling me we were going for soup, only to find out that it was soup… With intestines. The place was freezing, and I knew how to say I was cold, and I understood the word for soup. I thought, OK, let’s go. Not a mistake I have ever made again.

only a few people tried to practice their English with me, most of the time, they speak Greek, unless they can see. I am really struggling to understand that I can’t communicate. My Greek friends speak at 1 mi./min., and it’s hard to follow along sometimes, but I get the gist of what they’re talking about. Not always, but usually. It’s the same thing with the TV, somethings, I can understand better than others. But I’m trying.

right now, I am having to create activities for myself until I can either find work, or set something up of my own. i’ve actually been looking at library events, and creating my own, but doing them in Greek, or trying to find things in Greek, so now would probably be the best time to focus on becoming fluent. Are French people crazy about cleanliness? My mother is French, but I’ve never lived in France, so I have no idea. In Greece, people are very very tidy, some thing, which I am generally not. I have had to learn to clean my home, keep it, spotless, and organize, when I remember, ha ha ha. But I try and remember the cleaning products, how to do things in Greek.

I work in a mixture of English and Dutch so I switch all day. It's exhausting and means I now have a Dutch accent in English and still have an English accent in Dutch (godverdomme!)

I think even if you speak Greek all day, you're still going to encounter new situations. I know what you mean about moving house. Most of my insanely fluent C2+ in English Dutch friends would still be defeated if they had to talk about replacing a fuse box. Even in the uk, you'd have to Google some of the terms for bits of kit with your first house because it's all new.

I don't think talking to your family all day will hurt your Greek. It could well make you more homesick and make it harder to focus on integrating though. It will also distract you from your work and life if you're messaging all day, which will then impact your Greek indirectly. It sounds like you're going to have to look for some new avenues for in person socialisation to get a bit more connection.

Yes, it has made me home sick as well, or just, I don’t know about home sick so much, but sometimes people are just very curious about what it’s like to live in Greece, and I think it does fascinate them, because I do have a disability and on a home here, and it’s not paradise. So I’m spending a lot of time, explaining things like this, and, they are suggesting things to me that would work in the UK, but they wouldn’t work here. Or telling me to buy things that you could find easily in the UK, but wouldn’t be able to find here. So in that sense, yes, I am finding it difficult, and on bad days when I just want to get out of here, it doesn’t help at all.

During the floods, I learned the word from mud… Go figure, I never knew how to say mud in Greek, now I know how to say exei laspi pantou there is mud everywhere

Hey there, I am so impressed with your story. You have achieved so much. Well done. I am a language teacher and profiecient in my second langauge. In my opinion that the step from C1 to C2 is big, but not impossible. In most languages it is simply the volume of words and expressions that you need to master that is the challenge. Think of an upside down triangle and split it in to 6 parts, A1 at the bottom and C2 at the top to think about the ammount of material you need to master.
For myself and my students one big help is reading widely, and in fiction if possible. You can only learn what you are exposed to and we all have our areas of interest. In fiction, and in reading a decent newpaper back to back, we are exposed to lexis that we otherwise would not be.
And as for the AC, be honest did you know the words in one of your other langauges, does anyone? Or would we just say "the thing/ the bit/ the whatjamacallit", we all have such linguistic blind spots.

Bets of luck, you can do it.

Thank you, and yes, that’s a good point, I’ve learned lots of new terminology as well in English does hear from learning about DIY and home repairs.

Op you are a better person than me. I live outside my home country and only speak the local language when I have to, school/shops/bureaucracy etc. The rest of the time (socialising, social media etc) I stick to English because it's much more comfortable for me. It probably means I'm not as integrated as I could be but I'm an introvert so I don't really mind.