Dear future expat: please don't wait until you arrive

Dear future expat,

I know the plan. Learn English properly once you're actually there. Immersion will fix it. You'll have no choice. The language will come.

I moved countries twice with this plan. It doesn't work quite the way you think.

Immersion is not a magic bath. It's a very loud environment full of people who don't slow down for you, administrative tasks that need to be completed in a language you're still assembling, and a brain that is already overwhelmed by everything else that comes with moving. Immersion accelerates what's already there. It doesn't build from nothing.

What I wish I'd done before I left: found a community. One small group of people I could practice with regularly, in low-stakes conditions, before the stakes became very high. People who knew my name and could hear me improve week by week.

The immersion will come. It will be better if it lands on a foundation.

Don't wait. You have six months, or four, or two. Use some of them here.

— A.