Why Moving Abroad Won’t Make You Fluent
The Common Myth of “Just Move There”
“Just move there and you’ll pick up the language naturally.”
I’ve heard this advice so many times. It sounds logical—constant exposure in the native environment should equal fluency, right?
It doesn’t.
When you’re still a beginner, moving to the country doesn't make learning the local language easier—it often makes it harder.
Through traveling and living in different countries, I’ve seen this play out many times and why this advice fails.
In Hong Kong, I met expats who had lived there for 30 years yet didn’t speak any Cantonese. They had gotten used to living in an English bubble, without knowing the language of the streets. In the US, I saw German and Mexican students struggling academically and spending their free time with others from their home countries rather than building relationships with American classmates. In Finland, I know people who have lived here for years, and talked about learning Finnish for just as long, but still can't speak it.
The mentality of "just move there" assumes passive learning works—it doesn't. What’s worse is that this type of thinking often becomes an excuse to avoid starting at all.
Here's what I've learned: You don't need to move to learn the language. In fact, learning it from home actually gives you significant advantages over learning it in the country!
So let's settle this online language learning vs moving abroad debate. You're not missing out by staying home—you're actually setting yourself up for success. While moving abroad can accelerate your learning when done a the right time (we'll cover this), learning from home is actually your secret weapon that will ensure a much smoother transition for when you do move.
The Catch-22 of Too Early Immersion
The main reason people think it’s an advantage to live in the country is because they expect constant immersion—hearing their target language everywhere.
This is partly true in that you absolutely do learn best through immersion. But here's the problem: moving to the country doesn't automatically guarantee the language exposure you're hoping for. Without basic language skills, you end up missing out on the very language practice you moved there to get.
Here's how this happens:
Limited job opportunities: If you have no ability in the language then you won’t be able to get a job in that language. You’re then forced to take a job in English, which removes a big immersion opportunity.
Educational barriers: Studying in the language you’re learning is an amazing way to grow your language fluency skills. However, if you’re still a beginner in the language you won’t be able to understand and benefit from this.
People switch to English: In many countries, locals will immediately switch to English when they sense you're struggling, especially in tourist areas or international cities. While they’re just trying to be helpful, it prevents you from getting the language practice you need.
Social isolation despite being “surrounded” by the language: This is probably the toughest one. Research shows that only 1 in 4 expats speak the local language fluently. I could have experienced this isolation myself living in Finland, but I was fortunate enough to have my wife as a bridge to the language and culture. Still, even with that advantage, my language limitations restricted my social connections until I reached a decent level of fluency. There are few things more lonely than being in the country you want to live in but not being able to have even simple conversations with neighbors, shop workers, or potential friends. It’s so close, yet outside of your reach. This is why people gravitate toward international communities, which severely hinders integration and learning the language.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discouraging anyone to move abroad! It can be some of the most life-changing, wonderful experiences you’ll ever have. That’s not the issue. The issue is the expectation that simply living there, you’ll automatically learn the language.
Understanding this reality should actually be encouraging to you, especially if you're thinking you're at a disadvantage by not being in the country.
How Living in Finland Didn’t Help Me Learn Finnish
When I moved to Finland, I had been learning Finnish for about a year. That should be enough to benefit from immersion, right?
Well, it wasn't. Finnish is famous for being very challenging—even a year of steady learning hadn't gotten me to a level where I could access immersion benefits. I couldn't work in Finnish, so I worked from home in English. And after work, I spoke English with my wife.
This wasn't a failure—I'd deliberately taken a gradual approach. But for a challenging language like Finnish, reaching immersion-ready level in a year would require 3-4+ hours of daily learning, which just wasn't realistic for me at the time.
Even living in the country, I wasn't getting daily immersion. Family visits provided some language exposure, but that was maybe weekly at best. The short exchanges at grocery stores weren't enough for real progress.
At least 95% of my Finnish learning came from deliberate learning at home, not from "being there." I eventually reached a level where immersion helped, and later even worked for a Finnish company—but only because I'd built that foundation through consistent daily learning at home.
The reality? I could have reached the same level of Finnish without moving to Finland.
Why Learning From Home Actually Has the Advantage
Moving to a country is already overwhelming—new culture, new systems, new everything. Speaking the language when you arrive makes this transition so much smoother. Here are some reasons why learning from home gives you the edge over living in the country:
You control the pace. When learning from home, you gradually build comprehension and speaking ability without the exhaustion of trying to keep up with conversations where you can barely follow every 5th word. If you feel tired—just do something else! Take a break and return to it tomorrow refreshed.
No performance pressure. A big part of the stress comes from self-imposed expectations: "I should be fluent by now—I’m literally surrounded by the language every day!" When you don’t live there you don’t put this same expectation on yourself. And without that stress, you actually learn quicker.
Your brain has limits. We only have so much mental bandwidth for new things. Going from zero to total immersion is like jumping from bed to running a marathon—it's a shock to the system that often leads to burnout and quitting.
Natural progression works better. At home, you can more naturally move from beginner materials → intermediate content → advanced media. Each step feels challenging but doable, building momentum instead of frustration.
Culture matters more than you think. In Argentina or Ireland, locals might chat with you at bus stops or invite you for coffee. But in countries like Finland or Japan, casual conversations with strangers aren't culturally normal. Your "immersion" becomes limited to brief service encounters—ordering coffee, asking for directions, or basic transactions at shops.
Some languages can't be "picked up" at all. Languages distant from your native tongue - like Hungarian, Mandarin, or Arabic for English speakers - require lots of deliberate learning regardless of location. The grammar structures, sound systems, and vocabulary are too different to absorb without some serious effort, making deliberate home study not just advantageous but absolutely essential.
The real advantage: When you arrive abroad with a solid foundation—you’re able to follow conversations and express your thoughts—you’re able to participate from day one, without having to default to English or needing translation help. This is huge for feeling part of society and being able to make meaningful connections right away. You’re able to chat with neighbors, fully participate in work discussions, or join local activities without constantly feeling like the outsider trying to keep up.
The Tools That Make Location Not Matter
When it comes to language learning at home, we’re living in a very exciting time! An ever-increasing variety of resources—apps, courses, and tools—make it possible to learn any language from anywhere.
No matter what tool you use the key is ‘comprehensible input’—content just above your level that challenge you without overwhelming you. The best modern tools adapt real content to your current level, which is a game-changer.
The tools that let you create effective immersion at home include:
Video-based learning: Platforms now let you learn through actual TV shows and movies with smart features that adjust difficulty to your level. Instead of getting lost in native content, you can use in-built tools to learn through the same engaging material locals watch.
Interactive reading tools: Apps that let you import and read real novels, news, or any text with immediate look-up and translation tools. This lets you tackle authentic content way earlier than traditional methods allowed, immersing while still getting the support you need to understand the material.
Immerse through streaming platforms: Netflix, Disney Plus, and YouTube provide endless content, and browser extensions can add language learning features to make any show comprehensible at your level.
Personal guidance and support: Online tutors give you structured conversation practice in a controlled environment where you can ask questions and just practice conversation with natives in a pressure-free environment.
Unlimited speaking practice: AI conversation tools now provide 24/7 speaking practice with detailed feedback—something that wasn't possible even a few years ago. You can make mistakes freely, get corrections, and build speaking confidence, without having to schedule a time.
For specific tool recommendations and step-by-step guides that make this possible, jump to my resource picks at the end of this post.
When Moving Abroad Actually Helps
Even though learning from home has many advantages, at a certain point moving to the country will be massively beneficial.
When are you ready? First off, this depends on your goals. Are you planning on working in the language? If so, consider what language level is needed. A job as a marketing director will demand higher fluency than working as a coffee shop barista where the daily vocabulary is more limited.
When immersion actually works: As a general rule, aim for at least a solid intermediate language level. You’ll probably never feel completely ‘ready’, but once you can do daily activities, follow most conversations, and make friends in the language, you’ve crossed the threshold where you’ll actually benefit from immersion. You’ll still make plenty of mistakes but you’ll have enough language ability to participate in society and further improve your language skills through daily interactions.
The English trap: You’ll want to reach a level where people no longer switch to English (if English is even an option for them). Back when I used to teach Swedish online, this was a common problem for expats. Swedes were so good at English that everybody just instantly switched to English when they noticed they struggled. So they never got an opportunity to practice speaking and interacting in the language. But the ones that had reached a solid intermediate level (basic fluency, essentially) didn’t have this problem and their Swedish could improve even further.
The timeline varies dramatically: Romance languages like Spanish might take several hundred immersion hours to reach this level, while languages like Chinese or Japanese require thousands. Sometimes life forces you to move earlier (like I did with Finland)—that’s totally fine. What’s important is to continue the daily home learning routine you had before moving.
The bottom line: Immersion isn’t about location, but about actively engaging in the language and using level-appropriate materials and content. This is why you’ll want to reach a level where everyday conversations are actually at the right level for you. While intensive in-country immersion programs can be a fantastic experience, they work for exactly the same reasons as your home language immersion routine does.
Your Home Learning Action Plan
The most important thing when learning a language—whether at home or abroad—is your attitude.
This means:
Believing you can and will learn
Embracing mistakes as parts of the process
Staying curious to learn new words, expressions, and about the culture
This is super important as a beginner but just as important to preserve throughout your journey. Even after you’ve reached a good level, you won’t automatically improve unless you actually want to continue to grow and learn. So keeping an openness and curiosity to learn from day one and onward will take you far.
For example, when I moved to the US I was already fluent in English. But I still actively looked up new words, asked questions about expressions I didn't understand, and paid attention to how native speakers communicated because I wanted to reach a level where I felt just as comfortable in English as I did in my native Swedish—which I eventually achieved. With this kind of mindset, there are virtually no limits to what level you can reach in your target language!
Here’s how to put this into practice:
Get started: Go through a beginner’s course to get some basics in the language (see my Resource Page for beginner recommendations.)
Immerse yourself: Gradually surround yourself more and more with the language through listening and reading. Your brain will make more and more sense of the language as you do.
Practice speaking the language: Make tons of mistakes! Speaking a lot prepares you for interacting with locals.
Stay consistent: Set a daily minimum learning goal (like 30 minutes or 1 hour) and make it non-negotiable. Consistently learning every single day ensures steady progress and gets you to the level you need before moving. Start with a low goal and increase it when it feels natural to do so.
If you follow the above 4 steps—and don’t give up no matter what—you’ll be well on your way to fluency!
To help you implement these steps effectively, I made the guide Intuitive Language Secrets that you can get for Free at lingtuitive.com/guide. It’s a quick read and will give you the foundations needed to get started learning a language from home effectively in a brain-friendly way.
Also, check out other posts on this site. There’s loads of content (and more coming!) on how to learn a language effectively from home. Below are are some posts for further reading that will help you on your home-immersion journey.
Resource Recommendations for Further Reading:
The Most Extensive Lingopie Review [Full Feature Breakdown] (platform for learning through TV shows and movies with smart tools)
Langua AI Tutor Review 2025: Best AI for Speaking Fluency? (unlimited speaking practice and detailed feedback through human-like AI chats)
The Blueprint to Spanish Fluency (Part 1) - Reading Books (on the power of reading to increase your vocabulary. Also includes beginner-friendly lessons.)
LanguaTalk vs iTalki - Which one is better? [head-to-head comparison] (find out which online platform for 1-on-1 lessons is the best fit for you)
7 Killer At-Home Language Immersion Hacks You Must Know About (take your home immersion to the next level)
How to Set Up Your YouTube Account for Language Immersion [Step-by-step guide] (create your free immersion hub)
