If you think practicing English is very easy when you are in the countries
like USA, UK or Australia because everyone speaks English, then it is not
entirely ture. Many of my Chinese friedns speak not so good English even
when they are in an English-speaking countries. Why?
Because they are lack of foreign friedns and only hang out with another
Chinese people. Sometimes, it is not they don't want to speak with the
native speakers but it is just because they don't have a good place and
good people to speak with. Imagine if you are a college student with only
2 hours class per day. Your speaking in English is remote because during the
class you listen most of the time, and after the class people usually just
go home or go to work. You can only speak few sentences with other classmates
but that is not enough. Would you ever ask your classmate saying "hey, can
I practice English with you for an hour?" That will be very strange, don't
you think?
So even if you are in a foreign countries you still need a good
place to practice your English. A place where the people are keen to know you.
And I think Churches are the excellent places to be. In the church, people
are eager to get to know new visitors. They will come and approach you to talk
to you instead of you going find someone to speak with and you still feel
nervious about it. When I was in a church, some of them greet me passionately
and ask me where do I from, what are you studying with or how long have you
been here etc. And these people are very nice. I got invited to a small group
talk with both international students and native students to help us learn
English. During the talk, I get to know the people from different countries.
But the most exciting part is after the talk when I was speaking to one of the
leader in this team. I asked him "What kind of chat app do you guys use over
here? We use LINE in Taiwan." He answered "We use groupme more often. You
should get one and join groupme so it is easier to communicate with you." And
I said "Well, my phone is already full of chat apps like LINE, WeChat and
What's up. My phone storage is not enough for another app because I am using
old cheap phone you know." He replied "No worry. I got an old iphone I can
give it to you." And I was like OMG, seriously? So yesterday, I received an
iphone 4 from him and it is just great. This is the first time I
ever use iphone. I really appreciate his kindness and giving.
So churches are a great place to go. There are full of nice people and
opportunities. I'm still receiving a lot of help from them and I am glad to
be in a church. I hope you can also check out some churches one day and thank
you for reading this. Hope you have a nice day.