Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson cover image

825. Time-Travel Story, Language Immersions in Malta & Playing the Bagpipes (with Alastair Budge)

Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson

CHAPTER

The Importance of Language in Malta

Malta is so international, you're going to fall in with people who are from your country. You suddenly realize that even though you might be going to class for three hours a day, everything outside of that time you're spent speaking French or Spanish and Italian. In Naples, basically no one speaks English, they were no foreigners at all. That was a six month existence purely in Italian. And yeah, the difference was marked in terms of my own improvement.

00:00
Speaker 1
Oh, or even if you go to one of these
Speaker 2
countries and you go to a school, the idea that you just like tick the boxes, you bought the plane ticket, you've paid the course. Now, it's just a matter for the English to kind of seep into your body. I'm sure that everyone knows plenty of people who might have had a similar kind of experience, or perhaps you know, people who are currently in in that kind of world and that they know that it doesn't quite work like that. So that I think is the is the mistake that some people make when they come here is that you just assume that that's that's going to happen. And lots of people understandably, because Malta is so international, you're going to fall in with people who are from your country or who speak your language and you suddenly realize that even though you might be going to class for three hours a day, everything outside of that time you're spent, you spend speaking French or Spanish or Italian or whatever, language might be easier for you. And don't get me wrong, I completely understand how people do this because I've actually done it myself. When I was at university, I did an Erasmus placement in France and Italy. And when I went to France, I kind of fell into the trap of spending my time, I kind of made friends with lots of Brits and Americans. And suddenly, even though you, you know, you are improving your French to a certain extent and you're going to French university and you're doing these things, you realize that you haven't made, yeah, it's not quite so immersive as you might have thought it would be. And I also did six months in Naples in Italy. And in Naples, basically no one speaks English, they were no foreigners at all. So that was a six month existence purely in Italian. And yeah, the difference was marked in terms of my own improvement. Just
Speaker 1
that point there, in Naples, yeah, you were forced to speak Italian. What was that like for you? How old were you, by the way, you were at university level? Yeah, 21. Okay. In Naples, no one spoke English, you had to speak Italian. What was it like? How long did you spend there? Another quick question? Six months. Six months.
Speaker 2
Five, six. So what was
Speaker 1
the first month or two like?

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