Hey … I moved to Sweden 8 months ago with no Swedish language skills and there was no one in Sweden that I know either. It was very difficult in the beginning but when the language came, also came friends and more self-confidence … then I could do anything and felt that I could do everything in my new home. I just wondered if there are more people here who have moved or plan to move to another country. Someone who has traveled to a country for several weeks or months?
Lynn
When I came to Poland, I remember the steward on the plane said “Dzień Dobry” which means ‘Good Day’ and I didn’t even know that. I started learning the language (I wish I would have had lingq’s method then) and it was very hard, but my wife was so proud of me when I started to put together sentences.
But I love it and if I could get my wife to do it, I would just travel around the world teaching English learning languages and getting to know different cultures…
I was an aupair in USA for 12 months. At the begining I had a very hard time and I was really homesick. I felt so lonely and depressed. I started changing after a couple of months when I made friends and I was going to different places with new friends.
The other problem was that despite of learning English for 8 (! ) years I didn’t feel comfortable speaking it. All the sounds were so strange for me. I took time to get used to the new language and soon I became more and more confident with my English. I was sooo proud of myself.
When it came to say goodbye I didn’t want to leave because for this time I really get used to the new place and people around me.
I think it was great expirience and very inspiring for me. Once you understand the language you will understand the culture.
Good luck with learning new language and I keep my finger crossed for you.
Hi!
I came to Canada 2.5 years ago…
I thought I knew English…It seemed to me I knew English very well…
so…first couple of months I could understand about 30% only! you know, the level of hi, bye and how are you…I could not open my mouth at all!!! I was afraid to speak.
TV was my first teacher)) I needed some time to get used to real English, and then it was much easier. Now I understand about 80-90% and I have realized that it is only my own job to learn the language not for the marks but for real usage of it. Do not wait somebody to come and help you with your language skills, do it yourself right now and right here! and this site is a great place to improve English!!
Hi I was living in Canada a year and half. Before I went there, I was studying English so hard and I thought my English was pretty good and I had a couple friends from north America when I was in my country, so I thought it was easy to live in there.
However I had really hard time cause of language and culture difference. And there were lots of things that I couldn’t understand but I just let myself go and decided to be like I was born in North America. I think it takes time to get into the new society but lucky for me I could get a job for Canadian company and find many people who had a common interest, Japanese, Martial arts, Photography, Design and so on… And now Canada is like my second home and I’m planning to go back there sometime soon.
I think most of countries, if you respect their culture and are interested in their culture, they like you.
Have fun in Sweden!!!
I spent eight months in Vienna and now I’m living in Germany. I also wish I had had LingQ at the beginning of my time - I think I would have learned much more much more quickly. Still, I put a lot of effort into finding speaker partners and tutors. I think I found was that it was surprisingly difficult to speak German in my daily life. At work, I had to speak English, because I was teaching it! At home, my housemate was rarely there. It was quite difficult to find friends and I ended up relying a lot of other English speakers doing the same job as me. Still, I think it’s surprising how much I was able to improve in that time and I hope it will continue 
Congratulations on your progress everyone!