People go on exchange for a variety of reasons; for independence, travelling, to learn under a different country’s education system. For me, one of the biggest motivating factors was to hone my language skills. 

I had only just started learning French in university for two semesters, but I loved studying it and knew that I could not miss the opportunity to immerse myself in a naturalistic environment where the language would be spoken by native speakers all the time. 

The most unexpected way I experienced the effectiveness of this language learning method was when I took on a babysitting/tutoring job with a French family. I looked after two charming boys and two precious girls aged 3-10 and taught them English weekly. There was one major complication though: the children spoke close to no English! 

Being forced to use only French in order to be understood was a challenge that pushed the limits of my language skills. I had to quickly become familiar with the vocabulary for the children’s daily activities, especially in giving commands to keep them safe! We held surprisingly long conversations together in spite of my halting attempts, the children teaching me the words I didn’t know in French while I shared the English word in return. 

This piece was written by our #SGUnited intern, Mebelle. Mebelle is a fourth-year Linguistics major.

Photo by Jess Vide from Pexels