Is speaking the language sufficient to integrate yourself into a new country?

Settling in a foreign country is not always easy concerning language and integration for expatriates. 

In addition to moving in and paperwork, one of the major problems is integration. Any immigrant or expatriate may face a cultural and social gap.

So how do you understand your new identity? We often think that language learning is associated with integration. However, it turns out that it is not always enough.

Understanding the culture 

First, of course, the language of a country helps to understand and discover its culture. However, this is only the start. The culture of a country includes its inhabitants, its history, its historical works and monuments and of course its customs. Unfortunately, this is not transmitted through the language itself. An expatriate needs to learn traditions, habits, know-how… in order to integrate as well as possible.

Language is, of course, a vector of integration, but it must be associated with all these key elements to be even more useful.

Building up your network

 Secondly, it is indeed good to learn the language of one’s host country, but what is the point of learning a language if one does not have the opportunity to use it with others? Integration in a new country also means creating a new network, opening up new relations. The wealth of a country is most often seen in what its inhabitants can bring to us. That’s why, thanks to others, we integrate better and faster, whether they are local or expatriates.

Understanding this new environnement

Finally, comes a more practical question: the discovery of its environment and existing services useful to everyday life (association, town hall, La Poste…).

An expatriate is faced with all kinds of administrative formalities, both when they arrive and during their life in their new country. It is therefore important to help him understand them. The language allows us to understand the content of the various documents. However, the functioning of systems can sometimes remain unclear. Whether we are talking about the various types of social assistance or medical assistance, we need to know what we can expect and how to access it.

 At Absolutely French, we have made all these key elements the starting points of our trainings. In addition to training in the French language, expatriates have the opportunity to acquire, through games, fun courses, track games in their new city, all that there is to know about the French way of life.

Now you know more about language and integration for expatriates!

To read  :

Gestion des Expatriés : 4 Points Clés

Follow Absolutely French on :