Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I’m Conner, and you’re listening to Episode 38 of the Listening Time podcast.

If this is your first time here listening, I’m happy to have you. I’m happy that you’ve found this tool to help your listening skills in English. In each episode of the Listening Time podcast, I choose a different topic to talk about, and I speak about it in a natural way, using natural words and expressions. But I speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than the average native speakers speaks. And in this way, you can understand me better and understand the new words and phrases that I’m using. And it will help your listening skills overall, and help prepare you to listen to real podcasts made for English speakers.

So, I hope you’re all doing well today. It’s the fall. It’s autumn. In English, we use both of these words. Sometimes, we say fall and sometimes we say autumn. It really just depends on your preference. So right now, it’s the fall and it’s starting to get a little bit chilly. If you remember this word from a previous podcast, I think I explained it. “Chilly” just means a little bit cold. So, if I say “it’s a little bit chilly outside”, I’m saying that it’s a little bit cold outside. I’m not saying that it’s freezing. It’s not below zero, but it’s pretty cold. It’s definitely a little bit chilly where I live right now, and so this is the time when people start wearing scarves and beanies and things like that. A “scarf” is the thing that you wrap around your neck to keep your neck warm. If you live in a warm country, you probably never see scarves.

But if you live in a country where it gets a little bit cold in the fall or winter, you probably see people start wearing scarves around this time period. And the other word that I used was “beanie”. This is the thing that you put on your head to cover your ears and cover your head. It’s kind of like a hat, but it’s meant to keep you warm in cold weather. So nowadays, you start seeing people break out their beanies and their scarves. When we say “to break something out”, like that, we’re saying that they take it out of their closet and they put it on and start wearing it. They break out their beanies and they break out their scarves. So, I hope you’re keeping warm.

Today, on this episode, we’re going to talk about moving abroad. So the word “abroad” just means to another country, a country outside of your country. So, when I say “moving abroad”, I just mean moving to another country outside of your home country. So, we’re going to be talking about that today. I’m sure this will be an interesting topic for a lot of you because I’m sure a lot of you live abroad or have considered living abroad, and so we’ll talk about some of the challenges, some of the cool things about living abroad, and I’m sure it will be interesting and good practice for your listening skills. And before we get started, remember that you can access the transcript for this episode in the Episode Notes. So, just scroll down and click on that link if you need it. And of course, share this podcast with anyone who might find it useful, and help this podcast grow. Alright, let’s get started.

Okay, so let’s talk about moving abroad. So, in which situations do people move abroad? Well, one of the most common situations is when people decide to study abroad. In the US, we have many study abroad programs. This is literally what they’re called. You can choose to study in another country, for example, for one semester of your university. So, I know many people who have chosen to go abroad for just one semester, or maybe even more, but usually it’s a semester abroad where they get to choose a university that is affiliated to their university in another country. In English, when we say the word “affiliated”, we just mean that that thing is related to the other thing. So, if I say that our university has another university that is affiliated to it, this just means that the other university has some relationship with our university. So, many times, students can choose a university that’s affiliated to their university that’s located in another country, and they can choose to study abroad for a semester at that college. So, that’s one way that people end up living abroad.

Another way is if they just choose a master’s degree or choose to do some program in another country. This might not necessarily be a study abroad program with their school, but they might just choose a completely new program in a school somewhere else outside their country. So, like I said, many people do a master’s degree or something like that in another country. And if you’re European, you might have the chance to do an Erasmus program abroad. This is kind of like a study abroad program, but it’s specifically for European students.

So, they can choose to study in another country in Europe, and I think they can study there for up to a year, if I’m not mistaken. When I say “up to a year”, this just means one year maximum. So, it means less than a year, or a year. So, if I say “it takes up to six months to finish this process”, I’m saying that it can take a maximum of six months, or it can take a little less to finish the process. So, that’s what “up to” means in English.

So besides studying, other people move abroad when they get transferred in their company, for example. Some people might have the chance to get transferred to a foreign branch. In English, we can use the word “branch” to talk about one part of the company that’s located in a different location. So, for example, we might say “my company has branches in the west and in the east of the country”. This just means that it has these different locations, right. So, people can move abroad because they get transferred to a branch of their company that’s located abroad. So, that’s another way that some people move abroad.

And of course, there is one other reason why people might move abroad. This is my reason. And that is because you fall in love with someone from another country. So, that’s the reason why I moved to Mexico, because I met my wife here. I met my wife abroad, and after we were in a long-distance relationship for a few years, we got married and I moved here. In English, we use the phrase “a long-distance relationship” to describe a relationship where the two people live far away from each other. So, I lived in the US and my wife lived in Mexico for a few years, actually. So, we were in a long-distance relationship. So after that, we got married and I moved to Mexico, and that’s my reason for living abroad.

So, let’s talk about some of the legal aspects of moving abroad. This is the part that’s not very fun. Right. Getting a passport and a visa and all of that stuff. For certain countries, getting a visa is really easy. Or maybe you don’t even need a visa. For example, if you’re an American citizen like me, and you come to Mexico, you get an automatic visa upon arrival. When I say “upon arrival”, I’m just saying when you arrive. If we say “upon something”, it just means at that time. So, when you arrive in the country, you get a visa upon arrival. You get a tourist visa immediately in that moment, and it’s valid for 180 days. So, it’s very easy to live in Mexico for some months, if you’re a tourist from the US, for example.

But if you have the opposite situation, if you’re from Mexico or some other Latin American country, and you want to travel to the US to live, this is much more difficult. The visa process is much more rigorous. So, in English, when we use the word “rigorous”, we’re saying that something is strict. It’s a difficult process. The interviews are difficult. It’s not easy. So, you have to go through this strict, rigorous process to get a visa to go to the US as a tourist, especially if you’re from Mexico or a country like that. So, the legal experience can be very difficult depending on where you’re from and depending on where you want to live. So, that can cause people some problems. That can be a headache. I think you remember from… was it last episode? or a couple episodes ago? I used the word “headache”, right. This means that something is difficult. It causes you stress and difficulty. So, all the legal stuff can be a headache for you depending on your situation. And so, especially if you want to become a resident in that country.

Right now, I’m in the process of becoming a permanent resident in Mexico. And even though it’s not that hard, it’s still a headache to try to navigate all the government documents and their website and figuring out how to fill out all the documents. It’s not easy. So, this is definitely a headache for anyone who has to go through this process. And if you’re trying to be a resident in a country where it’s much stricter, like the US, this can take a very long time. This can take years, actually. So, that part is very hard if you’re moving to a country like the US.

So, how about the language? When you move abroad, you have to deal with differences in language, perhaps. You might be moving to a country that speaks the same language as you, but more often than not, when you move abroad, the country probably speaks a different language. So, this can actually be a really cool thing because it gives you the opportunity to learn a completely new language, and this is a great way to learn. It’s a great method to learn a foreign language. Many people want to go abroad just so that they can immerse themselves in the language that they’re learning. In English, when we use the phrase “immerse yourself”, it just means that you surround yourself by something. You put yourself in a situation where you experience a lot of something.

So, if you immerse yourself in a foreign language, this means that you put yourself in an environment where that language is spoken. So, you hear it all the time. You hear it all around you. So, a lot of people like going abroad to study other languages because it allows them to immerse themselves in that language. This is exactly how I feel here in Mexico. So, when I first came here, it was actually pretty hard to understand people. It was hard to interact at a native-like level. I think I didn’t understand a lot of people in different situations, and it definitely wasn’t very comfortable. But after living here for a few years, I got extremely comfortable with being in group settings and understanding everyone and just being able to navigate conversations in Spanish. So, it was a great way to continue improving my skills, especially my listening skills.

Because before I came here, I actually considered myself to be fluent in Spanish. Before I moved here, I thought that I could have conversations with anyone without any problem. But when I moved here, I realized that there were many things that I was lacking. In English, when we say that you’re “lacking” something, it just means that you don’t have this thing. Right. You’re missing it. So, there were many things that I was lacking before I moved to Mexico.

One of the biggest things was having the experience of being around many Spanish speakers in a group setting, and listening to them talk to each other, and getting that experience of understanding the other people as they talk to each other. This is not an easy thing when you learn a language. But if you move abroad, and you have that chance to live abroad, you’re going to have a lot of these types of experiences, and you’re going to get a lot of practice in this way. So, that’s something that I experienced here in my language learning. So, that’s an interesting thing about moving abroad. This could be a bad thing if you don’t want to learn another language, or if this seems like a lot of work for you. This will probably be a negative when it comes to moving abroad.

Another thing that could be a positive or a negative is making friends. So, when you move abroad, it can be very hard to make new friends because you’re in a completely different culture. You might speak a completely different language from the locals. In English, when we use the word “local” like this as a noun, we’re saying someone who lives in that place. So, for example, I could say “when I moved to that city, I made friends with a lot of locals”. This just means that I made friends with people who were from that city, people who lived there. So, it can be difficult to make friends with locals if they speak a different language.

So, there are some tools that might make this experience a little bit better, a little bit easier. Like, you could join activity groups, right. If you like a certain type of activity, you can join a group where people meet up and do that activity together in that city. In English, when we use the phrase “meet up” like this, we just mean that people get together to do something or to hang out. So, you can find activity groups where people meet up and do that activity together. And it’s always easier to make friends when you share some common interest or common activity. So, I think that’s a great way to make friends.

You could also join a language practice club. If you’re learning the language of the country that you live in, you might be able to connect with other people from other countries who are also learning that language and they’re living there as well. So, that could be a great way to make friends with other international people… maybe not locals, but with other international people that are living in that city. So, that’s another way that you could make friends.

And of course, if you have a significant other who’s from that country like me… when I say “significant other”, I just mean a husband or a wife or a boyfriend or a girlfriend. If you have a significant other who is from that country, then you can make friends through your significant other. So, if you have a wife from that country, you can make friends with your wife’s friends, for example. So, obviously that makes it a little bit easier to make friends if you have that type of situation.

So, one of the other things that you need to consider when you move abroad is culture shock. In English, the phrase “culture shock” just refers to the experience that you have when you go to a new country or a new place, and you experience their culture, which is very different from your culture. And this can be very surprising for a lot of people. They might not be ready for this type of change of culture. There were definitely some things that I experienced when I moved to Mexico that I was not prepared for… things about the culture that are just completely different here, things that I still can’t get used to, things that are still strange for me: certain habits, certain behaviors.

There are many times when I asked my wife nowadays “Why do people do this here?” “Why do people do that here?” Right. I still can’t understand a lot of the attitudes and behaviors, and this can be something very difficult to get used to because you feel kind of like an outsider, right. An “outsider” means someone who’s not part of the group, right. You can feel like an outsider if the culture is very different around you. You feel like you’re different from the other people, and this can definitely be a difficult experience.

But to be honest, for me, the most difficult things about moving abroad weren’t the really big cultural differences. The hardest things were the small, little things that I didn’t expect to be different… things like here, the electricity goes out more often than in the US. And I never thought that this was some issue that I was going to have to deal with. This was a complete surprise for me. This isn’t a cultural difference… it wasn’t any form of culture shock. It was just simply a small thing that I wasn’t prepared for.

Or for example, the fact that you can’t buy certain brands or certain products from stores that you just assumed that you could buy all around the world. And then you realize, “oh man, I can’t buy my favorite product from the store in this country”. Little things like that are hard to get used to because you can’t really prepare for them. You don’t really know that these things exist until you move to another country. And you realize that these little things are different. So, those little things are the things that have been the most difficult for me in terms of adjusting to life in a different country.

So overall, I’ve had a great experience living abroad. I’ve definitely had some challenges, of course, at the beginning with the language, with making new friends, of course, some legal headaches with immigration and getting residency and things like that. But overall, it’s been a rewarding experience. The word “rewarding” just means that it makes you feel good. It makes you feel satisfied. So, I’ve had a rewarding experience. And I hope that all of you who live abroad can also say the same thing.

Alright, we’ll stop there for today. Hopefully, this episode was interesting for you. And hopefully, it was good practice for your listening skills. Remember that you have the transcript available in the Episode Notes. So, just click on that link if you need it, and of course remember to share this podcast with anyone that might find it useful, and help their listening skills, and help this podcast grow. Thank you very much for listening to this episode, and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 39 of the Listening Time podcast.