I’m about to studying in Italy very soon, but my Italian is not very good, I’m still a beginner, and have never been abroad before .I’m considering whether it’s necessary to live with the homestay for the first 6 months, or to joint rent with my language school classmates (most of them are Chinese). I think that it is better for my language to live with a homestay; what’s more, it may be the best way for me to get into the local culture. However, it’s expensive. It costs 850€ a month .if I choose to rent with my classmates, the cost will be much cheaper, about 250€ a month personal. But since all my roommates will be Chinese, I’m afraid the apartment may like a small china town and the daily language probably is Chinese. But I want to abandon mother tong when learning a foreign language abroad. Because I’m afraid I may very likely to rely on Chinese when some problems run into my life. I’m struggling with this problem these days.
Hi, I'm talking through direct experience,
I suggest you to save on living, stay with your Chinese friends if you enjoy that,
and spend some money for private or group (small group!) lessons.
Try to join a local hiking club to go hiking on Sundays, you'll be able
to practice your Italian quite a bit, not a bycicle club, talking is very restricted
when bycicling.
I don't know in which city you are going to stay in Italy but you can be sure that 850 € is really too much for everywhere.
Take a look to airbnb and in a suburban quarter and you'll find surely something cheeper!
Good luck!
You can only learn a language if you use it. You can only learn a language well quickly if you both use it and have a teacher, computer program or exchange student to check the syntax of the sentences you make. If you don't have that, your brain will infer the right syntax anyway, it just takes longer.
Living with someone who speaks a foreign language could not be as effective as making a lot of friends outdoors. That's how I learned English. I was in Edinburgh and needed to get fluent in order to find a job. I shared my apartment with another Italian guy, who spoke no better English than me, but that did not matter, because I never stayed at home.
Hi Aurora! May I ask in wich city are you going to stay? I had an italian friend who lived in Milan, for example, who shared a little apartment with another student and the rent was more or less 500 euros a months (gas and light bills excluded), so it dipends...
Anyway, if I might suggest... Staying with people who speak your mother tongue won't help you: you'll end up talking only chinese most of the day...
Keep in mind you'll have utility bills, and food too? So the money difference will be slightly less.
I would worry, what if the homestay people aren't that talkative, or you still talk with other chinese people by phone, text, schoolmates at school, etc? I think that even if you choose the homestay experience, it would be a good bet to also build occasions to talk to other people, like, seeking people interested in italian-chinese language exchange to meet, join groups to pursue hobbies and recreational activities with italians, etc. Same goes with sharing an apartment with other chinese people, you can still make an effort to create occasions for you to talk italian, it's a negative experience only if you actively close yourself within your culture.
