How travelling boosts your language experience Part 2 - Culture of English. In Russia, we're taught that "how are you?" is an important part of greeting. Unfortunately, it might be ignored frequently. Meanwhile, guys from a country where English is one of the official languages use it permanently. Once I took a taxi in Namibia, the driver asked me "how are you?" for about 3 times: when he called to confirm a pick-up address, when he met me there, when I got into the car. - Official writing still exists. My students from IT are quite flexible in terms of communications and skip formal rules quite often, even with the colleagues who are native speakers. You won't do while communicating with hotels, car rental, mobile communication services, Airbnb hosts, etc. Everyone follows the rules: greetings, main part and farewell. If you don't do it, you might be perceived as a rude person. - The last, but not the least. Making mistakes doesn't impede your communications. People understand each other, even using wrong tenses, skipping articles, making mistakes with comparative forms of adjectives. Moreover, no one cares. Let alone, no one shames you because of it. The only thing which may influence your interaction negatively is silence. Travel, explore, speak:)