Can a Holiday Fix Your English? We Compare 3 Options

You Need to Fix Your English

No one decides to give up on language: we all fall into the procrastination traps our brain sends us to avoid what it perceives as danger: risk, embarrassment, stress.

For our chimp brain, not trying is better than failing.

The result is an abandoned box with ‘English’ sitting further and further back in the attic that is your brain.

It’s stressing you out – but not enough to take action.

Until…

you need to fix your English!

Travel is Often Presented as the Solution

‘Go and practise your English abroad!’ they say.

But does taking a holiday for your English work?

This blog looks at 3 language travel options:

Going on holiday yourself
Taking a language school English immersion UK language holiday
Our offer – a bespoke, real-world English conversation holiday.

Throughout, we’ll share the pros and cons of each language travel method for you and your English (they are not separate – being comfortable and happy matters to learning)

We also give you tips to avoid the language holiday pitfalls, maximise the benefits for your English and link you to genuinely useful resources to help you plan your next holiday.

#01

A D.I.Y Holiday in the UK

So you go to London, or book a family week in a cottage in the Lake District.

It’s a nice trip, but aside from ordering food and buying tickets, the truth is that most people are disappointed by the lack of opportunities to practice the language.

You hadn’t considered it before you left, but how do grown adults make conversations with strangers while traveling?

For most, that can be tough even in their first language – and for all, so much more difficult in a foreign one.

A busy city can make it overwhelming.

D.I.Y. UK Holiday

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Pleasure

Excellent

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Building an identity as an English user

Good (if you push yourself to talk).

It is empowering to travel autonomously.

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Language development & acquisition

Some language practice around travel and accommodation, tourist information and listening to guides.

However:

It is hard to keep any conversation going in which you express yourself.
No error correction.

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This kind of UK language holiday may have amazing experiences, but for language acquisition, the exchange rate between the time/effort/expense of traveling and the language conversion is poor.

The biggest benefit is that it will refresh your English and reawaken your desire to learn.

Useful Resources:

#02
Take a Language Course in the UK?

There’s a big industry selling this as the solution to your language needs.

At any moment, you can go to a UK city and join a classroom full of strangers from different cultures (and with different English levels) for a week.

Your language school will pack you into a few guided museum tours or city tours, and take you for fish and chips (or a haggis in Scotland). They’ll call it ‘an immersion language learning holiday,’ but they mean intensive.

And it’s not really a holiday so much as a classroom abroad.

(If it’s Oxford or Cambridge, they’ll charge you premium prices because these cities are renowned for their authority on the English language. You don’t need renowned – you need real-world conversation.)

This language school holiday option is much the same language learning method you’ve had your whole life but with field trips.

It’s a way,
but not the only way.

Language Course in the UK

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Pleasure

Nah. It feels like hard work with some breaks.

The accommodation is mediocre.

Definitely a ‘got to do’ not a ‘want to do.’

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Building an identity as an English user

Not much. It enforces feeling like a ‘learner.

It does not build confidence in English across professional contexts.

No quality cultural immersions.

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Language development & acquisition

Yes, you will make progress.

A week is a long time to dedicate to your English. As long as the classes are small*, and not too mixed level, and the teachers are good, you will make progress in English.

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You will make some tangible language progress...

…but you won’t fall in love with the city or language or the culture when you are being serviced like this.

It is hard work, expensive and it costs you a week of vacation time.

You risk getting sick and tired of English by this holiday! (Remember why you let it slip in the first place?)

Useful Resources:

#03
Real-World English Conversation Holidays

Eh? What’s this, you may be asking yourself. If you have never heard of this option, it is because it is not widespread.

We don’t pack 10 or 20 people a time into a program.

We create a Deep Travel experience just for you.

English Holidays in Scotland

There’s nothing quite like Blue Noun anywhere in the world.

There are no classrooms. Instead, we have a cosy space with sofas and books (and cats to cuddle – should you wish).

Our hub is in Perthshire, in a small-town community of some of the friendliest people in the world. The region has a spectacular natural landscape – but without high tourist numbers.

Perthshire is a destination for luxury hotels, outdoor sports, fishing, shooting, and golf, which doesn’t just mean lots of gorgeous landscapes for us to explore. It means there is a cultural dichotomy to discover through meeting locals and stakeholders with different perspectives and experiences.

This is what Deep Travel means. Not just looking at places but getting to know them.

What are the issues, the backstory? Who are the communities and what do they need?

Learn more about how Deep Travel Can Help Your English

Real-World English Conversation Holidays

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Pleasure

Excellent.

Feeling joy, being healthy and relaxing with nature are priorities.

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Building an identity as an English user

There’s no better way than a range of curated real-world conversations in which you want to talk, tell your stork and leave your mark here.

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Language development & acquisition

You will make progress, but it is not forced. (It’s the difference between cramming for an exam and learing a subject you care about).

We don’t see how much new stuff you can absorb in a week.

We see how comfortable and accurate you can get in your existing English, and celebrate it.

Only this makes lasting English progress.

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Lose Your English Anxiety

The result of our holidays is that the anxiety you feel about speaking English has gone: you can think about what you want to say and speak well, with ease.

For all the people who lose sleep over making presentations in English, that’s priceless.