Improving English and making international friends with Meetup

A challenge that many people - like me - face when they come to an English-speaking country is to adapt to the language. Of course, to be accepted in a university in the UK I've done a proficiency test, but I was still struggling with the language after around 9 months living here.

I have been doing all that things that everybody says to you to avoid when you go study in another country: make only friends from the same country which you come from, continue listening musics from your country and reading books in your language. The result was that I was deeply upset with myself about not having achieved the level of English I expected when I came here.

Everything changed the day I discovered Meetup.com . The website's purpose is to connect people with the same interests within an area. For example, you can search for people who like board games, in your neighbourhood or city. Or photography. Or... languages, of course! Then, you can enter as many groups you want and go to the meetings organised by them. Many of them are free, other charge a nominal fee to attend. I had never heard about it, but since that day when a friend of mine told me about the website, my life here totally changed.

I can't count how many meetings I've been so far, but the experiences I had were all fantastic. I've experienced both free and paid events and they worth it. Personally, the groups I like more are The London English conversation group ( paid English lessons with a native and amazing teacher), Babble Exchange (meeting in a pub, you can improve any language you want), Ken's London Walks (£2 per a guided walk in different places in London) and London Let's Click (free and paid workshops).

The advice I can give you is not to look only for those groups related to language, even if your main purpose is to improve your language skills. The problem with language groups is that most of people who attend them probably are not native speakers as well. I know you can learn with people from other country as well, but - for me - it's so much funnier to practice my English with British people, while we go on a stroll in a park or in a photography tour around London.

Give it a try!