For the 6 weeks in Nantes, I lived with a host family. They were an older couple who lived in a small apartment in the middle of the city. They did not speak English, but they wanted to know everything about me. So I did what I had to in order to survive.

As dramatic as this sounds, I loved it. I took every opportunity I could to practice my French and to learn new terms. I thought I knew everything about the language, but I soon realized I didn’t even know the words for “fork” or “spoon.” Until then, I had no reason to – these weren’t words I used in the classroom, but these were words I needed to know for everyday life.

Vocabulary was a major part of what I learned, but it didn’t stop there. I learned daily routines and what a typical meal looks like. I learned how to show love and what annoyance is expressed as. I learned French humor and sarcasm and that swearing is actually okay. And I also learned how to shop and dine-out during the week versus the weekends.

These aspects of my time abroad can be taught in classrooms, but they cannot be fully understood until you are put in them every single day. They are raw and they are real, and they may be uncomfortable to experience, but they are necessary to take part in if you truly want to master a language. Language is not just the words a person writes or speaks, but how he or she interacts with the world. My language skills could never have been fully developed if I had not been immersed in the daily-lives of the French.