Episode 14: Navigating Language Learning Abroad - Interview with Sarah Knight

In this episode, I sit down with guest Sarah Knight from Language Immersion Abroad, who shares her experience navigating life as an immersion program student in France. Sarah shares her discovery of immersion as a way to learn a language and how being part of a host family in the U.S. inspired her to take the immersion leap for herself. She brings us through the emotional and linguistic process of living in an intense immersive environment, including unexpected challenges and how she worked through them without losing herself. Even though our immersive experiences are different, Sarah skillfully describes thoughts and feelings about living abroad that I have never been able to put into words, showing that we're never alone in our experiences and that tapping into our subset of the language community to share stories and experiences is valuable, inspiring, and healing.

While her experience was in an immersion program in the country, Sarah explains the concept of an immersion spectrum, allowing me to identify my experience along the spectrum. We compare and contrast various aspects of our diverse experiences learning a language while living abroad, talk about the role of family in our language choices, and what we envision for the language community. Sarah is on a mission to use her experience as an immersion student to build support and community for others going through or thinking about immersion. She values connection within the language community and wants to share all the facets of language immersion, both the exciting aspects and the challenges, in order to support and build strength amongst those living abroad.

WHERE TO FIND SARAH:
You can follow more of Sarah’s journey on Instagram @languageimmersionabroad, where she shares insights, tips, and stories about living immersed.