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Hello, everyone. I'm Robin and welcome to my video.
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Don't Study English in Vancouver
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Why am I making this video?
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Well, I'm making this video for my Korean students.
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Ok
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Now I'm Canadian and I've traveled through... throughout Canada
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and I visited many of my Korean students and I saw how they studied English in Canada.
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And also many of my students have gone to Canada for six months...
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one year... two years to study English and comeback and I've talked with them.
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So, I learned a lot about studying English in Canada.
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And what I learned is don't study here.
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Ahh, Vancouver and Toronto. These are the bigger cities in Canada.
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And I'm going to say don't study English in Vancouver.
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and...don't study English in Toronto.
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because...of the students...ahh... that I've seen, and there's been a lot, that went to Canada
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and studied for six months or a year and they came back.
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Ahh...I've noticed that students that studied English in Vancouver and Toronto...
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their English was not as good as my students that studied in smaller Canadian cities.
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Ok, so I'm going to talk a little bit of maybe 'why' that happens.
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And before...uh...I talk about the 'why', we should understand if you plan to go to Canada...
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Uh...you should have a primary goal.
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Now up here I have an example of two goals.
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Improve my English speaking ability.
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Have a great travel experience. Ok.
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Both of these are good goals.
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There's probably other goals but we should identify the primary goal.
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The first goal and the first goal I think should always be number one.
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When we go to Canada, we want to improve our English ok we want to go there for one year...
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...come back. And we speak English...uh...very well.
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You know it's very embarrassing if you...your parents
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spend a lot of money to send you to Canada... you go there and you come back
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and there's only a little bit of improvement.
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So our first goal should be improve our English
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So every decision we make, should be to help the first goal.
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Of course in Canada, wherever you go in Canada, you will have a great travel experience.
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So understanding our first goal... do not study English in Vancouver...
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...or Toronto.
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All right, we should also think about what kind of friends we want to meet in Canada.
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Ahh...Toronto and Vancouver...
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Uh...they attract a lot of international students.
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ok so if you go to the language school...uh... or you're just walking around...uh...probably
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you're going to meet a lot of international students.
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These are going to be your friends. These are possibly going to be your roommates
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Again, we have some goals here. You want to go to Canada.
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You want to make Canadian friends.
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Ok, to improve your English.
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And you want to make international friends. This is good, too.
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...but again our primary goal should be - try to make Canadian friends. Ok?
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Again a lot of my students... they go to Canada... they go to Vancouver for one year
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They come back and they say " I have a lot of friends" and I asked them, "well
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"how many Canadian friends?' ...no...they have no Canadian friends. Ok...
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They have lots of new Korean friends. And they have lots of Japanese or Chinese friends.
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That's good, but we should try to make some Canadian friends because this
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will really help improve our English.
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Ok.
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Study here!
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Here are some better cities.
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Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa.
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Great cities to study English.
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and 'why?'
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Well problem one.
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There's too many..ah...k..k..Koreans...in Canada. Like when I say Koreans...
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there's a lot of koreans living in Canada. There's also a lot of Korean
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students going to Canada. And there's a lot of Korean tourists going to Canada.
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Now, I love Korea, and I love Koreans. But if you're going to Canada to study English
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or practice English.
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Ah...You don't want to be around a lot of Koreans
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cause you're just going to speak Korean more than you speak English.
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Ok, so it's very important to get away from the people who speak the same language as you.
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Ok. It's very tempting. After a long day, you're tired and you're sick of English
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to go play with your Korean friends. And on the weekend...
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play with your korean friends. Ok.You're not practicing your English.
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So, here are Canadian provinces, not all the Canadian provinces.
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Ontario... This is...ah...the province with Toronto and Ottawa.
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British Columbia. Vancouver. Victoria.
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So Toronto, Vancouver, don't study English there. You can see there's a lot of Koreans there.
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These are the Koreans that live there. Korean-Canadians.
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And again as I said, they're students and tourists.
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These are the cities I recommend. Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg.
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So you can see not many Koreans there. Good chance to practice your English
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Ok, another problem...the language schools.
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Now when you're in Korea, you probably go to the 어학원 [language school helpers] first.
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and you... you talk about studying English in Canada.
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And they might recommend Vancouver or Toronto.
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I hope you tell them: "No, no, no, I want to go to a smaller city."
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But when they recommend Vancouver or Toronto...ah...
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They might get some incentive, some something, you know, money from...
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Vancouver language schools and Toronto language schools. These are big language schools.
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They have a lot of students. They have a lot of...ah...money to try to get more students.
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So don't trust the [language school helpers] too much, ok?
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And the language schools in Vancouver, Toronto
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very big very professional. And they are a problem because...I put three reasons here.
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First reason, they make it too easy...for students.
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Ah... Another reason they steal your English-speaking experiences.
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I'll talk about this in a moment.
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And they control your money.
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Actually they control your time and money.
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So...
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Let's go back to the stealing. Language stealing.
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So if you go to the language school in Vancouver or Toronto,
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ahh...they're usual going to pick you up from the airport.
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They're going to help you finding housing.
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Ahh...they help...they help you make a bank account
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and they have some weekend events for Saturday, Sunday.
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And they offer some class trips .
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Ahh...and I'm going to say this is stealing your language experience.
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Remember you're going to Canada to improve your English.
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It's very important that you struggle and have a difficult time.
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That is where you're learning to speak English.
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So, for example, if you go to make a bank account by yourself,..
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wow, what a learning experience. You got to go open a bank account.
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You have to communicate what you need to the Canadian teller.
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And then you have a goal to accomplish.
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This is a really good learning experience.
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Not the 학원[language school] or the language school
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taking you to the bank and helping you do everything.
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And actually maybe you don't even speak any English.
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Same with the weekend and class trips, you're...you're at the language school you're in a class...
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most of your class, especially Vancouver 'n Toronto,...
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are going to be other Koreans. Ok.
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Ah...over fifty percent of your classmates are going to be other Koreans.
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You're going to have some international...uh...students there. Uh...Probably from Asia, Japan, China, Taiwan.
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You might have some European students - very few European students.
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Maybe some South American and there's a lot of Mexican students, too.
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Ah...great they're also great to improve your .English
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But, you know, they're controling your time and your money
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by offering their programs. You go out on a trip,
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you're...you're making friends and practicing English but really,
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your goal is to make Canadian friends and interact with Canadians.
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So I don't really like this system.
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Uh... It's ok, you know, it's ok. It works, but I want you to
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try a more difficult and better way to really improve your English.
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Alright, let's talk about Canada in a little more detail.
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This is Canada. I put the red pins: Vancouver, Toronto - Don't go there.
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Uh...I recommend middle Canada ...the middle area...the middle cities.
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So yeah. Vancouver and Victoria. Vancouver, Victoria - beautiful cities.
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Ok, if you go to Canada, you must visit Vancouver. There is a good reason why many Koreans go to
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Vancouver. It is beautiful. So, spend a week travelling in Vancouver. But again,
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Don't study English in Vancouver.
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Victoria very close to Vancouver. A lot of Koreans, but a better place
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to help improve your English.
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Ah...Alberta. Province of Alberta. Calgary, Edmonton.
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Perfect. These are perfect cities to study English. Ok.
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They're about a million people each.
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Uhm...Not many Koreans.
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Safe places. Ah...you would have a great experience in these cities.
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Saskatchewan. Saskatoon. Regina.
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I...I'll tell you I had a student who went to Regina for nine months.
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He said, he...he went to Regina. There was no Koreans. He was forced, he had to make
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Canadian friends. He came back his English was amazing.
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Ok. Just nine months in Regina.
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You know he really improved his English.
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And he loved Regina. Of course Regina is not a perfect city.
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But he had a great time there. And he made Canadian friends.
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Winnipeg..uh..getting really interior, in the center of Canada.
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Another good place to study English. I've had some students go there.
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It's a good place.
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Uh...Winnipeg.
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Uh...this area's... I'm not going to lie. A little bit cold.
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So if you do go to Winnipeg, dress warm.
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But that's part of the Canadian experience.
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Ah...this is the province of Ontario. This is where Ottawa and Toronto are.
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Now before I talk about Ottawa and Toronto, I'm just going to mention the East coast of Canada.
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There are some places... some good places to study English,
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but I'm sorry I don't have much information about these places.
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Ok... I... I haven't had many students that went to study out here.
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I haven't traveled so much in this area. So I'm sure there's good places in Eastern Canada,
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Uh... but I can't really recommend them today so I know about central Canada
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very well and I recommend this area.
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Alright, so, Ottawa, Toronto. Ottawa is the capital city of Canada.
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It's a beautiful city.
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I think it's okay to study English there. But Toronto - don't study English in Toronto.
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Too many... too many Koreans in this area. And Koreatown...uh... if you study in Toronto
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most your friends are going to be Korean and you're you're eating...uh... you know Korean
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food and doing Korean activities almost every day you know this is not part of
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the Canadian experience. Alright?
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Alright let's do a summary of what I've been telling you.
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Be sincere about your goals.
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Remember your goal should be - improve my English.
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That's your first goal.
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Make Canadian Friends.
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Alright, so all of your decisions focused on those things you have to achieve those things.
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So do not study English in Vancouver or Toronto. Ok? these are not good places to study English.
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They do not help your goals because there's too many Koreans in these cities.
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You are going to have a lot of Korean friends. You are going to go to Koreatown.
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You are going to be speaking more Korean than English
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Don't go there. They're great places to visit, but don't study English in Vancouver.
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Get out of the 어학원 [language school helpers] language school system.
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Uh...this is okay at first. I can understand why people might need this.
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but to spend one year in this system where they're controlling your time and
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money and your selection of friends... is only your classmates.
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Uh...you got to getaway from this all right.
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Uh...be brave. Be strong. You can do it. You can get out of the system and start
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interacting with Canadians and living in Canada.
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So that brings us to participate in Canadian culture.
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You're going to Canada (another country) to study English,
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but you have to participate. You have to live in Canada. So you have to do things
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Canadians do. And you have to join clubs. And join classes. Meet Canadians.
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Alright, this is really important to improve your English.
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Ah...of course you're going to have a great experience.
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You do not have to go to Vancouver or Toronto to have a great experience.
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You can go anywhere in Canada. I promise you. You will have a great experience.
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Ok? So, this goal is very easy. So, you do not have to study in Vancouver or Toronto.
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Alright. Some final words.
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Abroad is not the place to study,
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it's the place to practice, experiment with, and test your English.
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And you should think this way too. Korea...you go to the language school, you study from a
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course book...uhh.. you study from a teacher. But when you go to Canada, you should get
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away from the teachers get away from the course book this is your chance to use
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real English in real situations.
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This will make your English better. Alright? You will learn very fast if you start thinking this way.
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Get out of the classroom.
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Alright. Thank you. I hope this video helps you.
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And remember, don't study English in Vancouver.
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See you next time.
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If you enjoyed this video, let us know.
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Subscribe. Like the video.
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And I really like it when my viewers write English comments below.
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Take care.