Speaking to locals: Tips for students learning English in London

Here are some tips on how to practise English language skills by talking to locals while studying in London. From joining a club and volunteering to shopping and speed dating, this guide gives advice on how to improve your ability to speak English.

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Learning English in London gives students the perfect opportunity to try out their new language skills with locals. This can seem difficult, as life in any capital city can be a bit anonymous. Meeting new people can appear tricky when everyone’s in such a rush. That’s where this guide comes in.

Here are five tips on how to get chatting with locals and practise your language skills:

Join a club

Joining a club is a great way to meet like-minded individuals. By signing up to a sports club, craft group or music appreciation society, you’ll not only get to enjoy your hobby, you’ll also get to try out your English language skills in an informal setting.

There are also online clubs that enable groups with similar interests to arrange to meet up in person in London. Sites like City Socialising give Londoners the chance to find others with shared interests. By hanging out with locals who already have something in common with you, you will find conversation flows more easily.

Volunteer

Another way to meet locals in a casual way is to volunteer. This can be a few hours a week at a homeless shelter helping out in the soup kitchen, or assisting at a week-long music festival.

From planting trees to cleaning up public areas, volunteering gives you the opportunity to spend time with locals, give something back and practise your language skills.

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Go shopping

Chatting with sales assistants in shops will help you expand your vocabulary. This also goes for eating in cafes and restaurants. Whenever you get an opening to chat to someone, take it!

You can make these often short exchanges into much longer, more detailed conversations if you take advantage of the personal shopper service available in various stores such as Topshop.

This service is usually free of charge. It will not only enable you to improve your English language ability, it will also give you the option of expanding your wardrobe to look like a local too!

Try speed dating

If you want to chat with a lot of people in a short amount of time, speed dating is an option! As the conversations are brief, you will get to improve your ability to speak about subjects like your hobbies and interests with many locals.

Take a friend along to a reputable event and you might even meet someone special. Even if you don’t improve your love life, you will have improved your English language skills!

Smile!

Whatever situation you find yourself in, if you smile you will find locals are much more likely to chat with you. Whether you’re looking for English classes or French, Spanish or Portuguese classes, London has a wealth of courses.

When you study at an English language school in London, you will make friends and get the chance to enjoy all of the capital’s delights.

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Resource Box

Visit London

London’s official promotional site with tourist information about what to do in the capital.

Team London

The Mayor of London’s programme for volunteering opportunities in the city.

Time Out London

Information for tourists and locals about the arts, culture and entertainment scene in London.