Stop speaking your mother tongue!

I think the best way to learn a language is stop speaking your mother tongue. It could seem a pointless statement when you live in your country already, but I have seen the same pattern hundreds of times and I am seeing it once again here in Graz. Many Spanish students spend all their time complaining about how hard German or English is. Actually no language is easy to learn, but everyone should take this opportunity of being in another country and try to speak the foreign language as much as possible. And this is what I am doing here in Graz. At first it was very difficult to get used to living in another country and speaking in the foreign language. I felt very sad, because after so many years studying German I wasn’t able to say anything in German. However I remembered I went through a similar situation when I came to Spain. I knew no Spanish and nothing about this country. But I learned some vocabulary and tried to put it into practice with native speakers.  First I spoke very poor, but I didn’t care, because I knew I would gradually improve my level. So when I came to Graz I thought I could follow the same strategy with German and English. Today I try to speak my mother tongue as less as possible. I found many foreign friends and I speak with them only in English or German and I think is the best way to learn a language.