[miyudreams]

When you work in or travel to another country speaking another language that you don't know, it feels like you are really left out. Doing anything requires more effort. You feel lost and confused. Not understanding when your coworkers speak their language eventually becomes frustrating. Of course in this case, you're out for an adventure and new learning experiences, so it's not the same as actually be physically deaf.

[mrspeaker]

I'm not deaf (actually, one of my ears doesn't work, but hey...) but I understand completely what this guy says about feeling like he's missing out on everything - I moved to a France to work, and my French is... poor.

Everyone speaks English, but only to me. Figuring out what's going on at a high level is really difficult (me: "Where is everyone going?" them: "To the new office." me: "WTF? We have a new office?!") but worse is missing out on all the in-jokes and messin' around. I'm not saying it's the same thing as being deaf, but it turns out that stuff is pretty important.

[phatbyte]

You should consider doing a french language intensive course, also, try to get out of the house as much as possible and talk to people and friends.

The best way to learn a new language for me it's to talk to the natives daily, even if you don't understand anything first :P. Good luck