This Is What Happened When I Studied Abroad with No Speaking Skill of English.

Felt I am useless like I got back to being a six-year-old kid or less…

When I first went to the US for college, I barely could speak English. I couldn't even introduce myself to others smoothly. "Hello. I am Nutmeg from Japan. Nice to meet you." That's all I could say for myself.

Even Worse, I couldn’t understand any parts of what they said back to me. So I had never been able to have a deep conversation at least for the first six months. 

Took so much time on practicing English alone

The truth is that you won't be able to make your English better automatically even if you were in the US. It takes time and efforts. Imagine that you don't know words and how to pronounce. Then, just listening to native English would be the same as listening to some magic spells. 

I read vocabulary books and watched so many YouTube in English to learn how to pronounce and build up my listening skill. All I did was I could have done in Japan if I had enough motivation.  

Missed a lot of opportunities

While I was doing that, others got so much more experiences. They got a job, made lots more friends, joined in club activities and something like that. Being able to speak the local language is essential to live active and meaningfully looking back on the experience. I still wish I could study harder before going to the US. 

Better to improve the speaking skill before you go abroad

If you read through up to here, you easily could understand what I am saying. It is very very important to have a decent level of the local language to maximize experiences that you could get. But I won't stop you from going abroad even if you are not studying English before you go. Taking actions matters too. If I didn't take action at that time, I won't be here now.