Learning a Language Through Immersion

Have you ever wondered why you have not made much progress in a language, but have studied it extensively in school? Have you ever told yourself that you are “not good at languages?” If you answered yes to either, or to both of those questions, I hope that you gain a few words of wisdom from this post. As some of you may have already read in previous posts, I have always considered myself to be shy. It has taken me my entire life to slowly start pushing myself out of my comfort zone to start interacting with more people. As time has passed, I have learned to embrace making mistakes and to learn from them (feel free to read my post “Being Afraid of Making Mistakes in Another Language” if you want to know how you can get rid of your fear of being wrong when speaking a new language).

 

I believe that immersion has enabled me to make the most amount of progress in any language than all of the other methodologies that I have ever tried combined. This is the case, because it is not a traditional way of learning a language. Instead of memorizing tables, or vocabulary by using flashcards with the words in English on one side and with their translations on the other, you learn how to communicate and to understand what others are saying from the very beginning, which should be your end goal when learning any modern language. It is great if you can memorize the conjugations of the verb “ser” in Spanish, which means “to be”, but if you cannot say fluid sentences using this verb when speaking, that you have ultimately failed to do what your original intention was. This does not make you less smart than others, but it does give you a red flag that you should try to change your methodology.

As the video above says, you could consider my methodology of improving the languages that I already speak an “artificial immersion”, which I create for myself from the comfort of my room in college, or at home. What I mean by that is that I go out of my way, and create a schedule in which I incorporate several languages into my everyday life. What is amazing about this century is the fact that we have the world at our hands, and information at our fingertips with the simple click of a button. There are no longer any excuses to not be able to supplement, or to completely teach yourself a language from scratch. I argue that the most effective methodology is through immersion. 

What I do is I try to find articles, watch the news, watch YouTubers (feel free to read my post titled “Listen to YouTubers in Your Target Language” if you want to get suggestions on which foreign YouTubers I like to watch the most), and listen to music in my target languages. I watch films whenever I have time, especially in the languages that I am close to fluent in, as films are the ultimate test to whether or not you can understand idioms, regionalisms, dialects, and more complex vocabulary words and sentences. Keep in mind that you do not have to spend more than an hour a day per language if you do not have the time, or do not want to do so. It is oftentimes more effective to spend time on your target language for less time. What matters most is not the quantity, but rather the quality of how you spend your time.

Since I have not had a class in German since my senior year in high-school, I have spent most of my free time perfecting my German. I find that watching videos by German YouTubers has been the most effective method and has been the best use of my time so far. By doing so, I pick up words by associating words with sounds, or objects with their names. It is also a more organic and authentic way to review or to learn vocabulary, sentences, and idiomatic expressions, as they speak at a native pace. It is not rigid, or meant for language learners, but rather for people who live in countries whose native language is my target language. I also find it more rewarding when I understand 90% of what is being said after having done this for over a year, because I know that they speak at a normal native pace in their videos.

I also enjoy listening to songs in German, and looking up unknown words. The more times that listen to a song, the more words that I can sing by heart, and the more times that I look up words, the more words that I can understand. I also have my phone in German, so I am constantly reading in it, without making a conscious effort to do so. The little things and changes that you make are what count, not necessarily the amount of hours that you spend trying to cram information into your head. Consistency is a tip that you should take away from this. In other words, make yourself listen to what Germans would do or listen to in Germany instead of finding Rosetta Stone where everything is translated into your mother tongue. The sooner you make yourself start thinking, writing, reading, and speaking in the language in an immersive environment, the more comfortable you are going to feel about your capabilities.

Another way to immerse yourself that is a little harder to do is by attending a foreign language immersion camp, institute, or university for as little as a week up to a few years. It is ultimately up to you to decide how much time you would be willing to invest in assisting one of these programs. By interacting with locals, or with other students who are there to learn a common language, it will be less likely that you speak in, say English, if you do not share that common language. I went to Concordia Language Villages for 4 summers in Bemidji, Minnesota and had the privilege of going to 4 different language villages (French, German, Italian, and Russian) whose methodology was to be immersed in your target language from the moment in which you wake up until you go to sleep. I will write a post about my experience there in a few weeks, so be sure to stay tuned for it. I am also going to go to an institute soon, and am excited to share my experiences in a few months. Feel free to read my post “Taking Classes in Multiple Languages: My Experience and Advice” if you want to know how I immersed myself in several languages during this academic school-year in college.

Ultimately, it is up to you to decide how you want to perfect your language skills, but I encourage you to ask yourself whether or not you have been satisfied with your progress so far using another methodology, and to strongly consider starting to think of ways in which you can start to make languages a part of your life. It is a lot easier than you may think, and you will be amazed with the results that you will get over time. I can say that after 2 years of watching YouTubers in German, I can now understand at least 90% of what I watch. This is because I have consistently watched them, and have made myself learn about topics in which I am interested in languages that are not my mother tongues.

Being Afraid of Making Mistakes in Another Language

Ironically, I believe that what hinders, and discourages most people from continuing to make progress with a language is making the mistake of not making mistakes. By the end of this post, I hope to convince you that what has kept you from moving from one level of language learning to the next is the fact that you have been too scared of being wrong. Believe me, I used to be one of the shyest girls in my grade, and rarely voluntarily raised my hand to volunteer, or to ask questions. Many people often discourage others to raise their hands, or to ask questions unless they know the right answers. In school, I always wanted to be right, and wanted to impress my classmates by answering complex questions.

This is where I went wrong. I was always expecting perfection. I gave myself unrealistic, and high expectations. I would easily become frustrated, and would tell my parents that 10, or more years of French had been useless. If this situation sounds similar to yours, do not be worried. Luckily, I have learned that we cannot expect perfection, not even those of us who are OCD, or are perfectionists. If we expect to not make any mistakes when speaking, or dealing with aspects of our target language, we will automatically fail. Even though I am technically considered a native English speaker, English was my second language, and I rarely ever speak it at home, putting me at a disadvantage from most of my classmates. But even so, I have clarified grammar points, or how to spell words to people who are native English speakers. This shows that even native speakers can make mistakes. That is the beauty of being human: learning from our mistakes, and pushing ourselves to our limits.

Instead, what I encourage you to do is to try to speak every time that you get a chance to do so. If you have not already done so, and have studied a language for years, it is never too late to start doing so. What Benny Lewis (the famous polyglot that I have already mentioned) has said is that language is used to communicate and to share ideas with others. If you can write, and read in a language well, that is impressive, but if you cannot understand its native speakers, or speak it, then you have failed to do what a language is meant to do. Let’s compare languages to math (a subject that I was never good at). If you memorize an equation and know for what it is used, but you cannot apply it to real-world situations, then it is as if you did not know the equation. Language-learning requires you to step out of your comfort zone, and to learn from your mistakes.

Being a native Spanish speaker, there have been many times in which my friends have wanted to practice their Spanish with me. In my opinion, those who have done so successfully are not the ones who had perfect grammar, or who used complicated vocabulary to try to impress me. Instead, those who made grammar or vocabulary mistakes, or who translated words literally from English to Spanish are the ones who were brave. Why? The reason is simple. They were willing to say what they knew, and spoke to me in a natural way. Native speakers also pause, and sometimes have to think about what they want to say the way that they want to say it, but that is part of communication. What matters is that you are trying, that you are willing to learn from your mistakes, and then correct them. Being fearless is what separates bad language-learners from exceptional ones.

Before ending this post, I will share a small anecdote to hopefully inspire you to start speaking your target language as often as possible, even with native speakers. I started taking German I as a sophomore in high-school, and had hopes to someday reach the AP level. At the time, I was trying to do this on a whim, and forgot about this goal for a long time. When I went to a language immersion camp for a month-long high-school credit program, I was attempting to learn enough German in order to skip German II, and move on to Honors German III as a junior. At first, the task was daunting. I was placed into the third level out of six after only taking German for a school-year, and having little to no writing or speaking practice.

There were several people in my group who had taken German for 2 years, a girl who had taken it for 4 years, and a boy who had gone to the camp for 3 years. I was definitely the underdog in the group, but pushed myself out of comfort zone every day. I asked my teacher clarification questions, and used the little vocabulary, and grammar that I knew. By the end of the session, I had only spoken in German from breakfast through dinner time for 10 days (a language pledge that you could choose to do), something that I would have never imagined of accomplishing. How did I manage to learn so much in such a short amount of time? I was fearless. I was brave, and made many mistakes. I conjugated verbs incorrectly, and blanked on words, but could not freely express myself, and used what I knew.

I had girls in my cabin who had had years of practice with the language, which only pushed me to keep on learning more. The first day of camp, I could barely formulate a sentence. One of my friends claims that she could not understand what I was trying to say that day. However, by the end of the camp, I could easily communicate with girls who had gone to the camp for 10 years. This shows that speaking is the most important aspect of a language. Do not worry, and take a few deep breaths. Speaking is not as scary as it seems. Native speakers are not trying to look down upon you. Instead, we want to encourage you to keep on striving to reach your language-learning goals.