Self Study and Language Immersion

Language, we already know, is best learned through immersion. Immersion generates assimilation. The best way I can describe what I know about immersion and assimilation is by comparing the information we receive about the new language with a stream of water, and the student with a sponge. Water will penetrate in the sponge and bath every room inside it. Now, our sponge will grow, and will keep growing without any boundaries.

Immersion is guaranteed to be there when we move to a place where nobody speaks our native language. But can we create an environment of immersion whenever we are not able to move to a our target language speaking country of choice? Although not extremely simple, this is feasible. Let's review some techniques to produce language immersion:

1) We can watch TV series and movies in the target language. For this to be done immersion-style we need to watch this TV programs at least for some four hours per day. Even without resorting to a dictionary, the sounds of foreign expressions will be recorded in our brains, often associated with specific situations. In this way, our mind links sound with ideas. The drawback of this method: broadcasting in languages that are not very popular in our country will usually be rare. The Internet allows us to bypass this problem, because there exist video clips and program streaming in several foreign languages. Then it turns to be a duty of the language learner to explore the web and spot all the websites offering this material.

2) Room and ware labeling. Although very appealing and fun, sticking labels on mirrors, light switches, doors, doorknobs, TV sets, home appliances, pictures, etc. is not a very powerful immersion technique. For those who are very motivated to learn, this technique will wear itself just a few days after starting, because the motivated learner assimilates this basic vocabulary very fast. On the other end of the gamut we have weakly motivated learners, and these usually won't get a catch of the new words even if the stick up notes are kept for one or two years. My advice: if these stickers are kept for several months, just get rid of them on the double. Because you either already know the names of the things tagged, or you don't and won't learn it by using the stuff labeling method.

3) Store information in index cards. Write words and phrases in index cards and store them in small plastic boxes. My choice are 3"x5" cards, and I keep them in Sterilite FlipTop boxes that can store 200 of them. But the amount of cards you write and store depends on your learning stage. I suggest to start writing 10 to 20 cards with the foreign names of nouns, verbs and expressions. Only after you master this first batch should you produce another 10 to 20 cards more. With this system, you are able to re-read any cards you wrote including the first ones. The more times you see your cards, your brain will more intensively record them, to your advantage.

Moving abroad and language learning

People who move to a country abroad can be classified in two different groups, when talking about language learning. The first group is composed by those who are eager to assimilate the new culture to some extent, while people from the second group always show very little interest in their new social environment, most likely longing the uses and ways of their native land. These attitudes mark the pace of progress on learning the new language. Those who enjoy socializing will interact more intensively with the natives of the visited country, and just because of this they will learn colloquial expressions that couldn't be found on books, but beyond that they will feel compelled to learn new words and phrases. These people do not always need to use a dictionary to learn new words, but they always will ask the meaning of them to other human beings. They are attentive when listening other people speak, and absorb every little bit of sound issued by those who already speak this new language. On the other side, people who, by their own volition, opt to strengthen bonds only with their own fellow nationals and disregard opportunities to talk with natives of the host country, usually reach a very narrow command of vocabulary and grammar.

Immersion is an idea often resorted to when pondering about the ways to accelerate language learning. But as we see, a long stay in a country abroad cannot be considered the basis for an immersion program. Moreover, I learned my Russian in an American city in Florida. Therefore, I didn't need to move to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to "get immersed". My immersion relied on "doing my homework" (a self imposed one, of course) by studying vocabulary and grammar, and then "immerse" by socializing with Russian friends and acquaintances.

The attitude towards socializing is as important a factor as motivation is, and perhaps overlapped in its nature to it. Naturally, if one is opposite to any socialization with people from the host country, their language skills will stagnate. If somebody lacks a powerful drive to socialize (I myself am not that extrovert), then he can build his moves towards socializing on his own motivation to learn the language. In this case, although this person is not an absoulte extrovert (again, that's me!) he will act social as a way to practice his freshly acquired language skills. When we socialize in a host country, besides making lots of friends we also strenghten our new language skills.