Active vs. Passive Immersion: What's the Ideal Ratio?

[@Miksu__]

I like videos like these where you just answer one question thoroughly

[@NukeMarine]

Agreed. Great job on improving the output of content through division of labor.

[@minc33]

Also agreed!

[@shashanksetty8110]

Also he's looking more lively and happier.

[@Shizuww]

The video starts at 0:00

[@adityasinghkshatri2199]

Impossible

[@canhedotricks6078]

cries in ads

[@kaylaautry5348]

Can you time stamp the ending to? I can't find it ;(

[@yosoymeyes]

Thank you man.❤️

[@Hiro04]

thanks

[@japanrain7436]

you know sht gets real when Matt is not in his chair but in front of the camera

[@JayAreAitch]

Well I mean he's normally in front of a camera

[@NukeMarine]

@@JayAreAitch "I know these things." - Mark Zuckerberg

[@kazuma_706]

J H I guess he meant “standing in front of the camera”

[@daysandwords]

Exactly. Thanks for explaining it in such specific terms (and shout out to the editor who put that diagram of French in there!) I read a book called 80/20 Running, which explains the basic idea that it is best to run slowly a lot more often than you run quickly (even if your goal is to get faster) and it basically says the the one big advantage of slow running is that you can do a LOT more of it, and it also explains that even if you only run fast 10% of the time, your slow running is then much more beneficial. So slow running = passive immersion, fast = active. I found that when I did a lot of active immersion in Swedish, and then went for a run with my headphones, I could follow the book that I was listening to basically word for word, and I'd never been able to for two years before that.

[@mattvsjapan]

Great connection with the running!

[@JustinArmstrongsite]

@@mattvsjapan Honestly, there feels like a huge overlap between physical exercise/working out and language learning.

[@jamesfilios6138]

Damn... Bradley Cooper ran all the way through the "why you still can't understand your target language" video into this one.

[@philipwellsrealestate]

Haha yeah I also had flashbacks

[@k.5425]

Yeah,😂😂

[@sprink7068]

+20 for passive immersion on the basis of Bradley Cooper's graceful running aesthetic.

[@Conversationswithtony]

Glad to see this channel is getting more attention. Your hard work is paying off. In no time this channel will absolutely have over 100k subs

[@Makiaveliiste]

Let's be selfish and keep our secrets low-key 😡

[@NotSoMelancholy]

This question has literally been on my mind all week. Man, you don’t know how great it is to see this video right now.

[@gordonbgraham]

For input to be "comprehensive" a high level of repetition is necessary, just as with native speaker babies/toddlers. Mothers don't talk to their infants about the uptick in the economy, but repeat phrases such as "are you hungry" "time for bed" etc. over and over again until the associative action of being fed or put to bed clicks. Second language learners can expedite the process by building vocabulary and learning sentence structures via textbooks. Textbook learning is also "comprehensive input". Put a 3 year old native speaker up against an adult 2nd language learner who has studied diligently for a year, and the 2nd language learner's ability to communicate on a variety of topics, such as the economy, politics etc. will exceed that of the native speaker toddler. In other words, textbook learning expedites acquisition.

[@mckaythayn7060]

This is a pretty important aspect of immersion. It’s very misunderstood because too many people think that they can just passive immerse their way to fluency. I fell into this trap a couple years ago when I was working 50+ hours at a farm. I had the chance to have headphones in while I worked but because of school I had a little time to do active study or listening. After several months I made a tiny bit of progress but not as much as I was hoping. Passive -background listening is important but it would take a truck load to replace active immersion plus Anki.

[@The1234hgj]

During my process of learning English, one of the periods during which my skills improved the most was when I basically only passively listened. I simply couldn't sit down and pay full attention to things, but I managed to fit in a few hours of podcasts/audiobooks/described movies every day and it did pay off. My listening, most of all, improved a lot. My vocabulary not as much, since I made few flashcards and only occasionally looked a word up in a dictionary or something.

[@mcmodmod5533]

Makes sense.

[@Makiaveliiste]

For the most part yes. However, active immersion can be very tiring and kill all the pleasure. Active immersion feels like work. Doing too much of it can be demotivating..

[@ReReChan]

@@Makiaveliiste Unless you're doing active immersion on something you're interested on or that you personally enjoy. I personally enjoys talkshows in my TL and I would spend hours watching them, researching words that I don't know so I can understand them better and as the result, I would remember words a lot quicker cos I would hear it repeatedly. It doesn't feel work for me cos seriously, this is the only work I'm doing in terms of studying my TL.

[@GypsyCurls]

This is a topic I keep coming back to again and again. I cannot wait until I have become "fluent" in my TL, so that I will know how it actually worked out for me. I feel that this works and would work because you and others that have gone "through" says it is so. It is why I keep chugging forward because you KEEP reiterating it. Thank you!

[@bakapaws]

love how we literally just talked about this on call a few days ago and now you made a video. appreciate it as always!!!

[@soggyRATUwU]

I love the editing. It seriously helps my brain absorb the information.

[@Carlos-zz9he]

Matt hired an editor, but there is not a single cut in the video... LOL. Every word in here is gold. The lights and colors worth the new editor! :)

[@MuEnViFitness]

I like to think like this in any skill you want to improve and it's the next: "Do as much as you can do in an active manner and the rest in passive"

[@MituButChi]

Can you guys please make CC for MIA videos? I'm a non-native English speaker, I understand about 80% of your videos, but sometimes it's hard to follow. I think it will help us, non-native speakers a lot if you guys have CC. I believe there are many who are like me (or even understand less than me) watching these videos. Thanks a lot.

[@RonaldMcPaul]

Same hand gesture over the years for active and passive immersion 10/10

[@Tehui1974]

Straight to the point. No waffle. Traits of a good video.

[@diariosdelextranjero]

Simple and sensible.

[@wolfemooney7188]

PLEASE do more Q&A videos. They're super fun to listen to podcast-style. Great video!

[@CalebJacobsYoutube]

Sub to his Patreon man, there is so much good stuff on there. Totally worth it

[@Nemo37K]

Howdy, Just wanted to say that I really appreciate your work. Initially, I was a little turned off by your RTK v Wanikani video (I've been finding great success with WK in picking up Kanji), but I've really come to respect your approach and your work ethic since watching more of your content and interviews. I visited MIA and since changing my country to Japan on youtube per the pages recommendation, and watching Japanese videos that trend (passively) for about an hour, I've found my ability to perceive Japanese words has increased precipitously. Now, I'm picking up various words in the wild while doing active immersion with anime in addition to my grammar and kanji work. That is to say, thank you. And I can attest to the MIA approach thus far, in the limited capacity in which I have done it. Arigato gozaimasu (no IME keyboard on the computer I'm using) and best of luck on on your Chinese Studies!

[@polyglotpengyou]

Yep, simple and sensible

[@宮本亮-p1y]

俺みたいな英語学習者だとMattの動画見ることで方法論も勉強できるし英語もインプットできるから一石二鳥 Thank you Matt

[@coconutpineapple2489]

私も英語勉強してます。パッシブとアクティブの違いが聞き取れなかった。 Me too. I didn't understand the most important part which difference between passive and active.

[@shimewaza]

@@coconutpineapple2489 アクティブイマージョンとはターゲットランゲージ（coconut pineappleさんの場合は英語）の勉強（コンテンツを聞いたり、本を読んだりすること）のみをすること。同時に他のことはしない。つまり、聞いたり読んだりしている内容に完璧に集中出来るはずだ。一方、パッシブイマージョンとは他のアクティビティ（例えば、部屋の掃除、運動、料理など）をやりながら、英語を聞くこと。聞いている内容に集中できる程度は常に変動しているからアクティブほど効果的じゃないんだけど何もしないよりましというのをMattさんは言っているね。

[@coconutpineapple2489]

shimewaza ご丁寧に、ありがとうございます。(^^)

[@宮本亮-p1y]

​@@coconutpineapple2489 Why don't you watch it with subtitles and understand 100% what he is saying first and then you can do passive listening by watching the same video more than twice. お互いがんばりましょう！

[@coconutpineapple2489]

@宮本亮 自動字幕出ないよ～。他のKZbinrは出るけど。 (^^)

[@slickeye3418]

Gotta say, your video presentation has improved over the years and the quality is damn amazing. Keep up the good work!!

[@penthoy]

Matt's power level is so high that you can see bright aura coming out from below him.

[@mikagaphelochiusiwa9195]

Man I love the music he always has in his vids

[@jennifermarea8011]

I get sooooo excited when you post. I'm immersing at least 10 hours a day with Korean and it's it's been helping a lot. You have the best language advice out of anyone I've seen before

[@ClowdyHowdy]

Always good to see other Korean MIAers in the wild!

[@theblackryvius6613]

The rare short Matt vs Japan video. Blessed

[@RayZin]

I’ve been listening to Japanese music where the lyrics are clear and concise. Do you think that’s a good idea ? When ever I’m going to sleep, I like to listen to music

[@azaya8782]

Can I just say as someone who hasn't watched you in a while but used to watch back 2 years ago, your quality of production is so much better, better editing, more pleasing to the eye stock footage and graphs, better camera and script, also you standing up seems to make it a lot more enjoyable to watch but I'm not sure why

[@DanielGuaba]

Sometimes I find myself wanting to do active immersion by watching TV but it gets tempting to stop and look things up. It can be time consuming, so I make it a point to switch off at times to actively look things up versus just turning off subtitles and just watching the show as a show and not thinking too much about what I miss. Like Matt said, passive immersion is better than nothing and at times like that I think it can help prevent getting burned out by finding balance

[@theexaltedlt8222]

I finally get a chance to watch of new video of yours! I have spent so much time just watching old ones and doing MIA.

[@zalambdalestes7394]

I can relate to this concept. Watching one video of Matt vs Japan while sitting on a toilet (multitasking) is more beneficial that watching no video at all.

[@catboyhole]

Great vid!!! I'm loving the more frequent uploads!

[@anonikamous]

Do you have any Podcast recommendations, and/or do you know where to find audiobooks in Japanese? Glad to see your channel is finally getting some love.

[@nootics]

There's a podcast on various topics, no particular theme, called hiikibiiki but it has been discontinued. All the episodes are still up tho, around 270. hkbk.fm It's a man and a woman just sitting down for an hour or two each episode talking about various things they find interesting. One episode has been about VR gaming, something about iphone, but also driving and marriage. There's a lot of immersion goodness here as far as it goes for podcasts

[@paulwalther5237]

Audible Japan has a pretty good selection of audio books in Japanese. The site is pretty easy to navigate too even with just basic Japanese skills because it is pretty intuitive.

[@anonikamous]

nootics Yes! I listen to them. They’re great 😌 Thank you!

[@anonikamous]

paul walther thank you! I also found an app, Himalaya, that makes it easier to search for podcasts in Japanese.

[@ketchup901]

虫眼鏡の放送部

[@Milark]

damn the new editor is really killing it,

[@mdmahfuzurrahman7722]

This is an awesome video, I was thinking of the answers for a few days. Love this, now got clear what to do.

[@ee-einfachestetisch68]

Thank you. I was using active immersion, when I was watching you.

[@samsworld1770]

Hey Matt, can you make a video on how long should we immerse ( especially active immersion with videos ) before pausing and doing something else to let the mind process what you just watched ( because progress is being made when you're not watching videos And when you're watching videos so what is the ideal ratio ). Like so he can see it.

[@azathoth4237]

The only relevant study that has proven this is what lead to the pomodoro technique. The quickest way to create measured improvement is to spend 25 minutes active learning, 5 minutes break, over and over. This technique got me through college. It's only effective if your brain is active, so if you can keep focused for longer than 25 minutes adjust as appropriate.

[@littlefishbigmountain]

Like usual, this video is on point 👌 Matt really earns his thumbs on this channel

[@Slyngbom]

woah! really like those animations - super professional :)

[@austinheadrick]

The quality of your newer video seems to have gone up a lot! Like the light coming from behind you 👍 Looking forward to the next video!

[@gregwiggins]

Great points. I definitely underestimate passive listening sometimes. Going to make a point to do more of it now.

[@EvaYohane]

Thanks for another informative video Matt.

[@oscardavilayt]

Keep doing these short videos instead of 2 hour long talks, it is way better! Thank you for sharing your knowledge :)

[@mattvsjapan]

Some ideas can be condensed into 5 minutes, others require more time to fully flesh out. Also, I've only have ONE video 2 hours long on my entire channel.

[@paulwalther5237]

Some of us appreciate the 2 hour marathon discussions haha.

[@JosephLosper]

I was listening to terrace house today while making key lime pie and i was thinking about this exact question!!! Great timing 😀

[@mohamedkhiar3455]

Thank you.

[@gonzalomelano8002]

Good video. In my view, the problem with immersion is that you can´t learn new words, whereas it works excellent for reviewing material that you´ve already learned by active immersion or a similar material.

[@coconutpineapple2489]

I had turned on AFN 24hours. AFN is English radio station for US army. I wasn't interested in speaking English. 10years later, I visited Hawaii, I didn't understand their English at all. Active leaning is good for advanced learners. I know he is just talking about ratio.

[@luica9024]

Good video as always Matt!

[@zbdfhg]

Thanks for this

[@justakathings]

This has nothing to do with the video (I think) but I wanted to know what review or revise was in korean. So I got a hanja to hangul changer to change the Japanese 復習 to korean (bc ik korean used to use hanja and with my background of Japanese it would stick more). And it came up with 복습 (bokseub) with the same characters and after that I saw it SO often and I never forgot it. Actually I lied it does have something to do with it, but imo the passive immersion is there to solidify words in your brain, that you looked up or studied either from a book or from active immersion, so you don’t forget it. But I found that crazy tho

[@m.gsilva]

It was get to the point. Great video man. 👍

[@ラオーフ]

watching this while passive immersion. i really appreciate your. but i want to add something. For me trying to understand inputs and mass immersion wasn't difficult because i already learned English as second language so i understand how to learn a language now. however, for native English speakers this might be new stuff for them. So because how KZbin works they randomly find your videos and watch your videos in random order and might get overwhelmed and confused with your old long videos. so i think it would be beneficial for you and beginners to make a new series summarizing key points about MIA. so KZbin recommend your channel better.

[@Amanda-qe5lj]

brabissimo

[@elitewarrior4230]

I'm loving the beard, please keep it.

[@trenttrent3298]

Been doing MIA. Going great. I think.

[@sadade32]

I have found personally that taking a break from immersion i.e. not always doing passive when able to can clear my mind and make me more focused during the times I do active immersion so personally it at least feels like sometimes no immersion can be better than passive immersion for that reason.

[@icarus33]

Greatt video broo!

[@ryouxgaming2088]

Back at it again

[@beskeptic]

Very good!

[@FilipP88]

Damn , it would be cool if we really had those points haha Would be so easy to keep track of progress Great video Matt, quality stuff from the new editor 👌

[@manuperez6698]

Great job Matt!!! keep it up :)

[@6647-v3p]

I tend to skip the passive immersion when i get the chance to do it as if it not gonna really help like the active, but thanks for this video it's sure better than nothing

[@louislang3011]

thank you, this is very usefull!

[@bilc3868]

Well, sometimes when I listen to a podcast in the Target language, I pay attention to the story while I wash the dishes. So, I won't name it passive at all. However, sometimes, I listen to something that I don't focus on what it is said, so I use it like a background listening. In this case, I do passive. 🤔

[@azathoth4237]

I guess passive could be better described as 'sometimes active learning, but mostly background noise', which is why we cant really measure its efficacy, we just know it's not as good as sitting down with a book. You can certainly focus really well on a podcast during your commute, especially if you're a borderline intermediate learner.

[@DasBot-22]

This is great and models the experience of babies in their L1 (to some extent). After an immersive session, I've found myself trying to speak nonsense phrases in a Japanese way, also similar to babies and how they babble before forming words. Curious about your (or anyone's) take on babbling in acquiring the sound system of L2 - maybe you've covered it before?

[@CalebJacobsYoutube]

Good stuff mate!

[@Arrodamz]

Great vid

[@sp3ctum]

Hi Matt, I was wondering if you could do a video on the topic of burnout. I think it's not gotten a lot of attention, but at the same time can make a difference between a fun learning experience and quitting altogether. Thanks!

[@NukeMarine]

A point to consider: For active immersion, there's a difference to benefit from watching/reading without look-ups (not pausing even if there are words/phrases you don't quite understand) and with look-ups (pause to find out what a what a word or phrase meant). The former is normal immersion while the later is basically studying making it more tiring though also more effective. One question might be then: assume you know ~8000 words and it takes you two hours to watch a one hour show w/ look-ups, how would that stack up against just watching two different shows with lower comprehension? I would reply you don't compare the two any more than you'd compare an hour studying mined sentences to an hour of pleasurable reading. Studying (which watching w/ look-ups would be) is more intense and not something that can be done for long periods of time daily, but is super effective when combined with daily immersion. Much like leading an active lifestyle of biking/walking everywhere (immersion) would be amplified with 30 to 60 minutes of more focused exercise (studying). Another thing I'll add about passive immersion, it allows for pockets of active immersion where you are paying attention to the media during downtime of whatever you activity happens to be. Aural snacking I believe was how one person put it.

[@theswedishpolyglot]

Great video. Nuanced as always :)

[@orang3tomato557]

What ratio do you recommend for active immersion vs flashcards?

[@alastairpearce3078]

I’ve noticed the difference between passive and active when I do my exercise while walking, I tend to blank out and in on immersion.

[@shannanoneill7596]

I've been doing quite a bit more of passive immersion compared to passive immersion right now. Only because I've been doing way more cleaning / cooking / etc lately lol. And the only reason I've been doing it more is because I get excited to do household chores now knowing that I can immerse while I do it hahahaha... It may be classed as background immersion? but I finished the whole of RRTK with anime + KZbin videos in the background. I wanted to try to see if I could do it while at the same time as Anki without my accuracy decreasing, and it ended up not being effected by it at all! I'm not sure how helpful it was immersion wise, but it was helpful when I would zone out. I feel like it reduced the stress of it as well, if I did get too stressed out while doing it I had a nice show to pay attention to for a short while to listen to before bringing my attention back lol.

[@inqmusician2]

I'm Russian. Many people think you go to school to learn a language. My emersion in English was with KZbin videos. I need to do the same for Japanese.

[@sonny-faz-clipz]

If during my active immersion I’m not looking words up and putting them into anki, but just trying to translate and understand what’s being said. will it still be a good way of learning and improving, as I study grammar, vocabulary and kanji on other websites that use a Spaced repetition system (wanikani and Bunpro)? Thanks.

[@PainfulFateX]

Pls make a video about learning particles!

[@albertoeng6255]

Hi Matt I've been reading your blog for some time and I find it quite interesting, but I have this doubt if I can approach my learning of English using your methodology. Do you have any advice? I mean there will have some parts I can skip over (mostly those related with kanji) but it isn't clear for me how would be the best way to follow along. PD: Sorry for my bad writing.

[@Asdayasman]

I have like six immersion points. Yo but VTubers are really helping, though. Okayu, Korone, and Watame the most.

[@heyimjosh2097]

Hey Matt! I really love your videos, and will take in for account the immersion techniques. I also am wondering from someone who did it themselves. I'm learning using Remembering the kanji vol 1-3. Should I learn ALL the kanji in those books before reading a novel, or should I start now? (I'm about 400 kanji in)

[@Nikolai.A.McGuire]

I do passive immersion while doing my anki and I think this is really good because sometimes rare, but does happen is when a word your trying to remember comes up in what your listening to and then you can remember it because you heard it again but in a different context. Also another thing is that I watch chess videos so say the word for trade and say I'm trying to remember what the word for trade is in Russian and then see a trade happen and then hear the word. If anyone could tell me if this is bad please do let me know I just see it as also making it easier to do anki because I really don't like doing it because of the silence so I'll put on the thing I'm listening to sometimes some videos in Russian or some music in Russian.

[@marks1628]

For passive immersion and things to listen to for Japanese, are there any podcasts or what not you would recommend?

[@kingchickenwing4887]

Hey Matt, if you could, I'd really like your advice on this question: In your previous videos, you say that a good way to learn language is to download clips of a show in that language and turn them into flashcards. However, what is the legal way to do this? I want to be able to learn Japanese in a fun and efficient way, but I don't want to torrent, since that can get you in trouble with your ISP and it is just unsafe overall. Surely there is a legal way to learn effectively?

[@Joshlul]

There is a side effect I have for doing too much passive immersion, I don't know if that's just me. When I learn something sometimes it enters this area of my brain where it is only recalled through direct reminder and not really connected to other things, this is good for understanding but my speaking gets little to no improvement. It may be because I am still mentally translating from English, so these connections to english are necessary whereas they might not otherwise be.

[@mirrorsu_animation]

Hi Matt, do you have any recommendation of passive immersion tools? Such as radio channel, audio books or anything else? ( Is everything in Japanese a good source of passive immersion tool? )

[@aurallistine]

He said in his "how to immerse" video that it's good to listen to the audio of anime that you've already seen and he has another video on how to cut the audio from anime

[@PocketPets_]

What do you think about ikenna. He is a KZbinr who knows about 8 languages and he says that you can learn a very hard language like Japanese in 1 year. Also he says the first year is input and output but after that you spend all your time refining your skills

[@coconutpineapple2489]

I checked out his Japanese. He is intermediate level. He isn't a level who can give advice at all.

[@PocketPets_]

coconut pineapple I’m barely starting out on learning Japanese so I couldn’t tell . He does know many languages, so he has to be doing something right lol.

[@coconutpineapple2489]

KZbinrs clap his/her suddenly many times tend to use vulgar words. I don't want to learn language from him. But you must be genuine person.

[@5IRAHHHP]

i see you with the backlight~

[@mattvsjapan]

It's actually just the same lamp that lights my room in all my videos. It just looks different because I'm standing.

[@solidschnake]

do you have plans to visit Japan after covid restrictions are removed? i'm sure there are plenty of followers living in Japan that would want to meet up and would make for good content to see you revisit Japan with a different mindset compared to when you were there as a teenager

[@brynndotcom5703]

The clip of that guy from the movie sprinting is like a recurring character

[@shaunhunterit342]

What are you basing the "efficienty per minute" graph on?

[@Toyking10]

Should we practice shadowing before or after introducing pitch accent into our Anki deck and studying pitch accent?

[@8dpopintown307]

I was Passively Listened to this Video 😶!

[@bonniethompson341]

Love the vid :)

[@alijawad5727]

what software do you use to make those slick animations ?

[@leonardoparigi7502]

I hope you're gonna read this message...fingers crossed. Could you consider the idea of making another livestream with AJ Hoge (Effortless English Show)? Please and thank you in advance.

[@based9930]

You made a green screen of your old room? lol

[@ioannismixelvis120]

What about free-flow immersion as discussed on Refold?

[@fightmatrix]

Is there any KZbinr talking about Mass Immersion in Japanese? I’ve looked around, haven’t found anything yet 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

[@k.5425]

There are. I literally google/youtube for mass immersion spanish and what mostly pops up is youtubers using MIA for Japanese and very little for Spanish. Yes they're not many but they're there. For example Brit vs Japan.(he's also a Matt BTW)

[@fightmatrix]

K. I think you misunderstood.. I’m looking for videos about the subject but in Japanese! I also found lots of material in English, but as I say, I haven’t found much on the topic in Japanese.. As far as I can tell, Brit vs Japan’s content is also in English 🤷🏻‍♂️