Does Language Immersion Work?

🔥 Learn languages like I do with LingQ: bit.ly/3BT969P
CC subtitles available in multiple languages.
Language immersion sounds like magic. You go live in a country and once you are there you learn the language. In this video I explain why this isn’t necessarily the case, and what you can do to increase your chances of language immersion strategy success.
0:00 I learned English as a child through immersion.
1:53 the French Immersion Program in Canada.
3:08 Good comprehension leads to an accelerated learning process when it comes to speaking the language.
4:09 Why many language immersion attempts fail.
4:47 You need to have a language immersion plan in place to be successful
___
Study a language on LingQ: bit.ly/3BT969P
Study this video as a lesson on LingQ: bit.ly/3So7dZD
My Podcast:
Soundcloud: bit.ly/3iZsbic
Apple: apple.co/3z1F1lD
Google: bit.ly/2W3DYmK
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4TbcX8i...
Get my 10 Secrets of Language Learning: www.thelinguist.com
FREE grammar guides: www.lingq.com/en/grammar-reso...
Join the LingQ Discord server: / discord
My language learning blog on The Linguist: bit.ly/2MW83Ab
My Instagram page: / lingosteve_
My TikTok: / lingosteve
The LingQ language learning blog: bit.ly/35yvaqK
#languagelearning #languages #polyglot

[@Thelinguist]

Have you had success with the language immersion strategy? What was your plan? The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3BT969P My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com

[@ericwood3709]

I had the opportunity to spend a summer abroad in Germany as part of my university education, and that was a perfect immersion experience for me. I was already pretty advanced in the language starting out and motivated to learn, and there I attended classes and generally interacted with everyone in German. I even spoke it with an American student who was there (not with me or from my university). Studying Russian at home, something I only got started on at the university, the process is far slower for me because I lack that human interaction. However, I do make progress through the use of media and even a form of home immersion by, say, setting my computers to Russian when possible (modern operating systems are generally very good in terms of supporting other languages for the interface language and allowing you to switch between them), listening to Russian music, watching dubbed shows and movies, and even playing games set to Russian. It's all immersive and provides repetition, which I find invaluable in improving comprehension. All of this is also obviously good for learning at one's own pace, though this can be a problem if one lacks motivation. So, anyone thinking of moving to another country to learn a language might want to start out getting up to speed enough to speak and understand "enough" of the language to get by in the country while avoiding use of English. You need to be at a point where your knowledge of the language is useful in day-to-day life and a solid enough foundation to build on.

[@Michael-zp9kl]

I’ve been living in Peru for a year. Most people in my community speak English and learn enough Spanish to navigate taxis and their shopping needs. Very few people progress beyond that. In order to become conversational I’ve needed to dive deep into comprehensive input. I tried many of the standard programs like Busuu, Rosetta Stone, and Pimslear with no success. Now thanks to lingq and comprehensive input I’m finally starting to see some real results. Just living in the country isn’t enough 🙏

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Yes, I am Peruvian and I got fluent in Russian, French, and Portuguese without going to those countries. All was thank of the immersion.

[@ramiroeddyparragarcia8141]

What's your native language?

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

Thank you for sharing

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

@Ray S si t’as pas d’argent pour acheter un voyage dans quelque pays que tu veux aller pour pratiquer tes competences sur la langue, donc tu peux faire ça simplement avec les jeux online. J'ai 15 ans et j'aime jouer en ligne, mais je le fais uniquement avec les Russes et les pays francophones.

[@TimMaloneyNMactor]

@Ray S Yes , frustrating , everyone wants to practice their English on you . I had to really 'stay focused' to not fall into that bubble trap , in Costa Rica . so many expats there who , after decades , never learned Spanish . Small towns are the way to go .

[@LanguageSimp]

Steve Kaufmann!

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Language Simp! 🥵.

[@Jayinjapanese]

You look like a discount Chris evans in avengers infinity war

[@naturerey1845]

Hey! It's simp Daddy

[@mattglasgow4383]

@@JayinjapaneseHe is very attractive to every woman… and man.

[@Boris-1136]

Handsome squid 🦑

[@sm5970]

It’s working for me. It’s a very long process, however, you find yourself saying ‘Das ist in Ordnung. Für mich ist es kein Problem.’ Then I think woah, where did that come from. It’s like it was stored in my brain.

[@zachscully]

Agreed it takes planning and prep work to be able to function and learn in a language immersion environment. When I studied abroad I noticed that most of the other students who had supposedly reached just a 'conversational' level in the language did not interact much with the locals and asked the more advanced students to interpret almost everywhere we went outside of the language school. That gave me additional language practice of interpreting, in addition to classroom learning, speaking with my host family, and just functioning in the target language, but not those less-well-prepared students.

[@RaynosFAA777]

Just straightforward honest advice. Really appreciate it. Thanks Steve.

[@Tehui1974]

Interesting hearing about French immersion students in Canada. I must have to look online to see if there are any documentaries available. Here in New Zealand, where English is the dominant language, we have schools where only Māori is spoken. The parents of the students, some of whom only speak English, are expected to demonstrate their own commitment to either learning Māori and / or speaking it at home. According to research, most of students reach an advanced level in Māori at about age 11-12. All students in the Māori school system, including the students who have Māori speaking parents, end up speaking English naturally anyway. Māori schools were established in the 80s and 90s, and we're now seeing the second generation of these students come through, whose parents are first generation students.

[@danielgrassman2175]

Great points, thank you!

[@ruiseartalcorn]

This is a very useful tip indeed! Many thanks :)

[@moonasha]

Max from Russian with Max pointed out something that really stuck with me in one of his podcasts. Children by the age of 6 receive 20,000 hours of "immersion" in their language. The idea of achieving that as an adult is just absurd and impossible. I'm talking about immersion from zero language knowledge. I think from higher level B1 and on, immersion is the best way to learn

[@barrysteven5964]

I remember thinking the same thing about trying to 'immerse' children in the foreign language in lessons in school and never explaining anything in English. Eventually, they will understand is the theory. I worked out that if you calculated the amount of hours the children had in language classes in school and compared it to how long it takes babies to start talking in their own native language then it would take 102 years of lessons before the pupils started babbling nonsense words in the target language!

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

Absolutely, I remember watching talk shows and listening to radios to learn English years ago!!😅😇 But it took a long time for me to figure out what they were talking about. I feel having face to face conversation is the key, because you would have cues to figure out what they mean.

[@cesartabora6806]

You an awesome inspiration to me, to learn Latin, Italian, French, Russian, Portuguésse, Germán and so on ...thanks a lot for your link

[@aceraelofficial1775]

Thank you so much for teaching us it's totally helpful specially in me.💖💖💖

[@ninapaz522]

YES, IT DOES. 💯 agree! It worked for me.

[@paulwalther5237]

I think going abroad is a real eye opener and can give you incredible amounts of motivation to study. That’s what happened to me when I went to Germany. I caught the language learning bug. But many people don’t catch this bug. They’re not all that fired up about studying for long periods of time. Going abroad doesn’t change much.

[@HALFAMAZINGTV]

I think this is one of the many the hard truths about language learning that we don't speak enough of. Unlike other skills and creative arts, here are a lot of factors that have to align for language learning- necessity, motivation, naturally understanding language structure, and material.

[@vizzyb8400]

Lmao. I moved to Germany and I am really annoyed that I have to learn the language. I really wish I don't and immersion doesn't help much. One has to put in time to achieve those B1-B2 certificates.

[@HALFAMAZINGTV]

@@vizzyb8400 I'm actually moving to Germany next year and interested in seeing how it pans out for me. i want to learn by immersing myself and also using study material to support my notes.

[@MissGlassButterfly]

I worry this is me. I really want to learn German and I live here now but I don't find language learning fun and as rewards and results are long term I struggle. Just not a self motivator. I don't know what to do.

[@MissGlassButterfly]

​@HALFAMAZINGTV I just moved to germany and it's too easy to avoid situations where you speak as people here have excellent English

[@gogakushayemi]

Agree that you have to take control of your immersion. I am in Japan and I know tons of people who can barely order food in Japanese, even though they have been here for 20 years. That is fine if they don't want to learn Japanese, but it also means that if you are not careful, you won't get very far in your language. I also found with my Mandarin, that I am fluent in a certain type of conversation, but if we get a bit off the beaten path, I just don't have the vocabulary. So you also need to be conscientious about picking up the sort of words that don't come up every day. My favourite type of immersion is TV immersion, because I do not have the money or freedom to travel (especially with the virus and Japan being essentially shut for 3 years). With TV immersion, I can spend 5 hours in a different language from the comfort of my living room. I get to hear the way real-ish people speak, albeit a little more dramatically.

[@FishTalkFish]

Steve, I agree that immersion does give a great foundation to start from, especially with your example of the student being abroad, but I think there is still a gap in knowing how to learn a language. Immersion may have granted those students listening and speaking, but they may not know basic grammar or what to study to progress. They have a natural base, but no method for proceeding

[@APlusRussian]

I think immersion is only effective when coupled with _intensional imitation_ 🤓 And don't just mean actually _speaking_ it - simply repeating _and_ listening to yourself (e.g., in a video) should do wonders for improving the Speaking you alluded to, Steve.

[@Jayinjapanese]

Like repeating a Korean song

[@surecute]

I’m learning English from your videos ❤❤

[@MGeogirl]

I‘ve had success with that strategy for French and English. I learned both in high school (native german speaker) and immersion in the form of a high school year in Canada and work placement in Paris took my language skills from hesitant conversations to fluent in the span of a few months. And I‘ve had the „immersion“ strategy fail spectacularly trying to learn Mandarin when I lived in Singapore 20 years ago because I knew absolutely no Mandarin before moving there. And while the government pushed Mandarin in schools etc, people spoke Cantonese and other chinese dialects in daily life (and Tamil and Malay), and public life and work was in English.

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

I hope I can be succesful in French

[@qiaofeng1486]

Well, as you pointed out yourself, neither casual nor professional communication in Singapore is usually in mandarin. It’s not that your immersion strategy failed. It’s that there was no immersion at all.

[@bhutchin1996]

I totally agree! I usually won't travel to a country unless I can have a conversation in the main language spoken there, especially if their level of English isn't so high.

[@WE-br1wm]

Some people say immersion works, others state it doesn't. So it's not just about immersion, it's also about having strong determination and a good strategy to acquire the language.

[@holliswilliams8426]

It can work, but just going to live in a country where a language is spoken is not a magic bullet which somehow lets you learn the language by osmosis just by being there.

[@vizzyb8400]

More like motivation and discipline can only help you in a language. Immersion is nothing much. Just a term used by people who speak only one language because others know how much effort one has to put.

[@dr.gaosclassroom]

And you have to ask questions and having a good teacher is essential.

[@ozanarcan9152]

Thanks 👍

[@elllllllle939]

The thing is that whenever a Chinese person going abroad, there are always a bunch of other Chinese already there. They tend to speak Chinese together because it’s more comfortable. This really hinders the English learning process. You have to make extra efforts to step out of this comfort zone and to make some local friends

[@marcelosilveira7079]

Lingq and input comprehension work fantastically to improve your comprehension and listening. I wish there was a paid service - some company out there - that would take you from that point and help you be conversational.

[@yaroslavsuhak577]

Thanks for Steve advices improving English goes like clockwork, but I all time apprehensive that I won't able to understand information right way

[@DANGJOS]

I'm definitely at a level in Japanese where my comprehension significantly better than my speaking ability. In fact, I can hardly speak at all because I almost never practice speaking.

[@valentinaegorova-vg7tb]

AMAZING! BRAVO!

[@taralh1986]

I needed to hear this! I'm going to Poland next week and have wondered if I'll get the responses in English (customs officers and airline crew don't count; I'm assuming English is the default for Americans!). It's helpful to know that if I have a good enough level, the conversation can stay in Polish and I'll really be able to take advantage of having the language all around me.

[@bhutchin1996]

I think the default would be for ALL Anglos, as it's not just Americans who are the only Anglos who generally don't put forth much effort to learn other languages. Even Brits have told me that the entire world speaks English, so I wouldn't need to learn other languages. Polish has some very tricky pronunciation and grammar. I imagine someone would have to speak it very well to keep the conversation in that language. Good luck and have fun!

[@mounikapuligurthi557]

Immersion totally works, as long as you have the right resources/teachers. Talking to locals is key. The more one has small talk with locals, the better it works :) Good teachers and tutors are key. That's what I found from doing Peace Corps (Tanzania) for 9 months. Went from zero to pretty fluent in Swahili. Now my Swahili isn't as good since I don't have regular contact with Swahili speakers.

[@jamilamussa7250]

Waoo, I'm Swahili native speaker from Tanzania. I'm seriously learning English for almost 2 years now. I'm also a teacher by professional and I'm teaching primary school students. Apart from being a teacher I'm also student at University, I'm studying Linguistics and Swahili there. I'm still struggling with speaking but I have good listening skill. I'm so happy to know that there are so people who are interested in learning Swahili. Would you mind if we can exchange our languages. Much love from Tanzania❤️

[@mounikapuligurthi557]

@@jamilamussa7250 oh my God I just saw this a month later!! I'm so excited to hear from a Swahili speaker and from Tanzania!! I'd love to do a language exchange (even though we have a huge time difference). Tanzania is such a beautiful country! I was supposed to teach there 2 years but because of the COVID pandemic my group got evacuated after 9 months. We had excellent Swahili teachers and we really don't know where we would have been without them. Hugs from USA 😊

[@annettemcnabb3033]

Such great advice!! On a side note Steve I have a very good friend who is a teacher in France and is teaching foreigners from Ukraine, Germany, and a few other countries as adults. I recommend Lingq for her to be able to import an article and then convert it to everyone's native language so they could communicate easier. Do you think this is good advice and if so is there a lingq that i could forward to her? Thanks:) wanted to add that no one speaks the same language and its very challenging to comuicate

[@carol14m]

I think the problem about living in the country of the language and trying out the immersion (speacially as an introvert) it's that, the language level you'll be using in the streets (stores, supermarkets, bank, etc) it barely B2, which it is high, but for me, I lived in Austria for three months when I was doing an exchange at Uni and 99% of my friends were also exchange students and didn't speak any German (so I spoke in English to them), my classes (seminars) were definitely C1 level, but like said in the video, if you just listen and listen, you not actually gonna be able to speak it, and I'm obviously wasn't gonna use that C1 vocab that I was learning while buying lunch or making a transfer at the bank, so, yep, I do agree on a lot of things on this video

[@thomasalgeo6824]

When I was exchange midshipman to the Portuguese tall ship Sagres, the executive officer forbade the crew from speaking English with me. Two months speaking only Portuguese = Two years in a classroom. Thanks X.O.! 🇵🇹

[@PepitoGrilloCanarias]

Great as always! Thanks. By the way, I read this: the sight this allows her... I understand it but what's the grammar explanation please. The + verb = noun ?

[@pfh777]

Yes immersion works well for everyone. Ask anyone who attends a summer at Middlebury Language School. The difference in all language abilities from the first vs the last day of the program is remarkable.

[@jeff-8511]

Very true. Traveling to the country where the language is spoken is good. But that alone is not enough. You are not gonna magically pick up the language.

[@dancastro78]

I'm learning English watching TV and series, movie and KZbin channel only english with english subtitles then i didn't need subtitles anymore i understand what they say. but I have difficulty in writing and speaking

[@johnvienna3422]

Yes, agree with everything here. As you can tell from my username, I live in Vienna. Here, English basically always works, in any situation. (OK, not with government offices, but those special people are employed there for a reason.) I know English speakers who have lived here for 20 years, and can barely understand or speak a word of German. I knuckled down with my Langenscheidt vocab book, and got drunk with other geezers in dodgy bars. That combo worked for me.

[@wolfthequarrelsome504]

Yes. But you must combine it with study, especially reading and listening.

[@eliassolis4437]

If You are fluent in the language, inmersion is amazing. If you want to learn by inmersion You probable Will fail. I mean for inmersion as going to that country and living there a year or more than six months. But comprehensible inmersion, refering to comprehensible input, I mean watching all day TV shows in the language, is amazing for starting to learn a language. Because this last is also called inmersion by some people.

[@connorgriffth7567]

Funny that the example is Japan, as I'm studying Japanese now before going to Japan in the next 3-4 months. I have a decent immersion set up, I'm using ideas from Refold, apps like Migaku, and trying to put in 2+ hours a day to listening and reading. I don't expect to be able to speak when I finally do go, but I hope to be somewhat self-sufficient when I'm out and about.

[@patfromamboy]

My brother and his wife lived in Tokyo for a few years. His wife took Japanese in Austria where they lived for several years and is an excellent student and very intelligent. She speaks very good Japanese and works in Japan even now that they live in Austria again. My brother didn’t speak it but learned it and could converse which was amazing to see. You can do it. You will love Japan. Have fun and keep up the good work.

[@vanessacunha6233]

Obrigada por falar, nossa, neste vídeo você explica definitivamente porque tantas pessoas e tantas crianças (param) ou (permanecem estagnadas) no estágio de (bilinguismo passivo), né? Também explica porque quando não temos o domínio do idioma, respodemos ou questionamos em outro, e este é ainda minha dificuldade, mas adorei poder identificar isso, e saber que um dia com planejamento é possivel chegar na proficiência de um segundo, terceiro, idioma!!

[@patfromamboy]

I’ve been studying Portuguese for 8 years now and I’ve visited Brazil 18 times but I can’t understand what you wrote. I need to find a way to learn without translating. I study and practice every day. Minha namorada mora em Fortaleza.

[@TimMaloneyNMactor]

@@patfromamboy Fica la por seis meses , so`falar no Portuguese e voce pode melhorar bastante .

[@patfromamboy]

@@TimMaloneyNMactor thanks. When I read your message I don’t understand it until I translated everything into English. I know all of the words but I have to translate them into English in my head. It prevents me from conversing, that and I can’t make out much of what people say even if they are using words that I know. They sound like gibberish except for an occasional word and then I have to translate it into English. There are only a few words that I don’t have to translate after studying for 8 years. Once I connect a new Portuguese word with the corresponding English word it’s permanently attached. I learned “Moqueca” at a restaurant in a way that I usually learn new English words and I don’t have to translate it. I know greetings without having to translate. I need to find a way to learn without translating. It’s the first time I’ve ever had problems learning anything. I don’t think in a language, I think in ideas and images so maybe my brain isn’t letting me learn a second language.

[@TimMaloneyNMactor]

@@patfromamboy it takes time . avoid English speakers and it will all fall into place . watch T.V. with a notebook , write down the words you don`t know look it up in a dictionary . youtube is great because you can rewind stop / start and use the CC button ( closed caption ) . but it`s not a big deal if you find it`s too much work . "tanto faz" . nao faz mal . e` tudo bem ainda . also there is google translate to help . and several teachers on youtube . just type it in the search bar . boa sorte Pat .

[@patfromamboy]

@@TimMaloneyNMactor thanks, I watch tv and KZbin videos but I can’t understand anything except for an occasional word. I have to translate everything into English. I can’t get the Portuguese words to mean anything to me, I have to translate everything. I haven’t had a conversation yet in 8 years now which is terrible because I’ve studied a lot in the last 8 years. Thanks for the help

[@davidbouvier8895]

In 1976, I was working on a project. One of the participants was a working class anglophone Canadian. One day, to my great surprise, I heard him speaking very fluent Spanish. When I asked him how he'd learned, he told me he'd spent nine months in gaol in Peru. Immersion works. Another example I came across was an anglophone monoglot who'd deserted from the US Army while stationed in Germany during the Vietnam war era. He received a carte de séjour that allowed him to live and work in France. He became a restaurant plongeur (dishwasher) in Paris. After six months in France he was conversationally completely fluent. Necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention.

[@Adam-vv9co]

In my American schooling we had Chinese and Spanish immersion programs

[@danielkelly8931]

Any advice for arranging teachers to practicing speaking in person? I'm learning French currently: although it's easy to find teachers online, I've struggled to find an equivalent for in person practice when I visit France.

[@patfromamboy]

I’ve been studying Portuguese for 8 years and I’ve visited Brazil 18 times. I practice almost every day with my girlfriend for 1-3 hours and she only speaks Portuguese and we’ve been doing it for 5 years now but I still can’t converse, read or make out what people are saying except for an occasional word which I then have to translate into English. I have classes, use apps, read books, watch movies and KZbin videos and study and practice every day. I even have to translate the words that I know. Portuguese words don’t mean anything to me like English words do until I translate them into English. It’s a slow process that prevents me from conversing. I can’t read either and I don’t know how to choose which meanings to use when translating words into English when I read. I can’t understand what the context is. I usually scored the highest on aptitude tests and other tests in school so I’m not stupid. It’s like my brain’s operating system is English only. I don’t think in any language so when people tell me to think in Portuguese I don’t understand what they mean. I think in images and ideas. When I read English the words create a movie in my head but when I read Portuguese the words don’t mean anything. What can I do? I’ve never talked to anyone with this problem. I live in Washington state so I can pay you for a class or advice on what to do in person or have a class on the internet if you offer that. I think you live in BC. Thanks! Patrick

[@MaryJaneYtChannel]

I think if you’ve done 2000-6000 hours of portuguese comprehensible input, as you mention, you should be very good by now.

[@patfromamboy]

@@MaryJaneYtChannel Rabat’s what I expected. I see people in my classes who can converse after 2-3 weeks. The words just don’t mean anything yet even if I use them for years. Once I translate them into English they seem to be permanently attached so I have to keep translating them 8 years later. Thanks

[@openroomxyz]

What kind of books should you read, what kind of books should you avoid to improve English, if you read only technical things probably you don't learn some day to day words?

[@Manuel4Languages]

Great point! People usually have to get to AT LEAST a B2 level in order to have a normal conversation with a native speaker (sometimes even more C1) otherwise, usually the conversation turns into a lesson. I don’t want to ask every 3-4 min “what does that mean?” “Can you use another word?” . I would not talk to you in Spanish (for more than 10 min) if I feel that you don’t understand, I would switch to English… When language learners go to the country to magically learn the language, they forget that most of us want to communicate as we do with our native speaker friends, not teach you. It is a hard pill to swallow, I have had this experience in many languages. My rule of thumb is always to wait to get a B2 and then start telling people to switch to the language you are learning, and they will take you seriously 😊

[@qu_entin]

Many years ago, I found a French language course on tape/cassette published by Berlitz. Basically, the whole course was in French without any translation to your mother tongue or to any other language - just French language - and your job was to listen to a story and look at images related to this story (the whole language course contained 6 or 8 tapes and lots of lessons). You listen to words/stories and sounds and after a while you have an idea what the guy was talking about in any given scene. Does anyone know a course (for Arabic) based on this method? According to GPT it's called "language immersion" - that's why I'm here 🙂

[@dukie17]

I have been living in Colombia for 5 months now. Spoke 0 Spanish before and now I’m conversationally fluent probably at a B2 level. Assimil --> Anki--> real world use/immersion is the key to my success. If I would of just ‘immersed myself in the country’ and not done assimil to Anki i would be very behind i think.

[@dukie17]

Also I’m extremely dedicated to learning the language and that is a MUST

[@WE-br1wm]

From 0 to B2 just in five months?! Could you please tell me what your strategy was?

[@dukie17]

@@WE-br1wm My main study tool is Assimil and Anki. I rewrite every Assimil chapter into Anki flash cards and study them everyday. I also pretty much exclusively listen to Spanish music and watch Spanish shows. For example, a good show to watch in Spanish is La Casa De Flores on Netflix. The episodes are only 30 minutes. First I watch the episode in Spanish and with Spanish subtitles, then I rewatch the episode with English subtitles to see what I understood and what I missed. Something that has helped me tremendously is the podcast, ‘Language Transfer.’ There are 90 lessons and I am on my second round listening to all of them. Only 7-14 minutes usually per lesson which I listen to before going to bed. When I don’t listen to that, I listen to the podcast ‘Conversations in Spanish’ which has beginner to advanced levels. I can understand all intermediate podcasts and I’m starting to understand a lot of the advanced ones now. And occasionally I read the Bible in Spanish. Hoping gods power will grant me fluency quickly lol. But all of this mixed with living in colombia and speaking Spanish everyday with locals is how I picked up on the language very quickly. I understand a lot better than I speak, which became very noticeable after about 3.5 months here. But I can have basic fluent conversations with just about everyone here. Also I would add that I need to learn Spanish for my profession, so I have more of an incentive/motivation than the average person. Since May, my whole life has revolved around learning the language. I hope this helps!

[@massmanute]

Steve, you came to Canada as a young child. Do you still have you're Swedish language? I am curious because my grandmother came to the US from Germany when she was at about the same age as you were when you came from Sweden to Canada. By the time I came along she was an elderly woman, and she no longer had her German.

[@ShadowDrakken]

I'm over a year into self-study of Swedish and I feel like I've gotten almost nowhere. I only know about 500-ish words, I still struggle with basic conjugation (eg. "the" and plurals, especially together), and then I get all mixed up when something I thought I knew suddenly changes just by being added to a more complex sentence. What kinds of things might help me either progress faster, or at least feel like my progress is more meaningful? Tack så mycket!

[@Thelinguist]

You will always forget things you thought you knew. Keep on exposing yourself to the language, trust your brain and don't be too demanding. Repetitive listening is important at the beginning. When I begin a language I go through our 60 mini-stories at LingQ, 1 through 5 then back to 1 then on to 10 and back and then on to 15 etc.. Reading and looking and saving words, then lots of listening away from the text while doing other things. I end up listening to these simple stories, with all their repetition, 30-40 or more times. You have to get the language in you. Then you can move on to more interesting content where you are less conscious of learning the language and more interested in the content, all the while continuing to learn. Lycka till!

[@fatihhicham3183]

Hallo Herr Kaufmann. Ihr Name klingt nach Deutsch, deshalb benutze ich Deutsch, um Sie anzusprechen. Ja für die Idee einer bewussten Selbst-Immersion. Immersion darf aber nur nicht den Menschen auferlegt oder ideologisch schlecht intentionniert sein, denn da führt sie zu Verluste oder Ungleichgewichte bei den Zielpersonen.

[@norabalogh5910]

Once you get to a good solid b2 or even better c1 level, then immersion is fabulous! I like to find activities in country “x” where you’re at some kind of an adult camp doing something you love along with people in that country who share that interest….cooking or music or hiking or whatever. Group tours work very well in particular to practice German. Ironically I don’t enjoy group tours with fellow Canadians, but I do like them as an initial introduction to a country if they have the added bonus of allowing me to practice my language skills, say, with a German group in Vietnam or Morocco. Doing something with native speakers of your target language who have no particular interest in speaking English is great!!!

[@vizzyb8400]

Immersion doesn't help anything. My brain suffered a lot the moment I moved even though I could understand A2 level of German and the stress of learning a new language and culture and everyone just speaking better German than me made me lose a few memories for 6 months and then I had to start learning it again from scratch a bit. Then I started talking to locals for 3-5 mins after practising a lot for 9 months but I do read and watch movies in German daily now and write in a journal too in German. So overall, if you are being a tourist, learning through immersion is better else you better go prepared till B1-B2 level fluency in that language especially for a job! The higher the better. If not, be prepared to be facing problems. For some reason natives, polyglots, linguists, translators, etc tend to mock using the proverb "When in Rome do as the Romans do" but fail to understand "Rome wasn't built in a day".

[@MissGlassButterfly]

Did watching shows in German help you even though your level was too low to understand or fully follow the dialogue? I'm in that position now. I don't want to make myself feel disheartened. I'm trying to solidify my B1 level as I keep regressing, how did you do it, what were your daily things you'd do?

[@ferdinandotravisan7999]

I lived altogether almost seven years in Germany. At the beginning in superstores, if I wanted to have more information from shop assistants I started in English. Well, most of the assistants re0lied “Nur deutsch, nur deutsch!”.

[@cleberoliveiradossantosco]

Podemos perceber que em vários países pelo mundo a população fala mais de um idioma, mesmo em países muito pobres, conheci esses dias uma pessoa do Haiti, ele fala frances fluentemente, também fala Inglês, segundo ele no Haiti a maioria das pessoas falam pelo menos dois idiomas. Enquanto aqui no Brasil somos muito atrasados nesse sentido, saímos da escola sabendo apenas alguma coisa só verbo "to be", se for para uma escola particular de idiomas vocês vais aprender gramática por anos tornando o ensino prolongado e chato. Acho que dificilmente isso vai mudar um dia.

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Cara eu sou eo Peru e moro aqui nos EUA. Se sou sincero, somente conheço UMA somente UMA pessoa do Haiti que realmente fala francês fluentemente..

[@jasonjames6870]

It's the only thing that works for me learning through translation has never got me further than basic travel phrase's

[@loserscryfair]

What about adult immersion homestays?

[@Esmanur963]

Hello sir, I am a high school student and I want to be an international translator in the future. do you have a suggestion for me

[@slicksalmon6948]

Immersion not only works, but it's probably essential for moving from A2 to B1 and higher. Furthermore, studies show that L2 development is hindered if students continue to hang on to L1.

[@garrysmith1029]

This is the comment I'm looking for the start of Monday October 3rd I will try this

[@az.4308]

Hello, Mr Kaufmann IAM from Morocco, i study english but i can't speak it fluentlly !!!!

[@lempiraturbonewstv]

Profe Steven estoy triste, no puedo aprender ingles,porque las palabra tienen muchos significados...

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Calla hispanohablante 🤣.

[@lempiraturbonewstv]

@@countryballspredicciones5184 uy tranquilo Steven krashen.

[@dmitryprivate6558]

I wonder what you think of improving a language by watching a movie in a target language when your level is about B1-B2 (closer to B1). Specifically watching a french movie with french subtitles and stopping to read each sentence of each dialog. Is this a waste of time? Or, beneficial?

[@Thelinguist]

If you enjoy doing it it's great. Motivating, and you pick up a lot. I would alternate stopping to read with just letting it go.

[@dmitryprivate6558]

@@Thelinguist thank you, Steve.

[@keacoq]

I moved to France (Bordeaux) at 65 with a French girlfriend now wife. I have been in France now 7 years, but progress is frustratingly slow. I think the reason is that you need comprehensible input but get immersion where your level is not good enough for interesting conversation. I have few English-speaking contacts here, so my daily life is in French, and I insist that we speak French together at home. Being married to a native speaker is not the magic solution that you might think. I think couples often repeat the same conversations. I look for opportunities for 1:1 conversations because people then adapt to my level. I belong to a cycling club where there are lots of opportunities for short conversations (we ride at conversation speed). People in the club are incredibly kind to me, and I feel a great sense of belonging. A good thing in this area is that people don't often switch to English. But there is so much English in daily French. I am getting better at following ordinary French. Sometimes I say "I understand everything except the gist (essentiel)". Overall I think I am at about B2 level, but oral comprehension is my weakest area.

[@holliswilliams8426]

I'm moving to Saudi Arabia soon for a few years and intending to try and learn Arabic. Does anyone have a ''immersion plan'' for learning Arabic in Saudi Arabia? The main issue is that I will be based at a university with not many employees, plus 60% of people there do not speak Arabic, so I will have to leave the university to practice. As usual there are people at the university from Iceland and other countries, they know some English but not Arabic so they just use English to communicate as a lingua fraca (which isn't interesting to me as a native speaker).

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Dude, you can learn Arabic without goong the country. But sure going to the country is just a plus.

[@countryballspredicciones5184]

Going to*.

[@holliswilliams8426]

@@countryballspredicciones5184 I'm trying to learn it now but struggling a bit. There are just no teachers to learn it face to face, everyone does Skype lessons.

[@vizzyb8400]

Nothing will magically change once you get face to face teachers. It is better to be prepared in your home country than to be going to another country and learning.

[@user-oo2bs3md2k]

Pertains to 🎉 humouring you in the language. 🎉 Uninhibited

[@jonsmith20766]

1:26 This is the English flag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The other countries in the UK have their own languages.

[@yagmurcamd]

Discipline and perseverance and immersion.

[@Adam-vv9co]

I want to move to China, but I'm already learning Mandarin

[@corinna007]

I don't think immersion would work for me. Most of my family speaks Low German, and even though I've heard it my whole life, nobody spoke it to me. I'm not sure why; it wasn't that they didn't want me to understand, they just didn't speak it to me. I can understand some of it, but I can't speak more than a few words or phrases. And now I'm nervous about actually learning it, because I never have, and I have a fear of ridicule. 😅

[@pumpkinsandme6238]

I think kids have less crutches than adults. If adults removed their crutches they would learn languages faster. My 9 and 10 year olds speak mandarin at a high level after 4 years, i taught them though i dont speak it. Once they could understand about half of what they watched on TV their language ability really took off. Before that they didnt really get much from TV. It was too much incomprehensible input. They do have online conversation lesson with native speakers a couple times a week. They listen to audiobooks, watch lots of tv, take classes taught in chinese (art, coding, math, etc...) one doesnt have to travel to create an immersive environment. You can do it at home for many languages. If you're not willing to learn through a home immersion you're not going to learn much abroad. Id probably be much better at chinese if i turned the subtitles off lol

[@qn57]

Point well taken, of course. However, your first story (about the Canadian kids becoming good at understanding, but much less at speaking) seems to contradict the latter part of the video. There, you first say that one needs to speak well enough to have the locals respond in their language (yes!) and then suggest a lot of reading and listening to reach that level…

[@Mr.S65]

In your case, you were victim of subtractive immersion, you lost Swedish to learn English

[@mamushi72sai]

Steve, with All due respect not all people will respond in your target language. I know that my Japanese is very high level because I've met Japanese people online who clearly dislike me and accuse me of lying when I say I'm American. Yet when my Japanese was better than it is now Japanese people in Japan would refuse to use Japanese with me because I'm a 190cm white guy. There is some truth to wgat you say and I know you mean well, but I'm concerned you might accidentally demotivate people by wording it this way.

[@elizam5953]

whenever i hear this sort of anecdote about japan it’s so interesting to me. i’ve been living in japan for 3 months and speak at a beginner level / struggle to comprehend much beyond the basics and yet people never default to english with me, we just sorta manage with pantomime and basic japanese. i live in a rural prefecture where people have minimal english exposure after school so i assume people are just more comfortable with even my rudimentary japanese than with venturing into using english themselves. but yeah my experience in rural japan has been great so far for progressing conversationally as a beginner, i’m sorry yours wasn’t but i don’t think it’s common (at least outside big cities) for people to refuse to speak in japanese to foreigners who clearly demonstrate the ability to

[@mamushi72sai]

@@elizam5953 I think you might be right. I stayed in matsue and Nara for a while and didn't seem to have this problem. Tokyo and Oosaka we're where this occured most. I do think my appearance might cause it also. I'm a very tall European looking guy and that might influence people's perspective. I have a mixed latino friend from German who is average height with straight black hair and he didn't have the same degree of issue with this.

[@mamushi72sai]

@@elizam5953 I should also note that it's still only about one in ten interactions. Enough to to be annoying but it's not most cases.

[@phoenixknight8837]

You can spend half of your life in a country with immersion and fail to become fluent.

[@cheetah2882]

Why?

[@jordans2177]

I’m convinced if you spend that much time and don’t pick up the language, it’s cause you don’t want to 😅

[@phoenixknight8837]

@@cheetah2882 it is called hybridisation. Many people become content at a certain level of communication ability such as A2, B1, or B2. Whilst B2 it probably considered fluent, I doubt that B1 and A2 would be assessed as such. Also, if people tend to spend the majority of their time in a community of their own native language within a foreign country, limiting their interactions because what is necessary to survive, then fluency does not develop.

[@cheetah2882]

@@phoenixknight8837 yep, no pain no gain

[@billsmoke4919]

A friend of mine has lived in southern Spain for the past 8 years and can barely speak a full sentence of Spanish - mainly because he has never made an actual effort to learn the language. Immersion is a myth.

[@TUFAII]

South Spain is mini Britain 😆

[@wolfthequarrelsome504]

Well he's a British expat with entitlement mentality. Goes down the pub to chat with his mates, falls home at 2am and falls asleep. Yeah. . Immersion is for the birds, in'it.

[@Hellenicheavymetal]

Yeah if you dont put in any effort you wont learn anything totally immersed.

[@quantum_chezburger2279]

the effort is crucial - it's like saying that school didn't teach you algebra, while you failed the class.

[@billsmoke4919]

@@quantum_chezburger2279 It's nothing like that...

[@ariohandoyo5973]

I should immers myself with english as an english learner, i spoke english since 2018 that time i was watching english lessons, and i found english awsome languange finally i obsesed with english even i joined english speaking group disscussed different kinds of topics, who wants to join my group? Don't send message to me Through messanger app if you want to join, because i don't use Messager app thank you.😊