If you are serious about learning a foreign language, you must have heard about the immersion method by now. It’s a method whereby you surround yourself with native-level content and maximize your exposure to your target language, no doubt inspired by how a young child learns a new language to fluency with amazing speed when they move to a foreign land.
Although I’m not an expert on second language acquisition theories, I can understand why the immersion method is considered one of the most effective approaches to language learning if employed correctly. This afternoon, I watched several YouTube videos on the subject created by famous influencers in the polyglot community and did some thinking about how I can implement the method to achieve tangible results.
Let’s assume that you are a Japanese person living in Tokyo learning English. What can you do to create an immersive environment conducive to improving your command of the language?
The first thing you can do is probably change your TV viewing habits by starting to watch only English shows, which you can find aplenty nowadays on streaming services such as Netflix and Apple TV+.
But what if your English still isn’t up to snuff and you don’t understand those shows? In that case, you can still put on the subtitles in Japanese rather than English. The main idea is for you to get used to the sound of English, so watching English shows with Japanese subtitles is still better than watching nothing at all. You can switch to English subtitles when you’re more advanced.
The second thing you can do is start reading books in English, and by that, I don’t mean textbooks for learners of English, but general books intended for native speakers on any subject you’re interested in, be it fiction, nonfiction, or self-help books. Again, you don’t have to read books that are too difficult. Start with easy books and gradually transition to more advanced ones.
The third thing you can do is switch the user interface of your smartphone and computer to English and conduct your web searches in this language. Search results will appear in English, and you will start watching English YouTube videos.
However, this is easier said than done, as your web searches are most likely related to your local interests—for instance, what’s on the menu at the nearby ramen restaurant, or whether your neighborhood drugstore sells the particular medication prescribed by your doctor—such information is definitely more readily available in Japanese than English. Therefore, you don’t have to force yourself to use English for such tasks, lest your browsing activities become too stressful.
Unless you’re living in a country where your target language is spoken, the immersion method is difficult, if not impossible, to fully implement. This is especially true if you’re learning a minor language for which there are relatively few learning resources available. For example, if you’re studying Cantonese in Tokyo, you might be able to watch Hong Kong movies on Netflix, but it’s practically impossible for you to find other learning materials, such as comic books and gossip magazines written in vernacular Cantonese script instead of Mandarin.
Even if you can fully implement the immersion method, one thing we can’t ignore is that it’s not a panacea or magic method by which all your language-learning problems are resolved and you can become fluent in your target language all of a sudden.
There is an essential difference between a young child transplanted to a foreign country and an adult learner of a foreign language using the immersion method. While the former is put in a situation where they need to speak a great deal every day with their classmates and teachers, and are exposed to copious amounts of native content in various subjects through the school curriculum, the latter can simply watch shows and read books without necessarily having to express themselves in their target language. While they both go through immersion, they will inevitably achieve different levels of fluency.
More importantly, we should not forget the effectiveness of more traditional learning approaches unrelated to the immersion method, such as conscious learning of grammar and deliberate acquisition of vocabulary through flashcards. Compared to watching shows on Netflix for hours, these seemingly old-fashioned methods can bring more substantial benefits, especially for beginners and intermediate learners.
In a nutshell, while I believe that the immersion method can be helpful, we should view it in relativity and not overestimate its effectiveness. What’s really important is for us to stick to learning methods that are reliable, sustainable, and suited to each one’s learning style. I don’t know if I’ll ever use the immersion method to learn a foreign language, but even if I do, I’ll be realistic about what to expect.
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