Can You Learn A Language By Only Using Immersion?

When people first find out about the immersion method they will usually ask if it is possible to actually learn a language this way.

Well the truth is yes… but no …but it’s more of a …if you approach immersion the right way then it is totally possible to use it to learn a language.

The main problem is that it can be a very slow technique and if you just jump into full native level content you will be very lost for the longest time. In reality it makes more sense to pair your immersion with some other techniques. If you approach it like this you can make some serious progress very quickly.

Maybe the purists will say this is not immersion, but I would argue that if you make the main bulk of your studies immersion, and then add other techniques on top to complement things, then this is still using immersion to learn a language.  

Your Immersion Input Needs To Be Comprehensible 

If you want to see any results from using the immersion method then the content you need to be consuming needs to be comprehensible, which basically means you need to understand what is going on.

This is going to be hard when you are starting out and do not know any of the language, but you can achieve this by watching very basic things, like kids shows. They are not going to be saying many words and will be repeating things over and over again while it’s all on screen. You can probably work out what is happening but it will still be very hazy for a long time until you really figure things out.

Ideally you want to at least use a dictionary and look some words up. Maybe you consider this cheating but the reality is that you need a way to understand the content you are immersing in.

The more comprehensible you make something, the more progress you can make. This is exactly why you need to use some other techniques outside of immersion as well …they will help bring your comprehension levels up and will make you immersion more effective and your overall progress faster.    

(You can read more about – How Do You Maximise Your Language Learning Immersion Experience?)

You Need To Do A Lot Of Immersion

I think a lot of us underestimate how much immersion we need to do to see results. We are constantly sold a lie from language learning apps that you can learn a language by only doing 10 minutes a day.

This is just not realistic when you are actively trying to learn anything and it certainly isn’t going to work if you are trying to allow your subconscious to do most of the work, which is how immersion works.

I am sure you have heard the theory that if you want to master anything you need to spend 10,000 hours doing it and I would argue language falls into this. Of course you can decent at it long before this, but to get that near native level …you need to put a lot of time in.

Just look at your own language, as kid you spent about 2 years just absorbing the language before you even attempted to speak. I know babies brains are not quite the same, but still, they spend a lot more than 10 minutes a day being exposed to the language.    

I think this is why a lot of people don’t believe in immersion. They tried it for a few hours and it didn’t do anything …if they just put a few hundred hours in, they would see the results.

If you speak to anyone who got really good in a language, quickly, they will all say they spent pretty much all day, every day, for months focusing on it. That may seem pretty intense and it’s maybe something we can’t all do, but it can be worth the short term sacrifice as the results are clearly worth it.   

(You can read more about – What Immersion Techniques Can You Use To Learn A Language?)

You Need To Be Consistent With Immersion

Another thing that is extremely important when you want to learn a language through immersion is consistency. I’ve already explained that you need a lot of exposure, but you also need to be doing this consistently.

If you immerse every day you and stick to it, you will see results. If you just try to do little bits here and there your brain will not get enough repeated exposure and you will simply not be able to piece everything together as you brain will have forgotten everything during the time you didn’t study.

Learning a language by immersion is easy …you just need to be exposed to the language …the hard bit is being consistent with that and actually giving your subconscious enough time to make sense of everything.  

You Should Pair Immersion With Learning Vocabulary

If you want to see quicker results then you really should pair your immersion with learning new vocabulary.

In the beginning you can do this by just learning the most common words in the language. Every time you immerse you are going to encounter these words and every time you hear them you will understand a little bit of what is going on …this is comprehension and learning vocabulary is the easiest way to make something more comprehensible.

As you progress you can actually start picking up new words from the immersion itself. These will be the words that you don’t know and all you have to do is look them up learn them. This then allows that bit of material to be more comprehensible and of course if that words pops up again you should now know it.  

(You can read more about – Is Anki The Best Flashcard App For Learning A Language?)

Learning The Grammar Can Also Help

When you think of immersion, you assume grammar is not important and people who love immersion will also tell you it’s not important to study it.

There is a truth to this, but as with anything, you can use it to your advantage. If you do actually take the time to study the grammar it will start to make sense a lot faster.

Your brain will still be doing a lot of the unconscious work, but if you can consciously help it along I don’t see how that is a bad thing. 

I wouldn’t worry about this right at the start. You will be better off getting some input first and getting used to the language, then you can start studying the grammar.

If you do this it will be far more effective and you can really speed things up.

(You can read more about – Is It Necessary To Learn The Grammar Of A New Language When Using The Immersion Method?)

You Will Need To Eventually Start Doing Output Exercises 

Immersion can be an extremely powerful way to learn a language, but it has one huge flaw, which is that it doesn’t really help you speak.

Immersion is all about input and trying to understand the language, which is certainly a huge hurdle to overcome, but the reality it is that it doesn’t help you speak and use the language yourself. You will reach a point where you will have to start speaking and writing and formulating the language yourself.

The good thing is that immersion will give you an extremely strong understanding of the language, which you can use as a very strong foundation for building your output skills.

You will know how the language should sound, so when you go to produce it yourself you are more likely to do it correctly. You will still need to work on things, but you should find it a lot easier to make progress in this area that someone who did not immerse and who does not have the same understanding as you.  

It is for this reason I would still say that you can learn a language through immersion and really you just need to polish your skills up towards the end to get your output levels to where they need to be.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that you can learn a language through immersion. It will take time and effort and you will need to consistently show up, but you can do it.

You can make even faster progress if you do things like learn vocabulary on top, which is only going to help you make things more comprehensible and allow things to fall into place a lot quicker.

You will end up with a very deep understanding of the language and I really believe you will reach a high level a lot easier than someone who studies in a more traditional way.    

(You can read more about – Is Immersion The Best Way To Learn A Language?)