Is Immersion The Best Way To Learn A Language?

There are many different ways to learn a language and they can all give you good results. Often you have to try a few different methods to see what you like and what works best for you.

However, immersion is actually the best method for many reasons which I will go over below. If you are trying to learn a language then you need to include immersion into your studies.

You will have to put a lot effort in and it will take time to see results, but the progress you can make is far superior to any other method. Immersion is simply the best way to learn a new language. 

You Will Hear The Language As It Should Be Used When You Immerse

If you are doing language immersion by watching TV or radio, then you are hearing the language and you are hearing it in a very pure form. This is exactly how the language is used since the material is for native speakers.

This type of listening practice really is the best form of listening you can do and this is why immersion is the best way to learn a language.

Nothing is slowed down or said in a simplified way …it is exactly how it should be. Of course this can be difficult, but the more you do this, the easier it becomes and the better your level of listening will become.

Your listening ability will end up being far superior through immersion compared to any other method.

You Will See The Language As It Should Be Used (When You Read) While Immersing

The exact same is also true for immersing by reading. If you are using materials that are for natives, it will of course it will be difficult, but you will be seeing the language in its true form.

You are not reading some washed down version that makes things easy, you are seeing exactly what a native would see.

You will see the way words are used and how they interact with each other and all of this will be giving you subconscious brain a really detailed map about how the language should be used and what it is supposed to look like.

This is exactly what you want and why immersion is the best way to learn. No other method will give your subconscious this information. 

Immersion Allows You To Acquire Grammar Naturally

Immersion is also one of the best ways to acquire grammar. It may not be the fastest method, but it does work.

Every sentence you read or hear will have some form of grammar in it and the more exposure you get to this, the more you will start to pick up on things and you will start to instinctively know what is right or wrong.

I know many of you don’t believe this, but it is true. Just look at your native language as proof. You will know all sorts of crazy grammar rules and you will not be able to explicitly explain how these rules work or what they are called …you just know how to use the language correctly.

I know we learned grammar in school, but you where already fluent by this point and could use the grammar correctly.

You can do the exact same again with a second language through immersion. You can acquire the grammar and subconsciously know what to do, then study it after to be able to consciously understand what is going on.   

This is a better approach, compared to trying to learn the grammar upfront which is what other methods of learning will try and get you to do.

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

You Will Remember A Lot More By Immersing

Immersion is also one of the best techniques to remember things without actually trying.

A large part of language learning is just remembering words and the best way to achieve this is through repeated exposure, which is exactly how immersion works.

Your brain needs to see things over and over again so that it can get comfortable with it and make it stick in your memory. They try and get you to do this at school by going over lists of words, but this isn’t effective as it’s not a natural way to see a language …but immersion is very natural.

When you are doing immersion you are going to see and hear the same words over and over again, but it is very natural and all in context.

This is exactly why immersion is a better way to learn, you are getting the same benefits, but everything is done in a more natural way.

Immersion Doesn’t Feel Like Studying

Another reason why immersion is one of the best ways to learn is exactly what I just described above.

You can learn things and remember them all very naturally, you just watch the TV shows and your subconscious brain does all the hard work. It doesn’t feel like studying.

There are no painful drills or exercises and you don’t have to strain yourself and use all your energy trying to focus. You just sit there and watch stuff, this is made even better by the fact that you can actually watch things you are interested in.

There is nothing boring about immersion, you just get to enjoy yourself and let the language slowly absorb into you. In fact, you will probably learn faster if you are actually engaged and enjoying what you are immersing in and this will also not feel like you are studying.  

Immersion Gets Your Subconscious Involved

When we look at the mechanics behind immersion, you will quickly see that it is the best way to learn a language.

Most methods get you to consciously try and remember and make sense of things, which is understandable and you would assume is the best way to do things. However, it is not.

If we think about how we speak our native languages you will start to see that it is done on a subconscious level.

This is why you don’t need to force yourself to read a word, your eyes just see and know what it means. This is also why you don’t need to think about hearing. If I say something to you …you just hear it, you don’t need to think about it.

You can also see this happen when you speak, you can just blurt things out and say things before you have even thought them through.

All of these things are done on a subconscious level, so why would you try and learn a new language in a different way?

Immersion feeds your subconscious and lets your brain do all the hard word for you. You just have to feed it the information and it will decode it and make sense of everything and it will also reference it to your native language.

Immersion literally uses are our brains language processing power to our advantage, so it’s always going to be the best way to learn. 

Immersion Is Not The Fastest Learning Method

While immersion is the best way to learn …it’s not the fastest method.

As I’ve explained you need a lot of repeated exposure to start making sense of things and really this is because your subconscious brain needs a lot of data to spot the patterns in the language.

When you think about it, languages are huge and complex so it makes sense that it can take a long time to start making sense of things and even longer to feel comfortable. 

Most people want to see quick results and immersion is not going to give them this. A lot of people will try it for a short while and feel nothing is happening, so they will write it off as failure. 

If you give immersion enough time, it will work.

(You can read more about – How Long Does It Take To Become Fluent In A Language Through Immersion?)

You Need A Lot Of Input To See Results

Another problem with immersion is that you need to put a lot of effort in to it to see results.

It’s not just a matter of time, you also need exposure to a lot of the language (it just also happens that this takes a long time to do)

A lot of people mistake immersion as being an “easy” method, which it is not. The reality is that the process of immersion is simple …you just have to get exposure to the language, which means watching shows.

The hard bit is actually doing this. It takes a lot of effort and a huge commitment to actually do this.

It’s easy to watch some shows and listen to some podcasts …but it’s hard to do this for multiple hours a day, every day, for months.

If you can put this level of effort in, you will see results. However, even if you do this, you will not see results for a long time. Immersion really is a long road where most of the time you just feel like nothing is happening and you question if you are wasting your time.

Too many people do not do enough work and then don’t see any results, so assume it’s a failure. If you do the work …you will eventually see the results, but even this is hard to measure at times.

Although, you will reach a point where you realise it has worked, but it’s a slow gradual realisation, rather than a light bulb moment.   

(You can read more about – What Is The Optimum Amount Of Language Immersion?)

You Should Really Pair Immersion With Other Techniques To Speed Up Your Learning

As much as I think immersion is the best method for learning, I still think it can be improved upon.

If you really want to turbo charge your results then you should pair your immersion with other techniques.

The best thing you can do is learn vocabulary on top of immersing. Doing this is going to help you understand more words and make the immersion material more comprehensible. The more you can understand, the more your subconscious can work out what is going on and make links to everything.

Basically doing other techniques on top is a way to consciously help out your subconscious. Even studying the grammar can help you. You will be explicitly showing your brain what the rules are and your subconscious can start to use this to help speed up your progress. 

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

Immersion Doesn’t Get You To Speak The Language

The only real downside to immersion is that it does not focus on output. You will be taking the language in the whole time and learning to understand it, but you will not be forced to speak or write.

This means you need to change your approach at a certain point and actually start working on this. The good thing is that immersion will have given you an extremely strong foundation to work from. Your understanding of the language will be very high and when you try to use the language yourself you will find this foundation really helps you make quick progress.

I still think this makes it the best approach for learning as usually output is the most difficult part for learners using other techniques, whereas most immersion learners are able to get to grips with this pretty quickly thanks to their high comprehension levels.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that immersion is the best method for learning a language. While it may not be perfect, it is still much stronger than any other method.

Immersion works with your brain by allowing your subconscious to process things, and as the language you are being exposed to is in its natural state, you actually learn the language in a way that it is supposed to be used.

Immersion is difficult and takes a long time to see results, but the results are far superior to any other method and if you are trying to decide how to learn a language, I would always suggest you use immersion.

(You can read more about – Mistakes You Might Be Making When Learning A Language Through Immersion)