What Immersion Techniques Can You Use To Learn A Language?

When you start learning a language you will hear that you should be doing immersion and that it is one of the best ways to learn, but it can be a little unclear about what that means and how you actually do it.

It’s not a difficult technique as really you just have to interact with anything and everything that gives you lots of exposure to the language …it sounds vague, but that’s just because it’s a vast spectrum of different activities and techniques that do this.

Basically if you are hearing or seeing the language and your native language isn’t involved …then it’s probably a form of immersion, but I will go some of the best techniques you can use to immerse yourself in the language.  

Go To The Country That Speaks The Language

If you want to know the ultimate language immersion technique, it’s pretty simple …move to a country that speaks the language.

Although, even this requires some work as you can’t just go and not get mixed into the local community. As someone from Ireland, I know I can pretty much go to any city in the world and find an Irish bar and find some of fellow country people …but guess what …I won’t improve my language skills there.

Really you want to be surrounded by the new language 24/7 this is pretty extreme and the total lack of your native language can be quite distressing but I assure you, you will quickly pick up the new language.

Attend A Language School

Just moving to the country is pretty extreme, but it works. However, you could kind of do this in a slightly more controlled fashion by doing something like going to an immersion school.

These can be in your own country or aboard, but they spend the vast majority of the time exposing you to the language. The big difference is that you are in the safety of a classroom and they are trying to teach you things in a slightly more structured way, it just happens the majority of this is in the new language.  

Immersion Techniques At Home

For most of us, being able to just move to another country or attend a language school is just not possible and this is okay.

We can still do a lot of immersion from our own home, thanks to the internet. It may not be quite the adventure, but it is certainly cheaper, easier and actually maybe more effective. I will go through some of the ways we can do this and if you haven’t started, these are techniques you can do right now.      

Immersion On Youtube

I am sure you know youtube, it is a great source of entertainment when you are bored, but it is actually probably one of the most powerful immersion tools you have at your disposal.

There is an almost endless supply of videos on YouTube and these are in all sorts of different languages. If you are learning a common language, there will be videos. If you are learning an uncommon language …there will probably still be some videos.

You will have clips from TV shows, films, music and just general stuff created by natives …all for other natives.

You then have the videos made for language learners and you will often get language teachers making content too.

Basically you could sit on YouTube all day and be fully exposed to your new language the whole time. You might actually hear more of the language doing this, than walking around a city in the country that speaks the language. If you are just walking around you might pick up little pieces as people pass by, so it’s probably not as effective.

The great thing about YouTube is that you can watch videos on things you are interested in, you just need to search for them in the language you want and you should find something to enjoy and more importantly, it will help you learn.

(You can read more about – How To Use YouTube To Learn A Language)

TV/Films

TV and films are a great way to immerse in a language and while it is probably easier to get access to these when you are in a country that speaks the language, it is not impossible.

You can still get access to a lot of these through the internet (including on youtube). You can find these on many streaming sites and if you use a VPN you can unlock even more.

You are going to be able to find original shows and movies as well as ones you may already know, but they are dubbed in the language you are learning. You might even find stuff that you have seen in your own language, but the original audio was actually the language you are learning, so now you can enjoy it as it was intended. (Just think of all the anime that we have in English that should be in Japanese).  

(You can read more about – Can Watching Movies In A New Language Help With Learning?)

Music

Music is maybe not the best way to directly learn a language, but it does make excellent background immersion.

You can find music in your new language on any music streaming platform and it can be great to have on in the background while you work or do other things. You may not be fully engaging with it and listening intently, but your subconscious will be paying attention.

Anyone who quickly achieved a high level in their language through immersion will tell you that they always had the language playing in their ears for every second they where awake and a lot of that was possible through listening to music.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to do some immersion. You can focus your listening and really pay attention to what is being said or you can have it on in the background while you go about you day, like music.

You can find lots of podcasts in your new language on any podcast app and the fact that this will be on your phone means you can always do some immersion no matter where you are.

Books

If you would rather immerse in the language through reading, rather than listening, then books are going to be for you.

You can get access to a lot of books online, especially through apps like Kindle, but you can also order physical books and have them delivered to your house. Of course that is going to be a more expensive option, but having a physical book in your hand can be worth it …and you can also purchase second hand books to keep the price down.

There all sorts of different books so you should be able to find something that is of interest to you. You can start with kid’s books or go straight to novels or even non-fiction. You can even buy books that you have already read in your own language. The Harry Potter books are very popular with language learners as they know the story, which can help make it more comprehensible when you read it in another language.

Internet Surfing

You probably find that throughout your day you just generally browse the internet or look things up …maybe that’s how you ended up here?

I am sure you do things like check the news and go to a number of other sites and if you stop doing this in your native language and start doing it in the language you are learning, then this is a form of immersion.

You might be surprised at how much of the language you can squeeze in by doing this. It will be difficult in the beginning and it may take you a lot longer to get the information you want, but it can be worth it as you will be getting much more exposure to the new language.

Using Output As A Form of Immersion

Immersion is mainly about input, meaning you absorb the language and take it in, but after a while you should start outputting, which means you need to start using the language yourself.

This may not be for a long time, but you will eventually get to this stage. If you are just starting out then focus on understanding everything first, just keep listening and reading and slowly you will get comfortable with understanding and you will start to feel like you can move on to outputting.

Journaling/Anything You Write

A very good way to get output immersion is to write things yourself. If you do a lot of writing throughout the day you can start to try and do this in your new language. However, if you do not then you can start journaling.

Really all you have to do is spend some time every day writing some things down. It doesn’t really matter what you write about, it’s more about the practice of trying to form sentences and get used to using the language.  

Make Friends With Natives Speakers

Making friends with native speakers is great as it is a form of input and output, so it really is one of the best forms of immersion you can have.

It is made even better as it totally personalised. You are having a real life conversation with someone about your life; it’s not just some made up textbook exercise.

You will learn a lot by speaking to a native and you will get to practice a lot, but it is also just fun and really interesting. You can actually make really good friends doing this.

(You can read more about – Are Language Exchange Partners An Effective Way To Learn A Language?)

Get A Tutor

If you are having trouble with making friends, or you feel the conversations are not helpful enough you can always hire a tutor.

They can give you traditional lessons, but you can also just have conversations, this will of course help your input, but I would imagine a tutor is going to try and get you talking a lot more than listening.   

(You can read more about – Should You Use A Language Tutor?)

Talk To Yourself In The Language

You can also immerse yourself in the language by just talking to yourself throughout the day.  You can just keep your exposure levels extremely high by constantly trying to think and speak in the language.

Even if you have a small vocabulary you can still just repeat things to yourself all day long, it all makes great practice and helps your brain understand that this new language is important and something you should be paying attention to.

Make Everything In Your Life Be In The Language

Really if you want the ultimate immersion at home you need to act like you are not living in your own country and you need to almost pretend you are abroad.

You can get quite extreme with things and spend most of your day only using your new language …of course this is a lot easier if you live alone and are not working. Dealing with other people and working are going to kind of force you to speak your native language, but I think you can still spend a good portion of your day only using the new language.

I am sure everyone you know will think you are mad, but doing this can get you some good results and if you can’t actually move to the country that speaks the language, then this is a good alternative.  

The Best Technique Is To Stay Consistent And Do A Lot Of Immersion

I am sure a lot of you are wondering which one of these techniques is best to use, or should you focus on all of them or not.

The reality is that it doesn’t matter what you do. Just pick the things you can do, or that you enjoy and do them as much as possible and as often as possible.

Immersion really is as simple as the more exposure you get; the better it is for you …so just stick with it and do as much as you can every day. So long as you do something it will be helping you, so try everything out and see what you enjoy and then do a lot of it.  

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language By Only Using Immersion?)