What Is The Optimum Amount Of Language Immersion?

When you start immersing in a language you will want to know how much you should be doing and this is understandable. You will want to make sure you are at least doing the minimum amount to see results and hopefully you will want to be doing the optimum amount to really make sure you are making good progress.

This is a hard question to answer, every ones optimum amount may be slightly different, but really you just need to do as much as you can handle. If you do this every day, you will see results. 

You Should Be Immersing Daily

I think it is important to know that you should be immersing daily. You want to be studying consistently, which really means every day.

Some of you may think studying a language every day is too intense, which it can be …but immersion should not really be that intense.

For the most part you are going to just be reading or watching something that you like. You should actually be enjoying what you are immersing with. The whole idea is to just use the language like you would your native one.

While you may struggle to fully understand everything, it should be mostly enjoyable and you should also not be straining your brain, just let the language wash in to you and sit back and try and see what you understand.

Basically it shouldn’t take any effort, so it should be easy to do every day. If you can commit to putting the time in for at least a year, probably two, you will see some progress, hopefully a lot.

You Should be Doing At Least An Hour Of Immersion A Day

When it comes to how long you should be doing each day, the truth is the more the better. However, I know that life gets busy and sometimes it’s just easier to have a target to aim for to make sure you at least hit that.

If this is the case I would want to do at least an hour, as the bare minimum. This is quite a small amount and there is no reason why you can’t do this. Ideally you will want to try and go far beyond this, maybe trying to hit 3 or 4 hours.

Doing this is going to be tough, but it is still very possible. It really is as simple as do as much as you can, the more the better.

(You can read more about – Is An Hour A Day Enough Time To Learn A Language?) 

Do As Much Immersion As You Can Handle

As I’ve already said, the more immersion the better. However, you need to work within your limits. You will reach a point where your brain shuts off and you just become overwhelmed.

In the beginning this may happen pretty quickly and an hour might even be a real struggle. That is okay, just keep trying. Every day you will find it easier and easier and you can slowly build up how much you can do.

The more you can handle the better. If you look at any one who has had a lot of success and managed to reach a really high level in 6 months, or a year …they put a lot of time in. They will say they spent 8 hours a day immersing, or every waking minute.  

I know this is not possible for everyone, but it is really important you do as much as you can handle. If you start every day with this goal, you will see results.

Ask Yourself How Much Time You Can Dedicate To Immersion

Sometimes you need to ask yourself how much can you actually do, rather than be told an amount.

I can sit here and say you need to be doing 3 or 4 hours a day, but it really comes down to you. How much time can you dedicate?

You need to look at your day and see how you are spending your time. I am certain most people do not use their time wisely and if you actually look at their day you will find large pockets of time where they are not doing anything.

It’s down to you to assess your time and decide how you want to spend it. If you are serious about learning the language you will find the time and put the hours in.  

I am sure if you looked at your time in the day, you spend a lot of time doing nothing.

Listening Immersion Shouldn’t Be Stressful

An excuse I will often here is “I’m tired” and while being tired can make language learning more difficult, if not impossible, it’s not a good excuse.

If you are just watching videos in your target language, so just listening, it should not matter how tired you are, you should be able to do this.

Your job is to just sit and watch TV shows that you like, the only issue is that you don’t fully understand the language.

You don’t need to try and translate or think to hard about things, just sit there and watch and try and follow along.

This shouldn’t be stressful and it shouldn’t be tiring. Maybe for the first few weeks it will be quite intense, but really once you get used to the sound of the language you should be able to do this no matter how tired you feel.

The feeling of not really understanding is going to be there, but that is always going to be there, even if you are not tired. This is just part of it, so get used to it. 

I will admit that sometimes my brain stops. I am trying to immerse and then I realise I am fully day dreaming and paying zero attention. If you get like this, well, maybe you are too tired …however, I know I would do the exact same thing if I watching something in English. When you get like this, you just need to go to bed. You are actually tired.

(You can read more about – How Much Listening Do You Need To Do When Learning A Language?)

Reading Immersion Can Be Intense

If you are doing a lot of reading immersion, I will agree, this is intense. Reading in a new language is hard and it can really tire you out. You need to use a lot of brain energy to read.

However, it is extremely beneficial for you, so reading as much as you can will really help your progress.

Is Passive Immersion Worth Your Time?

Passive immersion is when you have your new language on, but it’s on in the background and you are not really paying attention to it, you are focused on something else.

There is a lot of debate about if it is effective or not. It’s hard to know exactly, but a lot of people do swear it helps. Personally I don’t think it’s really matters. You are not paying attention …but I will admit your brain is probably still listening, so maybe it can help.

Either way, if you are doing something else why not put it on in the background. I actually do this. Often when I am working I will have Japanese music on in the background. I am certainly not focusing on it, but I can still hear it.

Give it a try and see what you think … just make sure you are also doing immersion where you are actually paying attention and trying to follow what is being said.     

Track The Time You Spend Immersing

When you start immersing you should track what you are doing. This can seem pointless, but it will help you out.

A lot of language learning is trial and error and working out what works for you and what fits with your lifestyle, the only way to get this right to track what you are doing.

When you track your times you will actually be able to see what you have done, then you can ask yourself if you think it is enough. Hopefully you are happy with how much you are doing and can also see the progress you are making.

However, if you are not, then you can address this. Try doing more; I am certain you will then see a difference.

The only way you will know if you need to do more, is to keep track of how much you have actually done. Then you know how much you are actually doing. Then you can decide if you are at that optimum level.

(You can read more about – Why It Is Important To Track Your Language Immersion)

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can have a clearer answer on how much you should be doing. Basically it is down to you to decide if you are doing enough. Aim for an hour a day and see how that goes, you need to work out how much you can do and if you feel it’s enough.

After a while you will be able to know if you are pushing yourself to the optimum levels or if you are maybe not, just get started and see how it goes and always remember, the more you do, the better the results you will see. 

(You can read more about – How To Immerse Yourself In A New Language – A Practical Guide)