02.06.2023
How do you make the language-immersion method actually work?
Once upon a time I studied in Italy, and over six months the only thing that managed to fit inside my head was the translations of pizza ingredient names.
In Lithuanian I can say hello and thank you.
Spanish got luckier: I'm in Argentina right now (hi everyone!), and I can feel new words sticking to me out of thin air, like wet snow onto a snowman (yes, winter's started here. No, there won't be any snow yet, it's +20 outside)
What makes Argentina better for learning a language by immersion? A few factors came together: - here they just don't speak any of the other languages I know. 90% of the time nobody will understand English: you have to try Spanish; - out on the street your phone can get snatched right out of your hands, so you'd rather not pull up the translator one extra time — your brain creaks, but it takes in more; - the world here is so friendly and chatty. even if you ask a direct question (one you somehow just barely managed to scrape together out of the words you know), and they actually understand it, the answer will very rarely be a plain yes or no (which would be so convenient for a beginner)! usually right after that you'll hear some long clarifying spiel full of strange words: «oh, you ordered one dish for two? do you want us to split it onto two plates right away, or bring it on one and you'll divide it yourselves? and will you be needing salt and pepper?». your brain explodes at first, and then gets used to it and even starts to understand something.
Anyway, from this experience I realized that if I ever want to bring my French back, it'll be really easy: I'd just need to go spend a couple of months in some provincial town. But German probably won't work that way: everywhere in Germany people spoke really good English with me, and the brain, well — it's lazy.