This will help you succeed.


   One  of  the  things  I  mentioned  in  an  earlier  post  that  is  invaluable  when  learning  a  second/foreign  language  is  practicing  what  you  learn  each  day/lesson/class. Constant  practice  gives  you  the  confidence  and  boldness  to  start  applying  what  you  have  already  learned. The  other  thing  that  will  help  you  succeed  in  your  foreign  language  studies  is  total  immersion. Well, now  I  know  it  sounds  like  I’ve  gone  off  on  a  complicated  trail  of  phrases  and  sophisticated  terminology. But, stay  with  me  and  you’ll  see  that  immersion  is  probably  something  that  you  do  consistently, albeit  in  a  different  context.

     In  the  context  of  learning  a  foreign/second  language, immersion  means  taking  every  opportunity  to  expose  yourself  to  situations  where  your  target  language  is  being  used.  For  example, if  you  are  learning  Spanish, try  listening  to  news  broadcasts  in  Spanish. If  you  are  a  sports  fan, you  can  go  to  a  Spanish  sports  channel  to  watch  your  favourite  team’s  games. On  the  other  hand, if  you  like  music, listen  to  your  favourite  genre  of  music  in  Spanish. These  days, there  are  numerous  Spanish  language  channels  like  Telemundo, Univision  and  Univision  Deportes  to  make  this  possible.

    At  first  when  you  begin  immersing  yourself  in  these  kind  of  environments, the  progress  may  not  be  noticeable. You  may  even  fail  to  see  the  benefits  initially, but  with  time, you’ll  be  amazed  at  the  impact  it  has  on  you. I’ll  go  ahead  and  share  a  personal  experience  with  immersion, in  reference  to  learning  a  foreign  language. When  I  began  taking  classes, in  the  course  of  pursuing  one  of  the  foreign  languages  that  I’m  fluent  in, I’d  find  that  the  people  who  already  spoke  the  language  did  it  too  fast. Before  I  could  be  able  to  piece  together  what  they  were  saying, they’d  already  be  done. This  is  very  frustrating  at  several  levels. To  begin  with, you  feel  lost  because  you’re  unable  to  respond  nor  participate  in  a  discussion. Secondly, you  feel  utterly  helpless  and  you  question  your  own  ability  to  learn  the  language. It’s  at  that  point  that  you  feel  like  going  to  the  enrollment  office  and  asking  for  a  refund  of  your  fees. It  was  after  encountering  this  problem  that  I  decided  try  immersion.

    Like  I  said  in  the  previous  paragraph, initially, you  don’t  notice  any  difference. Not  only  that, but  most  words  don’t  even  make  sense  to you. And  that’s  alright  because  your  vocabulary  is  very  limited  at  the  beginning. But  remember, the  goal  is  to  be  comfortable  with  the  rhythm  and  the  pace  of  speech. Eventually,  after  continuous  immersion, I  started  comprehending  a  bigger  portion  of  what  was  being  said  when  people  spoke. And  to  my  surprise, I  now  found  that  the  same  people  I  thought  spoke  fast, speaking  at  a  normal  rhythm/pace. From  that  point  going  forward, there  was  no  looking  back. By  the  time  I decided  to  try  my  hand  at  another  foreign  language, I  knew  I  had  a  great  and  effective  weapon  in  my  armoury. Immersion. It  never  disappoints. Try  it.


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