Immersion: Can You Do It Without Visiting the Country?

Spoiler: Yes! You can even do it without ever leaving home!

In this article I’m going to show you 3 easy ways you can immerse yourself in a new language without ever even needing to leave home.

But—first things first—what is immersion? And why is it so crucial to language learning?

Well, think of a baby. Does a baby work through complicated grammar exercise books when first acquiring a language? Does a baby flip through flashcards on a lunch break, forcing rote memorization of vocab words?

No, of course not. It’s a baby.

Instead, babies learn through immersion and gradual acquisition of new words, phrases, and ideas. Comprehensible input comes bit by bit, in pieces and increase as the baby’s capacity to understand increases. Parents don’t talk to their baby about the current political climate in Eastern Europe to help it develop language skills. So, why would you do that to yourself when you’re just starting out learning a language?

The best way to acquire a language is through this slow comprehensible input process, immersing yourself bit by bit in new sources that stretch you in your new language, but only JUST past your current level.

So how can you immerse yourself in your new language?

Oftentimes, the best case scenario is to live in the country where your target language is spoken. However, since this isn’t always a feasible option for everyone, it’s necessary to find other ways to immerse yourself in your target language. I’ve included 3 simple ways you can do this below!

Did you know that interacting with the world through the language you’re learning can also be considered immersion?  

1. Creating a Language Immersion Environment at Home

First off, you can create your own mini language immersion environment right in your own home. Doing things like frequently listening to music in your target language, watching movies and shows in your target language, and finding podcasts that let you listen to your target language can all help you achieve this.

I have Spotify playlists in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, German, and even Esperanto. Find some music you like in your target language, and share it with me in the comments! I love discovering new music in new languages.

You might even strategize a bit. You might decide that everyday from 12:00-1:00 PM you’re only going to listen to things and speak in your target language. Alternatively, you might decide to make it so that when you’re in a certain room of your house, you will only engage in your target language (French in the kitchen works really well for this strategy because of all the culinary terms and such).

One last thing you might do to create an immersive environment at home is to go around and put sticky notes on different items in your house that label what that item is in your target language. Constantly seeing a sticky note that says “テレビ” on your TV might help you remember that word in Japanese, or seeing “ la puerta” on your doors might make it stick that that’s the word in Spanish.

Essentially, finding things you enjoy and engaging with them in your target language can help you immerse yourself without ever needing to leave home.

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2. Language Immersion through Daily Habits

Doing everyday activities in your target language can help you immerse yourself in that language in an easy-to-do way. For example, writing shopping and to-do lists, or keeping a journal in your target language can help you use your new language every day!

One of the most useful things I have ever done to integrate my target languages into my daily habits is making sure I think in that language as often as possible. For example, I translate random sentences that I come across throughout the day into my target language. This helps me constantly use my target language, even when I don’t have someone to talk to in that moment.

Be careful about whispering your translations out loud around people though… I tend to recite things out loud to help practice my pronunciation, but it comes at a cost:

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3. Engaging with Native Speakers Online

The last tip is to use online methods to connect with other speakers and learners to use your new language!

Thankfully, you DON’T have to be comfortable speaking your new language to do this. Starting to use your language consistently from the beginning is one of the best things you could possibly do when learning a language.

One easy way you can do this is through online apps/websites like Tandem and iTalki—full disclosure, I have used Tandem before, but I have not used iTalki.

(Click on the images below to be taken to each website)

Tandem

Tandem is a free app/service where you can easily connect with language learners all around the world. Making a free account will require you to select a target language and your native language, and then the app will suggest connections for you based on who natively speaks your target language and who wants to learn your native language! This can help you comfortably select people to talk to on your own time in order to get the speaking practice that will take your language learning to the next level.

iTalki

iTalki has a fantastic reputation for language exchange and helping learners begin speaking with native speakers from day one. This is a paid online app/service where you can sign up (and pay) for one-on-one lessons with native speakers of your target language. Many of these people are professional teachers, and you can easily find reviews of each and every language partner on the site. These lessons are priced differently depending on the teacher, so make sure you pay attention to those differences as you look for a teacher.

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What’s the Takeaway?

Immersion is ABSOLUTELY possible, even if you don’t live in a country where your target language is spoken. Try out some of these tips, and let me know how they work for you! I would also love to hear any other tips you’ve hear for how to immerse yourself in your target language; this list is definitely not exhaustive!