The Benefits of Immersing Yourself in a New Language

Learning a new language is an exciting endeavor as it will allow you to open your mind to additional knowledge and become familiar with the different cultures of the people who speak the language. In addition, you might get a professional advantage with your knowledge of a second, third, or fourth language! If you are a healthcare practitioner and you are learning a new language to better communicate with your patients, you will feel great when you achieve this goal.

 

A lot has been said about immersion as a technique to learn a new language. There are different ways to do this, which go from spending a semester or more in a country in which they natively speak this language to listening to music in the language you are learning. Here are some of the main benefits of immersing yourself in a new language and some techniques to help you do this.

 

A Benefit: Familiarity with the Words and Accents

Immersing yourself in the language you are trying to learn will help you become more familiar and comfortable with words that are regularly used. Similarly, it’s very different to learn to speak a new language in a classroom, where teachers often enunciate and speak as clearly as possible. Through immersion, you can become more familiar with the accent of the native speakers, something that will be very useful when you find yourself interacting with them. 

A Technique: Watch Movies in the Language You’re Learning

You might have heard this before and there’s a good reason for that. There are different stages when it comes to watching movies and tv shows in the language you’re learning. The first thing is to play the audio in the original language with English subtitles. As said before, you can become more familiar with the accent of the native speakers and you will find yourself catching words that you already know.

 

As you progress and start understanding full sentences, you might be able to take the next step, which is watching the movie in the native language with subtitles in the native language as well. More often than not, we are more comfortable reading the language we’re learning than understanding it when it’s spoken. This combination will allow you to understand while you fine-tune your ear.

 

Finally, when you are ready you can skip the subtitles and simply watch the movie in the original language. While you might have to pause a couple of times at first to look for a word or put the subtitles back for a while, you will eventually be comfortable enough to watch the entire movie or show without any additional help.

A Benefit: Learning about the Culture 

It’s one thing to know the language and another one to know the culture. While these both go hand in hand, getting a true appreciation for the culture of a specific country or region can be difficult to achieve from the classroom. This is why listening to music, watching movies, and doing some research online about the cultural nuances of a place can be very helpful.

A Technique: Read in the Language

Reading in the language you’re learning is also a great technique you can apply. An extra tip to make this technique as useful as possible? Read about things that you like! You might be learning Spanish to be able to talk with your patients but you don’t have to only read medical journals in Spanish as a way to practice! Dare to read a romantic novel or a sci-fi text. A great way to start, even if it sounds a bit funny is with children’s books. This is because they have simpler language and illustrations to help along. Once you know more vocabulary and feel more comfortable with the grammar, you can start going for more ambitious material.

A Benefit: Faster Learning

Thanks to the aforementioned techniques, you will be able to learn the language a lot faster. If you’re only sticking to what you learn in the classroom, online course, or app you might be using, you will take a lot longer to become conversational or fluent. However, if you use these different techniques you will get a faster ear for the language and will expand your vocabulary at a faster rate. Plus, you will also become more knowledgeable when it comes to things they don’t always teach you in class, such as colloquialisms. 

A Technique: Don’t only Read about It, Live it!

There are many different ways in which you can start to immerse yourself in the culture of the language you’re learning. One of the easiest ones (depending on where you live) is to go to a restaurant that sells food from one of the countries that speak the language. Taking Spanish as an example, you can choose between over a dozen countries to try food from. Try to go to a place that offers the real thing and not just a version of it. 

Similarly, you can go to encounters with people who speak that language natively or even get a pen pal, an old but great way to practice and ask questions. This will allow you to meet new people and get an appreciation of the language and the culture.

Another great way to go about it is an all-in experience. This can be going on vacation for a week to one of the countries where they speak the language or taking a language course abroad. If you have the opportunity to go on an extended trip, this will be an invaluable experience. It will allow you to live like a local and fully immerse yourself in the language. At first, it might feel challenging and a bit scary but with time, you will feel more and more confident and become more adept at navigating the place you are at. 

If you can’t take too much time off for an immersive experience or you want to start dipping your toes into immersing yourself in the Spanish language, you might benefit from our accelerated one-week Medical Spanish Program. This unique opportunity will allow you to see incredible sights while learning and practicing your Spanish skills!