Immerse Yourself

A Pathway to Genuine Fluency in a Foreign Language

Ryon Morrin (Hokkaido)

THE OLD SCHOOL WAYS

If you’ve ever sat down in a traditional foreign language classroom, you’re probably familiar with dry textbooks full of giant word lists, uninteresting reading passages, and page after page of grammar point explanations that feel impossible to commit to memory. What you retain from the sheer amount of drilling seems insignificant as you progress to the next chapter with less than half of what you “learned” in the last one. You speak and make error after error, sitting on the edge of your seat as you await a swift correction from your teacher (or worse, classmate) that is intended to help you fix your speech, but you will surely make the same mistake again. You overthink it all, fearing embarrassment from mispronouncing a word or stumbling over yourself, producing an entirely incomprehensible string of nonsense in a flustered state. Ah yes, fun times. After a while, many (myself included) hit a rock-solid wall that stands about 50 feet tall; the dreaded intermediate-level plateau. Your understanding is limited. You can communicate some of the things you want to say, but your speech is simplistic, probably broken, and almost certainly sounds unnatural. Your writing isn’t much different. What can you do?

While traditional classes were a nice introduction to the Japanese language, I focused all of my time and energy on text books, attempting to cram everything into my brain using rote memorization tactics. The truth is, I should have been focusing much less of my time on that. Though I’m beyond grateful for my wonderful, dedicated professors in the U.S. and in Tokyo, my Japanese studies were missing a very important part of the equation: real, native content.

THE SECRET SAUCE: IMMERSION

Immersion is what it sounds like: you dive head first into the “real world” of your language of choice and surround yourself with it. It can be intimidating, but anybody who is willing to dedicate the time can do it. Steven Krashen’s research was the starting point, arguing against the old ways and advocating for a different, much more effective approach to second language education.

ON KRASHEN

Dr. Steven Krashen is a famed linguist and educational researcher known for his theory of second language acquisition. His work inspired the current trend of language acquisition through immersion that’s rapidly gaining popularity. Notice the phrasing: acquisition, not learning. Think of the way that children acquire language. Through consistent exposure to speech, they gain the ability to understand as well as produce it themselves. Once thought to only be possible for infants and young children, Krashen theorized that even adults could acquire language in a similar fashion.

Input (language you listen to or read) needs to be from content that you want to understand; ideally, content should be mostly comprehensible as well as compelling. Traditional learning can still play a role in the acquisition process, but Krashen argues that it is less important than receiving native language input, such as television, actual conversation, books, and more. It needs to be enjoyable, captivating, gripping content. Krashen’s input hypothesis details what exactly comprehensible means. Acquisition takes place when it follows the rule of “i + 1.” “i” is the learner’s current level, and “+1” stands for the level just above that.

This is the ideal zone where acquisition takes place. Ideally, most of the content is comprehensible and follows the rule of “i + 1.” It’s important to note this is all about input, not output (speaking and writing).

On output, Krashen states, “According to the comprehension hypothesis, speaking is the result of language acquisition, not the cause. We don’t learn to speak by speaking; rather, we build up the competence for speaking by listening and by reading (of course, reading alone won’t do the job). This has been confirmed by a number of case histories showing that the ability to speak ‘emerges’ gradually as a result of listening.”

For years and years, I had thought that the only way to get better was to speak as much as possible, but in reality, I was just establishing bad habits that sound unnatural and are hard to break. As Krashen states, we learn how to speak by hearing the language spoken. It is not a creative process that we figure out on our own; the patterns are already there, you just need to hear them in action over and over in various contexts. Hearing this theory for the first time blew my mind, as it challenged a core understanding I had held from the very start.

ALL JAPANESE ALL THE TIME

Japanese is a notoriously difficult language for native English speakers. Many try, yet fail to become fluent in the language. However, some have succeeded, and they have shared their stories in recent years. All Japanese All The Time, a language immersion method, has been popular among Japanese learners ever since the creator, Khatzumoto, developed the site and shared his quest for fluency years ago. In his own words: “I learned Japanese in 18 months by having fun. In June 2004, at the ripe old age of 21, all post-pubescent and supposedly past my mental/linguistic prime, I started learning Japanese. By September 2005, I had learned enough to read technical material, conduct business correspondence and job interviews in Japanese. By the next month, I landed a job as a software engineer at a gigantic Japanese corporation in Tokyo.”

Khatz started a website where he shared his methods and soon after, the AJATT community was formed. He never stepped foot in a traditional classroom, claims he never read a single textbook and did it all by having fun. He immersed himself entirely in Japanese from sunup to sundown and came out of it fluent without stepping foot in Japan.

More recently, popular YouTuber Matt vs. Japan has been sharing his wisdom and demonstrating his highly fluent Japanese. He has been mistaken for a native speaker in public settings and in online chats many times. He is heralded as one of the greatest success stories in the immersion community, having mastered not only fluency but Japanese pitch accent, an element of the language most people don’t even realize exists or simply disregard as unimportant despite being essential to native-like speech. He did it through the AJATT method along with some of his own strategies and modifications, and his channel is full of extremely valuable tricks and tips that any Japanese learner can benefit from.

THE LATEST AND GREATEST: REFOLD

Adapted versions of AJATT have been developed in an attempt to refine what Khatzumoto did while cutting out or replacing some parts many considered to be unimportant or flat-out ineffective. Namely, the Refold method has gained popularity not just with Japanese learners, but also with learners of many other languages like Korean, Spanish, and Mandarin. Matt vs. Japan is now a part of the Refold team; his methods inspired the project. Refold’s detailed roadmap to fluency is free and suitable for anyone, including absolute beginners. On the home page, they explain that the roadmap will show you “. . . how to combine media, strategic study, and educational technologies to achieve high-level language fluency faster than any other method in the world.” Refold is broken into stages from 0 to 3 (stage 4 is in development), telling readers not just the what and the how, but also the why; links to research and theory are provided along the way for those interested. Particularly important, Stage 2A details strategies for watching and reading content: intensive and free-flow. Intensive immersion involves looking up every single unknown word in an episode of a TV show or a chapter of a book. It takes a lot of time, but it can be especially useful when the content is packed full of unfamiliar words. Free-flow, on the other hand, requires you to embrace the ambiguity, accept that at times, you simply will not understand, and perhaps most importantly, pushes you to infer meaning through context. Free-flow can feel very uncomfortable at first, but in my personal experience, it has been the most powerful form of immersion. Refold recommends spending time immersing using both methods.

The roadmap also details ways to find content, implement useful, time-saving software, select shows and books that are level-appropriate, and evaluate your level of comprehension as you progress on your immersion journey. From learning a writing system and grammar basics at the start to actually using your acquired language in speech after hundreds of hours of immersion, Refold tells you exactly how to do it.

A TOOL TO REMEMBER

As previously stated, immersion can be supplemented with active study. Among the immersion crowd, the primary tool of choice is Anki, an extremely powerful and versatile Spaced Repetition System (SRS) flashcard program. It’s free for PC, open-source, and has countless add-ons available on the web aimed at language learners. There are mobile versions of the app, too. For those who aren’t familiar, SRS uses algorithms to determine the frequency at which you see a flashcard depending on whether you pass or fail it. Each time you consecutively pass a card, the frequency at which you see it decreases, going from one day, to three days, to seven days, and so on. This process is highly effective at turning new information into long-term memories. Remember long nights of cramming for a test only to lose most of it within a week? Using an SRS app is the answer to this problem, and is a language learner’s best friend, especially when combined with other useful tools. Anki can be a bit complicated to learn, but with a little bit of reading, you can pick it up quickly.

While the technology aids for immersion continue to improve and become increasingly appealing, it’s easy to sink too much time into tech rather than immersing. There’s an initial time investment required to get set up; that’s absolutely necessary and worth doing. However, try not to get caught up in constant customization; it’s easy to fall down that rabbit hole (I know firsthand).

IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO…

This: just immerse! Watch, listen, and read. Use existing habits to make the transition easier. Everything you already do can be done in your target language. Whether it’s watching TV after dinner, reading news articles on the train to work, or listening to podcasts on your drive to the store, it all has value. An important distinction to be aware of is active versus passive immersion. Active is considerably more valuable than passive, but both have benefits. Active immersion is when you focus exclusively on the content: nothing is coming between you and that movie or book at that moment. Passive immersion is when you play something in the background while you’re tending to another task. You still catch bits and pieces as you’re washing dishes or folding laundry, but your attention is divided.

IN THE END

Immersion is not for someone who just wants survival skills for small talk or vacation. It’s for someone seeking a high level of fluency; a person who wants the ability to live their life in a foreign language. It’s also for anyone who’s tired of deathly boring textbooks and grammar drills. If you’re interested in starting your own immersion journey, check out the links below and start reading!

Resources:

Krashen- Theory of Second Language Acquisition /Dr. Steven Krashen- Comprehension Hypothesis

AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Matt vs Japan - YouTube / Stevi (Interview) - Basic Fluency and JLPT N1 in 18 Months Refold | Home / Roadmap | Refold / Refold Unofficial Japanese Guide

Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards (ankiweb.net)

Sources:

1. bit.ly/3qYWx9h

2. bit.ly/3njGD70

3. bit.ly/3HvOG8X

Ryon Morrin is a third-year ALT based in Shintotsukawa, Hokkaido. In his free time, he enjoys discovering new music, hiking in the mountains, and playing rhythm games at the arcade.

Monthly Language Corner

アルミ缶の上に あるミカン

The mikan is on top of the aluminium can.

Happy Holidays if you celebrate them, and if not, enjoy the winter break! Here’s a few words that might come up in conversation over the month ahead and a seasonal pun I’m sure you could pull off in the right setting.

Vocabulary

Snow-viewing 雪見 yukimi

Snowman 雪だるま yukidaruma

Winter break 冬休み fuyuyasumi

Christmas クリスマス kurisumasu

“illumination” or light decorations that are often put up in winter イルミネ—ション irumineshon

Blizzard 吹雪 fubuki

New Year’s 正月 shougatsu

Money that children receive every New Year お年玉 otoshidama

New Year’s Cards 年賀状 nengajou

Mandarin oranges (traditional winter fruit!) みかん mikan

Roasted sweet potatoes 焼き芋 yakiimo