Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion - I

As is the case with any foreign language, the key to native-level Spanish is simple: Absolute immersion. Immerse yourself as deeply as possible. Build Spanish around you. Bit by bit. Word by word. Phrase by phrase. Until Spanish becomes a second nature to you; until you start thinking in Spanish. When I was new to this idea, I didn’t take it much seriously as it seemed way too easier said than done. But after a few months of experimenting with various techniques of Spanish language immersion, the results were far from disappointing! Read on and I bet learning Spanish will never seem a dead-beat exercise to you anymore.

I understand it can get a tad frustrating in the beginning when you immerse too deep and have to refer to the dictionary way too often to understand every word. But give yourself time and it won’t be difficult to notice the drop in the frequency with which you need to open the big, fat word-bank. In this post, we explore some immersion ideas which should be a part of your Spanish learning process like your life depended on it. Learning Spanish is not as rewarding as absorbing it passively. And absorption is only possible once you immerse completely – Stop learning Spanish and start acquiring it.

Make your computer speak Spanish

A Mac® can easily be made to speak Spanish

The first step, though painful, is to switch to Spanish on that computer of yours. I know that hurts but believe me, it won’t take you more than a week to get comfortable with doing everything on your computer in Spanish!

If you are reading this article on your computer, I would assume you are spending a significant portion of your time everyday communicating with it. Since total immersion means every minute counts, why not start capitalizing on this time? Even if no one else around you, you can surely make your computer talk to you in Spanish and get some serious input with little effort! This comes out of personal experience.

I don’t know if it is easy on Windows®, since my experience is on Apple® systems. Apple® makes it really easy to switch to any language without downloading anything. Just open System Preferences and hit the Language and Text module to be able to change the default system language to Spanish. I did this right in the beginning and I must admit that this simple step went a long way in cutting down my learning curve.

Make your TV speak nothing but Spanish

Unleash the couch potato in you

Photo credit: Aapo Haapanen licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Next, if possible, switch over to Spanish-only channels on your television. At least for once, in the context of learning Spanish, you can safely assume that the couch potato is the winner here. Yes, the more you watch TV, the denser your input; and converting all that input from your TV into Spanish could mean a never-ending reserve of crisp, authentic Spanish right in your living room!

Now, this one, while easy to do in most countries in Europe, North America, and South America, might be an impractical idea for the rest of the world. India, for one, does not have a single channel with Spanish programming. For such learners, the next best thing would be to acquire as much Spanish media (the Internet is a rich resource) as possible and quit watching regular television. Again, this will get frustrating and demotivating as the Spanish on those movies and shows is rapidfire and absolutely incomprehensible to unaccustomed ears. My two cents, just be patient and consistent and give yourself time. My previous post talks more about how to use Spanish media for immersion.

Read nothing but Spanish

Read Spanish...anything in Spanish!

Photo credit: Enokson licensed CC BY 2.0

Reading is a less frustrating and an equally enriching immersion strategy. Acquire a few Spanish books (best are collections of short stories) make it a point to spend time reading leastwise two to three pages everyday. read the same snippet for a few days before moving on the the next one. This is to allow your learning to sink deeper and help you absorb the new grammar constructs and vocabulary better. No need to depend on your local bookstore; Amazon is the richest source of quality reading materials in Spanish or any other popular language. I would also recommend Flipkart®, especially for those in India.

In order to ensure you stay in the game for longer and eliminate any chances of a burn-out, fatigue, or boredom, opt for easy reads, such as small children’s books of fairy tales, fables, graphic novels, or graded readers for kids in elementary schools. Whatever you read, make sure there is loads of pictures or graphic illustration. This will ensure you understand the context better even if not opening up the dictionary for every second word. If possible, newspapers could also serve the purpose while being informative and interesting at the same time.

However, I would strongly advise against e-books or online readers unless you are a Kindle user. The reading experience is most fulfilling if done the traditional way, i.e., real, paper books. The computer screen with it’s radiation glare is far from suitable for long reading sessions.

Another thing is consistency. No matter how much time you dedicate to each of these activities, it is important to stay consistent if you intend to maximize the benefits. No amount of motivation is going to help if you stay immersed for hours on one day and not at all for the next three days. I would also not give you any magic number when it comes to the number of hours you should dedicate to these tasks every day. Because that wouldn’t be immersion. Total, absolute immersion means you should live Spanish every moment of your waking life. So, it does not matter how much time you spend reading as long as you read only Spanish and nothing else whenever you do, even if only for a few minutes. Similarly, it does not matter how much time you spend watching TV as long as it is only Spanish on the screen whenever you turn on the TV and not English or any other language. And trust me, this is far from overkill!

More strategies will be discussed in a future continuation on learning Spanish through total immersion. In the interim, I invite all of you to share with me your views on total immersion as a Spanish-acquisition tool through your comments. Your comments will not only enrich my experience but will also help you share best practices amongst yourselves.