Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion - II

Many Spanish learners, who can afford it, often travel to a Spanish-speaking country seeking the ultimate immersion experience and quick fluency. To be honest, I second this philosophy because being surrounded by only Spanish-speakers for an extended span of time is really a hell of an immersion strategy. There is, however, just one small drawback with this technique. The depth of immersion that comes with living in a Spanish-speaking society is not really such a great idea for absolute rookies. Expect swift demotivation if you start living in a Hispanic society with absolutely no knowledge of the language whatsoever.

So, how do we go about immersing in Spanish with zero prior knowledge? It’s simple. Build a near-perfect immersion environment around you right where you live and it will be a decent groundwork before you finally take the big plunge. I know this is easier said than done, but there are ways to approach this problem as closely as it gets some of which have already been discussed in a previous post, Spanish Acquisition Through Total Immersion I. Let’s check out some more here.

Stealthy immersion through Spanish music

Spanish music is the stealthiest immersion tool
Photo credit: Alan Levine licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Listen to only Spanish music. Yes, music is the easiest thing to enjoy despite the language barrier so, this should come as your natural first stem. Painful as it might sound, you must get rid of every single album in your library that is not in Spanish. Treat this like a quit-smoking program. Set yourself on a challenge to not listen to any non-Spanish song for the next, say, ten months. The good news, however, is that the Latino music scene is way richer than you would expect. No matter what your taste, every known genre is richly represented in this language; reggae, metal, pop, trance, rock...you name it!

In fact, this site has quite a few articles discussing music for learning Spanish in much greater detail. Hence, if you are truly keen on exploring the idea further and find out what bands are recommended or how to maximize absorption listening to Spanish songs, head straight to the section for learning Spanish through music.

Immersion through Spanish language newspapers

Spanish language newspapers immerse, educate, and entertain
Photo credit: Caterina Moranti Vilariño licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Read only Spanish newspaper and read everyday. And no, you can no longer procastinate saying, “my local newsstand doesn’t have non-English papers.” With the Internet, it is now possible to subscribe to almost any newspaper in the world digitally. A number of feed readers exist for this purpose. The best part about digital feeds is that you don’t even need to have a computer; RSS feeds can easily be read on almost any smartphone known to mankind today. I recommend El Universal® as one of the most respected Latin-American newspapers; closer home in Europe, you have El Mundo® or El País®.

Reading Spanish newspapers is an excellent way to not only acquire some authentic Spanish but also to stay abreast with the latest goings-on in the Hispanic world. It won’t hurt to make an online Spanish news site of your choice your home page. This way, you’ll pick up bits and pieces of Spanish subconsciously every time you go online. Every step matters, no matter how small!

Spanish comics for some light-weight immersion

Read lots and lots of Spanish comic books. Comic books are an excellent source of contemporary Spanish and interesting stories. The cartoon images not only add to the fun aspect of reading, they also make retention of new vocabulary easier as human brain retains pictures more naturally than plain words. Hence, it goes without saying that comic strips are the best way to acquire new phrases and remember them using picture association. If comics are your weakness, I would strongly urge you to check out my article exploring the possibilities at length at Spanish Trips Through Comic Strips.

Writing in Spanish: That old-school immersion technique

Writing Spanish drills it in you real deep
Photo credit: OUCHcharley licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Write. Yes, extensive writing is another wonderful retention technique. Write about anything. Your daily routine, your favorite recipe, a dummy letter to yourself, a description of your local mall, just any nonsense. What matters is that your writing exposes you to more Spanish and any amount of exposure is good exposure. It’s alright if you need to use the dictionary or grammar book before every sentence. I bet you’ll need them less often with time.

I hope it would help to state here that English is not my native tongue and writing has played an infinitely important role in shaping up my English during my childhood. It was my father who must get away with all credits here as he would constantly nudge me to write letters to our relatives in other towns in English. His idea was that I should just write, regardless of whether it makes sense or whether it is grammatically correct. He would make me write leastwise a dozen letters every month when I still went to elementary school. That practice, albeit somewhat forced, built my English so gradually and organically that I was speaking in the language quite fluently long before most Indian kids do. Spanish is no different and the same technique worked just as efficiently when I was learning this language; though this time, the letters were not mailed to my relatives to save them from the ensuing confusion.

Internet as your alternative world

Make Spanish-speaking chat-buddies. I can’t speak enough on the impact having native Spanish-speakers as friends can have on your Spanish acquisition process. They will not only correct you whenever you make mistakes, but rather prove to be immensely interesting reservoirs of colloquial lingo, the street Spanish! This is the easiest way of picking up some Spanish online.

The best part is that even if you don’t actively participate, you will still absorb quite some Spanish just sitting quietly reading what others are chatting. During my initial days learning Spanish I used to spend almost half an hour everyday logged into a Hispanic chatroom passively reading other chatters’ comments and looking up intriguing phrases on Google® or elsewhere. This seemingly time-killing activity had a huge contribution to my knowledge of Spanish. As with everything else, though, consistency and persistence is the key.

Basta por hoy (enough for today). We hope these immersion techniques help you sink deeper in Spanish. Do note that that the stress is on acquiring Spanish instead of learning it. That’s what we did with our native tongues as infants. And smooth acquisition comes with better absorption. And the farther you move from English (or your native language, if it’s non-English), the better you absorb.