How To Immerse Yourself In A Language At Home - Daily Language Diary 002

Today we're talking about creating what I call "immersion bubbles"! I tell a lovely story about a time when I was learning French and immersed myself in the language while not living in a French-speaking country.

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Music:
happy hour by nohidea.

[JohnJohnson-oxuc]

I like the simple background. And the coffee. And especially the tips for creating an immersion bubble. Can't wait to see what you have for us tomorrow!

[hajiimpressions]

Hats off to you. I knew that I had finally found the right language series yesterday when I found your series. I have been trying to learn Hindi for the past 6 years, but I would learn a bit, then the waves would wash me back. I was trying to learn the language the same way that I learned in French, a beautiful language that I adore. I hang onto every word. Writing a novel in Hindi, and creating my own immersion bubble is the answer. You have given me so much to work with now. Aapko bahut bahut dhanyavaad!

[JimmyPowers-rv]

The best way to immerse myself into English which is my target language is to watch sitcoms in terms of listening skill.

[vivianederrien]

I love this topic I kept doing that to explain to people you can travel in so many different ways. Podcasts, music tutorials (guitar), cooking, movies /series, the news, music, ... in different languages.

[jamesdavis-ford]

Hey there, Robin, Great start to the series!

I didn’t make it around to commenting yesterday, but as you know I enjoy the high quality of your videos but really you, your content, and your degree of thoughtfulness in creating a dialogue with all of us is what I stick around for. I’ve recently upped the ante, so to speak, on my own immersion bubbles.

Here are some things that I’m doing to augment my daily practice. I’ve split my YouTube experience by language that way I only see content in the language that I’m practicing. I “trained” the feed to only provide suggestions in that language. I’ve started keeping a notebook which is the only place where all of languages collide. The only rule is that I don’t use English. If I need to explain something to myself I use another language I’m learning, and/or draw pictures. For daily speaking practice I sync up my interest in topics about which I’m learning or in which I’m interested to create daily recordings. I’m a fan of the Feynman Technique so today, I watched a module on philosophy of science which was in English and selected a concept from it that I then summarized it in simpler terms in Brazilian Portuguese. Lastly, when I spend a few minutes a day talking to myself about random things that are passing through my mind. I jot down any expressions or ideas that I had to grasp for. At the end of the week I look at the list and see which of those are most important and then try to get them into my expressive vocabulary. Uh, yeah, so that’s enough of my babbling.

If anyone needs help with resources of various sorts for Brazilian Portuguese, French, Danish, Modern Standard Arabic or Moroccan, or basic stuff in Homeric or Attic Greek, I may be able to help.

[alejandroquintero]

I'm watching one episode per day, I hope remember all this astonished tips.!!!!

[jamesalphonse]

You really take it seriously the background thing lol, your background is beautiful, fresh, and simple. Thank you for that advice. Right now, I want to immerse myself in Catalan but there are not so many materials out there(a series on Netflix MERLI). Keep going with those videos. Thank you

[peggytrotman]

Lol he used my comment LOOOL Thanks Awesome vid !!

[slowlearner]

Ben, Robin, vous êtes le vieux routier. Vous voyagez dans le monde, vous voyez beaucoup et vous pratiquez les langues ... Génial. Il est jaloux d'une certaine manière.
En tant que facilitateur ou conseiller, vous êtes charmé et très charismatique. C'est tres motivant pour moi. Merci.

[langtechacademy]

first video of yours I watch and I'm subscribing, love the passion you give out for languages!

[PopDasKorn]

Sounds great! I sadly do not have enough time or energy after work to read or watch a movie, but I really try to use my dead time. For example watching foreign language videos while brushing my teeth or listening to pimsleur courses while commuting.

[nori_tutor]

I admit, I'm not good at creating immersion anymore. After I got to B1-B2 Level in English I'm kinda lost on this matter. As I don't feel like watching TV shows, nor reading a lot, and etc...but I will change that!!

[trylinguallin]

Question: Do you have any tips on how to read in a foreign alphabet faster/more efficiently? I've started to read books in Chinese, but I wonder if you would know some exercises that could help me out with this

[Bruno-ioqo]

What was the name of the podcast he spoke about?

[klausestrela]

Hey Robin... Thanks for the videos :) Could you make videos about specific cultural resources in languages that you've already studied ? I'll appreciate a lot this type of content! Like indicating bands, movies, tv shows, books, websites etc! (Sorry if I wrote something wrong in english xD!) Cheers from Brazil!!! Keep on posting!

[paulodudu]

The list that you can do to emercy in English :

- listen podcast
- Read novel books
- write a dairy
- watch movies
- Duolingo / bubble / busu
- watch videos from teacher
- change language from your gadgets
- study English from songs (sounter)

[bondbert]

What are some good resources for German?

[ronycasimiro]

Muy buenos tips de Robin, chino mandarín ahí voy

[waleskatorresdiaz]

Thanks Robin. I hear your videos every day like part of my English bubble. Can you write me both french podcast that you recommended?

[SilentJaguar]

Hey Robin! I actually thought of a question regarding something I got stuck with a while back. WORD ORDER.

I've noticed this a little bit in Russian, but a lot more in Hungarian, that with how the grammar works, certain parts of the sentence could be in totally different spots to what you expected.

My question then is, how do you go about learning and internalizing a foreign language's word order? Especially when it is nothing like your own?