Is Immersion / AJATT the Most Effective Language Learning Method?

In language learning, immersion is often seen as the guaranteed way to learn a foreign language, but is it? Well, it all depends on how you go about it. We'll discuss this question as well as AJATT in this video.

Out of the millions who study and learn foreign languages, very few people are willing to pay the price of immersion. This is understandable, but at the same time, there's a lot we can learn from language learning programs that advocate immersion like AJATT and also polyglots like Alexander Arguelles and Steve Kaufmann.

No matter which language learning guru you follow, the main message you will find is that if you want to get really good at a foreign language really fast, you're going to need spend multiple hours per day reading and listening to that language. Some go as far as calling this immersion in reading and listening "AJATTing".

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Other videos you might like:

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Music:

"Meatball Parade"

"Dark Fog"

"Deep Haze"

"Exit the Premises"

"Senbazuru"

"Shaving Mirror"

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Credit:

[FluentJapaneseFromAnime]

For more on why reading is just as good as listening when it comes to language learning:

[ZuridaKaraketova]

"Read when you can, listen when you can't, and whenever you think you can't read or listen anymore, you actually can"

[osilvamp]

My main language is portuguese. I learned english using this method. It really works, and I think it is the best method to learn a language (I tried others and didn't have the same result). But you've to be patient, it takes time.

[fullHDMI]

Dude, you`re a nice guy. Miss your videos.

[andrefelipe]

But what do when i don't know a kanji

[peripateticguy]

Immersion is great, except when you're a little more than a beginner, and you hear all the words but don't understand enough to piece the sentence together.

[jeremycline]

Right now I'm trying to learn Uyghur and my method is: start with a beginner text and master that, and then jump immediately into reading and listening; I go from news articles to interview transcripts to short stories, to song lyrics to cooking videos; progress is slow but I'm enjoying the hell out of it; meanwhile, with German, since my plan is to do get over there for an intensive course within the next few years, I just do tons of sentence cards and watch videos.

[thedinobros]

Which level in the CEFR is where you can start immersing instead of studying? B1?

[dailyfinancetv]

So basically, reading a book without trying to figure out the words in the foreign book by a translator to my native language is how to read the book to level up to a native level in my target language right?

[melobit]

But what if you can't read that kanji should u translate it to furigana?

[MigakuOfficial]

I think your assertion that the SRS doesn't actually accelerate language learning progress would need some level of testing to be actually validated. It's plain to see that people who are using strategies that we promote through MIA are reaching the highest levels of the language and in a much more efficient manner, while people who I have encountered who have followed strategies like the ones you suggest solely, don't seem to reach the same levels even with high levels of investment in the same time frames. I do agree with you that SRS usage should be scaled down greatly as one reaches higher and higher levels in their target language. However, my personal experiences and those of many other learner's following similar strategies leads me to think that the SRS combined with all the new strategies of effortless card creation, frequency order referencing, easy vacations and breaks from reviews, the ability to take an emergency break, and card retirement at given card intervals, seems to be be an indispensable tool alongside immersion learning if one's goal is to efficiently progress while at the same time prioritizing their immersion.

[vali]

I wonder what happened when I came across this channel. Why I didn't realize immersion is the way to learn a language, even though I already went through it unintentionally with English way before finding this channel. I think I found this channel 4 or 3 years ago and only watched like one or two videos before forgetting about it. At that time I was just thinking about learning Japanese but I quickly gave up like an idiot because duolingo became boring and I felt like it was too hard to learn it. Even though I acquired English like this around 8 or 9 years ago through watching youtube videos made by English speakers thinking "no one is making these types of videos in my language so I guess I should just watch these English ones even though I don't understand anything" like the idiot 11yo I was and consequently improving so much that I basically became fluent(at least in understanding) in like 2 years. And so, how could I have come across a channel that speaks about this very method of learning at a time when I wanted to acquire a new language and not realize the benefit and how it already worked for me. I can't believe the answer was right under my eyes but I didn't see it. I was staring at it and I didn't see it. Well maybe I'm just mad I didn't start immersing in Japanese at that time but at least I can be glad of one thing which is that I feel like I improved a lot in English in that time through the shear amount of writing I did, albeit most of it being comments on youtube or reddit. And so I'm at a point where I feel I can't improve my English anymore, except my speaking(my pronunciation sucks but I don't find it that important to focus on it now), so I guess starting immersion only now in Japanese was a good thing.

I'm sad to see you haven't uploaded anything anymore but that's your choice and all I can do is respect it. It would be nice to see an update video or something but that may be a bit too much to ask for.

In the end, I guess I'm just mad I didn't commit to Japanese earlier, even after seeing the true way of acquiring a language on this channel. And then forgetting about it until this summer. When I encountered a video from some Japanese guy who was talking about how to learn Japanese and how Japanese actually speak in real conversations. But he was still talking about the normal methods of learning so it was useless. Still, that video made me want to go back to it but only after some weeks of poorly trying to learn through normal methods did I stumbled across Matt vs Japan. Only then did I see the actual way of learning a language. And now, a little over a month after, I see that I already encountered a channel that advocated for immersion but I didn't bother to look into it and forgot about it. Man, I am so mad at how much of an idiot I can sometimes be.

[bangkokadventures]

Yeah, Steve Kaufmann absolutely swears by this technique. He doesn't even bother with grammar in any way. Just reads and listens to the language.

[Ryodakun]

I did exactly that with english. I never studied a day in my life, I just used it alot.
And before I knew it I was fluent.
So that's my course of action for japanese as well. Learn some fundamental structure and then just dive in and read, read, read, listen, listen, listen and eventually speak, speak, speak.
I will still do anki, but I will not obsess over it. Anki is mostly to get used to the kanji as I refuse to do some boring shit like Heisig. If I encounter a kanji enough times, I will remember it anyways. In fact that already happened to me with quite a few kanji, while still building structure and not even immersing myself yet. I mean... these kanji are common for a reason right? Of course you'd encounter them over and over again, so why would I need to cram them?

[chassityprinsley]

but how would I read kanji? there's fucking plenty of it, so should I anki-card learn it?

[rugamcgrill]

As a guy who learned english by watching GMM i can say that this is, kinda true, i guess?

[Ergoperidot]

Should this be started right away or in intermediate stages? Because I'm still very much a beginner in my target language.

[kittyvu]

So basically ... read a ton of fanfiction

[callhard]

Understood, so when I'm bored I should move on to something else. Thank you

[bhusk]

This man just busts out an Ableton Push right at the end (unless it's just stock footage haha)