What's the MINIMUM amount of immersion you NEED to make progress? - Ask Ethan

In this clip of our latest Q&A with Ethan, a community member asked "What's the minimum I can immerse and still make progress?"

As with all things, the answer is not cut and dry. There are several factors that go into play like the language you're learning, what your goals are, and the type of learner you are. Tune in to hear Ethan unpack this answer to help you plan out your study routine!

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[shecklesmack]

Doing too much early on is SUCH an important point, especially for me. When I start things I tend to be super ambitious and want to put in as much time as possible. This ended up being to my detriment with Japanese because I burnt out about four different times after a couple months each time because I spent too much time with it in those beginner days. Not too long ago I finally reached the point where I was comfortable enough with it to spend way more time than the amount that was burning me out before. Now I can comfortably spend an entire weekend immersing but it took way too long because of that critical error at the beginning. All that to say everything you’ve said here is absolutely on point.

[derpydayha]

This is a better answer to this question than I'm used to seeing (at least you're emphasizing sustainability over the exact amount of time). That said, i hate hearing any specific number in response to this question. No one has any real evidence for these numbers except their inherently flawed perception of their own progress - or more often just whatever they heard someone else say. The 2hr number (or basically any other number for that matter) is basically pulled out of thin air and serves no real purpose other than to discourage those who can't manage that time commitment imo. If ppl really need a number to aim for to be motivated, I always advocate aiming low rather than high. People have had great success on small numbers so long as they have the consistency (I, for one, have reached a pretty decent level of comprehension in Japanese in about 2 years of study averaging about 1 hour total study per day)

[SavvySaxy]

I’m learning Japanese and I’ve done 3 years of Spanish in school so I have some comparison for like levels of language learning. I got to about B2 in those 3 years and I’ve discovered that I can immerse easily now and things don’t feel difficult to listen to or read. I want to know what level B2 corresponds to with the JLPT so I have kind of a “goal” before I switch primarily to immersion instead of mainly studying. Right now I don’t get much out of immersing in Japanese. I imagine like N3 would be that level (I’m around N5 rn)

[finleyhawkins]

Is this 2 hours of active immersion or are we talking about passive too?

[bertRaven]

Good advice. Its like lifting or running, you really won't do anything other than hurt yourself or burn out by going too hard too early.

[nuraortoma]

Dude literally i was making so much progress in December of 2022, then I stopped because I started getting lazy and just being in my native language was way more comfortable because I just hated the discomfort idk. Gosh idk I might have to try and learn japanese again from scratch or maybe learn an easier language like Spanish.

[vforvalorant]

Yeah I'm a few languages in now and I really think there's something to the "start small". My brain is actually *very* efficient at picking up new languages, so in the early stages when there's so much to learn, more than about 30 minutes (of just immersion) a day leaves me physically and mentally exhausted and I can also nearly physically feel the point where my brain goes "oh god no more please, I can't learn any more today!!!"

In the very earliest stages, when you're trying to get used to the sound, if you're really determined to do longer you could watch something with L1 subs to get more of the sound in your ears. I tend to come to languages with that in my head already, because I've been interested enough in the culture to watch stuff in that language a lot already, and noticed a huge difference coming to Arabic where I hadn't done that and am really getting value out of watching subtitled-in-English stuff

[k.]

I'm guessing the 2 hrs would apply to korean too

[mr-baron]

great vid, putting some reality into how long language learning actually takes 🤝

[thexenoist]

As a counter point to the idea that many hours of immersion a day can be hard, the idea that it will take many years to learn a language can be demoralizing. Let's say it takes... 5000 hours, that's over 13 years at an hour a day, vs under 2 years of 7 a day.
For someone who learns languages for fun the former might seem like them doing their hobby, for someone learning a language because they want to know and use the language the latter is like a being a university student learning a skill.

[jagturk]

How many hours a day should I do for a language like Turkish?