Immersion Isn’t Enough to Learn a Foreign Language

Imagine yourself in this situation…

You’re alone in a car, driving along a desert highway.

You’re bored with the monotonous scenery, so you turn on the radio and search for a station.

But you can’t find a signal; it’s all static.

After several scans of the entire spectrum, you’re just about to give up.

Then all of a sudden, a melody flickers in on the speakers. The signal is weak, but you recognize the tune.

It’s your favorite song of all time, and you haven’t heard it in years!

You grip the steering wheel tight as your eyes widen in anticipation. A feeling of excitement wells up inside your chest.

Karaoke time — it’s about to go DOWN!

But first, you need to find a clear signal.

You press the down tune button, and its goes from station 100.8 to 99.3.

“pfffzzzzzzzzzzz”

Pure static.

You press the up tune button, and it goes back to 100.8:

“Sssssshhhhsshhszzz It’s been a long..ssssshhhzzbb….my baby never….sssshhf”

Now you’re pissed — you really wanted to listen to that song and you know the clearest station is somewhere between 100.8 and 99.1, but this stupid radio won’t let you access it.

If you had the ability to fine-tune with precision, you’d be able to sing along.

Unfortunately, your machinery doesn’t allow it.

“Sssssshhhhsshhszzz It’s been a long..ssssshhhzzbb….my baby never….sssshhf”

Now you’re pissed — you really wanted to listen to that song, but your reception isn’t good enough.

Now you’re stuck with two choices:

• Suffer through the static.
• Switch off the radio.

You sit through the static in hopes that that the signal will improve. But eventually your patience runs out and you give up.

You punch the radio off button in frustration.

Now all you can hear is the low drone of the engine, and the hum of the tires spinning on the highway pavement.

All you can see is the sterile dashboard, the ash-grey asphalt above that, and the flat lifeless desert surrounding that.

How much longer until you finally reach your destination!?

Audio Immersion is when you spend lots of time listening to native speaker TV, film, podcast or radio.

If you’re already an advanced learner and can understand 80% of what natives say to you, auditory immersion is very effective at filling in the gaps.

But if you do NOT understand most of what natives say, Audio Immersion is like listening to a radio signal full of static.

A word or two pops up every once in a while, but you rarely catch enough pieces to put together the whole jigsaw puzzle.

Because the process is so non-engaging, it only takes a few minutes for your mind to wander and numb with boredom.

If you’ve tried Audio Immersion seriously before, you probably started to develop feelings of doubt:

“All the blogs say I should be doing this, but I don’t feel like this is really working.”

If you’re bored, frustrated or uncertain about your learning process, you probably won’t keep it up long enough to see results.

Indeed, most learners give up on auditory immersion very quickly.

Then the next thought is usually:

“Well I guess the only way to learn is to do FULL immersion and go live in the country.”

This is another language-learning myth.

I’ve met countless expats in my travels who, after years of earnest effort, still can’t understand native speakers when they speak naturally.

You can’t fully benefit from immersion if your ears are full of static.

Before immersion can have any effect, something needs to happen at the fundamental level of the brain — you need to tune in to the native signal.

This is what we do with our programs at www.MimicMethod.com.

We tune your ear to the right station, so you can finally pick up a clear signal.

Then, and only then, will you truly see the benefits of immersion.