Re:How to Almost Learn Italian
by russellbeattie on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @02:58AM
(#18549937)
I wish I could still edit the comment to clarify: Immersion is definitely better than not being immersed, but just being in another country - even for a length of time like myself - doesn't magically teach you the language. Seems obvious when it's written out, but I definitely remember being under the impression that it would help way more than it did. Thus my 'overrated' remark.
That's definitely true as evidenced by the huge numbers of people who can survive living in various countries without learning more than a handful of words in the host language.
The highest yield for me has been 1:1 video call tutoring (italki) by a long margin.
Well... That depends, I'd say. I'm learning Japanese, and my learning rate always spikes when I'm actually there, hearing and speaking the language all day every day.
On the other hand, most people I encounter in Japan don't try to switch languages because my Japanese, clumsy as it is, is still better than their English.