Re:When your child speaks a language you don’t
by verisimilidude on Wednesday March 18, 2015 @11:48AM
(#9226311)
Yup, and this is especially true of languages that are completely different than your own.
Immersion and osmosis are going to work a whole lot better if you're going from French to Spanish, or English to German, etc. There's enough shared vocabulary and culture that it's easier to make assumptions about the intent of the speaker.
That will not be the case if you're going from English to, say, Korean. Immersion is important for any language learning, but some prerequisite learning is needed to take advantage of it. I think those prerequisites stack up as you move further away from the foundation of your current languages.
I think once you're somewhat proficient in the language, this is true.
I'm currently taking Spanish courses in uni, and my professor is from Cuba. She's the sweetest lady, but has a tendency to ramble off in Spanish. About 50-60% of the time I can (vaguely) follow her, but the rest of the time I'm just hopelessly lost. And judging by the silence the rest of the class has a tendency for, I'm not alone.
Anyway, I'm certainly not trying to counteract your point, just to say that there are steps up to 100% immersion that I feel are necessary.