everyone talks about immersion – how important it is to surround yourself with your target language in order to learn effectively, and I agree that it’s a crucial point in making progress. the standard solutions are reading books, talking to people online, listening to music etc etc, which are all good recommendations and i encourage everyone to try them out! this list will include some more ways of immersion which i find to take very little effort, but which still have good effects.
1. blogs, facebook pages, apps
“reading articles” is common advice, but how often do you even read articles in your native language, much less your target one? In order to still increase exposure to your target language, like news sources in your TL on facebook so you see what they post (even if you don’t click on it), follow blogs that post in your TL, and download apps that will send you push notifications (newspapers, magazines, football, you name it). if you see something interesting, read it.
2. play words with friends and other word-based games
if your TL is one of these, you can play words with friends and expand your vocabulary in absolutely no time. it’s very difficult in the beginning (i even had trouble with english first), but it gets so much better so quickly! you’re also being matched with similar skill-levels, so it should still be fun, and you can play games in different languages simultaneously without having to change the settings. there are many word-based games out there (it has its own category in the app store), so try what you like best! 🙂
3. talk to siri/voice recognition technology
siri/whatever programme you have listens to short sentences, will provide you with a written and spoken answer, and won’t make fun of you for mistakes. It’s also great for practising smalltalk like “how’s the weather”.sSet your alarm or ask to have appointments added to your calendar.
4. talk to yourself
ever wanted to be on graham norton and tell everyone about the imaginary grammy/nobel prize/oscar you’ve won? or explain your grandma’s chocolate cake recipe on the great british bake off? or write a novel about your gap year backpacking experience? now’s your chance – find some time when you’re alone (or not, if you don’t mind others listening i guess), and start talking. have your own cooking show while you make lunch, make a commercial for your shampoo while you’re in the shower, reminisce about your (imaginary or real) life experience, but do it in your TL. you’ll learn vocabulary for things you actually care about and you’ll gradually lose the fear of speaking. plus, you’ll be super prepared for when graham norton really does invite you to his show.
5. the “how-would-i-say-this”-mentality
this may take a bit of time, but after a while it’s there and won’t go away again. you use your native language presumably every day, especially for mundane things like buying bread or asking where the bathroom is, or reading an ad on the bus. try to get used to translating those small sentences from your native language into your TL. you don’t have to put a lot of effort or time into this – just reminding your brain of your TL’s existence and trying to form simple sentences every day does loads for your progress. sometimes you might look a word up, sometimes you might paraphrase or simplify it, but every bit helps.
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