Learning Spanish Part Twelve : Total Immersion Courses In Mexico?
Learning Spanish Part Twelve : Total Immersion Courses In Mexico?
Going to the host country of the target language has always taken on a sort of mythical quality. It has been believed that you could not learn a foreign language unless you went to the country associated with the target language and engaged in something called Total Immersion.
Total Immersion is NOT a protracted amount of time of traditional language learning instruction in the target language’s country. Coming to Mexico and studying Spanish using traditional language learning methods is NOT a Total Immersion program. It bears repeating once again:
What is not commonly known is most of these university-level programs require that you have at least 4 semesters of the target language before going abroad. This was true more than 30 years ago.
Here is the myth. It is believed that if you come to the country of the language of your choice, some sort of linguistic hocus-pocus will one day swoop down on you, possess you, and you will mystically know the language. I mean, really, come on. Let me set you straight right now. There is NO magic in spending a small fortune in coming to live and study a foreign language in a foreign country. The Spanish fairy is not going to show up some night while you sleep and do the “now-you-know-Spanish” spell over you. It is NOT going to happen.
The only difference in your coming to Mexico to study Spanish is that all the classes are going to be taught in Spanish. They will use the same method used in the United States. You will get a textbook-sometimes-and attend a conversation class. You will still have to study your buttocks off. The only difference is there are more opportunities for practice in the foreign country than you had at home.
But here is what we see all too frequently. These American college students come here and hang out with other American students. They spend what precious time they have in Mexico speaking English with their companions instead of hanging out with the locals and speaking Spanish.
This is one reason why the so-called Total Immersion experience is a waste of time and money. If what you are going to do is spend all your out-of-class time hanging out and speaking English with your fellow Americans, then what is the point? We see this too in adult students who come to the private language schools.
Are we still wondering why America is only 9% bilingual?
Here is another problem with the so-called Total Immersion experience. There is the false expectation that if you haven’t one word of Spanish under your belt, you can come and enroll in a beginner’s class and start learning. Nothing can be further from the truth. First, there is the myth that says there is some sort of magic in coming to the foreign country to learn the target language. The second myth is these schools will take you at the absolute beginning level-WRONG.
All the schools in Guanajuato, as well as most of the others I have contacted in my research for this book, confirms what my experience already taught me.
When you come to the country of the language you are trying to learn and enroll in one of the private schools, you will be coming into the beginning, or the middle, or at the end of a sequence. What I mean is this.
When I first came to language school in Guanajuato, I came into an intermediate class that was already into the 4th week of the sequence. They did not start a new intermediate class just for me. I was stuck in a class where 4 students had already been going through intermediate instruction for 3 weeks before I got there. I came into the 4th week of instruction.
If you are a rank beginner and do not even know the Spanish alphabet much less the difference between the verbs ESTAR and SER, you will not necessarily come into the beginning session of a beginner’s class. Do you get what I mean
Q&A: Elder Goth? OR Guy Who Just Loves The Color Black?
Question by phillip2167: Elder Goth? OR Guy Who Just Loves The Color Black?
in my daily life i sometimes have to answer questions like “are you a goth?” and “let me guess your favorite color is black?” and the more popular “aren’t you a little too old to wear those clothes?” while i answer them with a smile i often wonder at times if i am a goth [which is perfectly alright with me]or just a guy who is obsessed with the color black.
i am 43 year old male. i’m guessing that means elder? im not certain what age group of goth that makes me fall into. i have a full head of long dark hair. quite amazing for a man my age, not to have a single grey hair on my head,let alone a full head of hair. i have brown eyes, and very lite skin color. i cannot tolerate any sunlight on my skin. i don’t melt or turn to dust at the sight of the sun, but don’t tann. my skin becomes flame red and later it begins to peel. so i’m guessing any kind of tattoo is not possible. not that wouldn’t have any, i would ,but i don’t think it could be done on my skin.
as a child i had to wear these horrible bright colors. i grew up in the mid 70′s. and had no control over my wardrobe. i think i became drawn to the color black from my favorite tv show “The Avengers” Diana Rigg in that sexy leather outfit. and also Julie Newmar’s ‘catwoman’ in the batman series.
when i turned 17 in 1984 i finally had some control over what i could wear. that is when i started to wear black clothes. in the 1980′s if you really wanted to stand out,just wear black anywhere. the fashion sense of the 1908′s was blue jeans and white tennis shoes with a beige members only jacket. here i am in black slacks with a black dress shirt and shiney black patent shoes with matching black socks.
in my 20′s and 30′s i had the fitness craze of running and working out in the gym. i wore back sweats and sneakers even had a black towell.
today i guess you could say its “total immersion” my clothes and shoes are black.what i sleep in for pajamas is black, the computers and other eletronics i have are black, the glasses i wear are black and so forth.
my musical tastes are more toward the darker trance music of the cocteau twins.aphex twin.the orb.dead can dance. square pusher. for movies i grew up on old 50′s 60′s horror films like “the brian that wouldn’t die” and “the thing” and “invasion of the body snatchers” and yes i loved those hammer films with Cristopher Lee as dracula and Peter Cushing as Dr Frankenstein. i also enjoyed the dubbed “Godzilla” films of the 60′s 70′s
i admit i don’t have fancy flamboyant clothes of a goth. i have slacks,dress shirts, leather jackets and leather pants. black denim jeans.wool coats. and all Fashion accessories in black
i guess im asking fellow goths [of which there are many] if i fit term elder goth? or maybe to be a “full goth” i need a tattoo here and there followed by one or two piercings? i ask this to avoid any humiliating in trying to incorporate myself with the local goth community. and if anyone hadn’t noticed all goths have hot hot goth girlfriends. you almost never see a goth guy alone.
Best answer:
Answer by dc87
Judging by your description and interests (particularly music like Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins and old horror movies), I would probably say elder goth would be a term that fits you. But the fact that you wonder if you are goth/didn’t already classify yourself as goth would make me say no, you’re not. That would only be because it just seems elder goths self-classify themselves as that. But then again, if you want to pick up the term, I’d say it wouldn’t be totally inaccurate.
About the comment about being a “full goth”, I see no need for tattoos and piercings. I’m a 22-year-old goth with no tattoos and only one piercing (that I got when I was 13 when I had misconceptions about what the goth scene was), and the few times I’ve been to my local goth night it seemed that people who weren’t overly out there with their style didn’t seem to have a problem fitting in. Of course I sure this all depends on the local goth community, but probably just being older in itself will give you more of a presence and less of a need to overdo the look than, say, someone who is twenty years younger and just trying to go for a certain look with tattoos and piercings to attract attention.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Foreign Language Learning Resources – Which is Right for You? Part 1 ? Total Immersion Programs
Foreign Language Learning Resources – Which is Right for You? Part 1 ? Total Immersion Programs
Most of you have seen the commercials touting a foreign language program using a very well known Olympic gold medalist swimmer. This popular and very polished software package, known as Rosetta Stone, is an excellent example (but not the only example) of a total immersion language program. But the commercials touting ‘The Fastest Way to Learn a Language – Guaranteed’, don’t necessarily paint the complete picture for the prospective buyer.
What is it?
Let’s start by exploring what is meant by ‘total immersion’. A total immersion system is any program that thrusts you into a foreign language without any (or difficult to access) assistance in your native tongue. The basic idea is to learn by picture/video and audio reinforcement – the same way you learned your native language as a child. The concept is very simple – present a situation, dialog, or group of pictures and challenge the user to (initially) ‘guess’ the native word or phrase that applies to the situation. Variations on this basic theme include audio and picture only, sentence building and grammar reinforcement lessons. Other DVD based programs present common situations in video with on screen clues (sometimes pointers to what the actor is describing), eventually providing the answer with no user interaction. More extensive computer programs include voice recognition to assist you in learning the native accent. Through these methods, the student is expected to easily and quickly absorb the new language. In practice, however, it’s not as simple, nor as fast as advertised.
Where it Succeeds
As you might guess, some aspects of a language are easier to convey with pictures than others. Immersion programs do the best job at teaching object vocabulary – otherwise known as nouns. It’s expected that when someone sees a cat, they will eventually figure out the word that corresponds to the cat over time. A cat is a concrete easily identifiable object, and I am sure you can think of thousands more. Similarly, colors and numbers are easy, because they are easy to represent in pictures. These programs also do a good job at conveying the meanings of action verbs, particularly in the present tense. It’s obvious to the student when someone is eating, drinking or walking and so on.
Immersion is also a great way to introduce a pre-teen to a foreign language. By their nature, kids are more responsive to this type of teaching and tend to soak up that material like a sponge – the younger the better.
Where it Fails.
Naturally, since these types of courses perform well with nouns, action verbs in the present tense, you will see a lot of them. Some of the cheaper programs rely exclusively on the present tense, while some of the more costly programs make attempts at past and future tenses. It’s fairly difficult to represent past and future verb tense using pictures and video, and it’s often done after reinforcing the concepts of ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’, which also require fairly creative pictures! Abstract verbs are also fairly difficult to represent in pictures, such as ‘to have’, ‘to feel’, ‘to believe’, etc… Other problems include object vs. personal pronouns. Specifically, the concept of him/her vs. he/she is almost impossible to convey in pictures.
But, perhaps the biggest issue of all concerns the adult learner. Many studies (as well as personal experience) have shown that adults learn much faster using native language cues and explanations. As adults are already versed in a native language, they can more readily relate native grammar to the differences in the new language. Total immersion programs can actually lengthen the amount of time it takes to learn a language in an adult when used as an exclusive learning tool.
In Summary
Despite these potential shortcomings (particularly for adults), don’t write off total
Live Longer
Free Subscription
Fountain of Youth
