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
Total Immersion swimming in Thailand
Total Immersion swimming in Thailand
Thailand is famous for its white beaches and natural scenic spots. Beaches are the center of attraction for Thailand, which brings many tourists to this pristine land. The white sand beaches of Phuket, magnificent beaches of Samui and many virgin beaches tempt you to swim and enjoy the beauty of nature, but if you do not know how to swim you may miss this wonderful opportunity. In simple words we can say that, without swimming your beach holiday is not a complete one.
Swimming is considered as a life skill and there is no age limit to learn this beautiful art. Practically speaking, all human beings are blessed with the talent of swimming. But we realize this unique talent until we swim. God created our world with one third of water, conveying us the importance of swimming for humans. Swimming help us in many ways, besides giving immense pleasure and stress relief, it is a beautiful sport and has a good therapeutic effect. By swimming you can reduce the excessive fat content in your body and stay active.
Learning swimming is not that difficult, you can learn this nature-skill at any stages of your life. Before selecting the schools for swimming, take some beginners research to understand various type of learning methods that are taught in your region. Figure out your swimming requirement such as whether you want to learn it for passion or you are going to take part in competition. This will help you in identifying the proper school and right kind of teaching methods suitable for you.
Traditional methods of swimming have more energy wasting movements and are difficult to master. To overcome the difficulties of traditional methods, American swim coach, Terry Laughlin introduced a new kind of swimming technique called Total immersion technique or TI technique. In this method, the number of strokes is reduced and it follows the principle of ‘less energy – more distance’. Compared to other methods, TI is easy to learn and has fewer movements to master. Irrespective of ages anyone can master this fluent and simple technique in a short span of time. The real secret behind this technique is, it believes in swimming intelligently and takes advantage of body position in water. The TI method is popular worldwide and appreciated for is effective swimming techniques.
For more information about TI swimming methods and training details in Thailand, please visit www.swimtithailand.com
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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
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