Immersion: how to immerse yourself in a language when you don’t live in that country
By someone who spends their life trying to convince themself they live in Norway
Put on background noise in your TL. Stick the radio on while you’re studying, listen to a podcast while you’re doing housework, listen to an audiobook while on the bus, whatever. Don’t worry about understanding it all - heck, you don’t even have to pay full attention. Even passively listening will improve your comprehension skills as you get used to the language’s melody (and also find yourself catching the occasional word/phrase).
Change the language of all your devices to your TL. Personally, I don’t recommend doing this until you’ve got a good grip on your basic vocab because getting a pop-up message on your phone that you don’t understand at all can be quite alarming! At least learn how to say confirm, cancel, delete, share and save.
Set your homepage to a news or webzine in your TL. I have NRK as my homepage, so whenever I open my browser I can read the headlines (and then maybe an article).
Watch the news in your TL. I highly recommend watching the news because then you get to know what issues are current in that area of the world, so then you’re learning about the culture too. (It’s also really interesting to see how world events are reported on in other countries and cultures!)
Follow people on social media who post in your TL. Not sure who to follow? News sites, TV show accounts, musicians, actors, athletes etc are always a good starting point. Also search hashtags in your TL (eg #gymnastikk #sminke #treningsglede or whatever you’re interested in)
Music. Find a playlist on spotify of your favourite genre and get listening (do the search in your TL - so for example, if you type in “norwegian rock” you may get a mixture of Norwegian and English songs by Norwegian bands, but if you type in “norsk rock” you’re more likely to get songs in Norwegian)
Video games. If you play ‘em and you have the option, change them into your target language!
Find recipes in your TL. Bonus points if they’re traditional recipes from that country because then you get to learn about the culture too! But anything that looks interesting/tasty is good.
Write lists in your TL. I write most of my shopping lists and to-do lists in Norwegian (and sometimes I post them to my blog so I can get feedback). Then, while I’m at the shop, I’ll think to myself in Norwegian: “where is the cat food? There is the cat food. Now I need soap. Where is the soap? Oh no, the soap is sold out!” Or while I’m doing my chores I’ll try to think, “now I’m washing my clothes. Next I need to clean the kitchen, and then I’ll make lunch.”
Read books. Children’s books are a good starting point if you’re a low level. Also books you’ve read in your native language, especially if you still have the original copy. (Tip: don’t get bogged down trying to translate every word you don’t know. If you can work it out from context, leave it. If you’re unsure about it and it keeps cropping up, look it up. If the sentence doesn’t make sense without it, look it up. If you wanna note down useful phrases do it, but don’t do it for every new word/phrase)
Find youtubers who create content in your TL. Again, do the search in your TL. So instead of typing “norwegian makeup videos” search for “sminkevideo norsk”
While we’re talking about youtube, try to find grammar videos in your TL, searching in your TL rather than in your native language (eg instead of searching ‘present perfect spanish’ try typing ‘el préterito perfecto español’)
Watch TV shows and movies in your TL. You can start by watching with subtitles in your native language, then move to subtitles in your TL, then eventually switch them off. (tip: watch with subtitles in your TL and then note down words/phrases that recur or words/phrases that you like. As with reading, don’t bother noting down everything you don’t know - just the odd one or two here and there that you’re like “oh hey that’s useful I wanna remember that”). You can use the Language Learning With Netflix browser extension, or google news stations in a country where your TL is spoken if you don’t know where to start.
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