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I would strongly disagree with that. Your supposed dichotomy between immersion and grammar is just not the case. You both learn by immersion and also have a loo
by diffeomorphism 6y ago
I would strongly disagree with that. Your supposed dichotomy between immersion and grammar is just not the case. You both learn by immersion and also have a look at the grammar. Just hearing and reading will leave gaps in your understanding and have you build weird habits. You trying to paint it as an "either or" is a relic of the past.
- AmericanChopper 6y agoBut you almost certainly have gaps and misunderstandings in your native language too. I’ve learnt more than one language, almost entirely through immersion, and my grammar is pretty good. But I’d say if you want to do it well, you have to ask people questions. I was primarily talking to colleagues and friends while working overseas, and I’d say things wrong all the time, and get corrected, and ask questions constantly when I didn’t understand something. The real issue people have with immersion is that you have to be prepared to make a fool of yourself all day, every day, for quite a long time before you really start to get the hang of it. The really significant upside that I think people tend to gloss over is that my pronunciation is pretty much perfect, because I’d learn to say things by just repeating what I’d heard. On the phone people can’t tell I’m not a native speaker.