I Will Teach You A Language | Weekly Motivation And Language Learning Tips To Help You Become Fluent In Any Language

 In this solo episode, Olly discusses whether immersion is all it's cracked up to be. Episode Summary: Immersion is always held up as the "holy grail" of language learning Definition: Spending all day every day in a native-level environment It's not all it's cracked up to be Survival bias is at play: Katzumoto: 10,000 hours of Japanese Gabriel Wyner: 8 weeks in Middlebury Your friend who went to China and was fluent in 3 months Immersion only works if you are able to go full-on enough, for long enough, and stay positive enough to make it to be successful... not practical for most people As a study strategy, it leaves a lot to be desired: You don't understand anything There's no structure Not enjoyable My experiences with real immersion were not good Paris, Japan, Egypt Immersion is much more effective when you can already hold you own Theory of "Comprehensible input" What's the opportunity cost? Resources Mentioned in Today's Episode: Interview with Stephen Krashen - Language learning in the pol