Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - What's the Best Way to Learn a New Language?

Kindred · 11-13-2008, 07:33 AM

The main point of Khatz's immersion ideology is to get natural input (lots of it, not just 40 or so hours a week), in order to get a solid and natural understanding of Japanese. You gradually pick up when and how to use what words, colloquialisms, structures, etc. The whole shebang. Even if you don't understand something, once you do you'll have an epiphany and go, "Hey! I hear that all the time!"

I admit that I'm quite a bit biased toward his method. Okay a lot, but I have my reasons. I found Khatz website a couple months ago and have progressively immersed myself into Japanese software, music, video games, shows, novels, and slowly websites (it's hard to break the addiction to my favourite websites, especially to these forums). I was sceptical at first too, but I started to see results personally and cranked it right up.

Do I understand a heck of a lot yet? Not really, language is gargantuan. Do I understand a heck of a lot more than I did two months ago? Sure do. For instance, a month ago I was unable to look up words I heard, and now I have a lot less trouble doing that. It's also easier to recognize and understand words I've learned, which was hard to do in the beginning.

Immersion isn't for everyone. It's an all or nothing sort of thing. If you only get a little input and don't make all the fuzzy connections, you'll likely use that input to create incorrect output. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that incorrect output is wrong, because it's great when corrected by a native speaker; however, when it's left uncorrected it's detrimental to understanding. Most people won't know a native speaker that can correct them.

It also takes quite a bit of willpower to dump all your favourite things for Japanese ones instead. (Can someone point me to the Personal Development for Japanese People forums please?)

But if someone has the motivation to do all that, it's not like there's a big deal going into immersion. If they really want to learn the language and get into the culture, they're going to be doing--or want to be doing--all the fun things anyway.

So, why not?

11-13-2008, 07:33 AM	#11 (permalink)
Kindred Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 149	The main point of Khatz's immersion ideology is to get natural input (lots of it, not just 40 or so hours a week), in order to get a solid and natural understanding of Japanese. You gradually pick up when and how to use what words, colloquialisms, structures, etc. The whole shebang. Even if you don't understand something, once you do you'll have an epiphany and go, "Hey! I hear that all the time!" I admit that I'm quite a bit biased toward his method. Okay a lot, but I have my reasons. I found Khatz website a couple months ago and have progressively immersed myself into Japanese software, music, video games, shows, novels, and slowly websites (it's hard to break the addiction to my favourite websites, especially to these forums). I was sceptical at first too, but I started to see results personally and cranked it right up. Do I understand a heck of a lot yet? Not really, language is gargantuan. Do I understand a heck of a lot more than I did two months ago? Sure do. For instance, a month ago I was unable to look up words I heard, and now I have a lot less trouble doing that. It's also easier to recognize and understand words I've learned, which was hard to do in the beginning. Immersion isn't for everyone. It's an all or nothing sort of thing. If you only get a little input and don't make all the fuzzy connections, you'll likely use that input to create incorrect output. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that incorrect output is wrong, because it's great when corrected by a native speaker; however, when it's left uncorrected it's detrimental to understanding. Most people won't know a native speaker that can correct them. It also takes quite a bit of willpower to dump all your favourite things for Japanese ones instead. (Can someone point me to the Personal Development for Japanese People forums please?) But if someone has the motivation to do all that, it's not like there's a big deal going into immersion. If they really want to learn the language and get into the culture, they're going to be doing--or want to be doing--all the fun things anyway. So, why not?