Language Immersement

[Scipio]

There have been a few threads on foreign languages here, and I would like to continue in that vein. My question, however, is fairly specific. How long does it take to build decent conversational skills when totally immersed in a language?

I ask this because I assume language immersement is the fastest way to learn a given language. I will be living in Thailand four months this year and hope to pick up spoken Thai, not simply through osmosis, but also through direct study.

[Michael Chui]

I wouldn't say it's the "fastest", and I can't give you a time, but I can tell you that it's the most effective. Conversational skills are a question of the topic of the conversation; if you want to know where the bathroom is, you could probably get that down in a couple of days. If you want to discuss the particulars of Sophocles' plays or the nuances of Augustine's theory of reading, it might take a decade, and then some.

Language is a skill that has to be maintained, like any other skill. The only reason I'm any good at English is because I've been immersed in it continually, and I push myself to greater and greater heights when and however I can. You have to do that with any language.

[Scipio]

Originally Posted by Michael Chui

Conversational skills are a question of the topic of the conversation; if you want to know where the bathroom is, you could probably get that down in a couple of days. If you want to discuss the particulars of Sophocles' plays or the nuances of Augustine's theory of reading, it might take a decade, and then some.

True. I understand your point: that I should have delimited the discussion. However, this type of answer really provides minimal benefit to me.

[Michelle]

I went to Germany in 1996 as an exchange student without any German whatsoever. It took me a few days to learn a few words. It took several weeks to learn more and acclimate. It took several months before my brain would spontaneously react with an intelligent German sentence. After my year, I was very very good.

I've lived in Switzerland since 2000. Now my english suffers

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Scipio

There have been a few threads on foreign languages here, and I would like to continue in that vein. My question, however, is fairly specific. How long does it take to build decent conversational skills when totally immersed in a language?

I ask this because I assume language immersement is the fastest way to learn a given language. I will be living in Thailand four months this year and hope to pick up spoken Thai, not simply through osmosis, but also through direct study.

I think one of the fastest ways to learn a language is to appreciate that although a language will have many thousands of different words: there is a core resemblance with each language which uses primarily around 300 words to get by in everyday speech. Whetehr this is Mandarin, Gaelic, English, Czech etc etc.

Dr Elaine Swanson (Ney York) discovered this about 70 years ago.

If you learn the list of words and learn your chosen language counterparts (regardless of syntax) then the task becomes incredibly easier.

[Love]

I went to France having studied in for 2 years. At the time, I couldn't think in the language, and still had trouble stringing along a sentence. In France, I lived in a tiny town where I was forced to speak French. I also had two roommates with whom I spoke French. In addition, I made an effort to go see films in french and watch tv in french. Within 3 months, I believe I could think in French and converse fairly easily, and could accurately apply the french phrases that the local people used. It was still difficult to understand French in movies and on TV. That took probably another 3 months.