Immersion

[Mainecoons]

After years of trying to learn Spanish my experience in a recent trip to Oaxaca where we lived with Mexican friends for a week and were immersed in Spanish tells me that this is the way I need to learn this language.  Is there anyone here doing some form of immersion?

 

[cbviajero]

1 hour ago, Mainecoons said:

After years of trying to learn Spanish my experience in a recent trip to Oaxaca where we lived with Mexican friends for a week and were immersed in Spanish tells me that this is the way I need to learn this language.  Is there anyone here doing some form of immersion?

 

In my opinion it's the best way.

It's not easy,but it's worth the effort,everyday I learn a new word or phrase and I've been immersed for sometime.

[kbleitch]

Real immersion is 24/7. Practically speaking, I believe it's a tough thing to do living in Ajijic, unless you reside with Soanish speakers. It took me 3.5 months living in Lima, attending university classes, with no English heard or spoken before I began to think in español, no longer translating in my head, and that was AFTER I had been in Mexico a summer and had studied Spanish for three years of high school and two years in university. Maybe you would enjoy and greatly benefit from an immersion language school for several weeks elsewhere in Mexico, like Guanajuato, Cuernavaca, Puebla... Or there are also great language schools in Guatemala and Perú, and I'm sure elsewhere.

[bdmowers]

I don`t have the patience to learn from classes, books, etc.  I learned Spanish mostly from our housekeeper. She is generously willing to slow down, to clarify and she is wanting to learn English. I now have a working knowledge of Spanish. She has taught me real Spanish with the local words (pija for screw instead of tornillo, which mostly means "bolt" here at lakeside) with real Spanish vowel pronunciation of words like "peso" as in "peh-so" instead of Gringo Spanish "pay-so" (the long "ay" sound doesn`t exist in Spanish) that you get from most of the classes.  I have just the words I need in present tense with future and past tenses starting to take root. My poor old mind wasn`t confused wih hundreds of words and a half dozen tenses I`ll probably never use like one is inundated with in the classes.  So, if you can find someone like this, who is willing to work with you on the language and don`t have the patience for classes, this might be the way to go.

[mudgirl]

Seems to me we are all in Spanish Immersion- i.e. we live in Mexico which happens to be a Spanish speaking country. What am I missing? It's a matter of paying attention and actually wanting to know how your Mexican neighbors think about social, political, etc. issues, rather than just wanting to know enough to tell the maid and gardener what you want them to do around your house. It's a matter of hanging out and conversing with Mexicans (there seem to be a lot of them around) about more than the weather, and asking them to explain words you don't understand. Even someone who doesn't do well with book-learning can surely look up a word or verb conjugation if unclear.

Not trying to be snarky, I just find it bizarre that people would not bother to learn the language of whatever country they reside in starting as soon as they move there or before.

[mudgirl]

FYI my Spanish is far from fluent, but I can carry on a more than superficial conversation. I also don't do well with rote book learning. The way I learned, was to play out in my head what I was going to need to do the next day in Spanish. Then I would use my dictionary and "501 Spanish Verbs" to flesh out whatever I didn't know how to say in correct verb tense.  I'd write it down.  Because I used the sentences, words, etc the next day for something I needed to do or purchase, I found I retained most of it.

For instance, instead of just looking up the word for " sandpaper", then going to the store and saying "Lija?" or "Yo necesito lija", I would look up how to say "I would like to see what types of sandpaper you have." If they say they are out of sandpaper, I might have also looked up how to say " Where do you think I can I find some?" as opposed to "donde?" And even "I have already looked there", as opposed to "No hay".

This is different from learning or memorizing things you may never actually need to use and overloading your brain. After a while, it all starts to become clear and you will have an Aha moment. You will find yourself rattling off complete sentences without sounding like a 2 year old and before you realized you actually DO know how to say that. Correctly, even.

This method worked and is still working for me. Except now instead of having to look up and construct the whole sentence I needed, I only have to look up the occasional word or verb conjugation. Buen Suerte!

[bdlngton]

If you are serious about true "immersion" you need to combine classes with living with a Mexican family.  Anything less than this is not truly immersion.  In my experience it is the combination of those two elements that give you the greatest strides in learning Spanish.  There are various institutes/schools in Guadalajara where you can do that but you'd have to go live there for weeks, or better months--and preferably not come back to Lakeside on weekends and not have English-speaking roommates.  You can also check out immersion programs in places like Morelia and Cuernavaca. 

[virgogirl]

When I lived in GDL, I worked teaching English. So while I could converse in English at the schools, I sought immersion in most other activities. I had fun, it was adventurous and comical. Great way to laugh at your own mistakes, brush it off and try again. I always felt like my mexican experience was totally intact there in the city. In Ajijic I totally lost that condition. As much as i like the lake, and have a few friends there, I seek a new backdrop in mexico where I can be immersed. Expat communities have an upside and a downside in that sense.I actually got lazy with my Spanish there at the lake. I got back on the web board tonight to get a dose, revisit the lake from afar. Thank you for sharing about immersion. it is absolutely how i love to live there. Immersed!