#immersion learning

今週はいいですね！

Had a really good week! As of today, I've been studying consistently again for 1 month. 🎉🎉that means this blog is a month old now too! yippee!

I'm so close to 100 hours of total immersion logged (in total, not this month.) and reflecting on my learning journey so far is interesting!! I'm starting to notice a real increase in improvement. so without further ado, lets go over my week!

Logged 10 hours of immersion this week. most of that is finishing Super Cub and starting Yuru Camp. the rest is playing Animal Crossing almost daily, and bits of youtube.

In total, i logged 22 hours of immersion this month. (most of that was done this week, lol.) my total at the end of the month is 94 hours!

I'm starting to notice a real improvement in my comprehension. I'm getting about 40%-50% of the words i encounter in easier media, and anything i don't understand i mouse over with yomichan, or can pick up with context.

Of course, I finished Super Cub, and started watching Yuru Camp. I'm about half way through it right now, so I'm expecting to finish it this week and write a review of it next week. look forward to that!

I'm still kind of struggling with finding shows to watch for immersion. I think i need to start making a watch list and pre-downloading subs for ASB player so i can make watching a show easier. (really wish ASB worked on firefox, lol)

Also still haven't found a manga to read. どうぶつの森 is basically all the reading practice I'm getting rn and that's all well and good, but i need to branch out more.

Overall a really good week. I was nervous when i came back to learning consistently again, but having a blog to talk about it i think is keeping me more accountable. I'm proud of myself for such a great return to language learning!

Goals for next month:

25 total hours of immersion. with such a successful return to immersion learning, i really want to keep the ball rolling and commit to my studies. after all, I'm really enjoying myself!

Watch at least 3 new shows. when i started immersing i mostly watched the Pokemon anime and Cardcaptor. they're great shows, but i think too long. i want to watch a couple shorter anime i can watch inbetween CCS and pokemon. (maybe watch something a little harder? we'll see.)

seriously, read some manga! I will look into some shoujo series with furigana, maybe try some of the beginner recommended manga?

have 500 cards seen in anki. Im currently at 400ish, but im only doing 3 new cards a day rn. but i want to bump that number up, so hopefully i will learn new vocab faster.

Verbs

beugler  bellow, holler

cogner  to bash, hit

s’entretenir avec  to talk to [sb]

empocher  to pocket

commander  to order [sb] around

téméraire  audacious, reckless

While most experts agree that the fastest way to acquire a language is through full immersion, what I’ve learned is that doing so is not quite as easy as you may think. Here are a few tips to make the most out of your full immersion experience with Mandarin. 

Verbs

se retenir - to hold oneself back

se contreficher de - could not care less about [sth], not give a damn about [sth]

se racler la gorge - to clear one’s throat

franchir - to cross, pass

aiguiser - to sharpen

fourrer - to shove, stuff (into a bag or pocket)

s’effondrer - to collapse

s’engager - to join, enlist in [sth]

s’introduire - to gain entry, get into 

sceller - to seal

Nouns

une aiguille - needle

la pourriture - rot

une échauffourée - scuffle, brawl

le coffre-fort - safe

Adjectives

serré - strong (coffee)

If you have met anyone who learned English near perfectly, they almost certainly told you that they learned through watching TV. What is going on here? Is the secret of language learning just as simple as watching TV? Well, in short, yes. If you watch enough TV in your target language you will eventually learn the language very well. This kind of learning is referred to as immersion in the…