F2F Class Notes (Lily) [S/R]

Q: Is immersion better than learning English online or in an academy (school)?

A: I think immersion is better than learning English online or in an academy. You can communicate with local people and it make you get a progress faster. It is possible learn English online every minute and it is hard to speak English. The learning time is not fixed, you have all kinds of reasons to skip it. If you are in speak English country, you have to speak because other people don’t understand Chinese. In school, you can choose speak Chinese or English.

A: I think immersion is better than learning English online or in an academy. You can communicate with local people and you will improve more. It is possible to learn English online at any time and it is hard to speak English to the computer. The learning time is not fixed, you have all kinds of reasons to skip it. If you are in an English-speaking country, you have to speak English because other people don’t understand Chinese. In schools, you can choose to speak Chinese or English with your classmates. Without the English environment, it’s harder to learn English. 

https://english-magazine.org/english-reading/learn-language-articles/4483-is-immersion-better-than-learning-english-online-or-in-an-academy

It’s a dream for many people to spend a summer break in an exotic foreign country, hanging out with the locals, making a friend or two (or even a summer romance!) and returning home refreshed and fluent in a foreign language.

But can someone just pick up a language simply by being in the country in which it is spoken? Many companies that organize immersion exchange programmes, summer camps or English language courses in an English-speaking country would have you believe that it’s so much easier than with traditional English academies or online English classes. Even the word immersion itself sounds so, well, easy. Just immerse yourself in the language, like standing under a waterfall, and everything will just seep into your skin.

I’m afraid to say that in my case this just did not happen. Before I spent four months travelling around South America, everyone had told me I would ‘pick up’ Spanish as easy as ‘uno, dos, tres’. I took an Ipod full of Spanish songs, somehow hoping that the language flowing through my ears would end up stuck in my brain. But after a month or two, I couldn’t do much more than order a beer and have a basic conversation. So why was I ‘failing’?

Vocabulary

1. hanging out= go out and play

ex.: I like to hang out with my friends

ex: do you want to hang out with me tonight? I’m free.

2. fluent= be able to speak a language smoothly , be good at a language

ex: I am fluent in Chinese.

3. pick up a language= to learn a language

ex: Can someone just pick up a language simply by being in the country in which it is spoken?

ex: Can I pick up Japanese by being in Japan?