Immersion

Hey y'all,

This is a continuation of my last post, but focuses on how I immerse myself in a língua de português (the language of portuguese). Immersion is the NUMBER ONE thing to do when staying in the country for a few months isn't an option. Its not as valuable as actually being in an environment where the language is spoken as a mother tongue, but hey. Here are my tips, and though it's based on learning Brazilian Portuguese, most of them can apply to any language:

 1. TV
There is only one Brazilian channel on my tv (Record), but I certainly make the most of it. It's not the main network in Brazil, but it offers enough for me to feel like a Brazilian; novelas (their equivalent to soap operas); talk shows; children's cartoons; the news; entertainment shows etc. Not bad if you ask me. If you have a selection of international tv channels on your tv, this is perfect.

2. Movies
Anyone can go on YouTube and watch a complete movie in the language of your choice, which makes it ideal for free immersion. I do it all the time! Try and watch movies that are recent if you're aiming to speak quite colloquially, because then you will pick up some speech from situations that might happen to you everyday, but what the books either aren't quite up-to-date with, or are too scared to write.

3. Books and Magazines
With the new technologies of the 21st century, everything is available online, including books and magazines. In regards to books, I read children's ones because quite frankly, I'm not advanced enough in Portuguese vocabulary to understand half the stuff in adults books. It helps a lot with reading skills. E-magazines work in the same way as movies, but in writing obviously. Especially those with more... explicit content.

4. Social Networking

Twitter is particularly good for this. I set my location for trending topics to Brazil, and suddenly I can pretend I'm Brazilian to people that don't know otherwise. I'll just look at what's trending at that moment, and take part in conversation by tweeting whatever hashtags. I find it useful because it helps you understand all the internet abbreviations and slang (since I'm not learning for a business meeting) and helps with writing skills. Long Instagram captions in another language also make good reads.

5. The Internet
THE INTERNET! It has everything literally. I watch a vast amount of Brazilian youtubers' videos, for colloquialism and to improve on my listening skills. I hardly ever google anything in English now, unless it's about something specifically British. I personally find it very easy to read full articles, whatever the topic, in Portuguese without the aid of google translate, even though for whatever strange reason I can't write a full article in the the language.

6. Talk to Yourself
As odd as this may seem (and probably is), I tend to have dialogues with myself in Portuguese. I'm too socially awkward for skype, so this is the only way I can practice formulating sentences like a native and speaking. I often read stuff in Portuguese aloud, to practice the flow of the language. They speak quite quickly and words get smushed into each other and that's something you don't learn from Rosetta Stone (not that I use it, because I can't afford it). The tv and the movies and the YouTube should demonstrate what it's supposed to sound like when said correctly.

What I'm basically trying to say is that anything that you can find that is in the language you want to learn is your friend.

Sarah x