Answer Question
Imersion - What is NOT said
Here's a thought that occurred to me just after the first night with Fluenz.
The imersion folks - you know, the ones with the yellow box who have you assign text to pictures and so on in the program - tell you that you should learn a language by simply throwing yourself into it and proceeding. The notion is that is the fastest and quickest way to learn. First - kudos to Fluenz for saying its better to "bootstrap" from your current language.
But also consider: How long did it (really) take you to learn your first language? Consider first words at about 2 years of age. Consider, at least for English, your last grammar and structure class is probably around the age of 16. That's 14 (yes, FOURTEEN) years of grammar, structure, spelling, and language arts. Sure, at age six, most folks can have functional English, and yes, kids are hardwired to get to that stage, but to LEARN even our native lanaguage - it really is a long time.
Yet, even though it takes over a decade to really know our first language, the imersion argument is that, somehow (black magic?) you will be able to to do this by saying and repeating nothing else but your target language. Well, consider this. My spouse is not a native English speaker - Korean was her first language. It was only after about 15 years (note a similarity to the number above?) that she was really fluent in the language - and then only after considerable and patient teaching by myself (and, unfortunately for her, all of that was in English).
So, two years ago had a need to learn some French as I was travelling through French Canada (and not just Montreal, deep into Quebec). The little yellow box, after a month, successfully got me to one phrase: "Qu'est-ce parlez vous Anglais?" That and pointing with "ici" or "la" or "ca" (with the cedilla) was about it.
Now my wife and I are going to St. Pierre this summer and I want to be beyond the "can you speak English" and pointing stage (and by the way, I already found out painfully they don't speak much English on St. Pierre, and fortunately my fluent daughter was home for the Holidays to help secure reservations). Within a couple of days I do feel I could at least function in a restaurant setting (the freebie on the web site to induce one to buy Fluenz; although "I'll have this dish" would still require a pointing operation it still comes across better) and some basic pleasantries. I'm looking forward to learning much more.
[And, no, I haven't been paid to say this.]
The imersion folks - you know, the ones with the yellow box who have you assign text to pictures and so on in the program - tell you that you should learn a language by simply throwing yourself into it and proceeding. The notion is that is the fastest and quickest way to learn. First - kudos to Fluenz for saying its better to "bootstrap" from your current language.
But also consider: How long did it (really) take you to learn your first language? Consider first words at about 2 years of age. Consider, at least for English, your last grammar and structure class is probably around the age of 16. That's 14 (yes, FOURTEEN) years of grammar, structure, spelling, and language arts. Sure, at age six, most folks can have functional English, and yes, kids are hardwired to get to that stage, but to LEARN even our native lanaguage - it really is a long time.
Yet, even though it takes over a decade to really know our first language, the imersion argument is that, somehow (black magic?) you will be able to to do this by saying and repeating nothing else but your target language. Well, consider this. My spouse is not a native English speaker - Korean was her first language. It was only after about 15 years (note a similarity to the number above?) that she was really fluent in the language - and then only after considerable and patient teaching by myself (and, unfortunately for her, all of that was in English).
So, two years ago had a need to learn some French as I was travelling through French Canada (and not just Montreal, deep into Quebec). The little yellow box, after a month, successfully got me to one phrase: "Qu'est-ce parlez vous Anglais?" That and pointing with "ici" or "la" or "ca" (with the cedilla) was about it.
Now my wife and I are going to St. Pierre this summer and I want to be beyond the "can you speak English" and pointing stage (and by the way, I already found out painfully they don't speak much English on St. Pierre, and fortunately my fluent daughter was home for the Holidays to help secure reservations). Within a couple of days I do feel I could at least function in a restaurant setting (the freebie on the web site to induce one to buy Fluenz; although "I'll have this dish" would still require a pointing operation it still comes across better) and some basic pleasantries. I'm looking forward to learning much more.
[And, no, I haven't been paid to say this.]