It seems like it would be a lot easier to learn a second language if you were:
- Surrounded by 1-2 people whose full-time job was to take care of you, and who could only communicate with you in that second language
- Unable to do basic things by yourself without communicating those needs to your caretakers
- Unable to entertain yourself with any material written or spoken in your first language
- Somehow deprived of the ability to form verbal thoughts in your first language
Immersion gives a very weak version of this, e.g. if all the signage or menus you read are in the second language, and if you engage with service industry folks in your second language. You can make it better by trying to restrict your entertainment material to the second language, but this usually involves seeking out kids' shows to try to find something comprehensible at your small vocabulary level, and to me it ends up feeling more like work than entertainment.
It seems like it would be a lot easier to learn a second language if you were:
- Surrounded by 1-2 people whose full-time job was to take care of you, and who could only communicate with you in that second language
- Unable to do basic things by yourself without communicating those needs to your caretakers
- Unable to entertain yourself with any material written or spoken in your first language
- Somehow deprived of the ability to form verbal thoughts in your first language
Immersion gives a very weak version of this, e.g. if all the signage or menus you read are in the second language, and if you engage with service industry folks in your second language. You can make it better by trying to restrict your entertainment material to the second language, but this usually involves seeking out kids' shows to try to find something comprehensible at your small vocabulary level, and to me it ends up feeling more like work than entertainment.