Immersion is a very good word, because it captures what it’s like learning a language and living abroad. When we first start learning, most people begin at the shallow end of the pool, not fully immersed, but keeping most of themselves over the surface. As we grow more and more confident, we leave the shallow end of the pool and head out into deeper waters. When we feel ready, we might even leave the surface and immerse completely, leaving just a thin thread still connecting us to the familiar world above the surface.
Learning to swim
Now, this metaphor is handy both for talking about language learning (the water is Chinese, the air is your native language) and culture (the water in Chinese culture, the air is your own culture). How much you want to immerse is mostly dependent on your own attitude and external factors. It’s possible to immerse anywhere in the world, but it’s of course easier to do so in a Chinese-speaking environment. I think most people agree that immersion is good, indeed necessary if we want to learn a language quickly and/or to an advanced level. How much we can immerse is also dependent on how much Chinese we can cope with. The more proficient we get, the easier it becomes.
Immersion is mostly about listening and reading. For listening, we should strive to fill our time with comprehensible input. Quality matters, but quantity still reigns supreme. For reading, we definitely need comprehensible input.
Immersion at home and abroad
Creating immersion at home is mostly about managing your time, finding audio and then committing to the task of immersing yourself. If you already live in a Chinese-speaking environment, you still need to integrate with that environment, find a life-style which immerses you in Chinese to a large a degree as possible, but still prevents you from drowning.
Here are of all articles on Hacking Chinese related to either immersion or integration:
- Welcome to The Fluent Listener, a new course from Hacking Chinese!
- Four key principles to improve your Mandarin listening comprehension
- Student Q&A, November 2024: Pros and cons of digital tools for Chinese reading, and the struggle to find comprehensible and interesting texts
- How to learn Zhuyin (Bopomofo) in two hours
- Three things I wish I had known as an advanced student of Chinese: The time machine, part 3
- How to use YouTube and other video platforms to learn Chinese
- Three things I wish I had known as an intermediate student of Chinese: The time machine, part 2
- Student Q&A, September 2024: Slowly spoken Chinese, passing listening exams and understanding numbers
- Three things I wish I had known as a beginner student of Chinese: The time machine, part 1
- The 10 best free Chinese listening resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
- Insights from my recent trip to China: The importance of top-down listening
- Why you should preview before every Chinese lesson
- Student Q&A, July 2024: Reading speed, children’s books and Chinese literature
- Habit hacking for language learners
- Chinese character learning for all students
- Student Q&A, May 2024: Understanding strangers, listening with transcripts, and which podcasts to avoid
- Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 6: Why is listening in Chinese so hard?
- Interview: Insights from Skritter’s Complete Guide to Learning Chinese
- Is speaking more important than listening when learning Chinese?
- Real communication: What it is, why you want it and how to get it
- How to learn Chinese in the long term with intrinsic motivation
- 8 great ways to scaffold your Chinese listening and reading
- The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
- You won’t learn Chinese simply by living abroad
- 100 hours of Chinese listening in 3 weeks: What I learnt and how to apply it
- Student Q&A, October 2023: Expanding vocabulary quickly, learning by watching videos and nailing dictation tests
- Listen more than once: How the replay button can help you learn more Chinese
- The cheapest and most convenient way to improve your spoken Chinese
- How long do you have to study Chinese to make it useful?
- Hacking Chinese Podcast three-year anniversary Q&A
- Insights from the new HSK 7-9: Interview with Sara Jaaksola
- Why travelling isn’t the best method to learn Chinese
- Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 5: Becoming a better listener as a student of Chinese
- 6 benefits of learning Chinese through sports
- Beginner Chinese listening practice: What to listen to and how
- Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 3: Using what you already know to aid listening comprehension in Chinese
- Standard pronunciation in Chinese and why you want it
- Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 2: From sound to meaning in Mandarin
- Beyond tīng bu dǒng, part 1: A guide to Chinese listening comprehension
- Analyse and balance your Chinese learning with Paul Nation’s four strands
- On accuracy, communication and comprehensibility when learning Chinese
- Are authentic texts good for learning Chinese or is graded content better?
- What to read to improve your Chinese and why
- Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
- How to survive and thrive in a difficult Chinese course
- Is taking a Chinese course that’s too hard good for your learning?
- Why spaced repetition software is uniquely well suited to learning Chinese characters
- The best Chinese reading practice for beginners
- 6 challenges students face when learning to read Chinese and how to overcome them
- Should you enrol in a Chinese course or are you better off learning on your own?
- Using voice messaging as a stepping stone to Chinese conversations
- Learning to understand regionally accented Mandarin
- Lost in transcription: Saylaw, Ice Island and Aristotle
- Chinese language logging, part 2: A healthy, balanced diet of Mandarin
- What’s the difference between Chinese pronunciation and Pinyin? Does it matter?
- Learning science in Chinese with 李永乐老师
- The most serious mistake students make when learning Mandarin pronunciation
- An introduction to extensive reading for Chinese learners
- Review: Learning Chinese by video immersion with FluentU
- 7 ideas for smooth and effortless Chinese listening practice
- Why not going to China now could actually be good for your Chinese
- Improving your Chinese while watching TV shows
- Should you learn to speak Chinese before you learn Chinese characters?
- Learning Chinese words: When quantity beats quality
- Chinese is fascinating and exciting, not weird and stupid
- The simple trick I used to double the amount of Chinese I listen to
- The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese
- 101 questions and answers about how to learn Chinese
- Review: Language Empowerment: Demystify Chinese culture and fire up your Mandarin + interview with the author
- 866 digital textbooks for expanding your Chinese
- 8 tips for learning Chinese as an introverted student
- Learning to unicycle, learning anatomy and learning Chinese
- Can you learn Chinese faster by making it harder?
- Learning (or not learning) Chinese slang
- Comprehension-based listening vs deep end immersion
- Spaced repetition is not limited to flashcards
- Learn Chinese implicitly through exposure with a seasoning of explicit instruction
- Learning Chinese by playing board games
- How I learnt Chinese, part 6: Graduate program in Taiwan
- Accessing Chinese culture through cartoons
- The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2016
- How going shopping can help you learn Chinese
- How technology can stop you from learning Chinese
- How technology can help you learn Chinese
- Which Chinese language course should you take?
- Learning Chinese through comprehensible input
- ChinesePod review: Your companion to Mandarin fluency
- What your Chinese course will not teach you
- Listen before you read: Improve your listening ability
- The Hacking Chinese free tone training course
- Why you should read Chinese on your phone
- Chinese listening practice with 锵锵三人行
- Learning Chinese through audiobooks
- Bite-sized learning isn’t enough to learn Chinese
- Why you should learn Chinese in Chinese
- Review: Mandarin Companion graded readers (Level 1)
- The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2015
- Will a Chinese-only rule improve your learning?
- Using Chinese textbooks to improve reading ability
- The new paperless revolution in Chinese reading
- How to adjust your Chinese listening to the right level
- Three steps to more and better Chinese listening practice
- How to find a suitable Chinese name
- How to find the time and motivation to read more Chinese
- Learning how to ask for and receive directions in Chinese
- Focusing on communication to learn Chinese
- Change your attitude to enjoy life and learn more Chinese
- How long have you studied Chinese?
- Language learning with a Chinese girlfriend or boyfriend
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 2
- How to reach a decent level of Chinese in 100 days
- How and why to watch the world cup in Chinese
- A learner’s guide to TV shows in Chinese, part 1
- How and why to use television to learn Chinese
- The three roads to mastering Chinese
- The grand listening cycle: Improve your Chinese listening ability
- Learning how to fish: Or, why it’s essential to know how to learn
- Two reasons why pronunciation matters more than you think
- A language learner’s guide to wuxia novels
- Wuxia, a key to Chinese language and culture
- 25 books I’ve read in Chinese, with reviews and difficulty ratings
- Chinese immersion with Carl Gene Fordham
- Role-playing to learn more Chinese and avoid frustration
- Review: The Geography of Thought: How East Asians and Westerners Think Differently… And Why
- Asking the experts: How to bridge the gap to real Chinese
- Preparing for rainy days and dealing with slumps
- Your slumps affect your language learning more than your flows
- 5 insights from the first year of a master’s program in Taiwan
- Role-playing as a way to expand your Chinese
- You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old
- Immersion at home or: Why you don’t have to go abroad to learn Chinese
- RTI, my favourite radio station
- Learning Chinese with StarCraft 2
- The time barrel: How to find more time to study Chinese
- Why learning Chinese through music is underrated
- Chinese listening strategies: Active listening
- Playing computer games in Chinese: Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2
- Chinese listening strategies: Background listening
- Defining Language Hacking: Lessons Learned From Hacking Chinese
- Triggering quantum leaps in Chinese listening ability
- Achieving the impossible by being inspired
- Don’t be a tourist if you want to learn Chinese language and culture
- How to find more time to practise Chinese listening
- Growing up in Chinese as a foreign adult
- What native speakers know and what they don’t
- The virtues of learning Chinese through language exchange