While picking up a new language can be quite easy to do when you're a kid, it gets harder and harder with age. This is partly because your brain just isn't configured for constant learning anymore, and partly because you're out of practice when it comes to studying, practicing and working on things like grammar and vocabulary. This certainly doesn't make it impossible to become good at speaking a new, foreign language as an adult, but it does mean you may need to take a different approach, especially if you need fast results! One way you can really accelerate your learning, and pick up some other great benefits too, is to learn French in France instead of trying to study it at home in the UK.
Why Immersion Is the Best Way to Learn a Language
The main reason why this style of learning, which is generally referred to as €immersion€, works best when it comes to languages, is that you are thrust into a life where you are hearing and using your new language constantly. This forces you to comprehend, translate and read it in normal, natural situations. Rather than having to do an embarrassing role play of buying some bread from a bakery in a French lesson at your local college, you can just go and buy some bread and have a realistic exchange with a normal French person. This makes all the difference as you can practice your French in the real world.
Other Advantages of Immersion
Of course, throwing yourself into learning the new language 100% will vastly accelerate how quickly you become conversant, and then (depending how adept you are and how long you spend there), even fluent, it also offers other significant advantages over other methods of studying a language. A key one of these is your pronunciation. It can be hard to emulate the sounds of other languages when you don't hear them very often, but when you learn French in France you will find that those sounds make perfect sense, and a French accent will become second nature when you are using the language. This will make you a much better French speaker, because you will sound more confident and authentic, but will also help with your comprehension - you will find it much easier to understand natural French conversation, even when people are speaking quite fast, because the sounds will be more familiar.
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Why Immersion Is the Best Way to Learn a Language
The main reason why this style of learning, which is generally referred to as €immersion€, works best when it comes to languages, is that you are thrust into a life where you are hearing and using your new language constantly. This forces you to comprehend, translate and read it in normal, natural situations. Rather than having to do an embarrassing role play of buying some bread from a bakery in a French lesson at your local college, you can just go and buy some bread and have a realistic exchange with a normal French person. This makes all the difference as you can practice your French in the real world.
Other Advantages of Immersion
Of course, throwing yourself into learning the new language 100% will vastly accelerate how quickly you become conversant, and then (depending how adept you are and how long you spend there), even fluent, it also offers other significant advantages over other methods of studying a language. A key one of these is your pronunciation. It can be hard to emulate the sounds of other languages when you don't hear them very often, but when you learn French in France you will find that those sounds make perfect sense, and a French accent will become second nature when you are using the language. This will make you a much better French speaker, because you will sound more confident and authentic, but will also help with your comprehension - you will find it much easier to understand natural French conversation, even when people are speaking quite fast, because the sounds will be more familiar.
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