Your experience with immersion learning?

[Sofa King High]

Curious to hear from anyone who has learned Thai in part if not entirely via the 'immersion method', which refers to learning by just getting out there and doing it.

 

I thought I'd get a shot at this during my recent stint in Bangkok, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped. At this point in my learning Thai the only friendships I form are with people who speak decent English and I don't have a girlfriend, so my Thai is limited to transactions and banter with the bar-girls. Even with them its often easier to use English. Immersion is the method the BGs use and while my Thai may beat out there English in terms of talking about things like going to school, the post office, doctor, etc. it's often easier to do the basic banter in good ole' English.

 

So... anyone with tales to tell?!

[padfoot]

I have no personal experiences to relate. Though a friend of mine who has been here 15 years learned Thai that way. I took a course that used that method. He was in class 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. He said it was pretty intense and required a huge commitment. I also met a woman who served with the Peace Corps. They went through two weeks of seven days a weeks classroom training and then were put in their assigned village. It was sink or swim, though they did go through quite a battery of tests and would not have been chosen if they didn't have an aptitude for foreign languages.

[Velcro]

My experience is from living in Spain and Peru... different language but same idea.

 

I picked up some words.. well lots of words, but it wasn't until I went to a language school was I able to understand some of the verbs and tenses.

 

Also being English,, you find that everyone can manage a bit of English, or there is someone around who does..

So when I would try and converse in Spanish.. they would (trying to be helpful) reply in English or find someone to speak English with me