Going to the country where the target language is spoken has always had a mythical feel to it. People used to think that the only way to learn a foreign language was to go to the country where that language is spoken and do something called "total immersion."
Total immersion is NOT a long time spent in the country where the target language is spoken taking traditional language classes. Total Immersion is NOT a programme where you go to Mexico to learn Spanish the way you normally would. It's important to say it again:
Not many people know that most of these university-level programmes require you to have at least 4 semesters of the target language before you go abroad. More than 30 years ago, this was true.
Here's the story. People believe that if you go to the country where the language you want to learn is spoken, some kind of linguistic magic will take over you and make you know the language. I mean, really, don't be silly. Let me clear things up right now. There is no magic in spending a lot of money to live in a foreign country and learn a foreign language there. You won't wake up in the middle of the night to the Spanish fairy telling you that you now know Spanish. That will NOT happen.
If you come to Mexico to learn Spanish, the only difference is that all of your classes will be taught in Spanish. They will use the same way that it is done in the U.S. You will sometimes get a book and go to a conversation class. You will still have to put in a lot of work in school. The only difference is that you have more chances to practise in the foreign country than you did at home.
But this is something we see all too often. These college students from the U.S. come here to hang out with other college students from the U.S. They spend what little time they have in Mexico talking to their friends in English instead of hanging out with locals and learning Spanish.
This is just one reason why the so-called "Total Immersion" experience is a waste of time and money. If all you're going to do outside of class is hang out with other Americans and speak English with them, then what's the point? This is also true of adults who come to private language schools.
Do we still want to know why only 9 percent of Americans speak more than one language?
Here's another problem with the so-called "Total Immersion experience." People think that if they don't know any Spanish, they can just sign up for a class for beginners and start learning. This is not true. This is the furthest thing from the truth. First, there's the idea that going to a foreign country to learn the target language is some kind of magic. The second myth is that these schools will start you from the very beginning.
All of the schools I talked to in Guanajuato and most of the schools I talked to for this book confirmed what I already knew from my own experience.
When you go to the country where the language you want to learn is spoken and sign up for one of the private schools, you will join the beginning, middle, or end of a sequence. Here's what I mean.
When I first went to language school in Guanajuato, I joined an intermediate class that was already in its fourth week. They didn't start a new intermediate class just for me. I was stuck in a class where four other students had been learning intermediate level material for three weeks before I got there. I was in the fourth week of class.
If you are a complete beginner and don't even know the Spanish alphabet, let alone the difference between the verbs ESTAR and SER, you probably won't come to the first session of a beginner's class. Do you understand what I'm saying? You will be put in the middle of the level where you test and where everyone else is.
We heard about an American woman who didn't know any Spanish at all. She paid for three months at a private language school that was very pricey. She thought she would be put in a class for very new students. She was shocked and surprised when she was put in a class with new students who had been there for a few weeks and had already done most of the cycle for new students. Even though they were beginners, she couldn't keep up with them. She was confused.
You have to think about how this all works for the school. The school couldn't start a class because the students who were enrolled all tested at different levels. Think about it. You could have 100 different levels of students. To meet the needs of all 100 students, the school would have to have 100 different classes taught by 100 different people. In each level of education, schools must have "cycles" where students can be put.
Most Americans who sign up for what are called "Total Immersion" classes in other countries don't know this.
At the University of Guanajuato, classes begin at the start of each semester. So, if you were a rank beginner, you could start with the other rank beginners in a rank beginner's class at the beginning of the rank beginner's cycle. The way this works is the same as in the United States. Private schools, on the other hand, can't do this. You might "get lucky" in one of the private schools and schedule your study break at the start of a beginning, intermediate, or advanced level cycle, but you shouldn't put all your eggs in that basket.
