Recreating Immersion at Home (for Free)

But what I want to do is to try to add as many elements of that immersion as we can into your life in order to get some of the benefits of that full immersion. If you want to make sure you retain as much of this episode as possible, the transcript is in the description of the episode. So go and click on that so you don't miss a single word. Alright, let's get into it. You are listening to episode 20 of season two of English with Dane. Hit it.

That's the music, so you know we have officially started the show. So I was giving this topic a lot of thought the other day. We all know that moving to an English-speaking country and immersing yourself in the language is the fastest way to improve. We also all know that for most people it's not necessarily a possibility. If you work remotely and don't have kids or pets or someone who you are responsible for, I think you should go for it. In fact, I highly recommend that you do.

If what's stopping you is that fear of being uncomfortable in a new situation, go. But if you're not in a position to just get up and go like that, what can you do? First, let's break down the biggest benefits of moving to an English-speaking country. I say moving to, but I also mean going for a few months. So you get what I mean. The biggest and most obvious benefit is that you have no choice but to exist outside of your comfort zone, which is where real growth happens.

From the moment you leave your house till the moment you get home, you are forced to interact with people and your surroundings in English.

You talk to your new neighbors, you go buy groceries, you go to a restaurant and order food, you talk to your new co-workers, maybe, your landlord, you meet new people, you make friends, you have to run errands, as estramites, etc. There are so many moments where you have to speak English regardless, sin importar, regardless of how solid or shaky your English is. If something is shaky, by the way, spelled S-H A K Y, it is unsteady or unstable.

So regardless of how solid or shaky your English is, that's the biggest advantage. You basically force yourself to speak. Obviously, you're also meeting new people, having new experiences, going to new places, trying new food, and experiencing a different culture, all of which are incredibly transformative and add a lot of value, yanyad mucho valor, and add a lot of value to your life. But the biggest thing is that angle of constant exposure, constant exposure, whether you like it or not.

Also, the fact that it's real, high-stakes interaction means that your brain will prioritize communication over perfection, and that's how fluency grows. That's what pushes your limits. Then there's the fact that the learning that goes on, that goes on, is very context-rich. This means that the words and phrases you learn are tied, are tied to actual situations. You learn laundry detergent at the laundromat, for example. You learn withdrawal at the ATM, or Cash Point, como le dicen in the UK.

The context makes the memory stick better than just memorizing a word list. Another aspect that is tied up in all of this is that you are basically tuning your ear, afinando tu oido, you're tuning your ear to the language. Your ear becomes much more specialized, and the language begins to become clearer and to slow down as you get better at understanding slang, expressions, intonation, abbreviations, and also to the pace and the accent.

And back to the cultural aspect for a second, you are also picking up, you are picking up idioms, humor, gestures, and conversational rules like how long to make eye contact, when to say how's it going, etc. That pragmatic side is really, really hard to get from just textbooks or classes. And the last thing I want to mention is that living in English or in your target language in general makes your anxiety about the language drop. It makes your anxiety about the language drop.

This is because it becomes just a part of your life and not a subject that you have to study. I think of it like jumping into a pool. You don't want to because you're anticipating how cold it's gonna be. But then once you dive in, you don't even think about it because you're just in it. So that's what immersion does. All of those things. When we break it down like this, I feel like it's easy to see why it's the best way to get better quick.

That said, let's take a look at how we can achieve at least a percentage of this without having to move to a different country. The first thing we mentioned was input flooding, right? Flooding as inundando. So, first thing I would do is change my phone to English. It's super quick, just a few clicks, and while it won't make a big difference on its own, it puts you in the mindset and forces you to interact with the language on the most simple and regular basis.

From the moment you wake up and turn off your alarm, you're already in. Le diste a turn off and misapagar, you started your day in English. I feel like you might be laughing at this one a bit, but don't underestimate nosubestimes. Don't underestimate the power of these small cues and what they do to your brain. Your computer too, of course. All of your devices are now in English. Tu tele, tu air fryer, si puedes, tu cafetera, todo. Do you watch the news in the morning?

Congratulations, that's in English now too. Have your morning coffee while watching a global news outlet in English. There's a bunch you can stream for free on YouTube. But Dane, I want to know about what's going on here in Spain, or in Mexico, or in the US, or Colombia, like in my country. Because I guarantee that whatever publication you read, maybe El País here in Spain or something, has an English version.

If you do some sort of guided meditation, a guided meditation or workout or yoga routine, it's in English now. Yesta. If you can't go to a morning yoga class in London, you can find a free one online because there are tons. If you are someone who journals, obviously you now journal in English. And yes, to journal is a verb. So if you are someone who writes a journal, it's now in English. If you don't want to ruin your journals, get a new one, and that will be your English one.

If you're more of an end-of-the-day diary person, same thing applies. I think this is actually the best thing to do. At the end of your day, write a little recap of the things you did, where you went, maybe what you learned, what you felt, etc. This is an amazing tool because what you are writing is pretty much what you would tell someone, maybe, if you were having a beer at the end of the day.

So since we don't have that beer after work moment with a friend in English, let's have it with our journal. Even just something like today I went to an art gallery with some friends and met some local artists. We talked about politics and had some wine, and then we went out to dinner at an Italian place nearby. Ya solo con eso, todos los días makes a difference. A cool thing about doing this is that it highlights resalta, it highlights your gaps in knowledge. It shows you what you don't know.

Maybe you didn't know the word nearby, so you had to look it up. If you're just reading words on a list, you won't really retain much. Our brains love attaching words and concepts and smells and sounds to places and emotions, so let's use that to our advantage. Hefty, by the way, spelled H-E-F-T-Y. Hefty means big, heavy, or significant, so a hefty amount of something. She received a pretty hefty Christmas bonus. So now you're on your way to work.

You're listening to a podcast in English, not necessarily an English learning podcast like this one. Maybe it's a true crime podcast, a tennis podcast, your favorite audiobook, whatever it is you want. Maybe something like NPR, they have really interesting stuff. You can listen to it at a slightly slower speed to make it easier at first and work your way up to a normal speed. Work your way up to normal speed. A tip: don't put too much pressure on yourself when listening.

If you get frustrated because you miss stuff once in a while, don't let it get to you. Just ignore it. Don't feel like you need to learn something every time and remember new words every time, or that you need to understand every word. Just try and get into it and let it flow. If there's something you really like, then sure, write it down. Apuntatelo, write it down, but just let it flow. And the same applies to your way back.

If you're listening to something in English on your way to and from work, so your commute, that's five hours of exposure in a week if your commute is 30 minutes. 20 hours in a month. So keep that number in mind because what you do with that time can be really meaningful. So now you're at home, you make dinner, and you sit down to watch your favorite TV show, obviously in English.

Changing these things is very much within your control, and it will absolutely emulate or imitate the input flooding you would get from living in another country, at least in terms of hours of exposure. Now we get to the problem. Production. Specifically high-stakes production. So con algo en juego. Of course, this is the hardest part to emulate. We can't recreate it entirely, but we can try to get at least a good amount of the way there. Here's what I suggest.

I know you're sick of hearing about AI probably, but open up ChatGPT and use the voice function. Tell it that you want a conversation partner to work on your English. Tell it to ask you things about your day and maybe current events or something. Then just have a casual conversation. What I like about this is that there is a bit of a sense of urgency when talking to ChatGPT because if you stop for long enough, it'll just assume you're done talking and it will answer. So you can't be super slow.

You can also have it explain things to you, speak slower or faster, and just be a good tool actually to use your voice and to put all these things that you've been learning into action. It feels weird at first or feels strange at first, but if you just have a five-minute conversation every day or a three-minute conversation every day, you'll start to feel more loose, más suelto, suelta, more loose in no time.

So now with all of these changes in place, you are really setting yourself up to ramp up your improvement, to ramp up your exposure, your fluency, everything. Ramp up when phrasal verb to increase something in intensity, speed, or effort. So this is a great way to ramp up your learning. Try it for a week, see how it feels. I guarantee you'll feel really different after a week. The best thing is that this is all free, so you don't need to spend any money to make progress.

Just keep exposing yourself to the language and stay consistent. It's remarkable what these changes in your life can accomplish. Alright, that's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you got something out of it. I feel like this is a topic that we think about, we consider, but there's not a big percentage of people that will actually go through with it. So who will think about it, plan it, and do it, who will go through with it.

But I really think this is the best free way to just level up really quickly. It's uncomfortable, I know, and most of you are just gonna hear this, and I think you'll believe me, you'll believe that these things work, but I don't think you'll try it, at least all of them. So if you want, I'd rather you try a little bit than not try anything. So start with maybe changing your devices to English and starting your morning with that morning routine that I outlined, right?

So make your coffee, put on some news in English, maybe read a newspaper, do your morning routine, etc. Start with that if it seems too overwhelming, and then you can ramp it up. Work your way up to having everything be geared towards that immersion. Okay, Odyssey. Send this episode or the podcast to someone who needs it, and follow me on Instagram and TikTok at English with Dane for more content, quizzes, and stuff like that.

Let me know what you think of the show, leave a comment on Spotify or on YouTube or wherever, and I'm always up for constructive criticism and ideas from you guys. All right, have a great week. Later.