I’ve been learning Mandarin for about two years now and I’ve always dreamed of being able to a language immersion holiday. The bulk of my learning comes from input (e.g. via LingQ) and lessons, and I would love to supplement this with a period of intensive immersion. As other Mandarin learners probably know, travelling to China is really difficult at the moment.
Some friends of mine recently organised a Mandarin immersion weekend in the UK. It was really interesting to hear their stories about how it boosted their listening and speaking skills - you can read a full account here:
It went so well that we are organising more! If you are based in the UK and would like to take part, check out our website:
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I was fortunate enough to be part of the initial immersion weekend. Before that weekend, my delivery of day to day phrases in Mandarin was laboured and my listening skills were such that I could understand individual words in a sentence but I couldn’t grasp the full meaning of what people were saying to me. Being immersed in a full-on Chinese weekend caused a mental shift whereby I can now speak a little more comfortably on everyday topics and can understand the gist of what native speakers are saying in their replies.
I am also involved in the organisation of future immersion-based weekends and I would encourage anyone interested to fill out our survey!
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I also took part in this weekend. I’d never experienced full immersion speaking only Chinese for several days before and I was a bit apprehensive that I’d burn out. But the experience turned out amazing and I understood a lot more than I thought I would. Everyone was very patient and willing to explain things that I may have found a little challenging.
I learned so many natural expressions during that weekend, and at a much faster rate than while studying alone.
There were so many words and phrases which were on the edge of my memory, almost about to be forgotten, because I’d only seen them a small number of times, and too long ago, but which were restored to the front of my memory during this weekend. I’ve been able to understand more when listening to native content ever since.
We’re planning another one in September and I can’t wait. I’d really encourage anyone interested to take the survey above and leave your contact details!
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I was also part of that weekend and it was awesome. Can’t wait for the next one.