The immersion technique and language bubbles

Everyone knows that the best way to learn a language is to live in the country where it's spoken, it's just common sense right? You can order at a restaurant, and every sign you will see is in that language, so you're basically forced to learn it. Well, I don't know who said this before me but I'll say it again, even if you are already living in the country where that language is spoken, it is extremely easy to find yourself isolated in your language bubble. I've been living in Italy for about 5 months now, my main goal has been to get an education and also to learn Italian so that maybe I can get a job and become a part of the community long term. I trusted that living in the country will be enough for me to practice it consistently. And 5 months later and I'm barely in the A1 category because I haven't had a conversation that lasted more than 30 seconds in Italian with someone. If you're like me - I go to a university where everyone speaks English, I don't personally know anyone who speaks Italian, I barely go out for anything - You probably also experienced the same thing. I observed that the same happens to my fellow colleagues in uni, where we all shut ourselves into our social circles of English (or our native language) speakers, use translation where needed and continue our lives just as it is. And I could've kept doing the same, but I want to learn Italian and that means getting out of a comfort zone, making mistakes and maybe even be judged by others, but all for good reason and a fruitful outcome of a skill that can benefit you a lifetime. Now let's consider the nature of language bubbles and how to pop them.

A language bubble is the parasocial and social linguistic environment in which we actively engage and attempt to maintain on a daily basis. It's the things that we come into contact that requires us to use our language abilities. Essentially, it is our social environment but it is more than who we speak to, it's the signs we read on the road, the movies we watch, the language setting on our phones, the layout of the keyboard on our computers and the material we have to study for our upcoming exam. So every single linguistic aspect of our lives makes up our language bubble, it is we who consider to whether step out of this comfort zone of using our mother tongues - or any preferred language -, or allow more to our lives and pop the bubble. I've been having a hard time seeing that I myself existed in this bubble for so long. I've read the signs on the metro and they were in Italian but I chose to ignore what they mean, in fact I gave Turkish nicknames to the places I had to go to because the names sounded confusing to me. Because I didn't know how to read it or what to make sense of it, I developed a new coping mechanism to stay in the bubble. Even if I was surrounded in a new environment and I wished to adapt to it, I've actively chose to maintain the language I was comfortable with in my life to reduce the stress of making mistakes and taking a longer time at processing the environment.

So how do we become more aware of our own language bubbles and how do we push ourselves to engage with the language we're learning? I believe one of the most effective strategies to pop the bubble and let another language in to your life is to reconsider your daily routine. In it's most simplistic and detailed way, break down your daily routine, keep a diary if you even need and just start to take notice of what you do that requires you to engage with your environment that requires your language abilities. Take notice of things you have kept in your comfort zone - do you listen to music only in your native language? Do you read books on certain topics, that you could in your own language level, can make sense of? Is there anything that interests you that you want to look up on google that you've kept in a corner of your mind? Consider as many daily rituals and routines as you can and start brainstorming on how you can manipulate your environment to push yourself to be in as many novel situations as you can during the day using your target language. For me this has been so far changing the settings on my phone, listening to music in Italian and stepping outside of my comfort zone and initiating conversation in my TL when ordering or asking something instead of residing to English. Some other not so visible ways of doing this is also; reading labels in that language, looking up basic recipes or anything you have to do on the internet in the TL or just looking at maps and learning common names of places. These are some things that can help you both integrate to the culture of the TL by helping you figure out the way they do their things and learn the language by getting pushed out of your comfort zone. I have to point out just one small thing about this technique. In no way this is an easy task, yes it does sound easy to start listening to music in a different language or watch movies with a different dub, but it is certainly not the same feeling when you have to search up something in google using your TL and follow instructions from it or when you want to sing along to the song you're actually enjoying without having to consider the pronunciation rules of the TL. The entire task of processing the world becomes a bit harder and this can be very tiring really quickly. But consider this, you are seeing the world through new eyes, a fresh perspective, just like when you were little and trying to make sense of the world. You're learning different structure of speech, a different way of thinking and a completely new vocabulary to express yourself in ways you may have never considered before. This is something you should celebrate and enjoy. Relating this to seeing the world through childish curiosity could help also. To conclude, I am way too sleepy to write an actual article right now and since only a single person will read this (ciao caro!) I want to wrap up by saying that language bubbles we find ourselves in are not something that we should shame ourselves for. Resisting a change in habits or routines and developing coping mechanisms to avoid it is like one of the most human feelings ever. I did it without even noticing and I would think of myself as an adaptive person, I spoke 3 language after all, why couldn't I add another? But it was not as simple as this. This meant being judged, even at times intolerated by others. I made mistakes, let down others who needed my help and it all pushed me down towards a spiral of complete self-isolation from society. This was not healthy at all. Now, I am trying harder, I say buongiorno to my neighbors, order my caffé per bevere a qui and talk to my italian internet friends without using google translate :)