subscribe | advertise | about | contact | home

Immersion
by Joyce Major

Arriving at night in Rio, my taxi stopped on a dark street.

“Seu endereço está aqui.”

“¿Dónde?” Where?”

“Atrás dos portões de ferro.”

“Obrigado.”

Heading through the large wrought iron gates, down a hall, I took the small elevator up to the eleventh floor. As the elevator doors parted an apartment door opened, shedding light into the hallway and silhouetting four people.

“Vindo dentro. Boa vinda.”

“Obrigado.”

With my large backpack wobbling and my eyes adjusting to the light, I met Alzira and Renato, a couple in their seventies; Caio, their 40-year-old son and Marina, their 9-year-old granddaughter — my new family. Everyone started talking to me in Portuguese, but all I could do was smile and nod with no knowledge of any Portuguese words except for hello and thank you. I felt like I had jumped into the deep end of a pool before learning to swim.

I was living in Rio for a month as part of a Portuguese language immersion program. I would have four hours of daily one-on-one instruction at the Bridge Linguatec School (www.bridgelinguatec.com) in downtown Rio, live with my new Brazilian family, and negotiate the culture of Rio de Janeiro while listening to Portuguese day and night. By the end of the month, my goal was to be able to converse minimally with my homestay family and to speak enough to negotiate my way through the streets of Rio. To learn it by living it.

There are an enormous number and variety of language immersion schools. To find the right one for you, be sure to look into cost, class size and hours of study, teacher accreditation and accommodations. The National Registration Center for Study Abroad (www.nrcsa.com) has a search engine that has been evaluating programs around the world since 1968, selecting the best and giving the pros and cons of schools in each country. Though the site is not updated regularly, the information provided can give you a solid foundation of what to look for in other schools. Another Web site, Foreign Language Home (www.Foreignlanguagehome.com), also has a search engine to help you find a place to study your choice of 23 different languages.

I attended two programs, both of which gave me plenty of practice in both listening and speaking. No matter which immersion program you choose, be prepared to speak only in the new language, as speaking English is generally not allowed during school hours. Most schools offer four hours of instruction with additional time for cultural or other studies. Generally, a class with no more than four students is recommended for beginners, to allow for individual attention and repetition. For intermediate to advanced students, individual instruction is preferred.

When choosing a language immersion program, determine your goals and the amount of time you can attend the school to see if you are being realistic. Do you want to become fluent? Are you studying a language for career advancement? Then look for a school that offers business immersion classes. There are many ‘themes’ that you can add to your immersion experience. Are you more interested in cooking, wine tasting or learning about art? While living in the country of your dreams, language immersion schools are a perfect opportunity to combine your personal interests with your desire to learn the language. Here are some programs that have been recommended by fellow travelers.

Would you like to combine a love of French cooking while learning the language? Chef Erick Vedel from France and his wife, Madeleine, originally from Seattle, offer “French Immersion for Food Lovers,” a two-week stay in their beautiful bed-and-breakfast in Arles, Provence, providing 30 hours of French language study and four cooking classes. Leisurely meals joined by a wide assortment of their friends — archeologists, wine-makers, a beekeeper and a baker — provide a glimpse of French culture with the opportunity to practice French over a bottle of wine. For 2900 euros, you receive your lodging, two meals a day, French lessons and cooking classes, and tours of the city and the region. (www.cuisineprovencale.com)

If you are interested in French wine, art and etiquette, as well as cooking classes, the French-American Exchange in Paris combines these areas of study with a 15-hour-per-week language learning vacation with classes held in an 18th century mansion located in the heart of Montmartre. Additional classes in cooking, wine tasting, art, etiquette and local culture are available. Housing choices range from a private room and shared bath in the home of a local resident to a three-star hotel or your own furnished apartment, with prices ranging from $1,870 to $4,560 for a two-week stay. The French-American Exchange also offers classes in Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Nice (www.frenchamericanexchange.com).

For a more modest budget, learning Spanish in Guatemala offers many inexpensive options. I attended El Nahual School in Quetzaltenango or “Xela,” as the locals call it, for a month of daily four-hour one-on-one instruction followed by one hour of cultural history that included salsa lessons once a week. The language instruction was excellent and my host family offered lively dinner conversations around delicious meals. An additional feature of El Nahual School is the chance to volunteer within the community teaching English or art two hours a day to the local children of Quetzaltenango. Volunteering gave everyone more opportunities to practice their Spanish, but more importantly, a heart-warming opportunity to connect with the people of Xela. The Spanish lessons, homestay and all meals were a modest $140 per week. I would definitely recommend this program. (www.languageselnahual.com).

If the sound of Italian entices you, The Koiné Center (www.koinecenter.com), which was started by a group of teachers, offers intensive language classes or individual tutoring for specific needs in Florence, Lucca, Cortona, Elba and Bologna, with each location selected for its unique historical and environmental features. The school combines morning Italian classes with a wide variety of other cultural courses, such as: Sailing and Language Study (one week on land and one week aboard a sailboat sailing to the islands of Giglio, Giannutri and Elba in the Tuscan archipelago); Art and Archaeology or Language, Nature & Sports in Orbetello; Painting and Drawing, Goldsmithery, Photography or Book Restoration in Florence; and Pane, Vino e Lingua in Tuscany. Lodging varies from homestays and hostels to three-star hotels and convents, with prices ranging from 273 euros to 1079 euros for a two-week stay. The base price for 20 hours per week of instruction is 360 euros.

If the allure of foreign travel coupled with the intimacy of experiencing a country and a culture through immersion isn’t enough of an incentive for learning a new language, there are surprising health benefits as well. The process of language immersion involves daily exercise in learning new sounds, grammar and vocabulary, and is much like training for a marathon. But rather than your body, it’s your brain that gets the workout. “The more we think the better our brains function — regardless of age,” says Dr Marian C. Diamond, a professor of anatomy and one of the world’s foremost neuroanatomists at the University of California, Berkeley. “Learning and speaking a foreign language provides constant exercise to the frontal lobes, the area of the brain that focuses our attention, helps us ignore distractions and make decisions.”

Learning a language can improve your memory and lower the risk of dementia. “The brain is based on connections. Novelty forges new pathways,” says Denise Park, director of the University of Illinois Roybal Center for Healthy Minds. “So learn to play an instrument or learn a foreign language.” Brain cells that are not stimulated are less efficient. The mental work of language immersion stimulates your neurons to grow and connect, thereby sharpening mental function. Learning a language keeps your gray matter in tip-top shape, building more alternative networks for problem-solving, conceptualizing and reasoning.

Wherever you decide to go and whatever language you learn, stepping outside of your culture heightens your self-awareness and gives you a fuller appreciation of your life at home. But be prepared for the emotional ups and downs of learning a language. Moments of exhilaration as you begin to comprehend the language and hold conversations with your host family can be followed by periods of frustration and discouragement when you are unable to master new pronunciations or verb tenses, or cannot understand a speaker. Still, your efforts will prove worthwhile. Whether you’re motivated by the love of a culture or the sound of its language, or by an opportunity for business advancement or increasing your mental agility, language immersion pays off. As an old Czech proverb says: “You live a new life for every new language you speak.”

Joyce Major left her successful real estate business to take a yearlong solo trip around the world, volunteering on 11 different projects on six continents in 10 countries. She is writing a book about her journey, teaches classes on volunteer travel, and continues to travel as a volunteer.

MORE IMMERSION SCHOOLS

Dialogue (www.Dialogue-languages.com) – recommended by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best language immersion courses available.

Marco Polo Chinese Language Immersion (www.journeyeast.org) Four weeks, $2,890 includes airfare, lodging, language instruction and two meals a day.

AmeriSpan (www.amerispan.com) – typical intensive immersion classes and classes for people involved in law enforcement, government, fashion, social work, business and journalism.

Home Language International (www.Linguaserviceworldwide.com) – study in Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, Poland, Argentina, Germany and Spain.

©2007 Caliope Publishing Company