Why Language Immersions Fail: Unwillingness To Assimilate

Ure best try ever would be Serbia !

i’m from the northern mountains of the Philippines and i only knew English until grade 4... it’s common to hear Ilocano, Kankana-ey, and Ibaloi being spoken around these parts rather than Tagalog... i got a chance to work in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia from 2011-2014, and although i haven’t got any idea of their Bahasa Indonesia on arrival, i am now able to converse with almost anyone on the streets or offices; and probably like you, i’ve been invited to many of their villages and houses - they made me feel as if i was indeed one of them despite my frequent lapses in the language... i feel it’s much easier for me to speak it than Tagalog (Filipino)...

I live in Japan. One thing I struggle with here is the working culture. Low salaries, long long long hours, low holiday allowance of which people don’t take all of it, prioritising work over family time to the point of moving away from family, etc. etc. This in the country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world. I’m happy to assimilate, but this is a society that puts people into groups, and as a foreigner you’ll always be a foreigner. When it comes to some of the more fundamental stuff like making a living, taking breaks from work, maintaining a healthy mind, body, and relationships, embracing this category and being a bit out-of-the-ordinary is a probably for the best.

Do you think complete assimilation is possible?

I was born and raised in the States to an American father and an English mother, but I don’t really think of myself as belonging to any particular culture. I would miss my family, yes, but if I moved away and never came back, I wouldn’t care.

What if you don’t think of yourself in terms of any one culture? I don’t particularly associate myself with being an ‘Englishman’; I’m just a person. Moved anywhere else, I wouldn’t miss England--at all.

I very much agree with Alexander on the subject of China.

The only time my Chinese improved at all during my stay was when I took solo trips that forced me to speak to people who only spoke Chinese. I was working as a teacher at a University, a community where virtually everyone spoke English, and it was absolutely maddening to get any help with my Chinese. There is no force on earth that can deter a cheerful and polite Chinese person who wants to practice their English.

Needless to say if I go back I need to try living in a more remote area.

I agree wholeheartedly. While in University, I spent a year in Japan with a group of other American students. I’m too tall and too Caucasian to ever be mistaken for Japanese. But I WAS! On the phone. Was this because my accent was so good or my grammar was perfect? No. It was because I was saying things using the mindset of a Japanese person, not an American. I consistently tried to do things in the Japanese way. It’s funny. To this day -- 25 years later -- I can look at photos from back then and tell if I’m speaking English or Japanese just by my posture or the way my face looks. It’s very different physically.

My biggest compliment came from the mother of the family I lived with. She said, “You will always be an American. But your heart is Japanese”. <3

Now I’m working on my heart being Irish. Going to Oideas Gael next summer. Good luck with your next travels too!

We actually have a similar program at our school in China. We send students to Chengde (a city north of Beijing - no foreigners whatsoever), they live in Homestays only and can only interact with locals. So far this has been a really good program for immersion.

I agree with Scott in the comments though, many locals in Asia try very hard to assimilate to foreign/Western culture, so for example, if you befriend a very international Chinese person here, he/she might try always to talk to you in English. This gets even to a ridiculous point, where he/she talks with their friends in Chinese, but then changes to English when talking to you, even when knowing that your Chinese is quite alright to understand his/her meaning.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are many foreigners here in Beijing, who lived here for 5-10 years and barely speak Chinese, if any at all. Due to the international nature of the city, it’s very easy for foreigners to live in foreign ghetto-like environment, go to foreign restaurants and have English speaking people all around them, which results in this fairly common case of Beijing veterans who speak no word of the local language.

안녕하세요.구글링 하다가 우연히 이 싸이트를 방문합니다. Donovan씨께서 말씀하신대로, 그 나라의 문화를 이해하고 느끼고 그나라 사람들과 친하게 지내는 것이 언어를 배우는데 있어서 매우 중요하다고 생각합니다.어느 나라로 가시는지 모르지만,거기서도 좋은 추억과 관계를 갖으시길 빌께요.

Very interesting article and blog - keep up the good work!

Thanks!

Your favourite compliment resonated with me - I clearly remember the day a Vietnamese friend told me a similar thing. I do like being told my Vietnamese sounds natural too though!

Great, Ruth! :)

I’ve been looking at the possibility of moving to Vietnam for a while actually. I’ve heard it’s a great place to go.

I owe whatever language ability I have to trying my best to integrate and generally being interested in the language and culture. However it’s not as easy as it seems. While I absolutely agree that assimilation is crucial to development of native like language skills, I feel that it’s a two way street. Assimilation is not just willingness to integrate on the part of the outsider, but also willingness of the community to accept an outsider.

In my experience sometimes even though you observe local customs and manners, and make efforts to be interested in local food, history and pop culture some people will still just see you as ‘another foreigner’ and be either uninterested or be at unease when interacting with you.

Although I have a number of local friends in the country I live in, I find that I became friends with most of them because they were already interested in English and by an extension foreign culture.

I’m trying to integrate into their society but their interest in me stems from trying to integrate into mine. How can we overcome this?

I found that’s more of a problem in East Asia then it is in other places I’ve been to but the thing is we’re always going to be foreigners - nothing will change that.

Over time as you demonstrate your own willingness to integrate into their community you become more and more a part of it. The barriers start to go as people learn to trust and respect you.

I guess it’s a compliment that Russians (and some Ukrainians) have told me that I seem very Russian. :) In my experience, the people who have the poorest language skills are those who didn’t try/want to assimilate. By ‘poorest’, I mean those who could be considered relatively fluent, but who had bad accents, didn’t know much slang or cultural references, etc.

As for the country you’re going to next: I’m hoping it is a Russian-speaking country (because if it is, we absolutely must Skype in Russian!). However, I can’t think of a Russian-speaking country that is very difficult to travel to, so I’m probably wrong. :)

Very true. That’s a great compliment to be told you’re very Russian :)

I can’t say anything until I hear back from this embassy. ;)