I want to first of course get to the point in Japanese where I can take off my "subs training wheels", but once I've done that I'm kind of curious about how much faster the constant immersion system would be on languages closer to English than Japanese is?

My German is already to a point I don't really need subs anymore to get most of the gist of an episode of something (my listening comprehension is probably between 70-80%), but "mind fatigue" can set in if say I'm watching a full-length movie. Part of me wonders whether I can get to near-fluency if I set aside a few months of constant German exposre.

For English but not by choice lol. I was put in an all English speaking school and was only allowed to speak English while on campus (punishments otherwise e.g holding heavy books in each hand...it was the early 90s). I wasn't entirely fluent until I moved to the US a few years later. That immersion was more of a "sink or swim" type. So much so that I can't even speak my first language xD

That doesn't mean that I have forgotten my native language. I can actually understand most of what I listen to but output is near impossible for me. I even learned a few words through immersion of media too. If I ever wanted to seriously re learn my native tongue, I'm sure I won't have a difficult time.

You should turn off English subs from day 1.

Probably not the AJATT method, or even my own immersion methods which I do of course use for Japanese.

My main personal decision in this area is that if I learn another language I will do it through the medium of Japanese.

But that is because I have chosen Japanese as my primary language (or rather Japanese has chosen me!)

Out of interest, when you say "subs training wheels" do you mean English or Japanese/German subs?

I'm with CureDolly. I want to pick up some Korean at some point, but won't do through via immersion. Japanese is my "primary secondary" language, so to speak. My wife is Japanese, a number of my friends are Japanese, I regularly use it for work, and I just plain love it. I wouldn't want to see my hard won skills decay.

I'm sure your German would take off with a few months of immersion. The question is whether you want your Japanese to suffer in the interim.

I've read that it is much easier to find Korean language learning source in Japanese than in English. Here is a site showing the written Korean system, Hangul, taught in Japanese. My S.O. is Korean-American so I eventually will pick up Korean someday.

http://www.itskenn.com/FLanguage/Korean/...acter.html

(2016-02-10, 10:58 pm)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote: I'm with CureDolly. I want to pick up some Korean at some point, but won't do through via immersion. Japanese is my "primary secondary" language, so to speak. My wife is Japanese, a number of my friends are Japanese, I regularly use it for work, and I just plain love it. I wouldn't want to see my hard won skills decay.

I'm doing Korean through Japanese right now. It's A LOT easier to do so, as it won't have to explain stuff you'd have to explain an English speaker. Stuff like particles and grammar patterns have a much greater overlap between Korean & Japanese than Korean & English. The できる韓国語 series is very nice if you want to learn through Japanese. 

I don't really use any kind of extreme immersion for learning languages. I just make sure I read in the language in combination with Anki and textbooks and eventually I'll get there.

(2016-02-10, 10:58 pm)gaiaslastlaugh Wrote: I'm with CureDolly. I want to pick up some Korean at some point, but won't do through via immersion. Japanese is my "primary secondary" language, so to speak. My wife is Japanese, a number of my friends are Japanese, I regularly use it for work, and I just plain love it. I wouldn't want to see my hard won skills decay.

I'm sure your German would take off with a few months of immersion. The question is whether you want your Japanese to suffer in the interim.

My problem is, I'm not just aiming to be bilingual in English and Japanese - I would like very much to be a 4-5 language polyglot. I guess it is a bit of a delicate balancing act to achieve that dream

(2016-02-10, 4:15 pm)kameden Wrote: You should turn off English subs from day 1.

Yeah, I know I'm breaking the "rules" by doing that. But it's nice to understand something of the plot of what you're watching, rather than missing huge gaps. My Japanese has been making steady progress for now, I will for sure drop the English subs entirely when I feel I'm stagnating.