Intensive language immersion

[MuseRider]

Anyone here have experience with one of these programs? I can't afford the big 10 day sections now but would really like to do this some day. I know a tiny bit of Spanish but would really like to be fluent to a small degree anyway so I was just wondering if any of you had ever done this and if it really worked for you.

[donco6]

1. Not me, but an associate

did one of these in a small village in Mexico last summer. She thought it was fabulous. Learned a lot.

[MuseRider]

3. I really would love to do this.

It is pretty expensive, perhaps not for what is provided but a lot to just spend for something I don't need. I listen to Musica Mexicana and am able to pick out bits and look up what I don't know but it isn't terribly efficient and very slow. Thanks, it would be really cool to do it in Mexico!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I don't know about grown-ups

but my grandson is in a Russian-immersion kindergarten class. All teaching and responding is done in Russian in the morning and then back to English in the afternoon. He's learning a lot.

[MuseRider]

5. Any reason

why Russian? We learned a tiny but of it before we went to Russia, not an easy language. I think that is wonderful but there has to be a reason it is Russian instead of Spanish. Just curious, I think it is terrific for the younger kids to start like this.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. In Anchorage, they have language immersion programs

set up in at least three different elementary schools for Spanish, Japanese and Russian. There may be more than one school with the Spanish, I'm not sure. The Russian program was just being started this year in the neighborhood school that my grandson would have been going to anyway, so my daughter just decided to sign him up for it. It's just in kindergarten now, but I believe the plan is for the program to continue with this group of kids on up through sixth grade, adding a new grade level every year. I think that's what they've done at the other schools which have had the program longer.

Anyway, Alaska has very close ties to Russia, both historically and now. Since the fall of Communism there has been a lot of dialogue back and forth between Alaska and especially Siberia. In fact we have a sister city over there that Anchorage helped out in a big way a few years ago when they had a flood disaster. Also, there are Russian communities here and there throughout the state, so we probably have more dealings with Russians than a lot of places.

My grandson is really enjoying it and is learning the Russian alphabet right alongside his ABCs.

[MuseRider]

10. That is so cool.

I did not look at your entire name, of course Alaska! I LOVE that state, what a beautiful place. So Russian makes perfect sense there. I am so pleased to know that some schools are doing this. Not here of course but at least some places.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Anchorage is really very culturally diverse...

I read this morning that there are over 90 languages spoken by Anchorage school district students which seems surprising for a city of less than 300,000 people.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

4. I did it in Latin --10 semester hours of Latin in 10 weeks (at Berkeley

). I had had quite a bit of Greek and that helped with the Latin but I honestly spent 18 hours a day on it. However, when I got home I took a 3000 level Latin class and made an A. Yes, it works but the key word is intensive.

[MuseRider]

7. Good, it did work

then. So I should not forget my Ritalin. OK. Thanks, that was a long one that you did, 10 weeks. I looked into some and they are anywhere from the basic 3 days to several weeks and courses you can set up how you like.

[candle_bright]

6. I did one through Berlitz

and I got A LOT out of it. It was very expensive, but worth it.

[MuseRider]

8. Thanks

I will check them out too, I hadn't looked but in one other place so far.

[no name no slogan]

11. I've heard Berlitz is quite good

and IIRC I think that's how Dennis Kucinich got fluent in Spanish, too! :)

[MuseRider]

12. Well then if it

was good enough for Dennis then it is good enough for me. He is quite good at conversational Spanish, I heard him speaking with people and it was pretty darned good. I miss seeing him, sigh.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I took a twelve-month immersion course in Japanese

It was six hours a day of instruction. We got the equivalent of an undergraduate major during that time.

It was intensive and stressful at times, but it really worked and gave me a lot of confidence in speaking. For one thing, our native speaker instructors never spoke English to us, so we learned to communicate by muddling through.

[MuseRider]

15. I think that would do it

for me. I know a few words, actually more than I think. I managed in Mexico City but just barely.