'learning' vs 'assimilating'

[ali photozzoli]

So there is a debate about the fact we should rather 'assimilate' a language rather than 'learning' it. People defending the assimilation theory argue that it is way more efficient and easy to learn a new language by just being 'exposed' to it, meaning listening to it, or watching series or being in the country. I've noticed that many people who are impressively good at languages all say they spend a fair amount of time watching series or listening to music. So guys, for you who try to 'assimilate' a language rather than 'learning' it, can you advise us about this?  Notably, one advantage seems that the grammar and all the boring stuff can be skipped. Indeed, by listening, the brain notices after a while the words that are frequent. Once assimilated, you just need to look for the translation. The assimilation method seems more oriented on vocabulary acquisition. This does not seem to be a problem since one can express idea with just words but not with just grammar. So the assimilation method suggests that grammar get understood naturally by time thanks to repeating listening. I feel this is a very interesting topic because it could help us learning languages more efficiently! Any view on the question?

[ali photozzoli]

This is an example of a video on the subject, defending the assimilation. Very interesting in any case

 

[yong321]

It depends on the age of the learner. For young children, at an age generally considered younger than 7, assimilation is the way to go. For adults, you have to consciously learn a foreign language. Assimilation won't work. (Picking a few words and expressions doesn't count.) If there's a successful story about assimilation alone, I'd love to know.