The Perfect Immersion? How can I go from low C1 to "native" in a year!

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Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
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Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
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Re: The Perfect Immersion? How can I go from low C1 to "native" in a year!

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu May 09, 2019 5:30 am

I think taking a history class in Italian is an excellent idea. My Norwegian really improved when I went to university here, even though I never studied Norwegian, just economics. It was all the writing that helped me. I think history would be even better for that because I was mostly writing about laws and it was rather a special way of writing. Writing history papers seems like it would come closer to normal writing. The only problem with the history class idea is that the professor will probably grade your papers based on your presentation of history and facts rather than marking mistakes in your Italian. That doesn’t mean bad Italian won’t bring down your grade, just that no one is going to mention it. In my last year of school, I mentioned to the tax law professor that I always got A’s in classes requiring a lot of calculation and B’s in classes requiring a lot of writing. He told me that my presentation of cases and my arguments and references to the law were all perfect, but I didn’t write elegantly enough. However, I couldn’t have said on my own what precisely was wrong in my papers and none of the professors ever wrote anything about my Norwegian on the papers that might indicate an area for improvement. So, I would suggest to you that you make friends with an Italian teacher or someone else that really knows that language (not merely as a native, but who has studied it specifically, even if just as an enthusiast) and ask them to read through your papers from the perspective of language rather than history and give you suggestions as to how to improve it linguistically. They don’t necessarily have to be experts on history because your professor will correct that part.
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garyb
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Re: The Perfect Immersion? How can I go from low C1 to "native" in a year!

Postby garyb » Thu May 09, 2019 12:33 pm

Sounds like an incredible opportunity, I'm excited for you and more than a little envious! The goal does seem extremely ambitious and perhaps hard to quantify, but having never been in that situation I can't comment on how realistic it is and aiming high obviously isn't a bad thing. The only advice I can give is to remember to enjoy the experience, don't get burnt out, and don't get too down about the inevitable bad days, plateaus and difficulties that will come up. Looking forward to reading about your experiences!
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