Hey all,
I’m following the Refold method and I’m about to graduate from the hardcore studying phase. I know quite a bit of grammar, about 2500 words, and about 900 kanji.
I had been doing little bits of immersion here and there while I was studying grammar and vocabulary but nothing intensive because I didn’t have the time. But now i’ll be dedicating a few hours a day to intensive immersion and I’m trying to figure out where to start.
For those not familiar, Refold suggests immersing in one [“domain”](https://refold.la/roadmap/stage-2/a/domains) at a time – children’s shows, news, fantasy, etc. Master that domain and then move on.
The question is, which domain to start with? Do people still recommend starting with children’s shows? What about light shows like Terrace House that are mostly casual conversation?
I searched through this subreddit for “beginner” immersion but most of the posts I found define “beginner” as “I literally just started learning” which is honestly too early to immerse in my opinion. I didn’t find a lot of posts for people in my position (built up a decent foundation of vocab and grammar).
4 comments
Satori Reader website has fantastic tools for this
A single story told over many chapters with a bunch of tech to make it easy. Many different chapters subjects and tone too
Try it out with the preview chapters to see what I’m saying
Slice of life (K-On!, Takagi-san, Yuru Yuri, Non Non Biyori, etc) is easy. Idol anime (Idolmaster, Love Live, Aikatsu, etc) is also easy.
Just make sure it’s something you like. I stayed with Terrace House for far too long when I started despite finding it painfully boring to watch.
Where you’re at in refold, watch whatever you want and mine all the vocab you want to. You need many more words before you’ll graduate to the next level in refold, and once you get to the next level, then you’ll focus on a Domain.
The most important thing is you consume things you’re enjoying. Don’t worry about the level. If you’re this far along then you can only rapidly absorb more if it’s ahead of you. So pick exclusively things that are of interest to you, not what is in a “domain.” Unless that domain is things you love. I started immersing immediately, because my primary reason for learning the language was to consume media. So that’s how I learned, I didn’t really study that much, just learned by trying to read over a long period of time. I had 1/5 of your knowledge at the time and while it was tedious at first, it was always enjoyable.