In Stage 2B, you were focused on getting to a level of comprehension that allowed you to enjoy your immersion. Level 4 comprehension is good enough for enjoyment, but you’re still missing big chunks of the language.
In Stage 2C, the goal is to get to level 5 comprehension of a single domain of native content. At this level, your brain can identify and acquire more subtle aspects of the language.
When you achieve level 5 comprehension, it’s a sign that you have subconsciously acquired enough of the language to learn to speak and write like a native.
Improving from level 4 to level 5 comprehension takes a lot of time. You can reduce the time it takes by narrowing your focus to a small domain of the language.
Choose a Domain
Recall from Stage 2B that different types of content use different domains of language. For example, the fantasy domain uses different vocabulary than the sci-fi domain.
In Stage 2B, you were focused on enjoying yourself and following your interests, so you’ve probably been bouncing between different domains. Switching between domains slows down your progress towards level 5 comprehension because it interrupts the acquisition of domain-specific language.
To speed up the process, we recommend that you choose a single domain to master before jumping to a new one. Specifically, we recommend mastering the slice-of-life (SoL) domain because it’s most relevant to daily speech.
By focusing your effort on the SoL domain, you will more quickly acquire the subtle aspects of the language and prepare yourself for speaking in Stage 3.
Enjoyment
As always, you need to balance efficiency against enjoyment.
Ideally, you would always enjoy the domain you’ve chosen to focus on. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for most people. If you get bored with a domain, then mix in other content you are interested in and excited about.
Find the balance that works for you.