Many language learning influencers focus on language acquisition versus language learning, saying that language acquisition is the best way to go about when you want to learn a foreign language, and I think this piece of information is not entirely wrong, but it is very misleading. Most of these influencers give you the comparison with children. They say children just start talking and learn simply by being immersed in the environment where this language is spoken. However, they disregard the fact that these children actually have another process going on, which is learning, in most cases at least. The parents start teaching their toddlers how to talk, and they teach them through books and games and toys: the letters and basic words, such as the names of plants, nature, and animals. They bring them picture books, and they read to them. Then these children go to school, and they all unanimously learn their native language in school. They go to English classes in the US, they take French in France, and they study Chinese in China. And guess what? Without this learning process, these people will not be educated enough in the language not only to read and write it but also to speak it clearly and in a sophisticated manner, and to be able to express themselves and formulate interesting opinions about different topics using a wide variety of vocabulary.
So, the argument that, oh, children don’t need to learn to talk in their native language is actually not entirely true. While people who didn’t have a chance to go to school can still talk in their native language, and probably some of them would have the chance to acquire certain practical experiences that would allow them to speak the language in a structured way, most of them are not going to be able to properly express their thoughts and present good arguments without that level of education. I don’t think language learners just want to acquire languages like a toddler. I believe they want to get a certain level of sophistication and rounded expression that would allow them to properly present themselves and their thoughts to native speakers in the target language. So while you can certainly benefit from immersive experiences in language learning—and in fact, I highly commend and recommend having such experiences at any point during your language learning—there is no shortcut to learning the language in terms of vocabulary, modes of expression, cultural aspects, and also grammar.
In my humble opinion, just know that learning the language is not a one-way fix. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. It is a process that you can conceive, develop, and modify according to the results you’re getting and to your proper needs and goals.