it goes like this.

her: 밥은 먹었어? (did you eat?)

me: yeah, i ate at work.

her: 뭐 먹었는데? (what did you eat?)

me: just a sandwich.

she understands my english. i understand her korean. neither of us

ever switches. it has never been a problem, not once, and i think

that's why it took me this long to notice.

i can understand her fine. i just can't speak korean myself.

she never really pushed me to learn it. lately i've decided i actually

want to, so i've started teaching myself korean (TL).

anyway, i'm guessing a lot of you grew up with some version of this.

is there a name for it? a friend of mine watched us do it and asked if

i had a translator installed in my ear.

I have a walking pad that I use to walk 1.5-2hrs a day. While I'm using it I use my conversation app ( r/natulang ) that uses voice recognition. You can use it with those audio programs like Pimsleur of Michel Thomas, too- You want some sort of program where you have to think about your response. Some libraries might even give access to free programs or audiobooks like that.

So I just walk while learning and responding in the language. Not only am I getting good cardio, but I'm retaining words way better than before than just sitting down. I'm sure the blood flow and heightened senses are helping a lot.

I'm currently practicing Portuguese, but I feel like I'm improving much faster with this method than before. I do occasionally look at the screen to see how things are written, but I mostly just walk without looking at the screen.

Does anyone else walk while practicing languages? I heard about this method years ago from some professor who is a polyglot. I think it was Alexander Arguelles. I just remember a video where he was walking while speaking Mandarin outloud.

I'm a heritage speaker of Mandarin Chinese (B2) (TL). Phonologically I may sound native because it's what I speak at home (and half of my elementary through middle school education was in Mandarin), but an actual conversation immediately reveals how little vocabulary and pragmatics I understand. I can't hold a proper conversation with a native speker without feeling culturally different in communication. Worst of all, they will throw slang, idioms, and more professional/sophisticated words at me and I suddenly become a silent brick wall. I also fail to express myself now that my adult thoughts have surpassed my child-like vocabulary. It makes me totally shut down when I'm overseas visiting relatives!

I want to be myself in front of family. I think something that guilts me deeply is how I struggle to talk about my day to my parents now that I'm in higher academia. I simply don't have the words to describe events and how I have been, and it saddens me that my lack of native fluency makes my relationship with my parents much more surface level.

Do you have any advice on the proper/natural way to improve on a heritage language that one has plateaued in for years? Is constant input and output with native speakers, videos, and texts the way to go?

I fear that I am too used to thinking in Mandarin within the limited framework I've stuck with my whole life. I think the thought of having habitually trapped myself makes me scared to dive in sometimes. It's mostly complacency, really.

Hello:) So long story short, I know Hebrew(TL) and Arabic, and some woman my age(21) offered me a job teaching Arab kids(ages 8 - 12) Hebrew online(In Israel a lot of Arab kids don't have Hebrew friends/learn in Arabic only schools, and that creates problems down the line, academia, jobs, etc...) and since i know Arabic atleast conversationally, she just offered it to me.

I don't have any past experience teaching, and neither does she, but there's such a lack of teachers that there's a lot of demand, even though we don't have qualifications.

I did one lesson so far with a kid which was 30 minutes. The kid knew Hebrew fairly well although he had little vocab. I just spoke to the kid generally in simple Hebrew, asking him questions about himself, life and everything, figuring out his level

. It was pretty tough filling the 30 minutes tbh, and I feel kinda stressed actually filling it up next time with actual exercises, doing stuff which interests the kid and makes him participate....

I am much more concerned about kids who almost don't know Hebrew, I am stressed about what can I do to make it worthwhile. I feel bad a bit for the parents who pay good money for these classes... perhaps i am exaggerating but that's my feeling.

Please if anyone has any tips at all, feedback, anything, id be very glad haha. My boss said i should have more or less 5 students in the coming weeks, with varying levels of proficiency.

I still think its cool and fulfilling job, i just hope i can actually be good at it.

Hello!

I used to follow a few people on youtube that showed their learnng language routine and progress, but some i have lost and others don't post anymore.
Do you have anyone that you follow? I like to watch to inspire me and get me motivated when im not.

I'm learning french (TL) but it doesnt have to be french, can be any language.

i’m fluent in English, I’ve been taught French since I was a kid, but I’m not that great at it and I’m learning Spanish by myself.

My question is how do people that are fluent in three, four or even five languages remember everything every grammar rule every word in that language?

in my personal experience, I was taught a French a lot as a kid and it’s just kind of engraved in my mind, but not to the extent that I remember every single thing. The best I can do is understand what children say or follow our conversation slow slowly.

Online i see MANY stuff saying that the traditional language learning method with vocaboulary and grammar is useless or not efficient, but actually, i found it very useful on languages different from your native language.

i’ll take me as an example, my mother tongue is italian and Emilian, a regional language similar to french and spanish, so 2 latin languages, so it was actually pretty easy, till b1 level to learn spanish without almost never opening grammar books, only to get to b2 i needed to study grammar stuff, same thing was for english, since english is kind of a special language, very practical and with “unefficient“ grammar, in fact i almost reached a c1 level without studying grammar.

now i have been learning german for more than 2 years, and in the meantime i started approching polish and japanese. For all those tree languages, grammar and repeating stuff and doing exercises was actually the only way to become better, and also managing to become fairly fluent in german.

What i want to say is, no; listening to podcast, songs, native speakers or doing flashcards all day long will not get you fluent, (IF YOU STUDY A LANGUAGE FROM ANOTHER FAMILY), you need to write grammar rules; learn the cases, learn the coniugations, if not, you will only know some random words, some random stuff without actually knowing how to create sentences.

Hello. I've got a new classmate this year, who is an exchange student.

I've decided to talk to her in English yesterday, but god, I swear I've never felt so stressed out while just casually talking to someone. I spoke unusually fast, I kept mixing up words, I mumbled a lot of words and I felt extremely exhausted by the end of the conversation.

Why does this happen to me? Is it a normal thing? Obviously, I've had to speak in English for a longer period of time in school classes too, but I have never felt like this. Is it just the anxiety of meeting a new person? Or the fact that she's a native English speaker?

I’m trying to cram a lot of new words for the JLPT exam in December and I also do a lot of driving. I think having something that would play words and their definitions on repeat in my (TL) (kind of like the vocab audios used in japanesepod101 if anyone is familiar with that) while I’m driving/doing something idly would help me a lot. I was wondering if there’s some kind of app out there or a method anyone knows of that would be allow me to play on repeat a recording that I can add other recordings to as I learn more words.

I thought of just using voice memos but as far as I know I’m not able to play recordings on repeat and I wouldn’t be able to add new words to the end of the recording, I would just have to make multiple recordings. I would like it to be as automated as possible so I’m not distracted while driving and I can just let it play in the background. Please help 😭😭

Many colleges require study in a second language. For those who decided on a language, how "utilitarian" was your choice?

For example, one of the schools I am looking into has (TL) languages like Bosnian, Kazakh, and Lithuanian. I am interested in some of these, but most of my peers are saying I should learn Spanish as it is more useful (I am in the US).

Everyone always suggests anki as the best flashcards app for any language, but I don’t use computer very much and am just way more likely to be consistent with an app on my phone. I need a good app where you can both make your own flashcards and also find good premade ones. I plan on using it for Mandarin(intermediate), Japanese(very beginner), and Spanish(very beginner).

I plan on mostly using it to translate english sentences into my target languages and then check the answer, grammar points, sentence chunks and vocab, and also for learning Chinese character writing.

I also want an app that saves your progress via account if it gets deleted

What are your best suggestions?

I’d rather not pay for the anki app but if its the best one out there im willing to do it

Edit: thanks for the suggestions yall! Will be getting anki

Question for those of you who are motivated by learning streaks. I couldn’t care less about maintaining a streak, but I know some people find it very motivating. If that’s you, can you introspect a bit and explain why?

Alternativ question: what type of gamification works best on you (and which apps do it well)? I don’t think I’ve used enough gamified apps to recommend any particular, but I definitely appreciate gamification.

(TL)

Just getting into learning a new language and want to be at a conversational level by the end of the year.

I’ve found that taking my own notes whilst learning helps but currently it’s all in a “catch all” journal and I’m looking for more structure but not sure on the best way to “divide” a single notebook into useful sections / topics.

Anyone with advice?
(TL) Italian , Croatian

Hi everyone!

So, a bit of context first: I’ve started studying Japanese one my last year of college. Just regular classes on a uni subsidized program. Did that for two and a half years, stopped for another two, picked up again, stopped… Anyway, it’s been twelve years of intermittent study, but I decided to lock in earlier this year, began taking private lessons, doing WaniKani every day…

There were days that I really lacked motivation. Learning a language is a lot of work and sometimes it seems there is no progress, no payoff. Kept trudging, anyway and…

… now, I am finally in Japan on vacation and having to put everything in practice: reading is everywhere, need to talk to shop and hotel staff, taxi, etc etc etc… And dammit, I can kinda do all of those! I can kinda read, get the gist of important stuff, make some small talk, ask for directions…

I mean, I am pretty sure that locals are going easy on me because I am a foreigner, but dang the feeling is still pretty good. Like I’ve achieved something meaningful! Of course there are some missteps, like trying to offer to take a picture of a couple and accidentally ask if I could take a picture with them (I am dying of embarrassment but this solidified another grammar lesson in my mind).

The point is: don’t give up, guys! It may seem like things are not going as you want them to, but you are progressing, you just don’t really have anything to compare you target language (TL) skills with besides your idealized version of “what you are supposed to be able to do now”!

Good luck and (try to) have fun!

I don't have a good accent in my TL. I simply don't hear the differences between the sounds, no matter how hard I try. I'm not unintelligible by any means, but I sound like I don't speak it well. I have a feeling it's related to me having a tin ear and being a bit tone deaf. I also don't do well with rhythm and prosody. One of my friends is learning the same language as me and has been mistaken for a native speaker several times. When I asked her, she said she just listens to a lot of content and practices a lot, but I don't know how to do that if it all sounds the same to me.

It's not even the accent that I'm jealous of; it's more the fact that I seem to be lacking something fundamental in the listening department.

Ciao! I have been studying Italian (TL) for a little over a year, starting with Duolingo and continuing with tutors and online classes. Has anyone tried using video or computer games to augment learning a language? By that I mean beyond changing a standard game's default language to your target language. A story-based game that is designed around teaching a language.

So far I have found "Italian Learning Game" (WIP) and Woodlark Hollow, which hopefully will get backed on Kickstarter. Are there any others anyone has found or would recommend? It is okay if they do not have Italian as a target language.

When you are speaking your TL, can/do you conjugate verbs, adjectives or what not “on the spot”? Do you go through a mental process of “It’s this verb, here’s the dictionary form, this is how you conjugate it”, when speaking or writing? Or when speaking, do you tend to stick to verbs you already really well, instead of going through the mental process?

I mainly have studied Japanese (TL), and used a variety of tools like for:

• dictionary lookups
• video transcript dictionaries
• google translate
• flashcard apps

But I still keep a seperate tab open to ask AI about more complex things like slang, idioms and complex grammar.

Wondering if anyone uses tools for the problem I'm having.

Okay, the basic setup: I am an American who has a proven track record of difficulty learning languages. I also drive an hour each way to work, 5 days a week.

​Next year we're going to be taking a trip to Europe, including four or five days in Barcelona. I would love to make a best effort to pick up some conversational Spanish (TL). And it would be great to leverage the drive time. I thought AI would be a home run for that.

​I started with Gemini and asked it to act as an interactive tutor. It didn't go well; it essentially wanted me to teach it how to be a language teacher. So then I asked it for recommendations for dedicated apps.

​It recommended Speak for hands-free experience. I found that it was not hands-free. It then suggested Langua, which initially seemed closer to the mark. But as I got into my first lesson, the experience was all over the place. One moment I could not hear the speaker, and then the next moment it was literally yelling at me. Like with a mean tone. Like a drill sergeant. In the delay between interactions was as long as three or four minutes in some cases.

​So I thought I would ask real human beings if there is a recommendation for such an app. A couple of 10 minute interactions each day, slowly building voca10-minutebulary would be amazing.

I'm a native English (TL) speaker, but have a Czech parent. I was homeschooled for a long time, and never noticed having an accent. However, for years now (I wanna say I first noticed it happening 8 years ago), people have, even after a very quick conversation, asked me what country I'm from. It happens so frequently I stopped counting.

I've recorded myself speaking on plenty of occasions, and have never noticed an accent in my speech. I want to kill the accent, but at this point I have no idea how to if I can't even spot the accent in my own speech.

Again, I was born, and have lived my entire life, in the US. What can I do?

Edit: A voice recording here: https://voca.ro/1ibIcUafaPsF

Edit 2: Thank you everyone for the amazing advice and kind words -- I think I probably need to go do some thinking about why this accent bothers me so much.

​

Pessoal, comecei a estudar inglês usando Comprehensible Input e estou meio perdido sobre como aplicar a técnica na prática.

Por exemplo, assistindo a canais como o Volca English, vocês costumam apenas assistir tentando entender o contexto? Ou param para anotar frases que parecem úteis, repetem, revisam depois etc.?

Queria saber como vocês realmente aplicam o I'm brushing my teeth no dia a dia e o que funciona para vocês. Se puderem dar exemplos de como é uma sessão de estudo, ajudaria bastante.

(TL)

I’ve been learning Swedish for 8+ months and have mostly focused on vocabulary and reading. My reading is now quite good, probably around B2/C1, but my listening is terrible.

I can read Swedish news and understand most of it, but when I watch YouTube without subtitles, I barely understand anything. With Swedish subtitles, I understand almost everything.

So I’m wondering how I should approach listening now. Should I use subtitles, avoid them completely, study pronunciation first, or try things like shadowing and dictation?

Has anyone had a similar experience where reading was much stronger than listening? What worked for you?

(TL)

I remember meeting someone that was learning specifically Moldovan Romanian since Moldova and its culture was a big interest to them, and I'm curious what other people's reasons for learning obscure languages are, and what they are.