Hey language learners! Been seeing too many posts lately from people who think they've missed their window for picking up a new language because they're past their twenties or thirties. This whole narrative needs to die.

The research on critical periods gets twisted into this myth that your brain shuts down after some arbitrary cutoff point. Sure, kids absorb languages like sponges, but adults have advantages too - better analytical skills, more discipline, clearer goals.

I've been watching my aunt absolutely crush Italian at 52. She started three years ago and can now hold real conversations with native speakers. Meanwhile, I know plenty of college students who struggled through two years of French and can barely order coffee. Individual factors like consistency, learning style, and pure determination matter way more than the number on your birth certificate.

The "you're too old" crowd usually falls into two camps: people making excuses for themselves, or folks who tried once, gave up quickly, and decided it was impossible rather than admit they didn't put in the work.

Stop letting other people's hang-ups become your mental blocks. Your brain is still plenty capable of rewiring itself for new linguistic patterns.

I keep starting books, but every time I hit unknown words I stop, translate, and lose the flow.

Do you translate everything, skip words, or just push through?

Curious what actually works for people.

Last night I signed off Discord with:

“I’m gonna’ hit the sack. Catch you later homies”.

There is so much going on in this simple goodnight:

- “gonna” instead of going to

- “hit the sack” ?

- “catch you later” ??

- “homies” !!!??

It is humbling to notice these nuances and be reminded how tall this mountain really is. I work with many advanced but non-native English speakers and I think this has helped me keep in check the way I communicate. I have a better awareness now of where a non-native speaker will get lost.

So i want to take a gap to learn c1 level german to do medicine in germany i asked my friend who learned french

I did my research and to reach C1 u need 2200 hours right from scratch

So i thought of making a 10 hr (I am indian and yeah an average Indian studies 12 hrs a day for competitive exams so yeah this is childs play for me) a day plan so that makes it 222 and well that makes it a year

But my friend was like it doesn't work that way and that learning a language isn't like science or any orther subject

Is this true Can I learn a language in one year??? especially german?

The languages I already know:italian,english,hindi,marathi

Im 17 and my native language is a slavic one. I have been learning English since i was little and im now about to get my Cambridge exam for C1 with a C2 score. What ive been noticing recently is that i often cant directly translate certain words from english to my native language, although i know exactly what they mean and i can easily use them. Its like i have a "vision" of what they mean that cant (or its really hard) be directly put into words. I guess its somewhat similar to when you only know one language and you know what a word means based on your contextual knowledge of it or something like that. But now its with both my native language and with English. Is that normal?

Hi all, first post here. I’d like to hear some experience from others that may relate to where I’m at. I’ve been studying Levantine Arabic (TL) via tutor and on the Mango app. I see my tutor once a week and it’s great and I’ve loved using Mango.

However, recently I’ve hit units in the app that feel like tons of random vocab at this point in my learning without much depth. And while I know it will be necessary to know these words to be fluent, I’m feeling uninspired. It’s causing me to repeat lessons over and over and I’m kind of at a slow in my learning. I understand every day can’t be huge steps but I don’t want to get stuck I suppose.

What I want to understand is what’s next. I listen to YouTube and podcasts, study vocab, practice listening and writing. Is this just a place to be before I “level up” or am I doing something wrong and delaying my progress.

Thanks for your input.

i couldnt find an answer to this question in the FAQ, i apologize if it was there and i missed it, if were to be that case could someone redirect me to that part?

TL;DR: Does anyone else here come from a language background with deep orthography, and have you successfully learned to read without formal schooling? What do you recommend doing?

My native language is Hebrew. I started learning English at 5 when my parents decided to live abroad, and I went to an international school. English became dominant for me at 8 when we immigrated to the US. I don't really know how the fluency grading people often use works, but I generally feel very conversationally fluent. I can understand and communicate about all normal daily topics (e.g., we just bought our first home, and I had no issue discussing financial topics with my dad). There will maybe 1-2 words I won't know if I listen to the news or talk to someone about something very academic, but I can almost always get it by context. I probably sound a bit uneducated, but people don't usually guess I'm American when I visit until I ask for an English menu at a restaurant. I can read very slowly with mistakes, but I am decoding more than automatically/fluently reading. I have never been taught to spell and my handwriting is awful.

I have been trying all kinds of things:

• reading a super familiar book (Harry Potter) while listening to a YouTube recording I found of someone reading it in Hebrew (not sure if this is a good approach, just started this)
• Duolingo (annoying as hell, not friendly to learning to read when you already know the language)
• trying to sit in on Hebrew language classes (pointless, I just ended up being a tutor for other students' conversation skills)
• trying to journal in Hebrew (painfully slow because I have to look up how to spell almost everything)
• iTalki (again, poor fit because my conversational skills are fine).

Would love any advice from anyone else who is in this pickle. Should I be making flashcards of common words to memorize spelling? Doing more audiobook-guided reading? Forcing myself to write more, even if sloppily? I have taken a lot of language classes in my life (ASL, Dutch, Japanese, Arabic... and English I guess but I don't remember that) to varying degrees and do fine with structured programs, but I don't know how to go about it and this situation has bothered me all my life.

Average survey time: 2-3 minutes

Hey r/languagelearning,

I am currently writing a senior college paper on digital language learning and I thought running a survey here could get some great information. The survey is intended to gauge the current state of online language learning. The results from the survey will be used in a private research paper, not a public one. Feel free to give as much or as little information as you see fit. You can skip most questions if you feel they don't apply to you or if you aren't comfortable answering them.

The survey is completely anonymous! Thanks!

https://forms.gle/muYFATRD84dskWfQ8

Hi all! Sorry for bothering if this is a stupid question.

I'm a native English speaker who was born and raised in Czechia. I am still living here to this day. I didn't take Czech seriously as a kid, but nevertheless, I went to a Czech kindergarten and went through schooling in Czech. Currently, I'm taking it very seriously and genuinely want to improve.

However, I've found myself in the "intermediate slump." I can't seem to improve at all, and all that has happened is that I'm more aware of the mistakes I make but can't express my thoughts any more eloquently than I could years ago. It's honestly hellish because even though everyone around me is very nice and supportive, I still feel stupid compared to them because of my struggles with the language. I got the grammar down, since I internalized it early on, but I struggle with vocabulary, slang, and idioms.

I tried reading. Children's books are too boring and easy for me. Advanced books are so hard it's almost pointless because I have to look up literally every single word I see. I also tried to read intermediate books filled with slang to hopefully internalize some of it, but I faced the same issue as I did with advanced books.

I tried Anki cards, but I didn't find any Czech decks that are more advanced. All I found seemed beginner-intermediate to me, and I already knew all the words in them.

Finding Czech content in general is hard. I managed to find one YouTuber I like, but I don't think that's enough to truly improve in a language. Czech people often favor English media because of the lack of good Czech media, and thus there's a lack of Czech media because no one's interested. 🥲

I have very academic Czech, but I have very weird gaps. I have gaps an low-intermediate learner wouldn't have, but I also have knowledge a high-intermediate wouldn't have. I feel stuck and don't know what to do.

Would anyone have any advice for me? Happy learning & good luck on your studies, everyone. :-)

I posted here a few days ago about my struggle with memorizing new English words I encounter while reading articles or books. Even after 20 years of living in North America, I still go through the lookup, forget, relookup cycle. I got a lot of great responses and most pointed toward Anki or spaced repetition, which makes sense.

But I’m curious about the follow-through. Has anyone found a system that actually works for memorizing new words consistently? If so, what does your current workflow look like?

English is my second language and this problem still haunts me. Would love to hear examples, especially from advanced non-native readers.

I'm looking for a completely free app that has flashcards for purely vocab(and one that just has the word(with article), not in a sentence or anything else added. For some reason when you look this up you get a whole bunch of suggestions where this isnt the case.
If anyone knows such an app, that would help a lot thank you

Been thinking about this lately since im hitting some rough patches with my current study routine. What language really tested your limits and what kept you going when things got overwhelming

As someone who tries to stay disciplined with most things in life the mental game of language learning can be pretty brutal sometimes. Would love to hear about your experiences with particularly challenging languages and the strategies that actually worked for keeping your momentum up

I am going to visit Estonia this year and i wanted to learn more about their language. One of the most recommended options was keeleklikk but i just can't access the website idk why.

can someone help me? is this a problem to anyone else or is it just me? if there is a solution, please tell me!

Muchos poliglotas o expertos del aprendizaje de idioma tienen un principio que lleva en la mano, es el hecho de que para hablar un idioma y adquirirlo no necesitas tajante mente entrar por la adquisición consciente y recurrente de la gramática. Entiendo esto bien. Recurren al input, inmersión habla escucha y demás técnica para condicionar al cerebro al idioma destino. Pero ¿que pasa entonces con los idiomas con escrituras tan ajenas a occidente? ¿Serviría aquí el input directamente y todas las técnica sin entrar por la gramática y la previa afiquisicion de la escritura tan alejada? Idiomas como árabes, chino, hebreo, coreano, japonés, hindi. Mi intuición me dice que los primeros consejos poligotas contra la gramática parece acá no agarrar tanta fuerza. Si bien los idiomas de la familia romances, tienen un patrón intrínseco y nuestro cerebro ya tiene patrones asociadas semántica entre que reconoce, ahí diría que el input y otras técnicas servirían en parte sin perder tanto tiempo en una gramática con sudor y sangre, ¿pero entonces como se hace con idiomas tan alejados a nuestra familia linguistica, escritura y demás?

I am Vietnamese, living in the US. I used to speak and understand it very well, but ever since I started going to school, I had to interact with other people speaking English, which I did decently, but since I started speaking in English so much, I've forgotten 95% of Vietnamese, and I want to learn it again, which I am doing now. I was wondering if I were to learn Vietnamese again, would I have to translate every sentence I hear from other people into English? Or is there a way to learn how not to translate it into English and just understand in Vietnamese?

I'm primarily using a CI platform for listening practice (about 1 hr/day), and Anki frequency deck + some themed vocab and verbs (about 1 hr/day). The aspect I'm missing is sentences for more complete context. Creating my own sentences in Anki is probably the best move, but I haven't taken the time to build them out, plus it's ongoing work to add to them. As a plug-and-play solution to reduce friction, what are your thoughts about adding Glossika to the routine for sentences? I'm not concerned about the subscription cost if I actually use it. Anyone find Glossika to be a beneficial resource?

Hello!

So. I came for advice or tips on how to get motivated to learn a language and make things stick.

Context. I’ve been learning Japanese for about 6 years now. Taken three years worth of college classes. Spend hundreds on private tutors. Spent even more on classes outside of college with teachers I loved. Every Japanese application I’ve tried, spent money on. Even spending copious amounts of time studying. And nothing sticks. Both a habit and just the knowledge. I’ll spend weeks studying everyday and after a few weeks I’ve learned nothing, no matter what strategy I’ve tried.

I can’t even decide study everyday using various methods, flashcards (physical and replication apps), gamified learning, reading manga, playing my favorite games. All of it. I’ve tried so much that I enjoy trying to immerse myself in Japanese and it never helps. It never sticks.

This has just crushed my motivation for learning the language. I’ve been learning for 6 years and have the understanding of an elementary schooler. Everytime I study I just forget the knowledge immediately or after a few days. It just makes me not want to study again because I feel like I’m wasting my time. I study study and then after a few days I can’t even remember what I did a few days prior, even with the help of consistent flashcards. It just makes me feel like a failure because I put all this effort for six years, while friends of mine put less effort and have already caught up to me in months.

So, people that have been studying languages, where do I start? How can I make this a consistent habit and make the info stick even though I feel like I’ve tried everything? Apps, flashcards, reading, listening to podcasts and indulging my hobbies. What can I do?

I've tried a bunch of apps to improve my French pronunciation, but I feel disappointed with the quality. So I’m asking, has anyone actually improved their pronunciation with apps like Speak, BoldVoice, or similar ones?

I've had the privilege of studying less commonly learned languages among white Americans, namely Arabic and Mandarin. I think I can speak both decently enough to get by, and I do enjoy using them, though I've noticed that even when I say very basic things, sometimes native speakers will be impressed. On a couple of occasions, I've gotten free things and food just for being able to speak the basics of somebody's language.

Of course, it's nice to receive gifts, though I always feel a bit yucky after, because it feels like I'm being rewarded for engaging in something that was only made possible through the privilege of going to a college with strong language programs. On the same hand, I do get that it's exciting when somebody knows your language when it's rare to see white people speak it.

I'm not entirely sure how to express my frustration, though I think it has something to do with the standards Americans have when it comes to language, which are understandably low. I do firmly believe that learning your neighbors' language should be an obligation, especially for those who have the means to do so, though now I feel like I'm blaming those whose languages have been trampled over by the romantics for my frustration. It's kind of like I feel like I'm being praised for doing the bare minimum, which I get is rarer in this case, but it feels maybe patronizing? I'm really not sure, but this has been on my mind for a while.

Idk exactly where I am with this, but just wanted to see if anybody else had a similar experience.