#Language learning tips

[adhd-languages]

Found a new language practice app!

Polygloss has you describe an image in your target language so another player can guess it. It encourages creative answers. The game works for people of all levels — you can describe simple pictures or try your hand at wordplay.

It has plenty of options and will let you add any language you’d like — tho it’ll probably be more difficult to find people to play with.

[meichenxi]

The known-ish words of intermediate Chinese, or: What does it mean to know a word?

We all have this intuition, especially in languages like Chinese, that there are words we 'kind of know'. These are the known-ish words. In the case of Chinese, most people would recognise at least three axes:

1) Do I know the meaning? 2) Do I know the pronunciation? 3) Do I know how to handwrite it?

You might answer yes to some, but no to others. Voila! You know the word - ish.

And then you can also add the dimension of passive and active knowledge:

1) Do I recognise this word passively? 2) Can I use this word actively?

Great. Even more ways of kind of but not really knowing a word. But that's far from all. There's also the different domains of listening and reading, writing and speaking.

So passively, that looks like:

1) Do I know the meaning when listening? 2) Do I know the meaning when reading? 3) Do I know the pronunciation when reading?

Once we add in the active dimension, it all starts to get a bit more complicated. This is far from an exhaustive list, but consider the follows ways you could define 'knowing' a word:

1) I can read the word out loud (but I don't know what it means, and I can't use it in a sentence) 2) I know what the word means, and I can use it in a sentence (but I can't handwrite it) 3) I can use the word in a spoken sentence (but I don't know how to type it, or which character it uses) 4) I can recognise the word when reading (but don't know how to read it out loud, and can only guess at the meaning) 5) I can use the word in a written sentence (but not a spoken sentence) 6) I can type the word and recognise the word (but I don't know how to handwrite it) 7) …

Okay. What else?

Chinese is a compounding language.

Have you ever had the experience that you can't recognise a character individually, but as soon as you see it in a familiar compound, you know what it means? So:

1) I can recognise the word individually 2) I can recognise the word as part of a compound 3) I can recognise the word as part of an unfamiliar compound

Chinese is also a language with a long and storied tradition of writing in Classical Chinese as a literary language and a lingua franca across the whole of East Asia - even two hundred years ago, people were writing in Literary Chinese. 'Mandarin' as a concept did not exist.

So often the meanings of familiar characters can be quite different in formal language or chengyu in the modern language, which uses more classical / literary structures and grammar.

Take, for example, the character 次. The first layer of meaning in modern Chinese - the most foundational layer - is its meaning as time, like 'I have been to Ghana two times'.

But its second layer of meaning is secondary, or next best, or just next. For example:

1) 次货 - substandard goods 2) 次子 - second son 3) 次年 - next year

And so on. Many common words have this kind of polysemy.

So we can add another dimension:

1) I recognise this word's common meanings 2) I can use this word's common meanings 3) I recognise this word's less common meanings 4) I can use this word's less common meanings

Add in the reading and listening dimensions, and things get even messier. I am familiar enough with this basic secondary meaning of 次 to fairly quickly be able to understand that it means 'next' or 'second' rather than 'time' if I see it in a written unfamiliar compound or chengyu. But I am most definitely not quick enough to do that every single time whilst listening to the news, for example!

And what about pronunciation? Once you know a fair amount of Chinese characters, you can often guess the pronunciation of new or unfamiliar characters. How?

Because of phonetic components.

For example:

请

清

情

Notice how these all have the same component on the right? This tells us that these characters belong to the largest group of Chinese characters, phonetic-semantic characters. That is - some part of the character gives a clue to the meaning, and some part gives a clue to the pronunciation. In this case, we know they are all pronounced some variety of qing.

But it isn't always that easy. Some phonetic components tell you the tone and pronunciation - some tell you the pronunciation, but not the tone (like qing above). Some phonetic components, to go even further, are only really decipherable if you have a particular interest in phonology or historical linguistics, or learn the patterns. Consider:

脸 - lian3 (face)

险 - xian3 (dangerous)

验 - yan4 (test)

剑 - jian4 (sword)

签 - qian1 (to sign)

捡 - jian3 (to pick up)

There are far more. If you look down the whole list on Pleco, they all show a similar pattern of variation. You can see some patterns, but also numerous exceptions - most end in the -ian final, except for those that are yan of various tones. All begin with l, x, y, j, q. Most are pronounced jian3, but that is far from a rule.

All this to say - you can see a character, and know vaguely how it is pronounced. If I know that a character is pronounced qing definitely, 100%, but don't know the tone - does that mean I know the pronunciation? Or would you only say that knowing it 100% means knowing it? And in that case - how can you account for the fact that learning a character when you already know 90% of the pronunciation is significantly easier than not knowing it at all?

Let me add just a few more scenarios. Bear with me!

1) A character has more than one way to be pronounced. For this word, you read it incorrectly (but you usually know it). 2) A character has more than one tone. Some people pronounce it always with one tone, and some alternate between the two pronunciations. You only knew it with one - but you're half right? 3) You make the same mistake that a native speaker would make with tone or pronunciation of a rarer character.

In some way, these are all more knowing than not knowing anything at all.

And none of this is even taking into account different writing systems, traditional and simplified.

Here are some more scenarios:

I recognise the character in traditional (but not simplified)

I can type the character in both, but I can only hand-write in simplified

I know the Taiwanese pronunciation, but not the Chinese

etc

And of course Chinese characters are used across multiple different languages.

So you could conceivably have these kinds of situations:

I know the pronunciation and meaning in Cantonese and Mandarin

I know the pronunciation and meaning in Cantonese, and the meaning in Mandarin

I know the pronunciation and meaning in Mandarin and recognise it in Cantonese, but know it means something different

I know the pronunciation in Mandarin, but don't know what the whole word actually means in Mongolian (Chinese characters used to transliterate Mongolian words)

Plus there's handwriting and calligraphy!

Personally, I can't read a lot of calligraphy and have accepted my happy illiteracy in many styles. All Chinese learners and heritage speakers know the feeling of sitting in a Chinese restaurant or museum and having a well-meaning friend say, 'Oooo, what does that say?' It's depressing! So let's add some more nuances to our known-ish characters:

I can read this character in common fonts

I can read this character in less common fonts

I can read this character when handwritten

I can read this character when handwritten quickly / by a child / by a doctor

I can read this character in grass script / seal script / etc

Then there's the question of naturalness.

I frequently add words to my Anki decks that I would be able to understand, no question, if I were reading or listening - but I probably wouldn't have thought to say it in that way. So:

I recognise this word, and would have said it exactly like this

I recognise this word, but would never have thought to say it like this

I can use this word, but didn't know you could use it in such a metaphorical way

I can use this word in a metaphorical way, but didn't realise it corresponded so closely to English / was so different from English in its meaning

And finally there's the simple question of memory.

I know I've seen this word before, but I can't remember it right now and I want to drown myself pathetically in the vast uncaring sea

I know I used to be able to use this word actively, but now can only use it passively

I can still type it, but have forgotten how to handwrite it

I can still use it in writing, but I wouldn't be able to use it in speaking

I can recognise it in set expressions, but wouldn't remember how to use it on its own

I can remember the simplified character, but not the traditional

…

So how many ways do you know a word?

I often feel embarrassed to post my vocabulary lists, because I feel that people will be surprised that I don't 'know' certain more foundational words. I think they will be confused as to why I have very 'advanced' vocabulary alongside 'simple' vocabulary. I feel a lot of pressure to be 'advanced' because of the amount of followers I have, but there's a lot of more basic characters I still don't fully know in a holistic way.

And the truth is that all of those characters and words are in Anki for different reasons. I might have a vocab list that looks like this:

略

松懈

星光

缕缕

薄雾

博览

I don't know any of these words in exactly the same dimensions as I know the others! Let's look at my reasons for including each in detail.

略 - lve4 - slightly. I have this word here because although I know it well in set expressions like 略有耳闻 'have heard a little about'，略有受损 'has suffered slight losses' etc, I wouldn't remember the pronunciation if I saw it alone or with another verb apart from 有. I would still know the meaning - but I wouldn't remember how to pronounce it. So even though I 'know' this word, it's still there in Anki.

松懈 - song1xie4 - to relax, lax, slacken. This is a rare example of a totally 'new' word - most of my Anki words aren't. I know 松 already well, but have never seen the character 懈 before: I didn't know its meaning, or pronunciation.

星光 - xing1guang1 - starlight. I know both characters, pronunciation and meaning, and I can easily understand this word. I just never would have thought to say it so simply. I want to use it actively, so I put it in Anki.

缕缕 - lv3lv3 - fine and continuous (i.e. rain, drizzle). I know 缕 already on its own as a measure word for sunlight, thin hair, gossamer, mist, smoke, fine threads etc - I often forget its pronunciation, but I know its meaning reliably when reading. But together the compound 缕缕's meaning isn't quite extricable from just knowing 缕, so I put it in here.

薄雾 - bo2wu4 - mist, fog. I know 雾 well, but hadn't come across 薄 before (or wasn't sure if I had or not). This is an example where I knew its pronunciation, because of phonetic components, but I didn't know the meaning of the character.

博览 - bo2lan3 - to read widely. I know this word very well. So why is this in there? Literally just because I remembered the pronunciation and meaning of 博览, and when I was racking my brains trying to see if I knew the 薄 in 薄雾, I thought it might be the same character. I looked it up, and it wasn't. So even though I know the word, the meaning and the pronunciation, I had to put it in - because I didn't remember which character was used for the bo2.

When you acknowledge all of the different ways of knowing a Chinese character, it makes sense that your learning after the beginning level is going to be full predominantly of known-ish words.

Accept this! Form your own relationship to it! For me, a huge part in my motivation to return to learning Chinese after a year-long break was just to accept that I was likely never going to 'fully know' most of the characters and words that I partially know.

But that's okay. Think about your native language.

If your native language is English or you speak it very well, consider a word like monadic. Could you say you knew this word? Fully knew it? Like me (I learnt this word in the context of Linguistics yesterday), you might have an idea that it has something to do with one - mono, monorail, monotropism, monologue, monolithic etc. But would you be able to use it in a sentence? Would you be able to explain it to a child?

Or let's say you're learning two new English words: lithology and dreich. (The latter is a Scots word, not English - you would hear it in Scotland frequently.) Neither word you completely know. Which one is going to take you longer to learn?

It's likely going to be lithology. You can form connections with words like monolith or paleothic or maybe even lithium - even if you couldn't say for sure what the Greek element lith means, you're passingly familiar with other words containing it. You also know -ology, and you know how to pronounce the word. If you learn that it means 'the study of rocks', that is probably quite easy to remember.

Dreich, on the other hand - what is there to tell you a) how to pronounce this, or b) that it means 'dreary' or 'bleak', as in, dreary weather? You can't form any connections with similar words at all, and the [x] sound at the end - like in German or Hebrew - might be unexpected to hear if you don't live in Scotland.

That's what Chinese is like in the beginning. All words are like dreich. But the more you learn, the more words begin to be like monadic or lithology.

Learning ten new words a day like dreich would be very difficult. But if you've seen monadic a few times over the last few months, know vaguely when to use it, know how to pronounce it - it's not so hard to imagine that you could learn ten of those a day.

I find all these known-ish words very overwhelming.

And I also find recognising the potential for overwhelm in the Chinese language - because of its unique properties - very helpful in letting me feel less guilty about my current known-ish words. I do know them - ish.

But when I finally get around to properly learning them, all that ish-ness will make them that much easier to remember!

Now I try not to stress out about these types of words. I recognise that, in many ways, they are inevitable. Unless you're a poet who composes out of thin air, you're not going to ever say a literary word for emerald green as frequently as you'll read it in descriptive passages in novels.

It's natural to know certain words in a spiky profile: to know them very well in some ways, but not at all in other ways.

The more you read, the more pronounced this can become.

So here's what I've learnt, and here's the message of all this big, long, rambling post:

Putting 'easy' words that you feel you should know into Anki isn't regressing. It's adding another dimension of knowledge to your understanding of the word. You shouldn't feel ashamed or frustrated when you find you don't know one aspect of an otherwise 'easy' word. I'm still trying to learn this.

Because -

Having lots of known-ish words is not a unique failing on your part. It's a reflection of Chinese as a language and its unique complexity -

And it's part of what makes it so uniquely beautiful.

Have a nice day, everyone. meichenxi out!

[meo-eiru]

meruuuuu! Can I perhaps know how you learnt Japanese? I don’t really know if you learnt because you lived there or anything, so I don’t really want to assume, but if you did learn by taking classes or something can you please point the way for me 🙏🙏

I’ve wanted to learn a second language for a while but I have no idea where to start!

Ok so back when I was in 7th grade, a young weeb who was learning the big world of anime for the first time, I was really into Naruto. And I had another friend who was into Naruto who was way ahead of me. So since I really wanted to catch up to her I'd watch like 11 episodes of Naruto a day with subs. By the time I was done (watched other shows too) I realized my ear had gotten used to Japanese and I could understand the gist of sentences just by hearing them.

I didn't want it to just stop there tho so in 11th grade I started actually studying. You see Japanese has 3 alphabets; hiragana, katakana, kanji. Hiragana and katakana are easier since they are more like learning your a,b,c's. I focused there first and used duolingo to memorize them. Now I won't recommend duolingo for actually learning japanese but it's good for memorizing the alphabet if you are consistent. I'd also solve a lot of hiragana and katakana tests online to test myself.

Once I made sure I got the hang of it I started kanji. For kanji I use wanikani, it's an amazing site when it comes to learning kanji and vocabulary I'd 100% recommend it. I was lucky to not need to study grammar since Japanese sentence structure is already the same as my mother tongue Turkish.

Last winter I managed to pass JLPT N3 and this winter I'll try out N2.

Long story short definitely immerse yourself. Find a type of media of the language you want to learn and consume it lots. This could be tv shows, youtube videos, podcasts, music, games. Just hearing the language constantly will help you a lot. And be consistent with it, turn it into a daily activity, a hobby. If you do it for a week then stop you won't learn anything. Find ways to make it fun for you

[ros3ybabeslanguages]

Language Resources 🎀

*that I currently use for studying Spanish. When I pick up studying Japanese again, I will make a list for that as well <3 I currently use a handful of resources for learning Spanish, and they've all proven very useful so far!

🩷 My Current Resources for Spanish

Busuu - hands down my favorite language learning app. So much better than Duolingo, in my opinion (especially for languages with a different alphabet/writing system). I bought the premium for a year, which will expire in Septmeber, but I'm debating renewing again because I love it so much.

LingQ - I like using this for reading in Spanish. It gives me different types of things to read about, and while I don't have premium, I do put all the words I don't know into flashcards on AnkiApp on my laptop and translate anything I don't know using SpanishDict.

SpanishDict - favorite translation/dictionary app. I know it has lessons you can use, tho I haven't tried it yet, but I really do love this app. It's super helpful when I'm making flashcards or writing random vocabulary notes.

Goodnotes - This is a general note-taking app, but I love it because it allows you to import and write on PDFs, and that's just perfect for me! I've downloaded free PDF short stories/children's stories in Spanish and made notes of words I don't know, and taken notes in the app too. Definitely my favorite notes app, ever.

Italki - I know this is a website, too, but I use the app. It lets you work with professional teachers/community tutors in your target language. You can have structured lessons or just use it for conversation practice. I did a trial lesson not too long ago and have an upcoming lesson booked out in about 5 days. You pay per lesson, so there is no subscription, and there are so many languages and teachers/tutors to choose from. I did a lot of research before choosing a teacher, and I'm very happy with my decision so far. Definitely useful if there's not native speakers near you or you're like me and not confident talking to people you know in your target language/their native language.

Quizlet/AnkiApp - I use AnkiApp more then quizlet, and the Anki I'm referring to is NOT the same way everyone else uses, but it's the flashcard app of preference at the moment. I tried the AnkiDroid app and hated it. But yeah, AnkiApp is useful for flashcards and I really like it. I have it on my Chromebook and my Ipad.

Netflix - I love watching shows in Spanish on Netflix so much. I am currently watching La Reina del Sur on it (used to watch that sporadically in the past at a friend's house) and plan on watching some other shows, including Elite.

Spotify - I enjoy listening to Spanish music and podcasts right now. The music is more of an entertaining/enjoyable fork of audio input, and the podcasts help me get a feel for speaking and pronunciation and I choose podcasts that speak on topics of interest tk help with vocabulary in those areas I'd like to be able to speak about.

Textbooks - I have 2 PDF textbooks, Gramatica de Uso del Español: A1-B2 and Gramatica de Uso del Español: B1-B2. I've heard these are great for learning Spanish (and they're both only written in Spanish, like there's no English in them) and plan on using them once I figure out how to take good and useful textbook notes! I definitely need to improve on my grammar.

Those are all my current Spanish resources! I'd definitely say my current level is like a high A1 right now, nearing A2, but I have just a little bit of work to do before I get there. These resources are definitely gonna help, tho!

[ros3ybabe]

Spanish Media/Input Recommendations?

Can you guys comment me some good media/input recommendations for someone learning Mexican/Spain Spanish? I' talking about any and all that you guys find interesting, whether you learned Spanish on your own or it's your native language!

Books

Podcasts

Tv Shows

Movies

Youtube channels

Songs/Musical Artists

Favorite Spanish teachers/tutors on Italki

Literally anything!

Thank you guys <3

[tokidokitokyo]

Language Learning Plateau

Recently I have found myself on a Japanese learning plateau and I just feel stuck. I have felt stuck for a long time, like I will never get off of this plateau. Have you ever felt stuck in your learning?

I decided that I wanted to make a real effort to escape from the plateau and to see some real improvement in my Japanese language ability. So here are my collected notes and advice on the process of overcoming the language learning plateau.

What is a Language Learning Plateau?

Your language acquisition was moving along smoothly, and then suddenly everything ground to a snail's pace. The most popular textbooks are too easy, native materials that suit your level and aren't too hard are challenging to find, and making your own study plan seems daunting.

Apparently this plateau is inevitable, because when you first start learning a language you make progress quickly with new vocabulary and grammar and writing systems, but as you learn more and acquire more skills, you naturally slow down. The language learning plateau is most common when learners reach an intermediate level of language proficiency.

The good news is, there are ways to get over this plateau. The challenge is that it will take some work on your part.

Why I have trouble finding resources

To try to overcome my learning plateau and feel like I was moving forward, I started looking for new resources. The trouble is that there are so many resources available online and in print, but the number is so vast that it feels difficult to pick one, and I worry that I will pick the Wrong One.

Reviews: Reading reviews of language learning materials can be endless, or it can be difficult to find a review of a particular book or online resource for anything other than beginner materials. There may also be a plethora of suggested materials, but you might waffle on which ones to pick.

Level: I am not entirely sure of what my level is since it is difficult to measure without an exam, but I think I have an idea of my general level (lower advanced - N3/N2). I have outgrown most early textbooks, and I often pick out JLPT workbooks because it is easier to judge their level. However, JLPT resources tend to be geared toward test taking and therefore sometimes they can be a bit limited. Non-JLPT materials are more difficult to determine the level for, so some may be too advanced and some may be a bit too low level.

Money: I don't have an unlimited budget, so I have to read reviews and try to gauge if I think the resource is worth the investment. Sometimes I purchase a resource and then I don't touch it because I don't have the time to sit down and work through it. I also download lots of apps but I often don't sit down to get used to them and figure out the best way to use them. Free materials are very useful, but I also find myself downloading too much and then I don't touch more than half of them.

Time: I am busy and don't have much time to dedicate to studying, so reviewing resources can be a huge time sink for time that I'd rather spend studying. I can spend so much time looking up resources that I don't actually pick one to use. I also don't have unlimited time to study, so while the JLPT workbooks or non-JLPT textbooks are good resources, I have to break each section into very small chunks to fit them into my schedule and it takes a long time to finish a resource.

How to overcome the Language Learning Plateau

Here are some tips on how to overcome the language learning plateau:

Set clear goals If you don't have a clear goal on what you want to work toward, your studying will be less focused and you might become frustrated with your lack of progress. Set clear goals that are based on what you want to achieve with the language to provide focus. Be realistic with your goals and your current level, and set a specific timeline for them.

Try new methods If you've been relying on textbooks thus far and are burnt out or don't find them useful, try something else. Get creative, and look to see what approach others take. Try immersion, finding a tutor, playing a game in your target language, or downloading a new app.

Focus on problem areas This aligns with setting specific goals. Where do you struggle the most with the language? At the language plateau, bad habits or mistakes become more ingrained, so it's time to correct them. Figure out where you are the weakest and find creative ways to practice those weaknesses. Reading books, finding conversation partners on HelloTalk, and writing a diary could address those weaknesses. If you aren't sure where you are struggling, review things you already know and see where you get stuck. Try a mock JLPT exam near your level and see how you score. Focus on those weak points and strengthen your knowledge. You'll also be moving ahead as you discover new words, grammar points, etc.

Learn more vocabulary Limited vocabulary is one thing that can prevent you from overcoming your language plateau. Try reading books, articles, websites, etc. or find vocabulary flashcard sets that challenge you. Building up your vocabulary will help you to communicate more clearly and concisely in your target language.

Interact with native speakers This may be difficult where you live, but you can always look online for people who want to exchange languages with you. Writing messages or talking via voice calls are both great ways to improve how you think and form sentences in your target language, and you can get feedback from native speakers to help you fix mistakes and improve. Mimicking native speakers is a great way to sound more natural, so you could also try shadowing podcasts or videos.

Don't give up! Most importantly, don't get discouraged. You've come a very long way, and the plateau is a sign that great things are ahead for you. Be confident and make time for language learning in your daily life. Your journey is what you make of it, and with confidence and practice, you can achieve your goals.

[babooshkaa]

ways to make duolingo useful

1. jump units

in the new "tree" all the new vocabulary is in the first lesson, then duolingo makes you study it for like a week if you're lucky, so if you're confident you've learnt all the new words just jump to the next unit (I also find myself remembering my mistakes better if I make them while trying to jump than when I make them in regular lessons)

❗after jumping always come back to the stories you missed, they're like the most useful thing there is in the app

2. use other resources

I know this is a post about duolingo, but people, mostly beginners, seem to think that they only need duolingo to become fluent. my mom has a 700 days strike and she still can't keep a simple conversation in english or understand an episode of fucking teletubbies, that should tell you everything. read content for beginners, watch youtube videos, tv-shows, use other apps, I promise the owl won't kill you for it

3. stop when it starts slowing you down

trust me you don't need to use duolingo when you're intermediate, it's just not worth it. leave it for the days you can't study properly and want to do at least something

[diy-languages]

Personal experience and tip:

(This is mostly about my experience learning Korean, but some parts apply to other languages too!)

If you're scared to try and communicate online in Korean— DO IT!!

I've experienced it myself and many people said the same thing, the easiest way to become fluent is by being "forced" to use that language to communicate, such as living in a country that speaks that language.

Though not everyone can make such major life chances to learn a language lol? So the easiest alternative I found is online or with foreigners on your own country, but thats more rare to find!

I was personally really scared of typing and texting in Korean. I recently tried it a week ago and the results were awesome!! I thought people on social media were jokingly exaggerating when they said Koreans are really supportive and enthusiastics about people learning their language — ends up it's true!!! It's so cute and sweet! Also overwhelming at first I'm not going to lie 😭!!

But holding small conversations like theses really helped me improve my grammar, conjugation and vocabulary :) it's okay if you have to double check everything and look for translation for some verbs or words!! I did too, and that's exactly how you improve!

You can try it anywhere, personally I tried on a video game at first... This way it's anonymous and less stressful. Then I decided to give it a try and comment under Kpop content such as Weverse or other places where Kpop fandoms hang out and chat. The results were equally good!! I recommend to join Korean servers or group chats of your interests this way it can make learning funnier and you'll have a subject to talk about instead of shyly asking random awkward questions out of the blue!!

Give it a try, really, it's funny and really rewarding at the end! ^^

[haru-dipthong]

Has your brain ever gone “oh yep, I understand that” after reading or hearing a sentence in your target language, only for you to realise several sentences later that you have no idea what the content is talking about?

I don’t know if this is common or just my experience, but when I was studying japanese during my intermediate plateau, I noticed it was very easy for me to trick myself into thinking I understood a sentence/paragraph/spoken phrase and moving onto the next one, when I did not in fact understand it.

I think a part of your brain wants to pretend learning a language is easier than it really is. But it’s not easy. Learning a language requires constant active listening, which is really hard! You can’t just switch your brain off and watch content like you can in your native language. You need to be listening or reading with purpose. Earlier in my language journey, while watching or reading something, I paused the video or stopped reading after every sentence and made sure I understood each sentence as it was spoken, but once I hit that midpoint I started overestimating myself and the pauses became less frequent.

Another part of it is that it was hard for me to admit to myself that I didn’t understand. I felt like I wasn’t improving as fast as I wanted, and for me to not be able to understand a sentence even when I recognised most of the words/grammar in it was a hard truth to face. But every time I did face it, and chucked the sentence into DeepL, or looked up the grammar, or checked the meaning of a word that seemed out of place, I learned something that leveled me up in a meaningful way. It’s these moments that yield the most impactful growth imo.

I guess this is advice for anyone who’s trying to self-immerse and has experienced what I’m describing: You gotta fight your lizard brain. Your lizard brain wants shit to be easy, but if you’re serious about reaching fluency, you can’t let it win. You need to recognise when you didn’t understand something and admit it to yourself, because that’s when you do your best learning.

[sunrisestudyblr]

I had a request to talk about my language diary, so here we go :)

I’ve only recently started it this semester. I currently study French and I JUST started Hindi as well!! language diaries or notebooks are just a ways to improve your spelling, grammer, and conversations skills. Some days I’ll write my French work in the form of a diary entry; others, as one sided conversations with imaginary people. I try to write very quickly, and THEN go back and correct grammer/spelling/etc.

these are some (uncorrected!) French examples:

Currently, I’m practicing writing the Hindi alphabet, so I practice that here as well!

Overall, it’s a rlly valuable tool I’d recommend to anyone trying to learn a language 💜

[m4rmaladet0ast]

underrated language learning tip: listen to asmr in your target language! (if that sorta thing doesn't give you the creeps) I find asmr is usually very easy to understand, with lots of repetition, and lots of over explaining. (plus it's super relaxing if studying is stressing you out!)

[kikikokonihongo]

( ๑´ω`)🎙( ´ω` ๑) 📢 Language Learnerの皆へ

📚✍(ᵕ̤ᴗᵕ̤๑)📻 📝Take note of this Helpful Hint!

-📚���

📌📻𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐢𝐤𝐢+𝐊𝐨𝐤𝐨 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙋𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴? ノートを取ることを最大限に活用し方 ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴ ʜᴇʀᴇ:

‐📝ー

( ๑´ω`)🎙( ´ω`๑) 💮In the digital age, hand-writing your notes is more important than everー especially with language learning

Hear the why and how of making every pen stroke count!

[hermeneutes4]

Guys. Do any of you find blookets helpful for your language learning? I've found them super helpful lately when learning German!!

They're so interactive (?). It's almost like a kahoot, but it has like different game modes! They're super fun and I definitely recommend it!

I'll reblog this post with the link to my German basics one once I'm a bit more done with it!

[cactus-cactus]

tip for people learning a new language

one of the best ways to get better at a language is to talk to native speakers of that language, but that kinda hard for people who don't know the language very well because they don't really know words and how to put them together

but if you write a bunch of words into a little notebook you can just pull it out and look up what you want super quick, and if you get the words right it's not a super huge deal if the grammar is off, cause most people will get the idea and hopefully politely correct you

so get a little notebook and write a bunch of words that you might use a lot in there. stuff like numbers, colors, months, days of the week, some common verbs and nouns, slang, swear words, whatever you might use really.

and then you can start talking to native speakers and improving

[ros3ybabeslanguages]

does anyone have any tips, recommendations, or like resources for taking language notes from a textbook? I have two Spanish textbooks (pdfs) that I want to start writing notes from to help me with grammar, but I have no idea where to start with taking textbook notes!

if you have tips, or know of a good blog, youtuber, or something that'll help me figure out how to start with textbook notes, I'd really appreciate it <3