#aspiring polyglot

[mireya44]

live laugh love language learning

[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!)

[k9-tongue]

Привет! Я Каин ♡ ¡Hola, soy Caín!

hello! im Cain ☆ 18 yrs old ☆ American, English is my native language ☆ aspiring polyglot ☆ queer (bi, aro, genderqueer) ☆ neurodivergent (ADHD-C)

he/him she/her cer/cers xe/xem/xyr

target languages : Russian , Spanish

im learning primarily for fun, and to help combat the short-form media brainrot TwT

no DNI because they dont work, but these are the kinds of people i will block on sight

• racists • people that are rude about neopronouns • TERFs/radfems/transmeds • antisemites • Trump supporters • ableists • homo/transphobes • donation asks

[vempress]

i haven’t given up on german, on the contrary, i’ve been working on it; i am reading multiple books (although i haven’t finished any), watching tv shows, listening to podcasts and writing in my notebook. i no longer use busuu, since (i believe) i’ve finished all the free courses. i’d say i’m almost at b1 level for listening and reading comprehension, but speaking and writing is of course a little lower.

today i’ve been holding quite the monologue, as well as writing in my notebook. it’s hard finding actual german tv shows, when you don’t live in a german speaking country. in currently resorting to watching the simpsons and modern family dubbed in german, but i’d love to watch more actual german movies and shows.

i’m currently focusing on reading ottessa moshfeghs heimweh nach einer anderen welt, i’m halfway through and i really like her writing style in the short story format. i’m not her biggest fan when reading her “real” books but the short ones are great.

tschüss <3

[sakorispolyglot]

Self-Learning Troubles

I have for a long time had troubles with learning languages by myself. I was doing Duolingo courses for German and the way I was doing them probably contributed to how I was able to maximize my time learning and also maximize my recall afterwards. Back in 2019, I was doing a tech internship and when I would go on my lovely state-mandated breaks (oh how I miss them now that I've moved to a state that doesn't have them), I would take the time to do some German Duolingo lessons (this was before the re-tool to make it more like the CEFR scale, obviously, if that makes a difference; I don't believe it would but this is an aside just for your information; I have digressed, anyway...). Of course, my life has much less structure now than it did then (plus those breaks at work are now non-existence because different state laws so), so I don't think I'd be able to do something similar.

I have since tried to just be a sponge for the languages that I'm learning. Listening to music in the language, attempting to read things in the language, and continuing to say to myself that I'll make a goalpost of trying to take a certification exam for the language that I would then have to study for and eventually hope to pass. I've been looking at said exam for German for a while now, so you can guess how that has gone.

My ADHD and other relevant neurodivergencies make it difficult for me to learn things the normal way, and I don't think there's a way to replicate the way I learned ASL (where I would often watch interpreters and listen to what was being interpreted and attempt to pick up on signs; I have actually attempted to look into this, although the answers that I got were basically "you could try to do it, but I doubt you'll get good results out of it"). Another reason that would be difficult is that I took a class for ASL where we were only allowed to use ASL during lecture hours. That added on the pressure of being graded and since I graduated university two years ago, that definitely won't work.

Tbh I don't know why I decided to write this post. I'd love to be able to study languages daily and make some kind of routine where I could sit down (or probably more accurately, carve time out of my busy work schedule) and practice/learn the languages I'm learning at the time. I feel like I haven't found the right method for me. It's waiting out there somewhere, and I just have to find it. All of the conventional methods haven't worked for me as of yet, so I guess I keep searching.

This is a jumble of word salad, and if you'd like to add a proverbial salad dressing to help me out, feel free. Or don't; this is the free internet, and I have no say in what you do with it.

[royalich]

I think i have decided to finally give up on Chinese because my accent is making it actually impossible and focus on Latin and probably..maybe probably Romanian because it's just not working the way I can speak more Spanish and haven't studied it a day in my life than I can chinese that i am activ—

[peridotglimmer]

Had a big "whyyy do I promise to do these kinds of things??" moment today, when I realised that suggesting having a peace week celebration in town but not inviting the 150 Ukrainian refugees that live here is a bit weird and that I would post a Ukrainian invitation on the church's Facebook page, means that I actually had to write, said invitation.

Belle, you speak Russian (barely). Not Ukrainian.

(Pretty sure the post is correct; as far as I can judge it anyway. It should be legible at the very least.)

[nell-is-cold]

sometimes i wonder if i will get bored of grammar when learning a language but then i go and do an exercise with a transcript and some of these stories are wild. i just sat down to do some preposition practise in German and suddenly i’m reading about a guy taking advantage of stranger’s pity for his disabled parents so that he can eat out regularly without paying.

[fromfaewithlove]

I thought being a polyglot meant I’d need to be a master in every language I speak but really you just need to be able to fulfill your goal of communicating. Like maybe im wrong for saying this but being a polyglot is actually very subjective.

[mireya44]

god I love to meet people with different cultural backgrounds so much and it feels so good to explore their cultures and customs which makes me wanting to learn a language they speak so bad especially as a someone who is in love with language learning

[m4rmaladet0ast]

so, I'm not really sure how many people this might help, but I just HAD to talk about this because it's amazing. there's this book called "Stories from Welsh History for Standard III" by Owen Morgan Edwards. not sure about apple books??? idk what iphone uses lol, but on google books, it's free (at least in canada). it's a great book in my opinion, with interesting, simple stories with the translation in English on the next page. it has some key vocabulary at the top of each story in case you get stuck. really good resource, hope it helps!

[k9-tongue]

Hey, was curious on how you decided what languages you wanted to learn and since you wanna be a polygot based off what your bio says what other languages you want to learn and why?

hello!! so currently, my main target language is Russian and

honestly. hearing Bucky speak it in The Winter Soldier when i was 8 probably unlocked some weird part of me lol (also Sebastian Stan himself knows Romanian! very cool!)

the more serious reasons:

* i used to be quite 'afraid' of the cyrillic script - i thought that id never be able to learn it, that itd never make sense without lots of help. so i guess im trying to take it on a challenge, to prove something to myself

* Russian is one of those languages that, i feel, a lot of non-Slavic Americans hear and characterize as 'harsh-sounding', like some people do with German. but i dont think they sound harsh - just different, obviously as my native tongue is English. i wanted to break down that belief for myself, because i find Russian to sound very beautiful and smooth

i want to learn Spanish because my mom's grandfather was from Mexico and came to America, and she grew up with only a couple things of her Mexican heritage intact, and me and my sister grew up with none. a way of reconnecting, to open doors we didnt get to have, and for my children in the future

learning Spanish is also a good idea for really any American, because of the large population of Latine people here. i wanna be able to make friends, help people, communicate with coworkers and strangers

those are my top two languages currently but id ultimately love to know French, Japanese (my partner's target language), German (also for heritage reasons), Hebrew/Yiddish, Na'vi and Klingon (im a geek ^w^) as well

thank you for the questions!! i hope the long response is okay ૮꒰◞ ˕ ◟ ྀི꒱ა

[millylouedward]

1.9.24 - feeling like i’m literally in the show community bc i’m taking spanish 1 at community college starting today. i haven’t been a student in years and i’m excited to be back in the classroom. let’s all manifest that i do well so i can become the hot polyglot i aspire to be

[salvadorbonaparte]

aspiring polyglot complaint: I have trouble pronouncing the mandarin Chinese R sound because I keep using the French R sound

Petition for all languages in the world to agree on one R sound

[amourdeslangues]

at times, being an aspiring polyglot and learning a lot of languages means broadening my horizons. unlocking new perspectives. gaining more and more knowledge.

and sometimes, it just means being illiterate in four languages instead of just one

[benkyoutobentou]

How to study languages without studying

Whether you're just starting out and have had bad experiences with textbook learning in the past or are getting burnt out from prepping for the next proficiency test, it's never a bad idea to put the textbooks away for a time and just enjoy your target language. If you're new to the world of immersion, here are a few ways to get you started.

Follow along with the lyrics of a song. Spotify's not-so-new-anymore lyrics feature is great for this, especially since it has timed lyrics, but it doesn't have every song.

Expert mode: Write out the lyrics and underline/highlight/make note of all the words and grammar structures you don't know. Learn these unknowns until you can understand the whole song!

Extra challenge: Translate a song from your target language. I usually tend to stay away from translations in my study, but for those of you who aspire to be translators (or already are!), the poetic nature of song lyrics can be a fun challenge.

Watch a show or movie. Netflix has now introduced a feature where you can sort by language! If there's nothing made in your language that you're interested in, it also gives the option to sort by shows and movies that have the audio or subtitles available. Internet Archive also tends to have lots of foreign films that I'm looking for.

Easy mode: Watch with English or your native language subtitles. When doing this, try to still listen to what's being said and pick up on words and phrases that you know, or match new words with their translation in the subtitles. Note: reading one language and listening to another is a skill in and of itself! Don't be discouraged if you can't do both at the same time yet, you're brain is still making the connections in intonation and cadence of the language.

Hard mode: Watch with captions in your target language. This helps you connect listening and reading, especially in languages where the spelling isn't exactly phonetic, or it uses a different alphabet than what you're used to.

Expert mode: No captions or subtitles! But who knows, maybe you're better at listening comprehension than I am. Make sure you're getting comprehensible input here; some shows and movies are much harder than others. But above all else, watch what keeps your interest. A movie where you can catch half the dialogue but is super engaging is better for you than an "easy" movie that you're going to spend your time ignoring.

Polyglot mode?: Watch something in your target language with subtitles in a different target language. This adds just one too many layers of obfuscation for me, but if you're into the challenge, more power to you.

Watch YouTube. You can change your language preference on YouTube, and with that, the Explore section will give you recommendations in your target language. Going into the trending tab with your target language can give you a good idea about what people are interested in in the countries where your target language is spoken.

Read something. It can be a book, it can be a comic. There are plenty of webcomics out there in a number of languages! There's also probably an English language listicle with recommendations of easier to understand webcomics for learners, too.

If you're just getting started in immersion, you can choose whether you focus on intensive reading or extensive reading (this actually goes for all kinds of immersion, but is easiest to control with reading since it happens at your own pace). Intensive reading is reading with the goal of understanding everything 100%. If you don't understand a word, or a grammar point, or the reading of a character, look it up. Extensive reading is reading just to get the gist of things. Look up words and grammar points only if they stop you from understanding the general meaning of the sentence or section. And of course, the more you immerse, the less you'll have to look things up, but remember that difficulty varies between materials, even within books of the same age range, genre, and medium.

A small digression: If you decide that you never want to open a textbook on your language learning journey, more power to you! It can be done and I know people who have gotten to proficient levels of their target language without textbooks. If you want this to be you, extensive immersion is your best friend. You also might want to get comfortable with the flashcard program anki, because, if this is your goal, all those unknown grammar points and words will probably end up there. But at the end of the day, language learning is an intensely personal journey, and what works for others won't necessarily work for you. Finding what works for you is just part of learning a language.

Play a game. Lots of games are region locked (hint: Pokemon Sun/Moon isn't! If you start a new game, you can choose which language you want to play it in), but there are plenty of free online games still lurking in the corners of the internet. With a bit of googling, you can probably find something in your target language. Just the other day, I went out to find one of those hidden item games in Japanese and ended up finding an entire site dedicated to user made browser games.

If you're learning Japanese or Korean, picrew might be fun to look through as well. I noticed that plenty of picrews have basic anatomy vocabulary. I'm not super familiar with picrew myself, but the ones I've seen tend to be in Korean and Japanese

And lastly, don't fully give up on textbooks before trying them out. Don't be discouraged if textbooks truly aren't your thing, but studying a language on your own time can feel much different than studying for school. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and just have fun with your language. Additionally, if you'd rather learn in a video format, many languages have full courses uploaded to YouTube for you to try. Finding these can be difficult for some languages though, so don't hesitate to reach out to other learners and see what they recommend!

Got your materials ready? Great! Now go forth and immerse!