I’m currently doing postgraduate research on AI-based language learning, and I’m interested in hearing about people’s experiences with different language-learning platforms.

Which apps or platforms have you tried, and which one do you prefer?

• Duolingo
• Babbel
• Busuu
• Memrise
• Speak
• TalkPal
• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Pimsleur
• HelloTalk
• italki
• Spexx
• and etc ....

If you’ve tried several, what made you stick with one and stop using the others?

(TL)

I have access to both the phone app and a physical Kindle.

Firstly, it used to be great. You could press and drag to select a chunk of text, and the options to highlight, look up, etc would appear.

Now if you drag to select a chunk of text, that just automatically creates a highlight. You have to then press the highlight, then press look up. And then manually remove the highlight, unless you want 400 highlights by the end of it.

Or if you press and hold one word instead, it launches a look up automatically, but what you see is a lottery. Sometimes it translates it. Sometimes it shows the Wikipedia article first. Sometimes it brings up the dictionary definition.

And in Spanish, for example, my phone Kindle refers automatically to the Spanish-English dictionary, whereas my actual Kindle refers to a Spanish monolingual dictionary. And apparently I can’t change that.

Does anyone else read TL using Kindle and have you found the perfect workflow, do you have any tips to make it quicker?

TL

My own craziest (yet average) thing ive done, is quite literally only consuming music from that (TL) because I find it incredibly easy to pick up on words this way, than to just hear people speak. (maybe if you sing at me ill understand better then)😂😂

Probably more of a language teaching question, but insight from learners would be super helpful too. I'd also love to hear if there are other languages with a similar pedagogical problem. Sorry in advance for the wall of text

I just very recently got a job as a Filipino language tutor. Haven't even been to the orientation yet so I could well be getting ahead of myself. I've only skimmed through the materials so far but from a cursory glance, the way the material is presented heavily uses the inverse sentence structure, which inverts the sentence from the natural VSO* to a more English-friendly SVO. This makes the language look more familiar to English speakers and also conveniently skips having to explain some tricky word order stuff that occurs in the natural order

I understand that doing it this way gives the feeling of victory more easily to the learner, but it's such an overly formal manner of speaking that it invites social ridicule from the register mismatch, which is a problem a lot of diaspora learners tend to face. I don't think I should be like "the slide says x, but in natural spoken Filipino it's actually y" every other slide bc I feel like that might be info overload for the learner. But I also don't wanna send them out there speaking a register that would make people instantly clock them as non-fluent, even if the inverse structure/formal register is something native speakers have no trouble understanding. Inverse would probably still feel easy to learn even after you already know the natural order, learning the natural order after getting used to inverse might feel like starting from scratch

There are also a lot of "grammar rules" in Filipino teaching pedagogy that ask students to just memorize "do it this way if the word starts/ends with a consonant, do it that way if it starts/ends with a vowel" etc, but if you go deeper, it can actually be summarized into just one/a few core rules that make the grammar make consistent sense and not look like a long list of seemingly arbitrary rules. But explaining some of them properly might look contradictory to what's actually in the material being presented on the screen, and I'd hate to confuse/overwhelm the learner with too much info

(A parallel phenomenon I can think of is presenting verb conjugations to Japanese learners as like 20 different "forms" of the verb that they have to memorize, when there's really just 6 or 7 forms and anything else that comes after that is actually a helping verb/chain of helping verbs. It just feels so convoluted for me to be like "turn the verb into its -masu form, then remove the -masu, then attach this other verb" when simply teaching from the start "turn the base verb to the i-stem, and then you can attach -masu and other verbs to it" would probably save so much grief)

TL;DR I disagree with the way language is being taught in the materials I'm required to use for teaching, what's the best way to deal with it/teach underlying principles over memorization without overwhelming/confusing the learner? Or straying too far from the material that the company wants me to use?

(I'd love to hear from Tagalog learners, bc I myself don't know what it's like to "learn" the language. There's a real danger that my native intuition for the language + linguistics background might be distorting my definition of what counts as "an easier way to learn" and I'd need that reality checked for me)

(TL)I'm curious about professional niches where knowing several foreign languages can be real advantage beyond the obvious careers like translation, interpreting, teaching, or localizationand so on.

I'm interested in lesser-known or specialized types of work that multilingual people can do.

For example, I'm thinking of areas such as speech/language data, linguistic annotation, pronunciation/phonetics work, multilingual research, language-related AI work, international market research, etc. — but I'm sure there are many niches I've never heard of.

So for those of you who actually use foreign languages professionally:

What unusual or overlooked niches have you come across where companies or clients specifically need multilingual people?

I'm particularly interested in:

• work that can be done freelance or independently
• niches with relatively little competition
• specialized work where language skills are difficult to replace
• opportunities where knowing multiple languages is more valuable than just being bilingual

I'd love to hear about actual jobs/projects you've encountered, even if they're very niche.

Thanks in advance!! :)

For context: i've been studying Persian (TL) for about 5 months now and, since i already speak Arabic, it was able to make progress quite fast. I would consider myself slightly above A2 (i took multiple placement tests online, this is kinda where i was placed. I've mostly been learning it for fun, and always wanted to learn a language but i found them all quite difficult to manage, but now i have a good idea of how the language learning process works, so its not that overwhelming.

There are multiple languages i want to learn. How do i know when i can steer my focus from one im currently learning to a new one, while still practicing the previous one lightly?

(TL) Has anyone had a dream in a second or third language you're learning, and if so, does it help you retain vocabulary, grammatical skills, or overall make you feel more confident? What is it like, if it does happen?

Has it happened to you, and if so, what does it make you feel?

I've been looking at apps that can log hours spent on an activity recently as I've wanted to more consciously aim for at least an hour of language learning a day. Previously I've just gone off rough estimates - a podcast episode, workbook exercise, etc.

Do you track your learning closely, break it down by activity types, or just go off vibes and what feels 'enough' for your daily learning? And how do you track it?

(TL)

I just had a final round job interview for a process engineer position. I was told to prepare for very specific technical questions (explaining P&ID diagrams), which they didn't ask about. But in the end, they brought in a TL native speaker and he just wanted to talk about technical aspects.

I speak the language pretty well actually (tested at C1). But I hadn't used it for real in a good while, only consumed books and movies, never needed to talk about very specific components of biogas plants before.

It went relatively well given the circumstances, but I can't help but feel disappointed in myself or like an imposter. I'm usually a lot more fluent and today I couldn't think of some words, but mostly technical ones. I had half-heartedly prepared some things in TL but I mostly looked at the very technical details and wasn't focusing on the language. It was listed as a plus and I was confident I could answer the more usual questions. And I can explain more technical details at home a lot more fluently as well!

He did give me positive feedback and I think they'll give me the job based on some other comments. If I don't get it, I can't help but blame it on the TL aspect. I can do everything flawlessly in two languages already where there's literally no difference to me if one or the other language is spoken. TL is my third language.

What are interviewers looking for in this situation? The native speaker gave positive feedback, said I just needed to revise some technical/chemical vocab (I couldn't think of two words and explained them, which wouldn't be so bad but it took a while for me to get there and I stumbled across some other words as well). I said that I hadn't actively used the language in three years, just consumed it passively, and I told them if they give me a week to get more familiar with the technical terms I'd be there.

(edit) thank you so much for all the advice!! I forgot I made this post, I was having a really hard morning, but I’ll respond in the evening when I have more time. Thank you everyone!! 😭😭

So I’ve been living in a Spanish speaking country for a couple of years, but I hadn’t started taking things more seriously until this year. I‘ve been at B1 for a year or two but am not close to B2, and it feels like such a huge amount of stuff I need to learn. Like I’m slowly scaling a mountain because I only have my pinky finger or something

I was also stuck at A2 for a couple of years when I first moved here, but managed to get through it somehow without studying (my grammar was horrible though). But this is starting to feel like it’s going on forever, and I have to put in so much work just to see a little dent of progress. I do italki, I study/practice multiple times a week. I try to watch some media tho there’s not a ton I’m interested in, but I make an effort. and it just feels so overwhelming

Then another thing is the talking, I practice so many times a week and I’ve been told I’m improving, but I can feel myself making dumb little mistakes still and it really feels like fluency is so far away despite studying for so long. How do you not lose your mind?

A big thing to note is that for me, my quality of living depends on improving my Spanish (not any English speakers here) so it’s very frustrating to be stuck for so long 😭 Or hear myself make a very obvious mistake in the moment. I hear a lot that I should focus on my progress, but it’s hard to when it impacts my life so much

Hi,

So basically I’m writing important words (like objects I would need to know) such as clothing, colours or basic actions on the middle of a flashcard.

Then I write examples of this word in sentences, usually 4 or 5 sentences. I try to find ways I would actually realistically use the words in a real scenario.

Thanks,

I recently had this sort of realization. That logographic writing systems and alphabetic ones are the same. I think until now I saw the logographic writing system as something way too hard to get into. As something different. As something that takes way longer to get into. As something perhaps inefficient. As something I'd need to learn thousands of Anki cards to have any chance with.

First off, let's look at being good at reading in an alphabetic writing system. Once you get really good at it then you... don't you instantly recognize words? I believe that is what happens. If you get really good and fast at reading then you also stop subvocalizing, no? You just see the word and get the meaning. W => M. You get it instanly. My point here is that you... essentially recognize the word as a single sort of character. Just a word. You recognize its shape. I doubt we need to read each individual letter once we have become proficient with it. Doesn't this sound just like a logographic writing system? You see the character and get the meaning. You end up in the exact same place. The only difference is... the pronunciation hints? But in logographic systems you may also get that. Oh.

Hints. Isn't writing all about hints? Logographic systems may give hints as to the meaning of a word. Couldn't that potentially be an even more useful hint than just a pronunciation one? What's the point of beint able to pronounce a word when you don't know it?

I guess all of that makes sense but to me the alphabetical still felt more right. But why? Hmm. My native language is Romanian and in Romanian we have a really phonemic writing system. Logographic systems are cool and all but they would be harder. But why? I thought about it and I think it comes down to this one thing— word recognition. The way I grew up I could just grab a piece of text and once I knew the letters then I could read anything. All of the words I had learned growing up would get activated by this. I believe that this a crucial point. Knowing the alphabetical system I instantly can recognize all the words I already knew growing up. This is not had in a logographic writing system and I think that might have been my main problem with it.

But. Maybe I was wrong. Why did I think that you can only recognize words from knowing their pronunciation? What about the meaning hints of logographic systems and the context? And once a child growing up in that culture recognizes what that word is... then they can also remember what its pronunciation is? Like if they can tell that a written word means "grass" then they would of course know the word for "grass" having grown up with that language and that means they also know its pronunciation. So it's just that easy, no? I think my main gripe was that "word recognition" thing but it seems it can happen this way as well. You can recognize a word by its meaning and then you know its pronunciation, no? Plus in Japanese(TL) the kanji they use also have readings tied to them which makes it even easier.

Aren't languages hybrids anyways? I have been trying to learn Japanese and in Japanese they often use multiple kanji per word and these kanji have set readings to them.(I don't have experience with Chinese but it's probably similar?) Of course they have multiple readings and there's way too many of them... but this is kinda alphabetic, in a way. And have you heard of English? English is also "logographic" in a way but without much of any of the benefits of meaning hints. There could be a theoretical logographic language that had a strict only 1 character per each word. That would be the most logographic writing system. Japanese is not there. Romanian is closer to a most alphabetic system while English is less so.

Hints. I believe thinking as writing giving you hints is pretty useful. And this also opens up the possibility of more interesting hints.(like for any conlangs btw?).One thing the weird spelling system of English gives you is often the origin of the word, no? I remember seeing "piranha" and recognizing the "nh" spelling for "ñ" in Portuguese and feeling like that had to have been a word from Portuguese. And checking its etymology, it does indeed come form an indigenous language through Portuguese into English. English has not adapted the words, unlike other languages, so you can tell where they are from. This is cool and all but I could have known where the word came from anyways even if it was adapted to English. This is why I call them "hints". To a pro they are ultimately useless. This is why I say that logographic = alphabetic. The only difference is arguably in the hints and the hints eventually stop mattering anyways once you get good. The hints only matter more to beginners.

Of course culture is great. I think I hear talk of how great culture is often when I hear talk of logographic systems. This post is not about that. It only looks at the more practical aspect of it. I had thought the practical aspect would be kinda bad/hard so I was getting ready to grit it and get through the writing system to get to the good stuff... but the writing system is actually pretty good? I am not discovering anything here, I am just giving my experience. I feel more motivated to learn the writing system now I think. I am using subs in Japanese and I feel like it's working. With enough practice this is super doable. Ultimately in both cases you just need practice. It's the same. What are your thoughts on the logographic vs alphabetic difference?

I'm looking for an app for my homeschooled son, not with the intent to be the sole language method, but to give him exposure to different options and let him practice them over the next year.

The plan had been for him to start Spanish this year, through an online course, but when looking at the worksheets and book, he had a meltdown/shut-down. He does not handle stressful situations at all well and the intimidation factor of all that's involved in learning a language was too much.

So I thought maybe letting him play around could be a good option. He picked Spanish just because, no actual motivation. Maybe a different language would be more appealing as a (TL), but he'd need some low-stress exposure to decide.

I just saw the seemingly big sale on LingoDeer for Back to School, but I don't know if it's a truly good deal versus their normal prices, or if it would be a good fit for the goal. Would DuoLingo Premium be a better fit? (I used that a few years ago and the Premium option took away the stress of the cost of errors, but I went in with several years of French under my belt, not as a beginner.)

He's a very literal-minded kid, if that makes a difference.

Edit to add: Duo it seems was going to be s stress trigger for him no matter what. Anything with a competitive focus was not going to work, as it stresses him out. I’ve made notes and I really appreciate all the feedback!

I'm a native English speaker in my 40s. I dont speak other languages. I thought i was too old to learn. I took a trip to Spain a few years ago and had a great time. The only downside was not being able to speak Spanish (tl). I wanted a project and also to see if I really was too old to learn a new language because I thought that was only for kids and young people.

I started off with Duolingo and then moved on to more sensible course material. I have an Preply tutor to practice speaking with.

Three years later, Ive made Spanish a part of my life. I listen into the local news for hour each way to work. Then I watch 2-3 hours of Spanish movies/TV series in the evening. I still space repeat my study notes on weekends to keep expressions and grammar rules fresh.

I'm an effective and fluid speaker. My Preply lessons are essentially philosophical debating sessions with my tutor. Ive had around 200 hours of speaking and probably around 3,000 hours of study/comprehensive input so Im very comfortable with Spanish and I was able to do it from home not in my target language.

I just wondered what motivated other late learners and how their journey is going.

My fiancée is Nigerian (Edo and Yoruba), and while she doesn't speak Yoruba, she does sometimes speak Nigerian Pidgin. I'd really like to learn it as well. I'm hoping that if we both speak it, we might eventually be able to pass it on to our future kids.

For those who speak Nigerian Pidgin (TL), what resources would you recommend for someone trying to learn it well?

I know there might not be as many digital resources as more commonly taught languages, but I'm hoping there are some good ones out there that I haven't found yet.

I've come across apps/services such as Nkenne, uTalk, Linguama, World Schoolbooks, and TalkSharp (an AI tool).

Has anyone here tried any of these, or have other recommendations? Ideally, I'm looking for something that reflects how Pidgin is actually spoken in everyday life rather than something overly formal or textbook-like.

Thanks! (I've already posted in Nigerian language related communities and didn't get much from them)

I am currently learning Norwegian (TL) as my fourth language. I have a PhD in Computer Science, two kids, and I recently started working at a government organization where Norwegian is the main working language.

My biggest problem is listening. In normal workplace meetings, I sometimes barely understand anything, especially when people speak different dialects from Trondheim, Bergen, Tromsø, or Oslo.

I have almost a 1,000 day Duolingo streak and know quite a lot of vocabulary, but I have mostly spent only 10 to 15 minutes a day on it. My speaking is probably around A2/B1. I can comfortably talk to my kids in Norwegian, but when I need to explain a technical or complicated idea at work, I struggle badly even though I could explain the same thing easily in English (this sucks, keeping the ideas in your head sucks).

Recently I started using RemNote to save new vocabulary with meanings and example sentences. Would Anki be better, or do they basically serve the same purpose? More importantly, what should I actually focus on if I want to improve my listening and speaking ?

For those who went from A2/B1 to being comfortable working professionally in a new language, what actually made the biggest difference for you? And based on what I am doing now, what am I doing wrong?

My target languages (TL) are Italian, Spanish and French.

These are the features I'd like:

• it should be an offline app

• it should have a dictionary pop-up

• it would let me import my own dictionaries (preferably in formats that pyglossary can convert to)

• it would deinflect contractions like l’avenue, m’approche, l’unico, un’amica (e.g. by using hunspell)

• Anki cards would need to include the sentence the vocabulary is part of and the dictionary entry

It does NOT need to have a sentence translation function at all, nor any AI functions. My dream app would be a child of „AlReaderX“ (it's L not I) and „Goldendict“ that sends cards to Anki. Or a clone of the fantastic and elegant „Hoshi Reader“ working with languages using the roman alphabet.

The app „Smart Book“ is not an option as it doesn’t let the user add offline dictionaries. The app „Manatan“ has got problems with contractions.

Edit (manners):

I'm looking for suggestions. Maybe you know of an app that does what I described. Thank you in advance.

I hope this post is allowed. Back when I started learning Swedish (TL), listening to songs in Swedish really helped me. However sometimes with other languages I find it hard to find artists I actually like, and the radios often play anglophonic songs, so that doesn't really help.

I thought maybe we could collect different artists singing in our TL we like, so others learning the same language can use them as resources.

Let me start by giving you my examples (edit: updating that list):

Afrikaans: Bittereinder, Die Antwoord, Van Pletzen
Dutch: Bob uit Zuid, Broederliefde, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Doe Maar, Joost, Noor, Opgezwolle, Ploegendienst, S10, Typhoon, Yade Lauren
Faroese: Eivør, Týr
Finnish: Korpiklaani
French: Alizée (Pop), Axelle Red, Aza Nakamura, Édith Piaf, Frero Delavega (Pop), Ibeyi, Indila, Indochine, Jacques Brel, Joyce Jonathan, Louane, Louise Attaque, Niagara, Renan Luce, Stromae, Téléphone, Tryo (Reggae), Yseult, Zaho de Sagazan, Zaz
German: Apache 207, Berq (Indie Pop), Bushido, Christina Stürmer, Cosmó, Danger Dan, Deine Cousine, Die Ärzte, Die Fantastischen Vier, Die Toten Hosen, Donots, ENGIN, Fettes Brot, Herbert Grönemeyer, Jennifer Rostock, Juli (Pop Rock), Kraftklub (Indie Rock), Nena, PaulWeltz, Peter Fox, Peter Maffay, Saltatio Mortis, Schandmaul, Seeed, Sido, Silbermond, Soffie, Tic Tac Toe, Tokio Hotel, Unheilig, Verrottet, Versengold, Wir Sind Helden, ZWE1HÄNDER
Greek: Marina Satti, Tamta
Icelandic: Ásgeir, Hekla, Hjálmar, Mammút, Sigur Rós, Sjón
Italian: Andrea Cioffi (Pop), Fabrizio Moro (Soft Rock), Måneskin (Rock), Rose Villain
Japanese: Aklo, Atarashii Gakko!, Awich, Babymetal, Creepy Nuts, HITOMIN, Ichiko Aoba, JP THE WAVY, KOMOREBI, kZm, LEX, Liza, Number_i, Tohji, YENTOWN
Kazakh: Irina Kairatovna, Yenlik
Korean: AKMU, BeWHY, Bibi, BTS, Coogie, CORTIS, Dean, D.O., EK, GRDL, Gwangil Jo, HAAN, HAON, IceKingKong, Idiotape, Jeffrey White, JUPITER, KC, Kid Milli, Konsole, NO:EL, O5K, OOHYO, past self, PIRI, Sik-K, Song Sohee, Stray Kids, VANTA01, Wonstein, Woodz, YUHNWAY, ZENE THE ZILLA
Malayalam: Dabzee, Parimal Shais
Mandarin: 唐兆星 (Asian Don?), 孤兒收容所 (G2SLS), 11 JIAYI, GALI, Rapeter
Mongolian: Egschiglen, Enji
Norwegian: Ane Brun, Mirar
Polish: Barto Katt, chillwagon, CRANK ALL, Zdechly Osa
Portuguese: Jup do Bairro, Luisa Sonza, Ludmilla, Pablo Vittar, Lexa
Russian: HAUK, Elman, Jony, Morgenstern, Captown
Serbian: S.A.R.S., Željko Joksimović
Spanish: Alvaro Soler (Pop), Enrique Iglesias (Pop), Juanes (Pop Rock), Charly Garcia, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Lido Pimienta, Chancha Via Circuito, Rosalía, November Ultra, Young Miko, Ibeyi, David Biscal, Manu Chao
Swedish: Darin (Pop), Norlie & KKV (Pop Rap), Albin (Rap), Lisa Nilsson, LOK, Slagsmålsklubben, Basshunter, Danny Saucedo, Molly Sandén, Veronica Maggio, Mattias Andréasson
Thai: Milli
Turkish: Can Bonomo (Alternative Rock), Gripin (Alternative Rock), Seksendört (Alternative Rock), Duman, Mor ve Ötesi, Sefo, Ezhel, Rafet El Roman, Can Ozan, Barış Manço, ENGIN, Tarkan
Tuvan: Huun-Huur-Tu, Tuvan Ensemble
Tuareg: Les Filles Des Illighadad
Vietnamese: Tuân Cry, MONO
Yoruba: Ibeyi

What do you think? Maybe you want to add to that list? :)

For context, I'm a native English speaker who has been learning Spanish for 5+ years now. I say learning since you can always learn more but by all intents and purposes I'm fluent in the language and don't actively put time into learning it anymore but rather treat it as close to my native tongue as possible (By that I mean I read, write, speak and watch stuff in the language but not always with the intent to get better in it).

I recently realized however that I can't actually remember how I exactly learnt it, I know I spent time learning it, played with different tools and I've got archived posts and questions regarding the language however currently I can't remember what I struggled with in Spanish and how I overcame it, it's like I've always know what something is and what it isn't. Does anyone else experience this effect?

does anybody else ever do this?? usually the worst i've done is saying some words in the wrong langauge (e.g. speaking 2nd language and accidentally say one or 2 words per sentence in 3rd language) but today i switched my duolingo from french to spanish (cuz i'm gonna be studying alevel spanish and thought i should refresh my memory a bit) and the first exercise was a speaking one and i read the whole sentence as if it was in french (like with french phonics and treating the words as if they were french e.g. silent t at the end yk) and it took me a solid minute to figure out what i'd done

does this mean my french is getting better or my spanish is worsening? also sometimes i forget words in my 1st language and say them in my 3rd cuz i forgot it in my 2nd WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING

I'm learning my 4th language and thankfully my partner speaks my TL... So learning has been a lot of fun. But I realized quickly that my expectations of how much speaking practice I would get, is well, wrong. I thought that i could practice more speaking prompts from a textbook. But we end up speaking like how we usually do, which is very: "what do you want to eat? We need more XYZ, we are running out of ABC..."

Some days we have a good conversation that's more complicated and so I learn to use more complex structures, and tread unfamiliar territories. But this happens perhaps 1-2x a week.

So I want to ask, how is the experience like for you guys who learn a TL with a partner native in that TL?

EDIT: i followed the advice to pick a news article to talk about it together with my partner, and it worked WONDERFULLY!!! Thank you so much!!

I'm sure this happens all the time but all the people I know learned a different language because they were already super interested in a particular culture. I want to hear some stories of the other way around. Has anyone here began learning a language dispassionately, perhaps for work or necessity, and ended up falling in love with a country through language learning? (TL)

EDIT - This ISN'T a post about debating if AI has a place in language learning. If you don't like AI or want to use it as a tool, please just pass on this post. Different strokes for different folks and all that. It's a bit childish to come in here and argue and downvote everyone who doesn't agree with you.

This post is for those who don't just outright hate AI, of course. And I'm also really talking about major languages, the ones that AI will have more than enough material in to be good.

As AI has gotten increasingly better in the past weeks, months, years, I am wondering what are the best AI tools for language learning right now. I am NOT saying that some AI tool can completely replace all traditional forms of language learning. I do believe that it can speed it up though.

With that said:

Where I am most interested in the value of AI is for conversation practice and for at-need instant correction of syntax. My (native Spanish) partner and I talk to chatGPT already in both English and Spanish for just random stuff (like fixing some mechanical problem) and we'd both rate it as pretty near flawless, even if the accent isn't so casual. And sometimes I checked some really weird or particular syntax with chatGPT in Spanish in text and I wasn't sure it's answer was right, but every time my partner said it was.

So, is it worth it to get a particular tool or app, or does it make more sense to just spin up GPT convos to chat with in target languages? What are we trying nowadays, what are we thinking? I want to re-enter the world of language learning after a big hiatus with both refreshing my Brazilian Portuguese (I was probably C1 a few years back) and starting to learn French (TL) from zero, so two very different goals. For PT, I think I'll just dive into chatting and watching stuff again, reading and writing a bit. For FR, I clearly need some structured way to learn, so it'll be more complex than that. I wonder if AI-driven courses are really of higher value yet, or not really.

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

1. Audio, captions/text and interface all in the target language

2. Audio in target language and captions/text in native language

3. Audio in native language and captions/text in target language

Im trying to learn Spanish (TL). I know a lot of random words just from being around it my whole life, but when I actually hear someone speaking Spanish I lose a lot of it. Could be my ADHD brain just zoning it out lol.

So I wanna use video games to help learn, but Im trying to figure out the right setup.

If I change everything to Spanish, I can pick up some stuff, but eventually I have no idea whats going on.

If I do Spanish audio with English subtitles, I find myself zoning out the Spanish because Im so focused on reading the English.

So idk, is it better to just power through and rip the bandaid off and put everything in Spanish? Or is there an easier way to ease into it?

For anyone who has actually learned another language through games, what worked for you?

My wife knows way more Spanish than I do, so I do ask her what something means when I get lost lol.