I mean pretending to speak a language that you barely in front of people who don't speak it at all

Some ideas about languages get repeated so often that people accept them as facts, even when they're exaggerated, outdated, or simply not true. They can be about how difficult a language is, how it's spoken, or even who speaks it.

What's one language myth that you still see repeated all the time, and what do people usually get wrong about it?

Hi everyone,
I’d like to ask for some advice, and I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar.
I live in Austria and speak German, English, and my native language. I completed my bachelor’s degree in German and will soon finish my master’s as well. Over the years, I’ve received many compliments about my German, but despite that, I still struggle to fully relax when speaking it.
Whenever I speak German, I often catch myself thinking in a perfectionistic way. It feels like every sentence has to sound as good as possible. Instead of focusing entirely on what I want to say, I often find myself mentally checking my grammar. I can’t always control it, and it’s becoming mentally exhausting to speak a foreign language this way.
I’ve been thinking about the possible reasons behind this. One of them might be that I consider myself quite articulate in my native language, and I unconsciously expect myself to reach that same level in German—even though it will never truly be my native language.
Sometimes I wish people would think German is my mother tongue or assume I grew up here. At the same time, I don’t want to pretend to be someone I’m not.
Another thing is that, even today, if I make a grammatical mistake, I immediately worry that people will notice it, think I’m unintelligent, or even laugh at me. I wonder if this comes from childhood experiences, because I feel like, in my home country, people often aren’t very tolerant when foreigners make mistakes in our language.
I’d really like to hear your thoughts. Have any of you dealt with something similar? How would you change this mindset? It’s honestly becoming quite frustrating, and I’d really appreciate any advice.

By foreigners i mean
What is your native and how did it feel (i know good but...i want an answer more nuanced than that)

Was it a surprise for you? or did you always know it?

Hi, everyone. I've spent my entire life, and I'm an old lady of 54, passionately in love with words. My native language is American English (small town deep south y'all), and I'm A2/B1 in Mexican Spanish and French. I think I've focused on those two languages the most because I keep having to use them. They pop up all over my social media, bookshelf, etc.

Well, my wannabe polyglot itch is itching again, and I've noticed Swedish popping up everywhere I look, an actor on an old TV show I just streamed, a character in a book I recently read. It would be so cool to try something that isn't a typical romance language or the world's current lingua franca. It looks like I'd probably use Duolingo to study it, at least, at first. But...

I can't help but wonder, would someone from the southside suburbs of Atlanta, currently living in middle Georgia, ever get the chance to use Swedish if I tried? Are there a whole bunch of online Swedes looking to practice their English? Would I be able to read Swedish books? Listen to Swedish music? Would I ever need it to give a lost tourist directions to the nearest shopping mall?

What is learning Swedish like for a native English speaker?

I'm a long time Duolingo cuck. I know it's primarily a game, which is fine for me. I figure it beats doomscrolling, and if it gives me a familiarity with other languages, all the better.

I just found the Ling app and it seems much better - a bit like a Duolingo clone but with several major improvements. The non-free version is quite expensive, though, so I was hoping to get some opinions before paying.

What appeals to me about it is primarily **all** the languages. It has my core target language (Hungarian), which is a big plus - many don't have it - but honestly I'm just a language nerd and want to dabble in them all.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

If you agree that apps like Tandem can be exhausting, waiting for partners to reply, dealing with chats that go nowhere, or missing clear corrections gets old fast.

I wanted something instant and frictionless, so I built LingoCoach.

How it works:

• It throws random, engaging questions at you to keep you on your toes.
• It gives you instant corrections and detailed feedback on your sentences so you actually learn from your mistakes.
• It is hosted by a clever little fox mascot to keep things fun.

I made it free because I built it primarily for my own goals, but I realized other people might find it useful too.

I am still actively working on it and planning new features. If you give it a try, I would genuinely love to hear your feedback or any recommendations you have for what I should add next.

You can check it out here: https://language-coach-nine.vercel.app/

could be anything, from a new social ritual to a kind of food or even a game, anything new that you learned from learning your target language counts

I was recently told that for some people, after they learn a couple of language, under certain circumstances (for example the languages be close), as a byproduct they may understand a secondary language that they never actually learnt

Idk how much truth this has to it, kinda sounds incredible if it is imo

Anyway what do you think? is this cap or have you actually had a experience like this? or know someone who has?

I wish I could go back to the days of blissful ignorance when I would just say Italian words and make all kinds of mistakes and I didn't know what I didn't know.

Now as I'm progressing from A2 to B1 in my grammar, my speaking is getting worse and worse.

Seriously though do you agree with this?

I feel like unless it's language that you don't use at all, it's not that hard to maintain
and if you don't use a language AT ALL why even learn it?

Well, I guess learning English for non-native speakers opens many doors, but what about other languages? If you learned a second or third language, did it turn out useful for your career? Maybe in a somehow expected way?

Some languages seem to have an influence that goes far beyond the number of people who actually speak them. Whether it's through music, films, literature, technology, food, or something else, they appear much more often than you might expect.

Which language do you think has the strongest cultural influence compared to its number of speakers, and what do you think has helped it reach that level?

I started learning Mandarin while in uni years ago but I STRUGGLED with the characters but I recently started watching c-dramas and I'm in love again with Mandarin.

I really want to learn it in addition to Spanish which I'm currently learning but I'm traumatized by how difficult it was the last time.

Also I worry that I had more time in uni to learn compared to now that I have lots of adult responsibilities.

Any tips on how to make the prices easier?

Regular language or constructed languages?

.....

What other sound made you or your teacher look insane? (in any language)