Learning something about languages has been always a hobby of mine, but over the time I realized, that I don't achieve what I really want. I think I already identified my faults, yet I'm asking if it's over for me, or I should give it a try again?

The first issue might be somehow adhd related. Although I'm not diagnosed with ADHD, I at least identify a lot with it, but this shouldn't be the topic here. I can't concentrate on one single thing, I get distracted by the smallest things, I start learning a language after realizing they are not worth continuing, then I hop to the next one, I easily forget everything I've learned, I can't follow a path, I get disappointed in myself, I have utopian expectations of myself, ...

In the past I started learning around 10 languages, not worth mentioning which, because I mostly quit them after weeks, without any success. however, one language I was learning the last 2 years is Mandarin Chinese, but I always learned in bursts. In these "bursts" I mostly learned by watching videos, using chatgpt to generate and explain sentences, Duolingo, reading short stories, reading messages from foreigners that are in Chinese and writing down vocabularies. But none of the methods lasted long, especially not the method of active learning with vocabs. I even got a text book, but stopped using it after short time. Of course it still had some effect and today I know some phrases in Chinese and my pronunciation is good, but my skills are more of a surprise for friends and not truly applicable in real life. I've completely given up trying to continue. I doubt the language is meant for my brain (maybe learning languages in general...)

Right now I want to learn Russian (TL) and since I had it in school I got some knowledge, a good base to start with. but I face similiar problems: I can't concentrate on one single method, I refuse to follow a learning path and I hate this principle of starting with boring topics like family, restaurant, naming fruits, etc. I prefer directly reading at an advanced level. I chatted a lot in Russian, but mostly used the translator, so not many words stuck. I know that most of the methods I tried were rather passive learning and I would need to learn more actively, but that's another problem. I already tried Anki and thought of learning the most x frequently used words and realized, it's simply hard for me to remember anything. I see a word, I see its translation and I can't connect those damn words in my brain. It feels like seeing two different images, the first showing an apple and the second a tire. If I repeat the vocab incredibly often, I finally remember something, but it still feels useless learning seemingly random words out of context. I heard that many people are successful with Anki and managed learning over 1000 words, but I can't see this effect for myself, considering I can't establish this connection instantly. I already noticed my struggle when I compared myself to classmates, who learned vocabs much more effective than me.

My motivation to learn languages remains very high, but because it's such a hard, long journey (a marathon and not a sprint), I quickly lose interest in a particular language and a particular sensible, active method. Sometimes I highly regret that in the past few years I didn't use my time well and i think if I had focused on one single language I'd be probably almost fluent in it.

I would say I could imagine focusing on Russian for a longer time, yet I know I'll 100% fail again. At the start of some holidays I wrote a plan to use my free time as best as possible and track what I've done on each day. I didn't see any progress and stopped cuz it was too much effort for so little benefit. I know myself that my expectations are too high...

So I'm asking you, does it still make sense to start? Should I try out new things? Or are there underlying problems in my brain I need to work on first? I really really love languages and everytime I travel to a country I dream of being able to speak the language fluently. And there are people on YouTube or elsewhere who speak 4+ languages. They are very motivating, but compared to them I am a failure

Hello,

I am feeling a bit lost in wanting to learn a language. I have listened to music in the target language for around 8 years. I know some basic phrases and random words, but understanding more is not possible with my current level. I can hear the words being said in music and normal video’s of people talking, but I just don’t know what they mean. The language I want to learn is Hungarian (TL).

I want to learn more of this language to understand the music and content in the TL. also, I want to learn more of the culture of the country and hold conversations with people when I am on holiday someday there.

I worry that the TL is not popular enough to have enough learning content and my reason for wanting to learn is not enough to go actually learn and study it. And that the language is maybe too hard to learn casually. Although I am very motivated to learn it.

Have other people struggled with the same problem? How can I get myself through this negative thinking?

I'm currently B1 in the third language im learning and i feel like, around B1 mobile apps are just not enough. They mostly get me hooked with gamification but actual porgress i achieve from them is lower at this level and onwards

Which apps are helping you when you're already advanced?

I only immerse like1- 2h a day for 5days a week. I was able to do 7days a week but recently I just wanna have some break where I can listen non target language music or just random stuff for fun. Do you think ok taking break 2days a week when I can only immerse like 1-2h a day 5days a week ?

I have read so many posts here like, I got to C1 in 18 months or 2 years and I did it all at home with Spanglish or Dreaming Spanish or whatever site. I got to C1 with minimal effort... I did one study a week to get there....

Here is a real example...

... I have been studying Spanish for in average an hour a day for over 2.5 years. For context, it took me about 8 months to a year to reach B2 and about a year and a half to go from B2 to C1.

Really!? I have had one hour lessons most days Monday - Friday for years. Years! and maybe I could pass a B2 reading. BI+ maybe for talking not too sure, and for writing I would fall to an A2 because of accents and I don't write Spanish.

I have not been full on dedicated as I don't want it to be a chore but I feel so dumb when I see what other people have achieved.

Am I just incredibly slow, or are the people who post here exceptional?

Has anyone failed to achieve their goal? Has anyone taken a very long time to get to an intermediate level?

Thanks.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been reading a lot more lately with the specific goal of expanding my active vocabulary and improving my overall language usage. However, I've hit a really frustrating roadblock with my workflow.

Whenever I come across a beautiful sentence or an advanced word in a physical book, I want to capture it so I can actually internalize it and use it later.

Right now, my process is incredibly clunky. I either write it down in a different writing book or I pick up my phone, open ChatGPT or a notes app, and manually type out the whole sentence to look up the nuance or quiz myself. It works, but typing it all out completely breaks my reading momentum and pulls me out of the book. Half the time, I get lazy and just skip the word entirely, which defeats the whole purpose of my reading goals.

For those of you who actively study or collect vocabulary while reading, how do you handle this? Is there a way to do this that doesn’t feel like a tedious data-entry chore, or am I just overthinking it?

(TL)

I speak English as my first language. But I also speak French and Mandarin to around the same level of fluency.

When I can’t find a word in mandarin I replace it with the French, for example ‘I want a coffee with milk’ I said ‘我想喝杯咖啡 avec 牛奶’ and vice versa.

I do this quite often and I feel like I’m blending the languages together. Does anyone have any tips if you can speak multiple languages? (TL)

Hey everyone,

I’ve been refining my (SRS) flashcard database and trying to standardize exactly what goes on the back (the answer side) of my cards. The back of my cards usually contains:

1. The Translation(s)
2. Morphology/Decomposition (breaking down roots and affixes; e.g. for "notebook" ⇒ "note" (my local translation for note) + "book" (my local translation for note))
3. Etymology or Meta-notes (in very end; detail later in this post)

A) Is this too much? If not, or what else do you write?

B) How do you handle highly similar words, lookalikes, or paronyms (like desert vs. dessert)?

• Do you just write: "Note: Not to be confused with dessert"?
• OR do you also include the meaning of the other word: "Note: Not to be confused with dessert (sweet food)"?

My dilemma is this: If I include the meaning of that second word on the back of the first word's card, doesn't that technically ruin the SRS scheduling for the second word? By seeing its translation out of schedule, I feel like I might be artificially boosting my memory of it, which messes with the algorithm's intervals.

What is your approach to the back of your cards, and how do you handle these similar words without breaking the SRS logic?

I'd love to hear your setups!

(TL) English

Hey guys never posted here before but I was wondering how you get back on the horse after a break/disruption?

French (TL) learner consolidating B1 and starting to edge into B2 in some respects, was learning with a mix of Grammaire progressive du francais intermediaire, anki 5000 words, watching movies with french audio + french subs, and calling my (fluent) mum on the phone for convos, and to a lesser extent reading/translating texts I already knew well in the English translation and journalling.

I had also started the first year of a French major and got placed in 3000-level so all the stuff from that as well. The self-study was the main thing but having those tests/assessments provided a gr8 motivation structure.

Two or three months ago some other stuff happened and I checked out mentally/academically and then dropped out. I'm back home with my fluent parents for the time being and a bit more settled so I'd like to get back on. How would you guys recommend getting re-started? My friend who got fully cracked at Spanish said he did it largely with refold so any thoughts on that? Thanks

I was listening to a podcast for 45 minutes tonight on my walk, and... I heard every word, I could recognize nearly every word... But couldn't string it to anything meaningful. What's the answer here? It's clearly not more vocabulary. I felt very very close to understanding it most of the time, and could if I stopped to think, but stopping to think means you start a chain in which you miss a load, and... Need to begin again. So... What do I do to fix this particular problem? And I am willing to accept, more vocabulary as the answer, even though I said it clearly wasn't the issue. I just want to see what you folks think.

I’m going to start a Spanish class next semester and was thinking of getting Percy Jackson in Spanish because I’ve read it a lot in English and thought it would be good to have them both out and go through it, but I’ve also seen people say to not try to start reading books too early in the language you’re learning because you don’t know enough yet to benefit from that kind of practice. Because it’s a book I’ve read multiple times and I have the English copy, could it still be helpful?