Any else wish they could just concentrate on one and get fluent rather than flitting backwards and forwards and never getting anywhere? Then again, maybe fluency isn't necessary unless you feel particularly drawn to one country. I speak a bit of Portuguese, Welsh and Japanese but always end up spending a bit of time working on one before switching to one of the others for one reason or another. Sometimes I wish I could make a choice and concentrate on one but can never decide that one is more important to me than the others.
Stuck between learning languages and never getting anywhere
- Thread starter nightowl
- Start date
spring-peeper
Well-Known Member
Congratulations on learning all those languages!!!
I only have English and French, but envy those who speak multiple languages.
I only have English and French, but envy those who speak multiple languages.
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
The Irish started coming back to me over the last couple of years... just bits and pieces... but getting a handle on Japanese is really tough
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
I find that they go if they aren't used but come back fairly quickly. when immersed in them. Italian, which I learned entirely informally in Italy, seems to stick way better than French and Russian which I learned in school. I have stopped trying to learn German. I have had several goes at that including some time spent in Germany, but while I have no problem with vocabulary or pronunciation I just bounce off the grammar.
girasol
Addicted to handstands!
The only languages I'm fluent in are the ones I lived in the country... I learned English in school, always got good grades, but when I arrived in the UK no one could understand what I said, and likewise, I couldn't understand anything unless they spoke slowly. It took about a year in London to be able to have a proper conversation in English. I could read and write fine, but the oral part takes the longest.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I am very bad at learning foreign languages (as is my mother) and spent some time investigating natural aptitude for them. Language teachers are taught to dismiss the idea that some people are crap at it and tend to say that anyone can learn a language equally to any other if they apply themselves. The US army, who spend a lot of money teaching languages, disagree, and have a language learning aptitude test for their officers so that they only bother teaching languages to those who are good at it. Make of that what you will. I know that I did everything that anyone could possibly recommend in order to learn a relatively easy language, Spanish, including individual conversation lessons (as well as standard lessons), and total immersion for months, and it was always like wading through mud. I did become able to speak a bit but I was noticeably crap at it after spending thousands on lessons and two years in Latin America.
krtek a houby
Anger is Hi-NRG
Learning stuff, remembering stuff gets more difficult as the years go on. Was never particularly good at ingesting knowledge when younger, but not for lack of trying.
Sadly, some people just don't get it. And sometimes, some others don't get that we don't get it, either.
Would love to be multilingual.
Sadly, some people just don't get it. And sometimes, some others don't get that we don't get it, either.
Would love to be multilingual.
heinous seamus
Perfect in an empty room
I'm on a 150-odd day Norwegian streak on Duolingo. I made a fairly concerted effort to learn Russian about a decade ago. That was too hard though!
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
I found Russian really easy. The grammar isn't that complicated and once you learn Cyrillic it is pretty rigidly phonetic. The only problem is how different a culture the idioms are from. I'm not sure it is possible to learn the Russian language in any useful way without also learning about Russian culture.
Superdupastupor
fun to funky
Work out your objectives and motivations. and work from there.
Fluency is a pretty slippery term:
Do you want to make up a good part of a conversation with your friends down the pub( this is a skill something like juggling, get your self down to clown school)
Do you want to share a few friendly words with your Brazilian workmate (learning sentence formation/grammar/phonology)
Fan of Japanese culture?, loads of it out there ( children TV shows can be pretty entertaining, captivating and repetitive)
objectives and motivations
Força!
Fluency is a pretty slippery term:
Do you want to make up a good part of a conversation with your friends down the pub( this is a skill something like juggling, get your self down to clown school)
Do you want to share a few friendly words with your Brazilian workmate (learning sentence formation/grammar/phonology)
Fan of Japanese culture?, loads of it out there ( children TV shows can be pretty entertaining, captivating and repetitive)
objectives and motivations
Força!
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zedr
new but not *that* new
would be interested to read more about the US army's research if you've got any links. I used to be a language teacher and definitely wasn't taught that anyone can learn a language tho its probably close to what I believe.
what I remember from my training is that language acquisition is largely influenced by your environment as a baby//child. the more sounds you hear and practice using, the more likely you are to find learning languages and making meaning with those sounds easy - tho doubt its a hard and fast rule.
tho... think this is probably wildly out of date now. haven't looked much into natural aptitude and iirc chompsky's theory of a universal grammar is widely discredited
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
The US army uses a test that is apparently used across governmental agencies: Modern Language Aptitude Test - Wikipedia
Anyway, it's a bit of a side track as it seems what many people lack is persistence/motivation. But if you have that and it still doesn't work, you might just be bad at it!
Anyway, it's a bit of a side track as it seems what many people lack is persistence/motivation. But if you have that and it still doesn't work, you might just be bad at it!
Agent Sparrow
the age of slippers and migraines
I have a relatively crap working memory and that definitely gets on the way of being able to speak and comprehend spoken languages. It also posed problems with sight reading music written for the piano.
In terms of what is fluency, the irritating thing with something like Welsh for example is that I can express myself reasonably well, with the odd English word thrown in just as you hear a lot of ordinary people doing. However I then try and watch S4C (Welsh TV channel) and really struggle to follow a lot of the programmes which makes me think maybe I haven't learnt enough after all.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
This is part of my problem (along with memory). Somehow I constantly struggled to distinguish the words in a fluent flow of the language. I would notice how some people who knew less Spanish than me could follow a conversation of native speakers much more easily. Understanding or not understanding fluent spoken language becomes a bit of a self-reinforcing thing. If you can follow it, you just learn more as you go, if you can't, being around native speakers doesn't help much.
ouirdeaux
Caring, Understanding, Non-judgemental Type
They also tend to lack exposure.
Sure, some people are better at picking up languages than others. But everybody can learn a language, because everybody has already learnt a language, namely their own.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I think learning a second language is pretty fundamentally different from learning your first native language. For starters your brain is pretty different as an adult, but also you have a tendency to compare to your first language which makes the whole process different.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I come from a family of polyglots, so I am a natural at learning new languages. Or I was, rather. It's to my eternal regret that I didn't pursue language learning and make a career out of it. Too late now. 
ouirdeaux
Caring, Understanding, Non-judgemental Type
I think that the difference between learning a second language and one's native tongue has been exaggerated. Sure, the brain is different. But the bigger problem is -- as you say -- comparing the language you speak with the second. This problem increases the older you are, and the less familiar with other languages you are.
It is not inevitable. People who are considered good at picking up other languages are able not to do it. People who consider themselves bad at languages can learn not to do it, or at least curb their instincts to do it.
And again, it's exposure. The massive exposure of great parts of the world to English means that there are vast numbers of people who can manage to make themselves understood in English to some extent. This is not because they are intrinsically better at languages, let alone generally more intelligent.
Agent Sparrow
the age of slippers and migraines
UK schools are also pretty shit at teaching languages tbf. Well at least they were when I was at school.
I came late to enjoying learning languages, and when I hung around with loads of Spanish people in my late 20s and early 30s didn't take any advantage of it.
I have now got a ridiculous streak on Duo and a fairly ridiculous streak on Drops. I once completed (at level 1) Duo Spanish, but now I'm somewhere in Unit 5. I'm also in Unit 3 in Japanese (which I did as a challenge language) and I did a little bit of Chinese because I figured having learned some kanji it might be easier. (It was slightly, but mostly it was just different)
Can I use any of them? Well, I can manage to deal with people in Spanish at a simple level. And I can tell people I don't speak Japanese pretty well. Still fun though, and today's streak beckons...
I have now got a ridiculous streak on Duo and a fairly ridiculous streak on Drops. I once completed (at level 1) Duo Spanish, but now I'm somewhere in Unit 5. I'm also in Unit 3 in Japanese (which I did as a challenge language) and I did a little bit of Chinese because I figured having learned some kanji it might be easier. (It was slightly, but mostly it was just different)
Can I use any of them? Well, I can manage to deal with people in Spanish at a simple level. And I can tell people I don't speak Japanese pretty well. Still fun though, and today's streak beckons...
muscovyduck
Good IT skills and food hygiene competent
I was awful at it at school but okay as an adult. But the barriers caused by being bad at it at school do a lot of damage. I'm currently learning a minority language. I want to try and get certificates to prove what level I'm at because I think that would help with my confidence a lot, and then move on to relearning the ones from school (which I was alright at looking back, just the way they were teaching it was ridiculous) and doing the same collecting certificates. At least that gives me some sort of framework, especially when I'm unlikely to use the languages frequently IRL
Gromit
International Man of Misery
I have an aptitude but no persistence.
Three Welsh beginner’s courses but kept dropping out at intermediate when they switched tutors on me (excellent tutor would leave to be replaced by an awful one).
Well that’s my excuse.
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
I had that issue with english when I got here, it did take a year to feel confident.
I picked up napolitan from squatting with a bunch of Italians but this was replaced by castillan when I went to south america (I had started dreaming in it after 6 months), I can order white beer and say thank you in german with 3 years of learning it at school.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I work with an Algerian, a former scientist, who has been in the UK for about 40 years, but I can barely understand much of what he says. It’s clear that he believes he is fluent in English - I can’t fathom whether it’s down to my lack of comprehension skills or if it is just that his grasp of English remains poor. Probably both. His sentences’ lack of syntax demand close attention and on-the-spot mental detective work and I struggle with both. This is one of the reasons I’m ambivalent about learning a new language as an adult. I wouldn’t want to force other people have to make a strenuous effort to parse out in order to get a clue about whatever I’m blethering on about
Riklet
procrastinación
It's never too late.I come from a family of polyglots, so I am a natural at learning new languages. Or I was, rather. It's to my eternal regret that I didn't pursue language learning and make a career out of it. Too late now.
If it interests you, it's always worth pursuing.
AnnO'Neemus
Is so vanilla
Learned some French at school, I used to be quite good at it, used to come top of the year in exams, but I only got a B at O'Level.
I've done a couple internships in France through EU-funded programmes. Managed to vaguely get by, but couldn't fully function and participate.
Last year I started studying with Alliance Française. Courses are in eight week blocks, so it's easier to commit to (in comparison with language courses at the local college, which lasted a year). I signed up for a course, then went to France to do another internship, then came back and signed up for more courses.
I feel like I've made quite a bit of progress over the past year. The classes/courses help. But I've also been doing Duolingo for just over 1,000 days. While I don't think the app really teaches the langue, as such, I think it helps build vocabulary, which is key. Some of my classmates struggle when trying to practice talking, because they get stuck when they're trying to say something because they don't know a particular word. Because Duolingo is gamified ome of the exercises are timed, which means that you have to learn to have fast recall. So become used to recalling words quickly. Which means than when you're practising talking in class words spring to mind, you don't get as easily stumped. I think it's really useful in that respect. Although my grammar's probably all over the place and I'm probably not conjugating lots of verbs correctly. But I'm understanding the gist of what's being said and making myself understood.
I've done a couple internships in France through EU-funded programmes. Managed to vaguely get by, but couldn't fully function and participate.
Last year I started studying with Alliance Française. Courses are in eight week blocks, so it's easier to commit to (in comparison with language courses at the local college, which lasted a year). I signed up for a course, then went to France to do another internship, then came back and signed up for more courses.
I feel like I've made quite a bit of progress over the past year. The classes/courses help. But I've also been doing Duolingo for just over 1,000 days. While I don't think the app really teaches the langue, as such, I think it helps build vocabulary, which is key. Some of my classmates struggle when trying to practice talking, because they get stuck when they're trying to say something because they don't know a particular word. Because Duolingo is gamified ome of the exercises are timed, which means that you have to learn to have fast recall. So become used to recalling words quickly. Which means than when you're practising talking in class words spring to mind, you don't get as easily stumped. I think it's really useful in that respect. Although my grammar's probably all over the place and I'm probably not conjugating lots of verbs correctly. But I'm understanding the gist of what's being said and making myself understood.
zedr
new but not *that* new
you'll be pleased to know they're still absolutely shite.
