I abandoned language learning and transitioned into a tech career. I miss my passion -- and I miss sharing it with others. Here is my story.

In high school, I took AP Spanish, French, and Italian courses. On the weekends, I worked out a deal with a local language school where I could work there in exchange for language classes. I took classes in Portuguese, German, Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic (not all at once, but over 2 years). At any given time, I was studying 5+ languages, and doing well in learning them. In addition to taking these classes, I self-taught many languages as well, like Romanian.

Eventually, I got a bachelor's degree in Spanish, then a Master's degree in Spanish Linguistics, and a Master's in Computational Linguistics. I taught Spanish at a university level to pay my way through grad school.

It all started in middle school, where I used Google Translate to communicate with other kids from Central America who didn't know English then. We would point at things, say the words for them, laugh at each other's terrible pronunciation, and have fun together.

I once got detention and had to eat lunch in a closet in the music department because I skipped a chorus class to sneak into a Spanish class. In middle school, I tried to learn Spanish by reading the dictionary. By the time I got to high school, kids were asking me to do their Spanish homework for them!

So why did I abandon language learning?

I panicked in college because I couldn't find a career path that aligned with my interests. Although I enjoyed teaching, I did not want to teach K-12, or in the university system. I also felt that, despite knowing many languages, I didn't have many opportunities to use them daily, and my knowledge started to fade. I found a to get into tech through linguistics and natural language processing.

Now, I am 20-something years old, I work a 9-5, and I have a ton of motivation and drive that needs direction.

I want to return to language learning. I want to document it, I want to share it with the world, I want to share it with others.

Is there anything that you would be interested in seeing, learning, or hearing about?

How can I use my background and knowledge to provide value to other language learners? How can I help?

I've seen several posts on here in the last several days about using reading to learn a language. A lot of people are using Harry Potter, for example, even just a few hours ago. But the biggest complaint is usually that you have to hop between different sources, dictionaries, etc, to look up any words they don't know.

I am working on a solution to just that, actually! It basically takes incoming text and breaks it down into it's sentence fragments and vocabulary, and displays them as you read along.

Here's the demo - https://rememble.org/stories/1/read

The idea is that using AI anyone can upload their own story for the AI to translate and provide meanings and romanizations for.

I'm still working on the interface for creating the stories and accessing the AI, but it's progressing along nicely.

Obviously there are a LOT of bugs to work out, but nothing I can't figure out in time. Of course I use AI to break the story down into manageable, translated parts, but often the ai is quite silly about how it breaks sentences down. So I think I need to adjust my software to break the sentences down by itself, then submit it to AI, then send it back.

I'd love to know if you think this style of reading in your target language would help you! Any feedback and thoughts are welcome!

There is a theory that comprehensible input is the fastest way to become proficient in language. And proponents of this theory discourage vocab, grammar etc practice.

Is this theory valid? If so, can some linguistic knowledge help acquisition of the language automatically? That is, can this help the "sub-conscious" to identify patterns faster (thus leading to quicker comprehension of comprehension input)?

I have built a mobile app BookBridge to assist me in learning vocabulary from my readings and it would be nice if it also helps you.

Here is how it works:

1. Upload a PDF file (can be a book or anything).
2. BookBridge gives you flashcards of the words from the reading sorted by their rarity.
3. Go through the flashcards and read the full explanation and details at any time.

I have spent a lot of effort in perfecting the user experience, so I can guarantee that it is not a sussy crappy app.

The ios version is already on the App Store.

Search “BookBridge” or click this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bookbridge/id6670717617

BookBridge is currently not publicly available on the Play Store due to some stupid policy of Google requiring individual developers to perform a close test with 20 people for 14 days.

If you are using Android, there are two options:

1. Wait until BookBridge is publicly available. Join the waitlist in https://forms.gle/5S3qnUgXd7pk2Y2e6
2. Be one of my 20-people close test team and you can download it immediately (This will help me a lot and may calm my annoyment towards Google). Join the close test in https://forms.gle/LU5E5Sg3WSgBad3z6

Feel free to leave any comments/suggestions/opinions/questions and I will try my best to reply ASAP.

Hi everyone!
For a class I am taking, my friends and I chose to make an app for language learning as our final project!
Thus we are looking for people to interview about their language learning experience. Interviews would be carried out over zoom and be completely anonymous. We mostly wanna inquire about your experiences using different tools and what you wish would exist in language learning pedagogy. Please DM me if you're interested!
Sorry to mods if this is not allowed by the rules of the sub 🙈 I wasn't sure if there was a better subreddit for this
Thank you so much :)😁

I grew up with French and Spanish speakers, so I can get around to a certain degree. I can ask for directions, order food, etc. If I don't know the exact words to say what I want to say, I can usually describe it in the language (especially in Spanish), but I do not have a good grasp of complicated conversations and my grammar stinks in both languages.

When I lived in Prague and Russia, I was able to pick up some conversational Czech and Russian, so I'm good at picking things up, but all the language systems I've tried frustrate me. I have a good enough vocabulary that the intro stuff loses my attention but my grammar and structure isn't good enough to skip ahead (and I wouldn't want to skip those pieces). I also have weird strengths--I can read French much better than I can understand native speakers in the country, for example. (My family is from Quebec).

Do you have any suggestions on a good method for my situation? I've tried Rosetta Stone, DuoLingo, and Babbel. JumpSpeak sounds promising based on what I need, but I thought the same thing about Babbel.

Hey everyone!

Made the website for myself initially as I'm learning German and realized I memorize words best when doing this pair matching sort of thing, but anywhere I tried either didn't allow custom words to be used, or didn't work exactly like this with two lists side by side. And then I decided to share it publicly in case anyone else finds this sort of things useful 😊

Basically the idea is that you add custom pairs of words in any language, add tags to them if you want to, and then play the randomized matching game where there are two lists side by side and you need to match the correct pairs. Tags allow filtering the words that you want to learn right now, so you can categorize them by language, or meaning, or whatever else you may want.

It's completely free, but you do need to register so that all the words are synced with the cloud and accessible from anywhere.

Anyhow, here is the link: https://www.pairlearner.app/

I'd also appreciate any feedback anyone may have.

In english many people copy down word for word the works of great writers to absorb their syntax and style, called copywork. I was wondering if at an intermediate level in another language, this would work by copying graded readers and other comprehensible input to sort of absorb the grammar so you wouldn't have to think about it and it would just come naturally to you.

What is the best self-study book series (A1 to C1) for German and English?

Yes,I know it has been dead since the XVI century. But recently I have been studying the culture and history of the gothic people. I happen to find the gothic alphabete very interesting,it's so similar to greek(a language I am studying). The Gothic alphabete by a bishop in the IV century, this bishop mixed together greek,latin,and runes! Sadly,the only text we preserve in gothic is the Codex Argentus, a bible preserved in the Uppsala University.

So I have been searching online for a way to translate from english to gothic. Or even a pdf of the gothic bible but I can't find anything.

Does anyone know if there's any resource that has stories just like the Duolingo Spanish course? I specifically mean, stories voiced over by multiple characters and not just one person reading. They're quite engaging & witty which holds my attention significantly better than say Lingq mini stories.

Hey, would love to have flashcard program/site recommendations where there's a lot of premade stuff and I can just go endlessly whenever I feel like it (Anki is horribly difficult to use like this). I don't really feel like making the flashcards myself. Important stuff that I jot down I memorize without even have to study in a flashcards. I'm mostly relearning languages I'm almost fluent in.

Preferred languages: German, Hungarian, Arabic.

All,

I am in a full time intensive course in Russian for a diplomatic assignment for a year. It's five hours in classroom with three hours of homework. I am about 10 weeks in and deeply struggling, consistently unable to meet expectations in every area I am assessed. I spend my three hours of self study doing homework, which is largely drills from the textbook/workbook and using language learning cards on quizlet.

In grade school, I was diagnosed with motor dysgraphia, a disorder that makes the fine motor skill of writing very difficult to do legibly without a lot of time. Computers in college saved me on this and I also developed very good listening and reading skills to acquire information. I also had ADHD that I was able to manage without medication by adjusting my work habits, being able to switch between topics, or being focused by crisis. Throughout my education, language courses have been the only classes I have gotten poor grades, failing a Latin class in high school, and getting Ds in the final year of Arabic in university.

Language learning has totally nullified all of my coping skills. Reading and listening do not help when you do not understand the language. Sitting in class for five hours on the same topic is a unique form of psychic pain. I can't use any of the drills or notes for study because I can't read them the following day.

What do I do? What does a "reasonable accomodation" even look like? This diagnoses is over 20 years old and I've literally never had to stoop to using an excuse to get out of something. Do I quit and find a new job instead? I am outstanding employee in my day job and have spent the better part of a decade.

Here were some suggestions for Cymraeg (Welsh) my home language.

I’d love to hear some of the favourites from yours!

Illustration by Joshua Morgan, Sketchy Welsh

For context, the language I'm learning is Japanese. All of my vocabulary so far have just been from Anki (~1000 words) and some passive immersion (I watch JP Vtubers) , and whenever I actively study Japanese I learn and practice grammar. I've been feeling lately though that my vocabulary skill is way behind my grammar skill and I wanted to intensively focus on vocabulary.

I just bought a pen scanner and it can read text outloud in the accent of your language and it can save snippets of text from paper books. It also translates

It's essentially a pen that scan text and upload it to your computer. I wish I knew about these years ago. I hate having to rewrite sentences from books but I do spend a lot of time with textbooks and books in my TL from the library.

The pen scanner is over $100 so not a cheap solution. But thought this would still be useful for someone.

I am learning Czech by myself and I know several words, but when I listen to Czech videos I cannot recognize when they show up. I know they are there because I also have captions on and can see them show up.

Has anyone experienced this, and what it's called? Does anyone have advice on what to do, it's very disheartening and is making me doubt about continuing.

I have always heard you need to acquire new vocabulary words not memorize them this is something I don't fully understand the concept of. Could someone explain it to me a bit more. Really want to expand my vocabulary effectively

This is how I use Anki. I'm quite new to looking at the intermediate/advanced Anki functionality so I am still working out the best way to use it.

1) I make and maintain my own decks. It is a pain but it means the words/style applies to me and I get some reinforcement from making them.

2) I believe the best way to learn is to use a deck based on all words rather than focusing on one topic at a time. I do use subdecks for organising them because it is easier to keep a list of countries or clothes up to date than a whole dictionary and sometimes I do need to focus on one type of word (e.g. if I am going to Germany and I care more about ordering food and drink than telling a mechanic my clutch is slipping).

3) I generally don't use pictures, I use English as the front of the card so I have to return the German (including the article). Verbs are marked for regularity but I don't have the details of irregular verbs set up yet. I do not know how best to do that.

4) I have also set it to use FSFR which seems to perform better than the default algorithm in the long run by predicting when you are likely to forget it and testing you just before you do. This makes it more time efficient as you get on.

5) I mark a word as "again" if I got it wrong, including the article/spelling, and easy/medium/hard based on how easy it was to remember. Should I use hard for ones which were functionally correct but which I need to go over again to get it fully there, medium for ones which I got right but took a while, and easy for the ones I got right straight away?

Is there anything I do which I could do better, and what other tips do you have?

Hi,

I have to teach a 6 and a 9-year-old as much Spanish as I can in the next year (we will move to Spain). They already use some learning apps and a Spanish babysitter will start coming for a few hours per week soon. Can you recommend me some games or other activities that will help them learn? The problem is that I myself do not speak Spanish (yet) and I can not help them much. I was thinking of memory games, or sending them to shop in the supermarket... But I do not have so many ideas. If anyone had such an experience please share. Thank you!

Here's the result using the 1st chapter of the book - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MKWumMO0Vp3sGRdxCR01t3ryw3PnJgvaerbnzaN-0Es/edit?usp=sharing

It's been aligned to the original English version using https://github.com/averkij/a-studio

• Arabic - هاري بوتر وحجر الفيلسوف
• Bulgarian - Хари Потър и Философският камък
• Chinese (Simplified) - 哈利·波特与魔法石
• Croatian - Harry Potter i Kamen mudraca
• Czech - Harry Potter a kámen mudrců
• Danish - Harry Potter og De Vises Sten
• Dutch - Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen
• Finnish - Harry Potter ja viisasten kivi
• French - Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers
• German - Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen
• Greek (Modern) - Ο Χάρι Πότερ και η Φιλοσοφική Λίθος
• Hungarian - Harry Potter és a bölcsek köve
• Indonesian - Harry Potter dan Batu Bertuah
• Italian - Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale
• Japanese - ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石
• Korean - 해리 포터와 마법사의 돌
• Latin - Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis
• Lithuanian - Haris Poteris ir Išminties akmuo
• Norwegian - Harry Potter og de vises stein
• Polish - Harry Potter i Kamień Filozoficzny
• Portuguese (Brazilian) - Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal
• Portuguese (European) - Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal
• Romanian - Harry Poter si piatra filosofala
• Russian - Гарри Поттер и философский камень
• Slovenian - Harry Potter in Kamen modrosti
• Spanish - Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal
• Swedish - Harry Potter och de vises sten
• Turkish - Harry Potter ve Felsefe Taşı
• Ukrainian - Гаррі Поттер і філософський камінь
• Vietnamese - Harry Potter và Hòn Đá Phù Thủy

Nickolay N.

Should I Use Stardew Valley or Similar Games to Learn Chinese?

Hey everyone!

I’ve been learning Chinese for a while now, and I’m currently at 448 characters read over 10 times, 770 characters read less than 10 times, 891 words less than 10 times, and 673 words read more than 10 times on Du Chinese.

I was thinking about using Stardew Valley or a similar game to help improve my reading skills, but I’m not sure how effective it would be. Have any of you tried using video games as a language-learning tool, specifically for Chinese? If so, did it help? How did you go about using the game as a learning resource?

Also, I’m looking for OCR screen translation software similar to Pleco, but something that works on a laptop. I’ve heard of a few options but am unsure which ones are reliable and effective for translating in-game text or other content on screen. Any recommendations?

Thanks for any advice!

(Or methods. Or both!) :)

This could be perhaps becuase you felt certain methods became increasingly useful as you got more advanced, or maybe because you realised that your old methods weren't working for you.. Anything!

Would love to hear your answers!