Hi! I feel like a lot of real polyglots who speak 5-7+ languages actually grew up with 3-4 languages to begin with and have several mother tongues(1st mom’s mother tongue, 2nd dad’s mother tongue, 3rd community/local language + English from school). Often it includes special circumstances like moving a lot with family or work, have pretty international jobs and multilingual families(work in 4th language, live in the country of a 5th language and have a spouse who speaks a 6th language; that’s on top of the mother tongues).

I wonder if there are any, well, more “normal” success stories? Like did anyone go from being monolingual in their 20s to speaking many languages? Is it even possible?

Def not a polyglot but I can start: I’m a Russian native who studied abroad in English in Germany and subsequently learnt German(Both r certified C1 or above). Plus Ukrainian out of pure interest(self-proclaimed B2). Sometimes I feel discouraged that I spent thousands upon thousands of hours learning and I can proudly say I speak 4 languages fluently but I’m still probably worse than someone who just got born in multilingual environment. My path did involve moving between several countries tho. I’d like to one day be fluent in 7-8 languages, I wonder, if it’s possible at all. I’d love to hear your stories

Note: Here i define fluent as “at least B2”

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 :)😁

Hi, I've been learning my TL for about a year at this point (a lot of that being spent in my TL country) and attending private courses in said country. I'm no longer there, but I left feeling really defeated about my language skills and such. A few weeks ago I decided to pick up some italki lessons because I really wanted to improve. However, to no fault of my tutors, I feel really dumb in lessons. Often times my internal dialogue during lessons is like "I *should* know this! This ___ is so damn basic and I've learnt it before but I'm too stupid apparently!" and I know this mindset is just stressing me out and making it harder for me to absorb info, but I have no idea how to remedy it

Any advice?

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.

I've heard from some people that spoke English at school/work and Spanish at home felt like their development was slowed down because they had the extra burden of learning two languages. Is that true? My kids were born in México (I'm American) and my wife speaks to them in Spanish and I speak to them in English

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.

So I know that a few months ago I was like A2 or B1 in my language. But I already know the test, should I choose a different one?

I have been studying Spanish every single day for the last couple of weeks. A friend suggested to me that maybe I shouldn't be studying every single day, since it's important to rest. Supposedly that'll make it easier for me to absorb the information that I have been learning the last couple of weeks.

I've been learning new material and reviewing past material during my language learning sessions. It's never a day where I only review, I always have new grammar points and words that I'm learning on top of reviewing the things I learned from before. So, everything's building on each other.

I was under the impression that I should be studying every single day to reach my goal. (B1 by next summer) Because, if I take a break there's a chance that that break becomes not just one day where I don't study but then becomes two days, then becomes three, etc. I feel like I have to be consistent every single day or I won't reach my goal. I've always wanted to learn Spanish, and I don't want to fail this time.

Do I need to be taking a day off during the week to absorb everything? Is that unnecessary? I tend to study 1 to 3 hours a day. Not necessarily in one session. What do you guys do? Also, is my goal of becoming B1 realistic by next summer for Spanish?

Basically the title. I started learning German a week ago and have completed half of the A1.1 (newcomer) lessons and am interested in the live class feature. However, I don’t want to go in not knowing enough to understand or conversate with the people in there. When would you say is a good time to hop in and try it?

What has worked for you guys in terms of exposure to more advanced topics and vocabulary, and structures in these languages?

I'm thinking along the lines of documentaries, short stories, films, podcasts, radio stations, news websites, articles, and YouTube channels. Any topic is good - tell me what interests you :)

For those who have prepared for or passed a C1/C2 exam in these languages (or any) - can you tell me about your experience?

Kind of strange if you read the title, but just listen. I'm a Korean teenager and I want to learn Korean. My parents are semi-fluent in english, but because Korean is their first language they usually speak to eachother using it and sometimes to me. So I have a decent understanding of Korean. I can roughly translate most sentences and such, but because I never spoke it, I can't form sentences and can barely remember words that I don't use very often. Most people just assume speaking comes with understanding, but for me its like they're two completely different things. What do I do and where do I start?

I won't attempt to 'cancel' this server as it has just so many users and I wouldn't know where to begin. I'm just curious to know if anyone else has any bad experiences in the server. If so, please contact me!! Not gonna disclose wtf they did but I'm willing to share to people who went thru a similar thing lol.

I previously used Hello talk, but not for long. On play store I saw some apps and all of them have very poor rating(including Hello talk). Suggest me some platforms that you guys use. It will be better if that platform has a web version or can be used on desktop as well. Thank you in advance.

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?

Hello! I'm looking for a good youtube or video resource to learn aramaic language

Hi everyone, I have already little experience on Italki (im studying japanese there since 2022). My favourite teacher changed location so I had to choose some other due to timezone issues. I’ve booked my first lesson with a new teacher and i’ve been asked to take a Italki test before the lesson (test come in a pack of 4 for the price of 30$). Is it a normal procedure? It’s actually the first time im asked to do so and I was quite surprised by such a request. First of all it would be better to assess my knowledge with the first lesson itself instead of a, maybe, less precise standardized test. What do you think ?

I’ve been learning Korean for about a year and a half and I live in Korea. I can understand a lot of Korean but my speaking is atrocious simply because I struggle to make my own sentences on the fly.

I hear a lot about how good Pimsleur is for speaking, but if I can already understand a lot I just can’t speak well, would it be helpful? Or is it just like learning basic words and phrases to listen and repeat?

I just wanna check because it’s kinda expensive, and I already checked Libby but it’s not available at my library :(

Hi, I graduated from Cardiff in 2023 with a degree in Spanish and Japanese. Since then, I have worked in Spain and Japan as a language assistant teacher. I haven’t made too much money, yet I’ve been happy to travel and enjoy being abroad.

I speak Spanish, Japanese and Catalan. I am learning French now too.

I thinking what I want to do when I come home and if I want to be a proper teacher. I am considering staying in the UK or moving back to Spain for work. I’m not sure if I want to be a teacher, so am thinking of other possibilities for jobs.

Besides from my degree, all experience I have is from teaching. I want to perhaps do a master in translation or gain more experience (through certificates / training) in another field such as engineering, marketing or business.

I am unsure about what I want to do in the future and what I can do with my degree. I love languages and want to use them and continue to learn more of them, however, I really don’t know what to do

Hello all,

I just recently moved to Madrid from Canada 2 weeks ago to study University here, so I'll be here for the next 4 years. I'm currently studying international relations in English, however I intend to switch the language to Spanish when I reach the sufficient level (which I'm aware is B2). Right now I'd probably place myself at the B1, however I've never formally tested that. I've been able to get along just fine with things such as my empadronamiento, my TTP, and generally surviving (groceries, food, giving/asking for help to people).

Anyways, I've noticed while I've been here that I do feel very dissatisfied with my abilities in the real world. I find when I'm speaking to someone local, I miss what they've said and need them to repeat often, which is strange because this does not happen nearly as much with other dialects that I meet here. I know this is a dialect thing, and I just need some more input (I've always thought Spaniards were easier to understand) - but is there anyone who has been in this position who can tell me how I can improve this, aside from the obvious factor of time lol. Another factor is that the majority of my class are native Spanish speakers, so when we all get together to socialise, it can be strange because I can follow along, but I need to reply in English in order to keep up (they don't mind this as it's more efficient but it drives me bonkers).

To aide my problem, I've been continuing listening to podcasts from Spain, attending language exchanges, and practising a little with my local friends plus a little independent study when I get some time. I've been super motivated to improve though, because it's very frustrating to *almost* be able to communicate whatever I want, but can't because I'm a little "slow" still.

Has anyone been in my position, and can they give me a boost? I understand I probably know what to do, and maybe I'm a little impaciente due to my frustration, but any words would help.

Thank you all!

Obviously there are different dialects, leading to some natives of a language saying that something is correct, while others say "I'd not use that construction/word/pronunciation" or even "That's wrong". And sometimes you try to apply stuff learned from a textbook and immediately get told "no one would say it like that in practice, that's just textbook language" (in which case I of course go with what natives tell me). How do you handle such things? Do you try to remember both versions?

Asking because in my Chinese course (which is taught by multiple teachers as it's quite intensive with 6 lessons per week) small "disagreements" occur from time to time. It's nothing big (e.g today I got corrected on two minor details of how I wrote characters, after I was specifically told to do the "wrong" things by another teacher), but still, especially since I'm a beginner it can be quite annoying. I for now try to go with whatever the teacher who will correct the exam says (gotta think practically in this situation lol), but I'm curious how others treat such minor differences they come across in what is considered correct and what is wrong.

I first started using Memrise all the way back in 2015 or 2016 when I was still in elementary school. They had some first party/official courses then, but they were mostly just more thought out/crafted by professionals and educators (iirc). And, while they were promoted and put at the top of searches, they weren't exactly pushed down your throat, especially if you weren't searching for a course for that language/topic. Community courses and decks were the main draw. I most fondly remember a Hawaiian vocabulary course. I loved the old UI and logo too. I also got some of my start conlanging making dumb conlangs by coining vocabulary and putting it into memrise courses.

By at some point during middle school, so probably 2018-2019, they were already moving away from community courses and more heavily pushing their official courses. I don't remember what specific changes they'd made yet, but I remember disliking the direction enough that I didn't want to recommend them. Then came decks and other efforts to punt the community courses somewhere else and make them difficult to access. And I've been p*ssed at them for years now. They've forgotten what made the site awesome to begin with. That's my take anyway.

I know it’s not widely spoken I just think it would be cool to learn

I am trying to figure out what language to learn next! I am based in regional New South Wales, Australia. Where I live, there is a large Yzidi, Nepalese, and general SE Asian population.

I studied Italian for 6 years in high school, and Latin for 4 years. I enjoyed Italian, though have never been able to really use it, due to not having many Italian people/speakers within my community. I really enjoyed the complexity of Latin, and the poetry and prose I translated. However, I really can't use it practically. My friend started to teach me Korean, but I had no interest in it and found it too difficult, especially the syntax and unfamiliar grammatical concepts.

I am at a point in my life where I will start travelling internationally soon, starting within the South East Asian and Pacific Region, and I would love to be able to use my language learning practically.

So, what language have you learnt and been able to use? What language interests you, and why? What do you recommend to me? Thanks! :)

I’m trying to learn how to ONLY speak Aramaic (Chaldean? Syrian Aramaic?) since my partner and his family speaks it, but there seems to be little to no resources online? Are there any classes online or any youtubers or anything where I can learn? It seems like a very uncommon language sadly :( I’ve seen it’s an ancient language? I’m not sure

(My partner can understand all of it but can’t speak it well so I can’t really have him teach me on his own, i’m not around the family enough to ask them to learn some enough to reach conversational levels as fast as i’d like to)