Hi everyone!

I'm a university student majoring in Asian Studies, with a focus on Japanese history. I originally chose this field because I was interested in history, not because I wanted to become a translator.

However, Japanese (TL) turned out to be one of the most demanding parts of my education.

At my previous university, I regularly experienced public humiliation from teachers when I couldn't answer questions correctly. I'm now studying at a different university, where the teachers are much kinder, but the fear hasn't gone away.

I'm terrified of being called on in class, making mistakes, failing exams, and eventually being expelled.

At this point, even thinking about Japanese can make me anxious. I struggle to motivate myself to study for even an hour a day. I'm mentally exhausted, and I've gradually lost interest in hobbies I used to enjoy.

I still have roughly two years of university left, and due to my family circumstances, dropping out simply isn't an option for me.

Here's what I really want to ask:

Has anyone experienced something similar? Have you ever developed such a strong negative association with a foreign language that studying it became emotionally exhausting?

I don't expect to suddenly fall in love with Japanese. I've never particularly enjoyed learning it in the first place.

But I would genuinely like to experience something positive about the language for once. I'd like to stop being afraid of it, and perhaps eventually discover something that makes learning it enjoyable.

How did you change your relationship with a language you had come to hate or fear?

I'm especially interested in personal experiences, gentle approaches to learning, and ways to separate a language from negative experiences with teachers.

I understand that consistent studying is important, but right now I'm struggling with the emotional side of learning more than anything else.

Thank you for reading.

i started learning japanese around two months ago and i think from complete beginner to okay-ish beginner it's learning the difference between these katakana while reading something (TL)

I am learning on my own outside of high school Japanese and Polish, I am mostly using stuff from online, podcasts, grammar videos, apps, and I feel like I am slowly progressing on everything, except speaking. I don't really know how to become better on that, and I am fully coscient that this is the most important part of a language. Should I try speaking to myself aloud? This feels like the only option

*for various reasons, I cannot take tutors online or stuff like that

I'm learning French (TL), and when I read a text silently, I can usually understand the story and follow what's happening. But when I read the same text aloud, I tend to focus so much on pronunciation that I lose track of the story.

I might understand almost every word as I read it, but once I finish, I can barely summarize what the text was about. This doesn't happen when I read silently, so I suspect that trying to pronounce everything correctly takes up too much of my attention.

I'd like to practise reading aloud to improve my speaking, but I'm not sure how to approach it if it seems like I can't understand the text properly.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does it get better with practice, as pronunciation becomes more automatic? And if you've dealt with this, what helped you the most?

It's well known that fluent speakers of a language have a “predictive engine”, the brain forecasts where a sentence is likely to go before it goes there. With every word it hears, it builds up a tree of likely possible candidates of the remainder of the sentence and prunes this tree again by eliminating possibilities after each word to the point of a sentence actually going in a completely unlikely and bizarre submarine, ehh, I mean direction shows up in brain scans as causing all kind of neurological spikes.

It stands to reason that this ability is what truly drives making reading and listening “easy”. It also stands to reason that this engine is based on the same underlying principle of being able to speak a language and output it and that it re-uses much of the same mechanisms to produce. After all, surely if one can predict the sentences of others one can just speak oneself. At the very least the opposite should happen? It therefore to me seems that “receptive bilinguals” that can understand sentences but cannot speak that most likely lack this engine, but I'm not sure how truthful that is, maybe it is possible to have it without being able to speak a language.

But what I do know is that I clearly lack this engine to a large degree for Japanese (TL) while having it in English to the same level as my native language. This is not a binary thing and I clearly have it for many common grammatical patterns but not for others but if I hear “助けな〜” in a certain context I just know already that “助けなくちゃいけない。”, “助けないと” or “助けなければならない” or something in that vein will follow. I'm sure people whose Japanese is far better than mine go one step further and by recognizing that some of them would not be natural in that context would not consider them possibilities.

This for me at least leads to an interesting situation when I consume whatever Japanese media and that is that there is a delay in comprehension. I only understand Japanese sentences about maybe 500 miliseconds after they are fully uttered and I heard the entire sentence. A more proficient speaker will understand them while half way through because he can predict the rest of the sentence already then. This is very much my experience with English or my native language. And I in fact do regularly output and am very much “conversation” in Japanese, just not “fluent” by any measure.

So, what's the deal here with receptive bilinguals? Are they actually truly capable of “fluently listening” without this predictive engine? Do they maybe have it after all even though they can't output? I've seen many people in Japanese language learning say they can “easily” listen to something and understand some text all the while seeing them make grave mistakes in their interpretation of which I'm like “I cannot see how you can say that this is “easy” to listen to for you if you weren't even aware of that grammar point and what it does here because if you don't know that your Japanese is surely worse than mine.”.

Can anyone chime in on this? Does anyone here actually feel that some language is truly as easy to listen to as their native language without this measurable “comprehension lag” that they can read just as quickly while also being unable to speak it and whether they feel they do have that predictive engine even though they cannot harness it to output?

We have been having german classes (TL) in the university since september of 2025. Back then it was 2 classes per week (3 hours total), but from this year, only 1 class per week. But the problem is I didn't really study and fell behind a LOT, I can barely make a simple sentence, my vocabulary is very weak and I barely know anything. I have the same knowledge I would've had if I studied the first 6 classes. Is it possible for me to comeback and have somewhat decent understanding so I can at least pass the exam without cheating? Here is the tasks we are doing currently so you understand the level https://imgur.com/a/HCqIjc3 .

First of all, people have every right to speak whatever language it is. I agree. I'm just curious about why it happens or does it happen to other people?

Context: I work at an international company in Latin America. Not all the employees speak Spanish but I talk to most of my clients in Spanish (and in Chinese, but barely in English). They KNOW I speak Spanish decently well because they hear my calls and online meetings. I prefer speaking in Spanish, which is my (TL) and also one of the strongest languages ''of the land''.

However, here's a Mexican colleague who almost always writes to me in English, and tends to correct my Spanish. She speaks to (any probably writes to) other Spanish speaking colleagues in Spanish, but this English service and Spanish correction are in particular for me.

Has it ever happened to you? for a language learner and user, isn't okay to seek both native-like fluency and native-like acceptance ?

Edit: One detail I forgot while writing my post:

Once when she passed by (after that chat) my desk, I asked her in Spanish, in a neutral tone, ''Does it bother you if I speak to you in Spanish?''. She thought for 2 sec and said no, and immediately switched to English and replied with a higher pitch, '' but I will keep speaking to you in English.'' And she walked away.

​

I have an unusual situation and would love some input and suggestions for anyone in a similar situation or who have useful ideas.

I was born in the UK, raised by Polish parents, my first language was Polish and I didnt start learning English till I went to school.

As a teen I stopped speaking Polish at home but usually speak mostly in Polish with my mum now as an adult.

I can get by fine when in Poland but I am very conscious my vocabulary is poor and my understanding of sentence construction is also poor, I am pretty confident I translate from English in my head so I sound obviously foreign.

My reading is essentially non existent, I can read but very slowly and because I am a really fast reader in English I give up almost right away. My writing isnt great either, again it takes me a lot of concentration so again I usually dont bother.

I would really like to improve my Polish, I did take classes as a teen but they would base lessons on grammar and that is something else I dont really understand, I often know what verb endings to use naturally, so I stopped attending.

I'd love some input on what I should focus on to improve and any other insight or tips.

Thank you! (TL)

Hello, I’ve been doing intense in class Spanish studying for 4 months, 20H/W in Spain. I’m really understanding the structure of the language, tenses, spelling when working in the book etc. However,I’m struggling with speaking and vocabulary, which I know is very common.
Learning vocabulary is an issue because I’m not using the words repetitively in daily life. For example, I’m just fine ordering food, making appointments, shopping, reading signs because I have that contextual practice. I’m starting to watch TV and read the news so I get exposed to the same words over and over via audio and words on a screen/page. (TL)

Where I need help is actually taking all the things I’m learning in class and speaking it with people. I’m wondering if having a private tutor will help me understand how to put all the words together. I have friends who are native Spanish speakers and they’re very patient when I spanglish our conversations but I’m a babbling 4 year old in our conversation using the wrong/no tense, demonstratives, adjectives etc. However, they can’t correct me as much as I need and they can’t exactly tell me WHY something is wrong when we’re running around on a futbol pitch or at a bar. I’m painly slow putting together a sentence and in a social setting it’s just not reasonable waiting 90-120 seconds for me to say “I‘m tired because I had class all day. It’s hard but I like it.“
I’m thinking if I pay someone to sit with me for an hour or two and wait for me to piece together sentences and is able to correct me as I go will help me break through.

TLDR:
I’m learning Spanish in Spain I’m currently in A2 classes but feel stuck in A1 when speaking. I’m trying to do all the things suggested:
-Studying in class 20H/W for 4 months
-Flash cards of words I find I actually need while living here
-Watching TV in Spanish with Spanish or English subs
-Reading in Spanish with audio, looking up words when needed.
-Speaking with native speakers
-Doing daily life in Spanish as much as I can. (groceries, appointments etc)
-My partner is fluent in Spanish and helps when they can but they’re very busy.

I don’t know how much more immersed I can get! hahahaha

I’m feeling stuck in a low A1 speaking level. Struggling to say more than How I’m feeling and if I like something in a very rudimentary way with poor grammar.
Will paying someone actually help me speed up my speaking in a way that’s worth the money or should I just go to those speaking meetups and talking to my Spanish speaking friends?

Does reading native content actually improve writing? Also, how much reading is needed to go up a level or more ?

Hello everyone!

I'm looking for language-learning resources and/or techniques(?) from people that focus primarily on listening and speaking rather than reading, writing, or studying grammar.

I used pimsleur with a considerable degree of success for German and Italian (TL) before. But I am just looking for something similar in a way.

My main reasons are just personal fit. In my language learning journey I learned some stuff about myself.

1. I have really "good ears", in the sense I can correct my own pronunciation mistakes just by listening myself compared to a native speaker.
2. I am intellectually incapable of learning languages through rules and grammar, that type of knowledge just don't stick in my brain. I don't even know it in my native language, I just know what is wrong and what is right by memory.
3. I hate classes, I want straight up conversations, I will never learn colours or numbers by learning all of them in class at once, but I learn them if I learn them in conversation.

I used 38174 thousand apps already, but they are all mainly write/read first which feels backwards to me. I don't think it makes much sense to read and write before you can speak (although I know, most schools teach that way).

I just want to find something complementary (free or cheaper is also a bonus) that I can use while stuck in traffic or doing my chores so I can practice without having anyone else to talk with. Cause besides that, I mainly try the good ol' talk to people.

Recently I’ve been reading translated Spark Notes for classic books I’m mildly interested in. It’s actually pretty fun. I paste into an AI the entire page and ask for a natural Spanish translation (obviously not perfect, but good enough for me).

Then while I was there I figured I’d add some conveniences. I prefer in-text translation for uncommon words to help keep my flow. I started asking it to bold the subjunctive so that I might more intentionally ingest it. I even added brackets around B2 & up grammar so that I can be prepared to lock in when it comes up.

Have you tried similar techniques? What tips or tweaks do you use for reading like this?

I'm a heritage Arabic speaker, around B2 in my dialect. I understand almost everything and can hold conversations, but speaking still feels awkward sometimes and often find my self at a loss for the right words, and find English much easier.

I've been dating a native Arabic speaker for a couple of months, and we communicate entirely in Arabic since her English is still beginner-level.

I still get some anxiety when speaking, especially when I can't find the right words or express myself as naturally as I would in English.

I am studying Arabic daily on my own. I live in an English speaking country.

How realistic is it to expect that speaking will eventually become natural and effortless with enough time and practice? Including things like complex topics and humor etc.

Has anyone been in a similar situation with a partner? Would love to hear your experiences and tips.

Currently studying at a large university in Korea that's known for speaking (iykyk). I'm currently in level 3 out of 6 levels. I've technically been learning Korean since 2008 when I first taught myself how to read and write it, but I didn't really start formally "learning" my (TL) until around 2016 when I started classes in university. Since then, over time, I've lived in Korea and taken multiple classes in different places both in Korea and the US.

Recently my reading/writing/listening teacher has been making comments to me about my Korean being awkward, both speaking and writing. It started with a question I had about a homework assignment and somehow the conversation diverged into her telling me "I don't think you have a fundamental understanding of Korean; I can understand you but your grammar is very awkward." She told me to go back to the level 1 and 2 textbooks to review the grammar, which I did, but it really took a hit to my ego at the time because I tested into level 3 at this school back in the summer. We had a very bad teacher back during the summer semester who made one of my classmates cry in class and it really affected our entire class's morale and lost a lot of motivation.

For reference, I'm a very active student in and outside of class. I go to language exchanges every week and I speak in Korean with everyone. I got another homework assignment back from my teacher after her conversation with me and she wrote again "your grammar and sentences are still awkward..." She corrects my homework but she doesn't explicitly mark what parts are unnatural, so when she tells me that I sound awkward, I don't have a reference of what she's referring to. I tried asking her out of class and she told me to refer to her corrections. I asked her then what can I do to sound less awkward and she told me to use the English translations of the dialogues in the levels 1 and 2 books and then try to translate it myself and then compare my Korean to the book's Korean.

Yesterday in class, since I've been struggling to get better from a cold, she sort of put me on the spot asking if I'd gone to the doctor over the weekend and blah blah. I was trying to explain myself and I was getting frustrated because I 1. didn't feel like talking about it; 2. felt put on the spot because we were supposed to be doing a different assignment and so then it made multiple people stop to listen to me respond to her instead. I was stumbling over my words feeling like I had to explain myself and then she then made a comment in Korean saying basically "if you talk like that, you're going to fail your interview" referring to our oral exams we have this Thursday. I've already been feeling a huge drop in my self confidence from her initial comments to me and while I know she's trying to joke, her comments topped with the fact that I'm already repeating this level for a second time as well as the fact that she only makes these direct/negative comments to me is really affecting me. One girl in my class from Europe told me I shouldn't take it personally and not listen to her, but I told her that if it was a one time thing maybe that could be the case, but once your teacher starts saying these things multiple times, you can't help but to feel affected by it. It's much easier to tell someone to not take it personally if it's not happening to you.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has struggled with a language teacher who has made them feel this way in the past. I actually tried putting the homework assignment that my teacher corrected into ChatGPT to translate it back the way a Korean would understand it, and while my grammar is a bit wonky, it is 100% understandable and I don't think much different than other people at my level? My issue is that I have a lot of ideas I want to express but I'm not at a level where I can fully express myself naturally and still come across sounding like I'm translating from English at times, but nothing that hinders someone's ability to understand me. I try really hard to convey complex ideas and maybe that's my issue. Idk I've just not been feeling well lately with whatever sickness I'm still trying to get over and I just really can't help but to let these comments get to me despite always trying my best to study hard. I also have ADHD but my medicine isn't legal in Korea, so it's been tough to get myself to study without any and even when I talk to people it can feel like I'm trying to get so many points across

English (TL) Classes are fine for grammar, but actually speaking is a different thing. What do you use? What’s actually worked for you?

I've been considering different ways to improve my (TL)s vocabulary and most of them feel extremely unnatural because the things I'm interested in would become unenjoyable if I had to force myself to engage in them in a language that I'd need to stop constantly to search for certain words instead of just engaging in them in my native language or english.

So, I was thinking about simply translating past and future conversations I have online with friends into my target languages, as these are conversations that I'd already have naturally.

I think this would make acquiring my daily life vocabulary much faster, with the two main issues being a lack of repetition since conversations are always flowing to different topics and that it would be more of a basic vocabulary...

Have you tried this method?

Hi everyone, I wanted some advice on learning a language orally just for speaking purposes and if it’s possible to gain proficiency without knowing how to write.

For context I grew up in a Hindi(TL) household and can understand hindi probably 70 percent of the time. I however can barely speak it past the basics. I have no knowledge of writing or the alphabet in hindi. I want to know if it’s common and possible for someone to learn a language orally without knowing how to read/write.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I'd like some input from people who have experience with foreign language learning with dyslexia.

The student's mother actually speaks the language I teach and the student understands about everything and can speak about simple topics. They have difficulties with reading long texts and writing though.

The difficulty that worries me the most is grammar. Verb conjugation is all over the place for example. The reason I'm worried is that this is something that is required in their final exams. They will be allowed tools that help with orthography. But some tasks require them to choose the right verb form and those tools are useless for that.

So, I wouldn't be worried if an oral exam was all they have to do. But for a written one I am worried.

So, what methods have been successful for learning things like conjugating verbs? And what can be helpful for increasing their vocabulary?

I have other students with dyslexia as well (and without any background in that language) and whatever input I get here might help those students as well. I can see that thinking outside the box is required, but only trial and error isn't good enough for supporting these students. I need people with experience in the topic.

Example countries: Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, India, Finland.

And does the degree to which you master it contribute to a feeling of being a “complete” citizen, and a feeling of “belonging” and “acceptance” across the entire country?

Right now my method is reading up on the basics of the language online, going to a weekly language conversation table, then adding new vocab that I encounter from the table to Anki to help remember. (Lastly, Duolingo to work on the language in some way every day) I feel a bit too lazy to sit down with a textbook and learn the language, almost like I have my brain fried from short form content and have no more attention span lol.

Nonetheless, rinse and repeat with my current method for a few years and I slowly improve over time.

One thing I did recently was play a video game with English audio and text in my target language. That helped loads and I added a huge amount of new vocab to Anki. The video game aspect kept me motivated to look up the new words as I wanted to understand what was going on in the game (it was a turned based, story-driven game, so plenty of time to stop and look up words). It definitely felt better than watching a show where I get tired of pausing every second to look up the words being said.

A friend also sent my a comprehensible input video recently, so that also got me thinking.

With my recent experiences that deviate from my normal language learning routine, I was wondering if there's a compendium/consensus on what the best ways to learn were! Or just to discuss various approaches to learning.

So I'm a Louisiana Creole who has been learning French (TL) for a while now, and recently have started to delve into Louisiana Creole (or Kouri-Vini). I've now reached a point of fluency in both where I can consume media, read, and write (speaking fluently is still a struggle). However, despite how important these languages are to my identity and my culture, I still often feel like I'm "performing" them, that whenever I try to use these languages I'm not really engaging with them authentically. See, French had been lost in my maternal family for a while, but I still grew up hearing it through my step-dad's family (I don't know what the francophone equivalent of a "no sabo" would be, but that was roughly my experience). So know that I'm actually making an effort to learn French and Creole as an adult, I don't feel like I'm doing it right, almost as if it's too late for me to get back in touch with my heritage.

Do any other heritage speakers feel like this sometimes?

The title says it all. Just curious if there are any outlandish ways people have learned their target language, whether it be through a very specific selection of articles/anything that isn’t “conventional” material for learning. It seems as if the main determinant of whether you learn a language or not has to do with your own interest in the language/means of learning the language. Immersion beats all, but maybe intertwining your other interests with the language you’d like to learn will allow one to learn more. More out of interest would like to know how people integrate their interests with their target language

Here are some data from 46,000 native and non-native speakers who took the BRAVE receptive vocabulary test in English. The absolute numbers are specific to English and the way words were counted in the test, but the trends should be similar in other languages.

1. Even at the same proficiency level, people can have vastly different vocabulary sizes, literally by a factor of two. The same for native speakers: one person can know twice as many words as another of the same age.
2. Advanced learners (C1) reach the level of native-speaking middle schoolers, and proficient learners (C2) reach the level of college students in terms of how many words they know. The composition of their vocabularies is no doubt different, but this test can’t capture that.
3. For learners, reaching each proficiency level requires learning progressively more words. It is understandable since beginners focus on common words, so a limited number of them covers many everyday situations, and advanced learners need to learn many more specialized and nuanced words.
4. It appears that vocabulary keeps growing well into adulthood for native speakers - older adults know measurably more words on average than younger ones. That matches what is known about crystallized intelligence - it accumulates over time. However, these data are not longitudinal; they do not capture the same people years later. It is possible that older adults who decided to take an online vocabulary test are more educated on average than younger ones.

About the data: it is not a representative sample; there is strong self-selection bias (people who care enough to take a test of their vocabulary). A1-C2 CEFR levels are self-reported. The counting units are word families (limit, limitless, unlimited are counted as a single unit). The full reference lexicon is 28k word families. The BRAVE test measures receptive vocabulary size: the number of words one understands (not necessarily uses).

Source: BRAVE vocabulary test.

Disclosure: I am the developer of the test behind these data. I collected and processed the results and created the infographic.

I'm new to language learning. I've been doing it only a few years now. I am currently learning French at home and then Spanish at work because I work at a gas station in America and a lot of Spanish speakers come in either to get gas or buy something. I'm very bad at Spanish but Spanish speakers are soooooo nice. I love learning new words and repeating them to myself over and over again. The sensory feeling of talking is really nice and I love learning the accents of different languages. For this reason accent is very easy for me. I just listen to the sounds native speakers either say or tell me and repeat them. Sometimes it's difficult though. The Spanish A was so weird at first because I'm not used to opening up my mouth that wide lmao. Speakers usually say I speak clearly even if it's badly. But of course I'm American so it's really a really low bar to have what is considered a good accent (we are iconically bad at language learning). I know you should learn languages for the culture and to talk to people but I just really love learning the etymology of words, the different metaphors and phrases different languages use (for example in most romance languages "you are right" directly translates to "you have reason"), hearing the different sounds people make and so on. Honestly I LOVE talking to people but language excites me so much more than just talking to people. I would love to be able to communicate enough to form actual bonds with non English speakers though. I'm not quite there yet. Though I'm very socially awkward even in English so idk lmao.

I'm learning Korean atm through a uni language course. As is the norm, we rotate between learning vocab and then using that vocab while learning new grammar. I personally love learning grammar, but dislike vocab. The problem is that I feel like I've gotten so good at learning grammar that it's become a very small part of the learning time. After school I almost exclusively need to study vocab.

Anyone else felt like your favirote aspect got less space in your routine?