my mum told me i learned english as a kid just from watching shows and shit

I learned English for quite a while on my own but I am a lazy prick and would skip all the "write about" exercises. The result is that my passive language (= reading, understanding) skills are pretty good while my writing and speaking at low level. I followed the advices from Steven Kaufmann "don't study grammar". How can I might improve my writing skill?

P.S. I don't want to reading grammar book every day per hour without interest.

The two languages I personally want to learn are Lao/Isan (to speak w/ my friends and I just generally love Laotian culture) and Koine Greek (for reading the New Testament and Septuagint) and I have 3 questions:

I know Lao/Isan is significantly easier than koine Greek so my first question is how should I split my time studying them?

I’ve started learning the alphabets for both and started to use those alphabets to replace the Latin alphabet for my school notes (still in English), is this a good way to get used to/familiar with the alphabets?

Is a tutor worth it for the Greek considering that I won’t be speaking it? I am going to get a Laotian tutor but considering I’ll be spending my own money, I am on the fence for getting one for Greek…

Tysm for reading, means a lot :3

I grew up in multi-lingual places. Almost everyone speaks at least 2 languages. A good number speak 2 languages at native level, along with 1 or more others.

I realized it is extremely rare in my circles that someone speaks 3 languages all at native level.

By native level, I mean they can write perfectly proficiently, with nuance, complexity, and even flair. They can also speak each language such that other native speakers have every belief that the language is their first language. Fluency, complexity, and flair (jokes, figurative language, trendy phrases, idioms).

Native speakers must find them indistinguishable from other native speakers.

At this high bar, among hundreds of people I know who are "fluent" in 3+ languages, only 3 people are "truly trilingual". And 2 of them I feel may not meet the bar since they don't keep up with trendy Internet phrases in all 3 languages and so "suffer" in conversations, so it may only be 1 person who is truly trilingual.

How many do you know?

Edit: to summarize comments so far, it seems no one knows someone who is trilingual to the extent of indistinguishable from native speakers in 3 languages, but are varying degrees of close.

Before I get downvoted to hell, hear me out. I love Anki. I'm an avid user of it. But I find that I spend all my time making cards or formatting them, etc.

I was wondering if there was a way to learn via SRS without making cards somehow? Any of you all got a routine down?

For example right now I'm reading Harry Potter in Spanish and just looking up words via Google as I go. If I Anki'd them it would take forever. But if I don't review them I'll eventually forget, especially if I don't continuously read HP.

Any workarounds or advice? I'm currently a B2 in Spanish.

I am new to LingQ, but the price is so high I kept seeking a better alternative. But sadly, there is none on android.

Now I found fooview+Mdx dictionary(for example, eudic)+LingQ is a good way to use LingQ without subscription while still be able to utilize all the lessons and courses effectively. I don't need LingQ's dictionary feature which actually is not robust at all.

Tell me if you have other good alternative methods!

I want to know how you guys improve your speaking in a foreign language, which apps do you use to practice with native people

for me i would say its usually finding material at that sweetspot of understanding the general ideas but still learning a lots of new vocab

I have been learning Spanish for a few years and I am relatively advanced now. My husband is Colombian, and thinks my level is C1, and always says I am fluent.

My job is a legal assistant. When I started out, I got super nervous talking to clients in Spanish. Over time I have gotten better. But I still sometimes have a bit of trouble.

Today I did an initial interview with a potential new client who got in a car accident. I talked to him for about 45 minutes, and it went pretty well, I got all the information I needed and explained the next steps to him.

But later when he texted a picture of the driver’s license of the other driver, I realized I had thought the driver was the person who turned out to be the policyholder of the insurance. I feel so dumb!

Am I being too hard on myself? I wish I didn’t still get mixed up like this. I guess at least I was able to figure out my mix-up, which is the important thing.

So, I am currently reading about 10 books a month, and I spend approximately three days on each one. I believe I am quite proficient at reading already, almost at an advanced level, comprehending between 80% to 95% of the content (depending on the book's level). I am curious, how much better can I become if I read 200 books?

So, I am currently reading about 10 books a month, and I spend approximately three days on each one. I believe I am quite proficient at reading already, almost at an advanced level, comprehending between 80% to 95% of the content (depending on the book's level). I am curious, how much better can I become if I read 200 books?

I have a Dell laptop and my husband has an HP and we are both learning a few different languages. I'm looking at getting us a few different keyboard skins to make typing in our new target languages easier. Does anyone have recommendations on where to find this or if there is a better method than getting a skin? I see a lot of skins for Apple keyboards but hardly any for other systems.

Hey all. I've been teaching myself Spanish for awhile now, and I'm probably a solid B2 for what it's worth- able to converse with natives and understand most of what I hear/read. I'd like to push on to being near fluent if possible, and am OK with paying for the resources. Here's my situation- I am a working adult with a Bachelors degree in an unrelated field. I have looked into doing a Masters in Spanish but a) I'm not sure it will be worth the money and b) I don't have the necessary pre-reqs from undergrad. Many of the community colleges around here only offer Ed2Go courses, which are basically canned online courses for beginner to intermediate, so that's out. I understand Italki offers tutoring, but I'm not sure it would be structured enough- can anybody speak to this? Is there some sort of course I could enroll in as an adult that would push me into more advanced territory as far as the language is concerned?

Hello! So I'm born in France (that's why my English sucks 😅 sorry), my parents come from East Africa, but they didn't teach me their native language, so until my twenties, I didn't know how to speak this language (except a few words), but it didn't really bother me. But it's been 3 years that I've been trying to learn it! I learn words, I speak alone to improve my vocabulary, I listen to songs, etc. Now I can speak and understand a bit, but I feel like it's not enough because I don't understand well, and when I talk, people don't understand me even if I know the vocabulary! Unlike other famous languages, I can't download apps to help me learn it because there isn't this language in any app (it looks like Swahili, which is quite famous, but it's not Swahili, so it's useless). I can't watch subtitled shows because there aren't any, when I listen to music or watch the news, I don't really understand what they are saying, so I don't know if it's useful to keep listening to it. I can't go to my country because it's really expensive, and I go to school right now, and I feel like I can't speak this language to my parents or other people: my parents are used to talking to me in French, so they don't want to, and not only do I not live in a city with many people of my community, but I also feel like they are mocking me when I speak this language. I know I should care, but it's annoying 😂 I know I can do it, I know that I have improved sooooo much compared to before, I have seen a video of a white man who learned Somali just by reading books and speaking to people and before 2010 people didn't have Duolingo and yet they still find a way to learn languages without travelling. But yeah, I don't know how to become fluent... So, can you share some tips to learn a language when the ressources are limited?

So I'm from Pakistan and naturally grew up learning Urdu, which is written in the Persio-Arabic Nastaliq script. Urdu, as many of you may know, is considered an offshoot of the Hindustani language, which also includes Hindi. Hindi is written in the Indic Devanagari script.

For the most part, both languages are nearly identical barring a few differences depending on local dialects and loanwords depending on religious affiliation. I personally believe they're mutually intelligible enough to be considered a single language with multiple dialects which adopted multiple scripts. Having grown up consuming media from across the border without the need for cultural context or subtitles just solidifies that. Consuming media in Hindi or having conversations with native Hindi speakers abroad has never been an issue. Which leads me to a fascination with the Devanagari script. Especially since I live in an area where I infrequently come across some old buildings which have old signs or archive documents in that script.

I feel it's a unique opportunity to at least attempt to learn Devanagari. I already speak and understand the language verbally. But honestly I have no idea where to even begin with learning to read the script. There are apps and resources for learning to speak a new language but I don't know where to begin with learning to read a language I already understand.

If you guys can suggest any apps, resources, or tips to help me get started I'd appreciate it.

Hi. Some years ago i used Elsa Speak, mainly for it's pronunciation review feature, which used speech recognition to check your pronunciation. Recently my mom asked me for an app to learn English, but checking in Elsa Speak website and play store page, i noticed there are a lot of previously free features now being locked behind the pro paywall, including using this one without limitation, it wouldn't be an issue if they didn't changed their speech recognition engine to use IA and spam ads about it everywhere, and that sincerely pushed me off to subscribe / recommend to my mom. There's also LingoDeer and Forvo, but i think they don't quite fit that pronunciation review need, or maybe i didn't check their apps properly. Are there any other apps /websites with this feature?

I would like to use the foreign service institute's books to learn Spanish and Arabic. Is it a good idea to use the books like any other textbook, or is there something extra I need to do?

I am learning French and would like to do a self test before giving the TCF exam in October. My goal is to reach B2 before that. Can you guys suggest some resources?

I have been learning English for quite a while now, almost five years, and it has become my primary language. However, my writing skills are still quite poor.

I’ve tried some exercises where you choose a topic and write about it, but I didn’t find them very effective. Are there any other ways I can practice my writing skills?

It's May! How is the reading going?

If you're new, the basic concept is as follows:

• Read one book in your TL each month. Doesn't matter how long or short, how easy or difficult.
• Come chat about it in the monthly post so we can all get book recs and/or encouragement throughout the year.

So what did you read? What have you got planned? Is anyone in need of encouragement or advice?

I took a recommendation from the sub (thank you!) and read Schnee Am Bosporus by Celil Oker (translated from Turkish to German by Ute Birgi-Knellessen). Language-wise, this was a wild ride. There were some grammatical constructions that I've hardly seen before but were used throughout. And it was nice to get that repetition :) Plot-wise, it was fine? I would for sure read another in the series, but I'm not immediately rushing out for the next one.

And then just as I finished that, the 6th book in the Rory Shy series came out and I immediately read that too, because it is firmly my favourite German series.

I don't have any solid plans for the month ahead, and work is taking up a lot of overtime and brainspace, so I'm gonna go to the library on the weekend and hope something takes my fancy!

Are non-alphabetical crosswords easier in comparison because each cell contains a Hanzi/Kanji character rather than a single letter? I suppose it provides a much larger clue for the connected words. For instance, when comparing Chinese and English crosswords.

When you write essays/paragraphs in your TL, how do you go about correcting them yourself before you hand it in to your professor/teacher for a grade? I've been learning Mandarin Chinese for a couple years now, though still struggle with this aspect. Any and all advice welcome! :)

I’m here after really losing my confidence. For reference, I’ve been learning Korean since I was a child. It’s been about 12 years now. However, I self-studied and wasn’t really supported so I’ve been, as I call it, doing surgery on my skills. I understand really well and can read and talk about just about anything, even the stock market these days. I read textbooks to understand WHY I’m using grammar and perfect my usage. I take tutoring sessions almost daily. I now have Korean friends who I converse with on a regular, and I’m back on a language exchange app. This is where my problem stems from.

This might be a long one. I’m not confident in my skills, but I’m a really comfortable B2. My two private teachers want me to push myself as C1, but I’m just not confident in that yet. I met my friends in Japan last semester and it was my first time really speaking Korean with people in a natural setting. I was super shy and it was only after their continued insistence that I was good that I got more confident. We spoke to each in a mix of Japanese, English, and Korean. However, when I was hanging out with a lot of them at once, it was all Korean. I would reply in English if the conversation was too fast, but I kept up just fine and was actually really proud of myself. And we talked about EVERYTHING. Shared our deepest secrets and our life stories. I really grew confidence in myself. Even though I don’t feel C1, I was just proud enough to have done this by myself.

Fast forward to this year, I decided to take my next semester at a Korean university in Korean. Even though I’m more confident in my ability to live in Korea, academic Korean is a different beast. This is why I began taking daily lessons starting in January. I focus on TOPIK with one teacher and read Psychology text books with another. Because it’s a private tutor, I can let classes go how I want and sometimes it ends up us just talking and chatting for two hours. I went to Korea end of March to prepare myself because even though I’m confident that I can speak SOME Korean, I still literally tell people I don’t speak Korean in a serious manner. I took a language test, conversed daily in Korean, met up with my friends and this time we only spoke in Korean. I honestly understood Korean a little too well as I was placed in some unfortunate situations. I grew more confidence, but also became a little unsure about making Korea the next part of my life journey. However, I became really confident in my speaking skills and ability to adjust. I was able to do so much. No one ever switched to English when I talked. In fact, I often switched to Korean for them if they were just working and trying to accommodate me.

Right before I went to Korea, I met an online friend who is also studying Korean. She’s probably A2? She really encouraged me to be on my grind and stay motivated. She told me about language voicerooms. Now this particular app I’ve actually had since middle school, but I never took it seriously and haven’t been on it in a while. I logged back in and gave it a go. I was nervous at first, but quickly made friends with whom I now converse with on a daily. IN KOREAN. We have a group chat and normally do the voicerooms with an intention to talk between us, but the others also have friends they met on the app as they’ve been using it for a while. Within this group is Friend A. She’s also a learner. Her listening skills are amazing, but she’s also working to formalize her Korean. Friend A has a friend named B. From the jump, the first time I talked to B, he consistently said he didn’t understand me, even when I would say basic things. He would always talk over me and tell A to translate. At first I thought oh wow am I that bad at speaking? But after he did it every time even when others understood, I thought, what the heck? The other day, friend C was telling a story to all of us, but A had trouble understanding as it was more complicated. Friend A speaks really good English, so I began explaining it in English. B does not speak English at all, but kept asking in Korean, “Why are you saying that? Why is that detail there?”. Not sure how to really explain his implications, but basically saying I’m translating wrong. So I firmly said to him, I’m not talking to you, don’t interrupt something you don’t know. He then insisted I was rude and asked why I was mad, and I quickly left the room.

Later on, friend C said to me that B didn’t know why I was upset. I told her that I felt like he doesn’t even TRY to understand me. Now I feel like he’s doing it on purpose since in that instance I was speaking in English. We’re not friends, so even teasing is not okay to me. He often interrupts me at the beginning of my sentences. I know my Korean isn’t perfect, my accent isn’t perfect, but I’ve also finally become confident that I’m conversational and my accent isn’t bad. I explained it to her a lot and gave her the idea of what if I did that to her when she spoke English. I always asked someone else who isn’t native to translate her English to English, interrupted her sentences, asked her why her translation was so weird when I don’t speak Korean. She told me she actually understood what I mean and that she was always jealous that I keep speaking even when I stumble over words or make mistakes. I make some really funny mistakes sometimes and I just laugh and keep going. These days, she doesn’t speak English to us at all anymore and I think it’s because she lost her confidence. I don’t gain confidence easily, but I also don’t lose it easily, but these days it’s plummeting. I also had one incident where I was telling a friend a story and a different Korean was listening. B asked the other Korean if he got the story. He said not really, so C reexplained it, saying exactly what I meant and even directly some things I said. I rarely have this problem, but not being understood by another person that wasn’t B sucked because I thought maybe my Korean is just really bad. Friend D who admitted she wasn’t listening (we often tune each other out which is fine) asked friend C how she got all that and she said because she was actually listening. I don’t think the other person was really listening to me, but I think that’s also me trying to make myself feel better.

Has anyone pretended to not understand you?

I would say when Brazilian people swears me in Portuguese and then i answer in their language, watch their reaction when they noticed that i'm able to understand them is hella funny thing

Came across a website that teaches Polish. Having skimmed over the videos, I figured that the content is directed towards complete beginners, but the problem is that all the materials, including the videos themselves, are 100% in Polish. The Polish spoken is not exactly delivered in simple sentences. And you know how Polish is…

I suppose that’s how a kid learns their first language, but has anyone here successfully learned a language using the target language itself, without resorting to using any translation at all, such as using a website like the one I just mentioned?

The Polish lessons seem incredibly useful, and using visual aids in the video I understand the gist of it. However I don’t think I’m actually gaining much out of the videos, not even the very first lesson since it’s completely in Polish without subtitles in any language at all. Surely there’s a reason why they’d film monolingual language lessons in the target language in the first place - hopefully tried and tested.

So - Any strategies? Or do I just have to trust the process and plough through them? Cheers!

I was amused the other day to see this:

https://preview.redd.it/6omyqi2ccuxc1.png?width=1983&format=png&auto=webp&s=bacb593c974351383957e04ab5653b7019498db8

The literal translation of the French is something like "in the direction of the needles of a watch". I thought it was pretty interesting to see one (compound) word in English translate to seven words in French. But I realize that there must be even more extreme examples of this sort of thing. It made me wonder about what the longest translation of a single word is, between any two languages on google translate. Does anyone know of any longer than seven words?

I speak, read and write in English. But I can’t articulate grammar rules. I find this a detriment when trying to learn another language. Would taking a English grammar class help? What about taking a class to teach TESOL? Would I learn parts of speech if I took a TESOL class? This isn’t something I won’t do- I like being retired and have no interest in actually working again.

How did you improve your knowledge of the English grammar as a native speaker?

I was wondering if there are any free apps that will allow me to learn russian? Memrise locks 6 of the letters behind a paywall, unfortunately. Thank you!

The lego movie character, Unikitty got her own show on cartoon network back in 2018. I've been trying to find full episodes of the brazilain dub to help me learn portuguese.

But I can only find clips, I've been trying to find a Unigata (Unikitty) dvd from Brazil. But I don't even know if an official one even exists, let alone where I could find one. Does anyone know how I could find it?

Personagem de Uma aventura lego, Unikitty ganhou seu próprio programa no Cartoon Network em 2018. Tenho tentado encontrar episódios completos da dublagem brasileira para me ajudar a aprender português. Mas só encontro clipes, estou tentando achar um dvd da Unigata do Brasil. Mas nem sei se existe um oficial, muito menos onde posso encontrar um. Alguém sabe como eu poderia encontrá-lo?