Context: I, 32, female and Austrian and my husband, 28, Australian, live and work in Austria, where the official language is in German.

Due to his high profile job in an international company here, he didn't need to provide any German language certificate to get a residency and work permit. The company also operates in English only.

In my family, most people are proficient enough English speakers and conversations switch to English when he is around. But there are family members who have been vocal about him being supposed to learn German. Sometimes they have reduced him to his lack of German skills, despite him being a polite, helpful and really friendly person. I hated that and thought it was not their place to be rude like that. After all, he has sacrificed a lot to be with me. He came to the other side of the world and stayed for me.

My husband has enrolled in A1 and A2 language courses and he does know and partly understand basic conversations. But his vocab range is still very limited. Learning German in Austria is hard because spoken language is a pretty strong dialect that has little to do with course book German.

So, while I think my family has no right to critisize my husband for his limited language skills, I have started to worry myself, in some regards. In Vienna, where we live, you get by with English quite well. But there are situations in which I would feel safer and more relaxed if he spoke German.

Example: I had a bit of a medical emergency once, we were both very worried. At the doctor's office everything was explained to us in German. And in this moment of distress I had to translate complicated things despite being unwell. Sure, the doctor could have explained again in English - but it would have been nice if my husband would have been able to understand in the first place.

This incident and also thinking about having kids made the want of him learning the language more prevalent.

I also think the mental load of organizing admin things will be on me - and to some extent it is fine. He takes on so much responsibility in other areas, so I feel it is "even". However, there is stress and anxiety with being the only one who understands electric bills, contracts, etc.

And with negative experiences in the family and the whole "speaking German-thing" being a touchy subject (it doesn't come so easy to him) I feel reluctant to ask that of him. (I am a very proficient English speaker and I think it will always stay the language of our relationship.)

Is it even my place to ask it of him? Is it too much to ask? And how has anyone in a similar situation approached this conversation?

Years ago I meant to use the verb “fallar” (to mess up) but what came out was “follar” (to… have relations). I have no idea how I made that mistake since I’m a C1 speaker, I know those words, and my mind wasn’t elsewhere. It happens to us all sometimes I guess haha

Hi, everyone I've noticed that every language I learn makes me think a little differently, like I'm putting on a new pair of glasses through which I see the world. I feel like I get closer to different cultures, and sometimes, I find myself rethinking certain things I’ve always known Have you ever experienced this feeling? Did you feel that your new language reshapes part of yourself or makes you see the world differently? I'd love to hear your experiences.

as a native portuguese speaker, spanish is just impossible for me. ive tried to learn it multiple times. they are indeed close and i can read it and understand at least 80% since ever, but for me to formulate something in spanish (even after studying it cautiously) without mixing it up with portuguese is impossible. similar words mean completely different things too. if i moved to spain i wouldnt learn the language by "picking it up" because my brain would just mix it with portuguese too and i'd have to actively separate the two all the time. listening is also really hard in spain (where i get to practice my spanish the most). probably just giving up learning it cause its so frustrating. has anyone been through something similar?

In how many languages do you think?
And when you're having a mental dialogue with yourself — what language does your inner voice speak?

Do different situations trigger different languages in your head?
Does your inner voice switch languages depending on your mood, the task, or who you're thinking about?

There are already curated articles which you can filter and read, they are claiming to not have mainstream content.

You can read article in parallel text, with audio and vocabulary.

Generating your own article is also an option if you don't like the content.

https://curatorslens.com

title self explanatory, im mostly wondering if someone has achieved decent fluency in multiple languages and didnt grow up with the languages they know, instead learning them at a later age :)

For the last decade, I've been suffering a health crisis that has worsened to the point of needing daily enzyme replacement injections. I realize now that my country of birth is not the place to be for me.

My employer has sites all over the world, including France and Norway. In the next couple years, hopefully sooner, I want to utilize my company's international employee transfer program to go somewhere where the health care system won't collapse, ideally one of the two listed.

What tips or tricks do you all recommend for learning two languages at once? I have some cognitive dysfuncfion/learning disability that has accumulated as a result of the disorder, but over the next several months that should clear up as I progress with these injections (just started Strensiq 3 days ago).

My left leg broke in two places due to brittle bones, so I have a LOT of free time for the next few months at least.

I am facing many challenges here. I have to face them if I want to survive into the future.

Before signing up for the Lingoda Sprint, I struggled to find reviews that matched my situation — someone with an intermediate level in a language, feeling stuck between levels, and wanting to focus more on practicing than starting another full course. So I thought I’d share my experience, in case it helps others considering the program.

Context: I’ve been learning this language for 3 years, mostly on and off, and I live in a German-speaking country. I’d describe myself as an intermediate learner (around B2 level). I would consider my level intermediate (B2), even though the language has always been an insecurity of mine and difficult to learn.

What made me sign up for the Lingoda Sprint: I felt I was in between levels, not dominating all aspects of B2 and feeling not ready to start the C1. At the same time, I didn't want to do another B2 course. I needed to mainly practice speaking and reading, and revise some grammar.

I signed up for the Lingoda Sprint, which consists of 2 months of classes every other day. I received 15 one-hour credits every month, which needed to be booked according to my schedule until a certain date. Besides that, if I followed all Sprint Rules (important!), I could qualify for the 50% cashback, which for me was very attractive.

The Review:

Pros

Division of classes: This can be very personal, but I enjoyed how the classes are divided. Every chapter usually has one class for each "competence" (reading, speaking, communication, writing, and grammar), which allowed me to focus on a specific ability, in my case Speaking. I also found that for the B2/C1 level, the topics were actually interesting and according to real-life situations.

My criticism is that every level is divided into 3 or 4 parts (for example B2.1, B2.2 B2.3) and every sublevel has around 50 classes. So one would need to invest a lot of time to complete an entire level.

Flexibility: You can book the classes freely according to your schedule. The availability was quite good, going from the morning to evening and on weekends. Maybe if you want to take a specific class, you might have to fit into their schedule, but again the offer is vast.

Jumping between levels: I really appreciated that you can freely choose any class from any level. It made a lot of sense since people have different strengths in the competencies/topics. It was also very convenient to book a lighter class on days I felt tired, or simply revise a topic.

Cons

The material: They have their own material depicted in slides, and I can say that 90% of the classes couldn't be finished due to the disproportionate amount of material. The class lasts one hour and it can have up to 5 students, and often if the teacher lets everyone speak (how it should be), they can reach only half of the slides. I believe they must revise it to fit into one hour, because there were some repetitive questions in the material, demanding time that could be better applied.

Homework/Exercises: There is no homework per se, which for me is not a con but I wanted to add this piece of info in the review. There are, however, some exercises in the form of quizzes or flashcards*.* The quizzes were rather easy since they presented absurd options, so choosing the right one was not that difficult. The flashcards are usually from the chapter. In my case, I took classes from different chapters according to my needs, so I needed to revise things that in theory I hadn't learned yet. All in all, I felt that this feature was still a work in progress for them.

Canceling the classes: The classes can only be canceled one week in advance or up to 30 minutes after booking the class. That offers less flexibility, especially when you can't miss a single class due to the cashback policy. But in my own experience, I didn't struggle to attend all of them.

Neutral:

Teachers: I can't fit that into a pro or con, because my experience was very different from class to class. Overall, the teachers are friendly and helpful. I would say on average they are good, I had a few amazing teachers, and rarely a bad one. However, I could sense that some of them didn't have a teaching background, or at least it didn't seem like it, since they were too attached following the slides and lacked teaching skills. Which at times led to the class not being completed due to the amount of material (more Lingoda's fault than the teachers).

Conclusion: I recommend people in a similar situation as me to do the Lingoda Sprint. I could see an improvement in my language abillity and their method fitted well into my current schedule. The learning was fun and I was motivated to attend the classes for the majority of the two months (only at the last 4 classes I was a bit over it, but that is subjective).

In the end, I qualified for the cashback, and with my current schedule, it was easier than expected to attend all the classes.

Tips: Read thoroughly the Sprint Rules PDF! The rules are clear and there is no catch, but you need to be aware of them. I downloaded the PDF and found myself rereading them often to guarantee I didn't break them.

Find a discount code! There is plenty online, I used one from an influencer that got me 20€ off, below i also linked a referrial code they sent me after completing the Sprint.

I debated if I should post my own code, in fear of my review seeming invalid, but the views are my own and it didn't influence my opinion here stated. After contemplating it, I decided to do it anyway because when I was doing my research before signing up, I wish I found easily a discount code and others can benefit for that too.

So, if you sign up for the Sprint or Super Sprint using the link below, you will get 20€/25 USD off. (Apparently discount will be applied automatically at check out)

https://www.lingoda.com/en/sprint/

For transparency, I will receive free classes if someone signs up using my code.

Which would be a better option. I’m leaning more toward Pimsleur because it has both of the languages I’m currently trying to learn plus more that I want to learn in the future.

I've been taking Italian classes for a little over 6 months, I just started level A2. Problem is, I feel like I am just not retaining anything? I did group classes once a week for A1.1 and A1.2, then switched to 1:1 classes for A1.3. My teacher is getting a bit frustrated with me that when put on the spot I can't say much. And honestly it's frustrating me too, I took German and French to GCSE and got A/B respectively so I'm not really sure why I feel like I'm just not remembering anything? I'm getting quite disheartened now and kind of want to quit, even though I love the language and feel such a sense of achievement when I do understand something or remember something. My teacher says I'm very good at grammar which I'm not sure about as I actually find it hard to remember all the little 'linking' words in Italian. Is it common to reach this point/what could I do about it?

I’ll be studying abroad in Japan within the next few months and was wondering what the most efficient way to learn Japanese is. I’d like to at least be able to ask for directions and order food. I really don’t want to go to another country without knowing how to communicate, so anything helps!

Anyone else have the issue where soon as you pick up one language.. you wanna pick up 3 more?.. my mind constantly goes “you listen to more music in THIS language, switch to that.” (ex.) How does someone pick that one language to focus on? Aware this is a more personal thing but Id love to hear others so I could get inspired. Learning Italian due to my mother/family but I’m not that much into Italian media which makes it difficult to wanna continue. What drives you to keep learning? Do people only learn languages because they wanna move or enjoy the culture? is there any unique/specific reasonings? I pick up a language for a month and drop it. Duolingo has seen me MULTIPLE times. Wasn’t sure what flair to use because I would like suggestions on how to decide.. if that makes sense?!

Is it worth to invest my time into memrise as a beginner if i want to remain on the free plan? Or should i consider buying the PRO version (it's possible, but not ideal so if possible and worth it i'd prefer to stay on free version at least for now).

I’m a 25 year old History undergraduate student aiming to continue my education and get my masters. I want to have another language under my belt to be competitive, but I’m having a hard time deciding between two languages.

French: While I took college level French classes in high school and it’d be the easiest place to “start,” I don’t really want to focus on French history since I already know so much about it. But I also feel that French would be practice for me with more French speaking people moving to my part of the United States From different parts of Africa. The reason I started learning French over Spanish was because of my family history, with some of my older extended family only being able to read in French and spoke very little English. (They lived in Quebec)

Hindi: I think Indian history is really interesting. The culture and parts of their history that I’ve already learned about are honestly reeling me in. I know their’s multiple languages spoken in India, but I feel knowing Hindi and English would get me by in most situations if I ever get the chance to go, and I’d love to start enjoying more India media.

Which way would you guys suggest going? Is the added difficulty worth the possibly higher reward? I feel like if I get good enough at either there would be pretty useful applications for both.

TLDR: Probably nothing new to most of you, but nonetheless: The developement of a (senory) imagination is likely strongly influenced by modern media, which let a device do the "work" your brain was made to do. This might affect your general learning abilities in alot of ways. Especially the earlier you get introduced to it and I believe, it is most strongly affecting your verbal skills and learning.

Now the ramble:

You point at things and make noises. If its the right noise, and you have a good parent, you will be encouraged to point at things and make the appropriate noise.

You will get exaggerated pronounciation practice (parenthese) to familiarize yourself with the soundscape of your language. Some argue, adults will lose the ability to recognize all the possible sounds that infants have but I think its just a lack of awareness and practice. After all, infants in their early days will make and intuitively pracitice all kinds of sounds constantly and have all the time in the world to just observe in their waking time.

This will sooner or later create your basic vocabulary. After that, you will learn to describe interactions between things at a rudimentary level. Yes many mistakes ought to happen but, again, if your caregivers are not entirely neglectful, you will fearlessly figure alot of those relations and although, while making mistakes proceed to become more fluent. And a sense of grammar will intuitively flourish through natural pattern recognition.

Now, the same with reading. It goes from identifying letters, to making the appropriate sounds to slowly deciphering words to being able to read whole sentences in succession with many mistakes still.

A key thing to reading and also reading comprehension is your imagination and of course practice. I feel like this is strongly affected by the type of media you entertain. The more these media already contain sensory input (imagery, music etc) the less is left to your imagination which wil make you a more passive and a more challenged learner in the long run, because you will start to get dependent on the sensory stimuli instead of your ( I believe trainable) ability to imagine things vividly.

I think this is why younger people of today are more challenged at learning in general, because their brain is more trained to be a recepticle (is that an English word) instead of being an engine of imagination.

As a kid, (at least in my dissolving memory) every experience has alot more significance in the -at this point- reduced noise of information of memory and other experiences and concerns, that might bring you off track. Your dreams also feel much more real and are more directly connected to what you have just recently experienced. The loop of information circulating in your head is tighter (because there is less total, and less variable input) and is therefore more effective at cycling back to newly discovered words and contexts.

I think reading comprehension and focus is strongly correlated with your ability to vividly imagine the things you read. I remember that in my early childhood I was able to recall anything from a given book I had read, because I was so immersed in imagining the things written there, that it came very close to a real experience, even whith very very long texts. Which why I was able to learn very effectively compared to other children back in those days. I believe this ability was developed through being told and read alot of stories without alot of pictures and imagery and being mentally reliant on imagination to enjoy the stories provided. Other kids got introduced to screenbased media much earlier and much more extensively, which I think must have contributed to adapting to more intense stimuli and a resulting difficulty in learning actively without being spoonfed and constantly regurgitating information without truly engaging with it.

Now, over a decade later, I realize I have developed the same difficulties. Having the most captivating audiovisual stimuli all-time-accessible in my pocket at will has stunted my imagination- and learning ability massively. Dreams are more distant, words don't always create vivid imagery in my head. The term brain-fog comes to mind. Call it apathy, dissociation, overstimulation, whatver you want.

I have noticed, that meorizing sentences, phrases and contexts comes much easier after succesfully retracting from the constant stress and stimulation of modern life and also trying to revive that almost forgotten and unlearned potential of imagination. Making up little stories and childish ideas and images in your mind alongside the learning process, if you learn on your own. On that note it would probably a good idea to experiment with scribbling etc again without being too afraid of mistakes.

To me this has become a significant observation as I had noticed, that my vocabulary in my target language is growing alot, but it is not very accesible to me. I am playing a game of memory so far.

The learning-by-doing aspect, the immersion technique, watching shows etc, I think it is all a way to tap back into the imaginative side of your brain, that automatically creates stories, pictures, context, interwovenness of knowledge and vocabulary.

Maybe this is very obvious to alot of you, but I just noticed this, when I was learning alot of new words without having any mental image in my head. I purely recognized them by their scripture and sound and could accurately assign them to their translation, but what I was missing, what I believe we try to achieve by leaving out the translation aspect, and trying a full immersion is to have the words and sound naturally produce a mental imagery in our heads so you dont translate from an abstract string of words, but a series of images that you try to captivate with the categories of description that your target language provides.

While learning this new language, I had alot of flashbacks to my very first experiences of learning to speak, read and write my native tongue and it has been a very good guide and motivation to realize that I can still access those ressources (although not as naturally) which I had as a child. And that it is very possible to learn even more effective than back in this time if I am able to streamline the observed processes and integrate those observations. I doubt 3 weeks year old me would have a vocabulary of a few hundred fairly comprehensively spoken word so take that, mini-me!

I think it can be very helpful to be fully aware of the implications of this. That a sort of sensory and especially audiovisual (screen) deprivation could possibly enhance your learning alot and that improving your reading and focus will also rely on consuming less content that doesn't need you to fill in the gaps with your fantasy. (Flashy music to evoke emotion, subtitels to ease audio-comprehension, perfectly crafted imagery and colours to portray a context) And that your audiovisual imagination is a skill, that (I believe) can be trained, especially through reading in a focused and aware manner. And that this will have potential to increase your potential to learn anything else, but especially languages significantly.

As a little disclaimer, all of what I say is just anecdotal and hypothetical. I know, there are people out there, who seem to be completely inable to imagine things visually or auditory (aphantasia) or lacking internal dialogue. When I compare my current abilities in this matter to my memories of childhood, I could be led to assume to have similar troubles today in comparison to back then. I don't want to claim any truth or authority on this topic, I just thought it would be interesting to have conversation about this and I appreciate any input on it.

i’m studying Japanese now and i hate traditional way of studying with anki and textbooks iam trying to learn naturally by immersing trough games movies etc. but i have no idea how to do it, do i need to look up every word in dictionary or what?

I speak 4 languages at different level and I face different problems when I speak them and I feel like I am not good at any of them except my native language. Has anyone faced similar problems? Examples: sometimes i speak some english words with german or portuguese pronunciation and some people(mostly non natives) have difficult to understand my accent or i forget words in my own language when I am talking with my family or i mix portuguese with spanish when i speak Spanish or I forget the english word when i speak german or i forget the german word when i speak english. I feel like its hard not mixing them at some point and I will never be good enough

I am decently bilingual. When I try to pick up a different language and find my grasp lacking, I'll try to fill in the blanks with my second language rather than my first.

I noticed a similar thing happening when I started learning morse code after learning a second keyboard layout. The way I conceptualize morse code letters (at least in this initial stage of learning) is by physically remembering/associating the layout of my second keyboard with the sound of the morse code letter. This is a bit confusing because I practice the morse code on my first keyboard so I can technically do both, but I naturally think in terms of the second.

My superficial theory is that even though each language concept is loosely associated in each language, the foreign languages still group more closely in the mind, so if you're trying to think in a different language, the second language is spacially closer in association,triggering the default response over the primary language.

I started learning Spanish about two months ago so that I can communicate with my mostly Spanish speaking coworkers. I downloaded duolingo right away and mostly I've loved it. The system of answering in a way that makes it into a game, the streaks, mostly everything about it I have no issue with. The main problem is that the stuff it's trying to teach me is so irrelevant to what I actually need it for. Duolingo is so structured around "oh they must need this for travel" that it feels like that is about half the subjects I'm learning. I don't need to know how to say airport, I need to know how to say food items. There's no way for me to get accesses to what I actually need to learn, so I've been learning more from my coworkers themselves than through duo. Does anyone else find this frustrating? How can I get better access to specific topics that would help me communicate? I've used Babel in the past for French and it has the same issue. What's the best way to learn fast but that doesn't take up much time (I have school and work so I only have one hour of free time a day, and I plan to use it for myself)

So I'm learning my forth language now which is Italian and I just keep messing up grammar rules and preposition use all the time. I have a really hard time maintaining a fluent speech in it which has happened every time I learned a language (and has only gotten better with me just talking to myself and correcting myself) but I wonder if there's a tool that listens to what u say just like Google Translator but corrects ur mistakes??

I know it's a lot to ask but who knows and I think it's too specific of a question to ask Google lol

When you wanna study a piece of content should you review the vocab ahead of time, or after finishing it? Reviewing ahead nets more overall comprehension, but also is more time consuming. Thoughts?

When I download it, it is really effective for me and their lessons are interesting. So, I try to get premium version and I search some reviews from social medias. From reviews, some of them said that it is seem to be a scam app and there is a problem with premium version fees. So, I am afraid to make a subscription it. But this app is so effective and I learned new words from free version. So, what do you think guys? Please help 🫶🏻

I’m autistic and I love languages. I am B1 in my second language but I also have another that I’ve dipped in and out of for years. How it would usually work is every now and then I’d dip into it and be learning every day for 2-3 weeks and then stop.

However last year I decided I wanted to sit an A2 exam in that language. In January, six months out from the exam I set about starting a daily routine aiming to study 30 mins a day whilst also attending a weekly class. As I started to make progress, my interest and enthusiasm grew.

I now spend about an hour a day after work, in addition to other stuff like listening to short podcasts 2-3 times a week in my target language, attending a weekly speaker meet up, and I've started a weekly private tutoring session as of last week to give me the best shot at the exam.

I still keep up my other interests - eg I still go to a weekly sports group I'm a member of, I still meet up with other friends/family as usual. I haven't fallen behind with housework or work (though luckily it has been quiet recently) but I am afraid that if I'm using so much brain power on learning - does that mean I don't have brain power for my job?

The main thing I'm afraid of is becoming bad at my job. However - that hasn't happened.

The last time I remember being this engrossed with something was ten years ago when I set myself a challenge of becoming conversational in another language I was learning. I did this, and succeeded - and would say I'm probably B2 in that language now.

Anyways - I try not to pin things on autism or being hyper fixations but anyways is what I'm doing normal? I'd love to hear other people's thoughts. Obviously I know this is Reddit - I'm not looking for expert advice, more just people's experiences of doing serious learning on the side of a busy full-time job

As a note as well - I would say a sizeable chunk of my study time is simply replacing doomscrolling or watching tv with language learning