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Posted in General chat
I read this article about why language is power and I though I’d share it with you.
https://jeffflesch.medium.com/4-reasons-why-language-is-power-403ed2f865a0
For me language has a HUGE power. You can reach so many more people if you learn a second language (or more). And I have met some incredible people that I never would have met without another language in my bag and I will forever be grateful for it.
What is the power of language for you?
/ Tuva
/ Tuva
Posted in Motivation station
Hello all! Lately I have been struggling to feel inspired, even for daily recurrent tasks. What do you do to get inspired? My most effective method is to listen to music but that has not been working. Let me know your suggestions! ☺️
Posted in General chat
Today, the platform this community is hosted on announced live streams! This is something I've been really interested in using for a while, and now that we won't have to deal with the back and forth of Zoom, it'll be so much easier.
I'd love to have regular online meetups with y'all so we can get to know each other, talk any and all things language learning, and support each other.
That being said, what would YOU like to see in these kinds of events? Some ideas off the type of my head:
I'd love to have regular online meetups with y'all so we can get to know each other, talk any and all things language learning, and support each other.
That being said, what would YOU like to see in these kinds of events? Some ideas off the type of my head:
- general check-ins
- get your questions answered
- sharing experiences of different apps/approaches
....or anything that you'd want to join!
Posted in Apps & resources
SO interesting to see how language learning apps modernize...Mondly and Duolingo now offer family plans! Well, at least Duolingo announced it at Duocon, not sure if it's implemented yet. Mondly is, though!
Do you think this option is more likely to motivate you to learn a language?
Do you think this option is more likely to motivate you to learn a language?
Posted in Mindset
So about 8 or so years ago I stopped teaching German as they removed it from the curriculum in my school. I didn't use it in any other part of my daily life so ended up reluctantly taking a break from it.
When I came back to wanting to focus on my German, I felt really daunted. Would I be good enough? I didn't think so. Had I forgotten everything? I thought I had had too long without using the language to get it back to the level it was at. Major imposter syndrome. In fact that imposter syndrome was why I procrastinated for so long and put off getting back into using and learning German.
When I jumped in at the deepend what I found was quite different though. Yes, I had lost a lot of vocabulary as well as my grammatical accuracy but slowly and with practice that has come back. What shocked me though, was that I was still able to communicate my thoughts perfectly well. I was still "fluent" but sometimes got the grammar wrong although not in a sense that made me difficult to understand. And I had lost my range of vocabulary but I still had skills that helped me get round that, like paraphrasing etc.
Has anyone else experienced this procratination at getting back into a language after time away from it? I'm guessing so but it's good to share experiences and realise that we're more than possible to overcome them.
OK I'm not back to my original level of German but I'm feeling a LOT more confident and know I CAN do this.
Don't you just hate imposter syndrome and procrastination though???
When I came back to wanting to focus on my German, I felt really daunted. Would I be good enough? I didn't think so. Had I forgotten everything? I thought I had had too long without using the language to get it back to the level it was at. Major imposter syndrome. In fact that imposter syndrome was why I procrastinated for so long and put off getting back into using and learning German.
When I jumped in at the deepend what I found was quite different though. Yes, I had lost a lot of vocabulary as well as my grammatical accuracy but slowly and with practice that has come back. What shocked me though, was that I was still able to communicate my thoughts perfectly well. I was still "fluent" but sometimes got the grammar wrong although not in a sense that made me difficult to understand. And I had lost my range of vocabulary but I still had skills that helped me get round that, like paraphrasing etc.
Has anyone else experienced this procratination at getting back into a language after time away from it? I'm guessing so but it's good to share experiences and realise that we're more than possible to overcome them.
OK I'm not back to my original level of German but I'm feeling a LOT more confident and know I CAN do this.
Don't you just hate imposter syndrome and procrastination though???
Posted in Motivation station
I just started my last year at university last week and I am already so overwhelmed with everything. SO much is going on at once and my brain just kind of want to take a step back, but at the same time I don’t want to do that.
I just started my last year at university last week and I am already so overwhelmed with everything. SO much is going on at once and my brain just kind of want to take a step back, but at the same time I don’t want to do that.
Every time I take a step back from my language learning, it can go from a week long break to a 3 months long break in the blink of an eye. And I do not want that to happen again.
And then I stumbled across this video and it strangely gave me a lot to motivation to continue and enjoy the process of learning. Even if I take a week long break, I still have the motivation to get back after that. So I just wanted to share it with you, in case it could give you something.
/Tuva
/Tuva
Posted in Our members
Hi everyone. My name is Sebastian. Nice to meet you all.
I'm from Germany but live in France now. I love learning new languages, more with the idea than actually learning them. Even though I'm living in French, it's not yet good enough to come by. I want to improve that.
I mainly read, as my learning resource. I learnt French in school for about 10 years in school. ( didn't get me far) and started learning it again 3 years ago, first via Duolingo. I hated French in school, but I always loved the language.
I also mingled in Russian and Portuguese and really want to learn them one day.
Hope everyone is doing well.
I'm from Germany but live in France now. I love learning new languages, more with the idea than actually learning them. Even though I'm living in French, it's not yet good enough to come by. I want to improve that.
I mainly read, as my learning resource. I learnt French in school for about 10 years in school. ( didn't get me far) and started learning it again 3 years ago, first via Duolingo. I hated French in school, but I always loved the language.
I also mingled in Russian and Portuguese and really want to learn them one day.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Posted in Apps & resources
Hi there,
Today I decided to take a look at some of my old books and resources and found some great ones that I had forgotten about.
I'm continually trying to sound more natural and also improve my range of vocabulary and structures so I found these two books that I'd forgotten about that I think will really help me with that.
Sometimes, I find myself getting frustrated with the fact that I reuse the same verbs and vocab over and over and, whilst I can say what I want to communicate, I sometimes feel like my structures can become a little samey and I worry I sound boring.
Today, I have set myself the challenge of learning 1 idiom per week AND putting it into practice. I will also try to use 1 new synonym per day too, again putting it into practice. I'm so fed up of the word "interesante" so it will be really nice to shake my vocab up a bit too.
One of these books is 20 years old but I think they'll still be invaluable to me. What are you doing / have you done in the past (that worked or didn't work) to increase your range of ocabulary ans structures?
Today I decided to take a look at some of my old books and resources and found some great ones that I had forgotten about.
I'm continually trying to sound more natural and also improve my range of vocabulary and structures so I found these two books that I'd forgotten about that I think will really help me with that.
Sometimes, I find myself getting frustrated with the fact that I reuse the same verbs and vocab over and over and, whilst I can say what I want to communicate, I sometimes feel like my structures can become a little samey and I worry I sound boring.
Today, I have set myself the challenge of learning 1 idiom per week AND putting it into practice. I will also try to use 1 new synonym per day too, again putting it into practice. I'm so fed up of the word "interesante" so it will be really nice to shake my vocab up a bit too.
One of these books is 20 years old but I think they'll still be invaluable to me. What are you doing / have you done in the past (that worked or didn't work) to increase your range of ocabulary ans structures?
Posted in General chat
I'm curious how much time people usually spend per day dedicated to language learning. In the past I would go all out, studying for long periods each day. Then after a week or so I would stop, either due to lack of time, unmotivated, or the realization I wasn't retaining the information (trying to cram too much too fast). I recently started studying French again. Right now I'm doing 15-30 minutes a day on average. I'm not sure if that's enough. I want to make progress but don't want to get burnt out. Any suggestions?
Posted in General chat
I’m starting to notice a really huge difference in language experiences, and I’d love to get your thoughts!
Native English speakers “learn” a foreign language in school, usually high school and/or college. They don’t learn to speak, though. They just learn some simple vocabulary and conjugations…and also tend to forget it all after their exams.
Non-native English speakers (depending on the country) get a decent English education in school. It’s not perfect, but those who are interested in languages have a good enough base to learn independently. They get stuck trying to learn other languages, though, because language classes that aren’t English are those same ones that are getting native English speakers stuck.
I know there are a few of each of these categories in this group so I have a question: what do you wish you had known to help you in your current language learning? What would you tell your past self?
Native English speakers “learn” a foreign language in school, usually high school and/or college. They don’t learn to speak, though. They just learn some simple vocabulary and conjugations…and also tend to forget it all after their exams.
Non-native English speakers (depending on the country) get a decent English education in school. It’s not perfect, but those who are interested in languages have a good enough base to learn independently. They get stuck trying to learn other languages, though, because language classes that aren’t English are those same ones that are getting native English speakers stuck.
I know there are a few of each of these categories in this group so I have a question: what do you wish you had known to help you in your current language learning? What would you tell your past self?