I think I've finally "bootstrapped" my target language.

In the beginning I would translate virtually everything into my native English because it seemed unavoidable. But, I noticed for the first time recently, that I no longer use English to learn German.

I was gifted a monolingual dictionary a while back, and found I could barely understand any of it. I kept poking away at it, and kept watching "Let's Play" videos, and a few months later I am noticing that I can understand a significant amount of dialogue in cartoons and video games. I also discovered that if I go slowly, I can understand paragraphs here and there of Kafka.

Every word I learn now is either through context, or the dictionary, no English involved. I have a looong way to go though. If I were to put a number on it, I'd say I'm about 25% of where I want to be in terms of comprehension. Still, as someone who believed that I could simply never learn another language, even being able to understand an episode of a cartoon is kinda mind-blowing for me.

One other thing I find kind of funny about language learning is how it can feel so perpetually demotivating, despite the fact that every single day, I am technically the best I've ever been at the language.

submitted by /u/less-to-worry-about
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from Dia dhaoibh | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/2VL617B
via Learn Online English Speaking

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