To start off, I’m an English native “fluent” in Spanish, “conversational” in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, I read and understand Brazilian Portuguese alright but speaking is pretty basic, and recently started Russian and Hindi (and Italian on the side? Skdjks) I learned Spanish and Chinese in school, and the rest is me painstakingly attempting to teach myself. I’m sorry it’s wordy since I have a lot of burning questions and didn’t want to make multiple posts, and also if some of these topics might have been done to death on this sub. If you have any tips you could give for any of the following, it’d be much appreciated!
How should I best tackle grammar?
I have seen some divided opinions on this, but I don’t understand how some people can say grammar isn’t important or needed for fluency. For languages like Italian, Portuguese and Spanish I find it fairly easy, so I guess I’m looking for advice for Japanese, Korean, Russian, Hindi...but more generally all the ones that have grammar that isn’t simple like the Romance languages (to me, those are simple and straightforward). What have y’all found best works for you?
Practicing with natives dilemma
I’m someone with crippling social anxiety (among other issues like oversensitivity, maybe some ADD who knows). Usually I would study alone—it was the only way I felt like I was making progress; I could do all input stuff and celebrate small victories when I understood something I read or heard, but for some reason (maybe it’s due to COVID idk) about a month or so ago, I wanted to try interacting with natives. I tried apps like Tandem, Palpal, idyoma, LangMate etc cuz I’m cheap and broke so no, I didn’t nor do I plan on using iTalki or any paid tutor service. I did not have much luck. A lot of people ghosted for no reason, maybe cultural differences, how I’m not the easiest to talk to, it could’ve been any number of reasons really (not to mention the overwhelming plethora of creeps out there). The discords seem promising, but tbh I’m too burnt out from all that and scared to do the voice chats with strangers. I’m self conscious enough as it is. I guess I should just keep trying with what I have to work with? Or maybe it’s not so bad to just continue with self study until I can have some in-person practice instead of online? Ig I’m just feeling discouraged about any general social interaction with natives and maybe you could share your experiences.
How to stay focused/get past intermediate?
I feel like I have some ADD when it comes to learning languages (no, not trying to self-diagnose) and that’s part of the reason I can’t get past intermediate in some languages. I crave the simplicity of moving from A1 to A2 I suppose, and perhaps I tend to “give up” on a language quicker than I’d like to admit. I was able to focus when I learned in school because it was a forced block of time only dedicated to Spanish. I didn’t lose motivation because it was super easy and I enjoyed it as a result, so I continued through AP to now. I’m an impatient person with only my end goals in mind, so I always try to conquer as much as I can at once. I feel like if I tried for even just an hour of study a day it wouldn’t be enough. I’m disorganized and I study when I feel like it, which is most of the day, but then I go on extended periods of time where I don’t study at all. I’d really like to make a realistic schedule I can maintain—doesn’t burn me out too quick but keeps me on my toes. So besides the obvious prioritizing over which languages to study, any ideas?
How do you get to the point where you can translate back and forth between all your languages directly and not rely on a middleman, so to speak?
I’ve actually dreamt in almost all the aforementioned languages, but I’ve never understood how people can think—or learn to think—in other languages since I didn’t grow up bilingual or anything. Maybe I just need more immersion? What should I do in order to improve spoken and written direct translation, from two TLs without reverting to English or Spanish, for instance?
Tldr; Clearly, I’m going about this all wrong
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via Learn Online English Speaking
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