TLDR: Stay in the sweet spot of difficulty and use your long term vision to carry the torch forward when frustrations come up instead of avoiding difficult moments. Apps tend to impede learning; textbooks and tutoring are the way. Keep your eye on the prize but fall in love with the process.
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One of the things I love about learning languages is how much humility the process requires. Of course it is fun, but often times there are "F*ck this and f*ck me" moments. I wasted a lot of time avoiding these moments. With time I've learned to appreciate and relish them.
When I was in school learning Spanish (my third language), I used to think that formalized education had no idea what it was talking about and that all studying should be functional because that is how I picked up my first two. Looking back, I realize this is because I was trying to avoid those "f*ck me" moments.
Coming back to languages later in life, I tried (and failed) with my fourth language, Russian, by spending a lot of time watching shows and doing apps. Literally years. I know there are educators on Youtube like Lingo Steve and What I've Learned that suggest massive amounts of input as paramount, but for me this approach led to me mostly just spinning my wheels. It was pleasurable, but the issue was the effort was too low for any meaningful learning to occur. They didn't just not help, they literally impeded my progress.
Apps are designed for dilettantes and dabblers because that's the source of most of their revenue stream. Beyond an A1-2 level, however, they have been essentially useless for me because once I needed B1-C1 level studying, things needed to be more difficult, and apps that are too difficult don't make money. Developers need to eat too.
After going through this frustrating hamster wheel for too long, I had a moment of Zen -- sitting down and actually working through the textbooks that I hated so much in high school. Education, in an ideal scenario, isn't a profit based system -- so administrators and teachers can focus on what works for students (at least as far as testing) instead of what keeps users wanting to keep clicking their phones and tablets. This isn't always the case, as when you're salaried there's also the potential for apathy or an educator getting lost in the weeds with the esoteric, but if I notice a book going down this direction, I find it easier to discard because there aren't the dopamine infused bells and whistles of app based learning. Doing this, I realized the difficult moments that I used to to avoid were actually where most of my real growth occurred.
Similarly, the best tutors I've had haven't always been the ones I got along with the most, but those that held me accountable. They give me an accurate reflection of areas that I've been neglecting instead of just being pleasant company. Otherwise, I have a tendency to become a learning demagogue -- surround myself with "yes men" (or "yes apps") and then being profoundly disappointed when I try to carry my illusion of learning into reality. A great teacher is a profound blessing -- being honest with a student while still fostering motivation is a balancing act, especially when you're getting paid to tutor and the person paying you is the student themself. With learning being such a vulnerable process, if a student hears something they don't want to hear too often, a lot of "hobbyist" learners will get discouraged and quit.
The things I’ve learned to do well, both within language learning and without, took patience and involved a good amount of what I thought at the time were setbacks but were really coccoons. Looking back, I find I've enjoyed the process as much as being at its completion. Actually, scratch that -- I've enjoyed the getting there more than being at the finish line.
This is mostly a jumbled rambling of my own thoughts, but I thought I'd share it in case there's someone feeling frustrated or confused by their lack of progress. Really, I'm just trying to go back in time to give advice to a younger version of myself.
Happy learning y'all. I really appreciate this subreddit.
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