Did Duolingo every single day. 365 days. Top of my league. Thousands of XP. Brazilian Portuguese, mostly because my girlfriend is Brazilian and I wanted to actually talk to her family.
Felt like I was getting somewhere.
This past Sunday her family had a group thing going at lunch. Five of them, all native, all talking fast, slang and in-jokes flying. I sat there trying to follow and caught maybe 30%. Couldn't even tell who was responding to whom. My girlfriend looked at me halfway through and said "it's okay, even I'm having to listen twice."
That was kind of her, but I felt a level below the table. Couldn't tell if I was tired, if my brain just shut off, or if the gap between "I can hold a 1-on-1 with someone slowing down for me" and "I can keep up with a native group" was actually that wide.
For anyone further down this road than me or experiencing this: when did you realize that gap? What are you using or doing that makes you feel more comfortable in the language?
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from Language Learning https://ift.tt/zBkrXFt
via Learn Online English Speaking
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