I feel a bit discouraged. Tried speaking and it didn’t go very well. Think I’ll stop trying to talk in day to day activities because it really took the fun out of it.
I had the opposite experience the other day. I believe learning a language has plenty of ups and down depending on the people around you.
I surely sounded incredibly like a newbie, but I was asked in English, and I managed to find words that made sense in the other language. I took it simply word by word, skipping grammatical correctness and not caring about how unnaturally the sentence was constructed, added a swear word as a substitute for a noun I didn’t know, and it all worked out! I was understood, and I was even indirectly praised by one present who didn’t speak English! That made me feel encouraged to learn more, so that I can continue to impress!
This is after a lot of demotivating events however, so that made the upswing just even more powerful!
Super happy to hear that! Yeah there are ups and downs and it’s all about not giving up and staying consistent / daring with trying it out.
Swear words to the rescue! Lol
I have done everything in the Duolingo for Finnish, i continue with it because i have not found an alternative app that allows me to practice for 10-30 minutes a day when I want. Most of the programs i have found have longer videos. It does have more and more that I can speak the sentence and it types it out for me. I continue to struggle to get it to recognize onni (Happy) not as uni (sleep).
I grew up in New Mexico, many of my friends were Navajo, so i decided to start trying to learn diné bizaad (the Navajo language). It is quite difficult, even compared to Finnish. But i already find myself picking a word or two from the elders i encounter around my town.
Oh wow I checked it out and does look like a tough language to learn, wishing you luck! And yeah my partner is quite disappointed about the lack of options for learning finnish. Duolingo has finally apparently added speaking exercises to finnish course but developments are slow.
I’m gonna get back to reading today. Maybe I’ll also do a daily writing thing corrected by chatgpt. Hopefully it’s good enough.
Don’t let seeking perfect, or even good, be the thing that stops you. If you get your meaning over the net in another language, you’re speaking it. Not well, but you’re speaking it. Then it’s all about getting better. Enjoy the little wins and try to learn from the losses.
Thank you for your words, this thread has helped me get over the situation.
Very wise words and think they gave me a boost to my self esteem :) I’ll definitely not give up.
Started playing the new Pokemon game in Japanese. I think this series is really good for language - it asks what language you want up-front regardless of game region or system settings, kids are the main audience, it’s full of concepts I’ve been exposed to all my life, most dialogue is taken at your own pace, there’s furigana most places. There is a story I want to follow, and plenty of text to read, but most of it’s not that important so I don’t mind if some goes over my head.
This particular game, the battles aren’t turn-based, and a few cutscenes are real time text instead of push to continue (and weirdly even in those no voice-over.) I also think you’re locked in after you pick language? And if so, not sure why. Still, a good low-stakes game to immerse with.
It’s been a little dialogue heavy at the start, should be less exposition once I get into it. For now I’m looking up a lot, but I think I’ll lose patience for that pretty quick.
I can usually get the gist of what they say, which is exciting. I’m at the point where most of each sentence is intelligible, but the most important couple of words will be new to me. Between the context and the Kanji used, not too hard to hazard a guess at the new ones. Those i+1ish sentences are exactly what you want for learning.
Never thought about pokemon for language learning, but sounds like an awesome pick for that!
Being bad at something is the first step to being good at it. Don’t give up because it’s hard, that’s why you’re doing it in the first place.
Thank you for your words of encouragement. This thread made me try it out again with more positive outcome :)
Guess I got to remember that people can be rude in any language regardless of my level.
Anki debt stronkest it’s ever been . Hardly any motivation do dailies , (what little I know of )?current day Japanese political situation not helping matters that some times wonder if even worth continuing oar switch to different (language|country)
Pleeeaase motivation … COMEEE BAAAAAACK ‼️‼️ WANT ❗️ TO ❗️ LIVE ❗️ IN ❗️ JAPAN ❗️ SOME ❗️ DAY ❗️
I don’t know much about Japanese politics, but if you reeeally want to keep learning I hope you find your motivation again!! Keep checking here weekly and post your progress :)
I’ve been doing steady work on Busuu with German, and wondering how I could do more structured language learning. I have definitely thrived in a classroom seeing when it comes to language learning, but I have yet to replicate that environment outside of school.
Same. I can’t fully replicate it and need more structure and guidance for learning. It helps to follow a course book though, give that a try!
I think with following a course book, I wouldn’t have enough discipline to follow through on it.
I understand. A dedicated class is definitely the nicest way to do it with someone keeping you accountable :)
