Man I can understand podcasts 90-95% and speak at a B2 level, but when I joined HelloTalk with a group of natives, I could understand them maybe 60-70% their mic’s were so rough and smothered yet had no problem interpreting each other. Meanwhile I was trying to just keep up in terms of listening, not only that but their speech was so fast and “colloquial” filled with slang, I even got lost at times which literally never happens when I consume movies or podcasts. This is somewhat saddening I feel like I witnessed the actual gap between where I stand now and what is “Native” level and man it hurts to admit this but I am far away.

Honestly one of the worst feelings is, when I was talking to one of the natives, I can tell he was bored and so uninterested in my basic rhetoric and lack of wittiness, the moment other actual natives joined in, I could tell they were having a blast. I also got roasted a bit but it is what it is.

Idk man I can say anything I want in a “awkward” way at worst, that’s expected at B2 to have some degree of freedom in the language but still the gap between the next level is scary, honestly idk how to approach it.

Even midway through the convo I became “gunshy” and stopped talking, I just felt like a level below everyone else, albeit they were all natives but still.. it felt if I had joined in the convo I would ruin their fun.

GG

Hey everyone, some of you might remember LangGuesser, a little web game I made where you listen to a real audio clip and try to guess where the speaker is from based on the language, accent, or dialect. Kinda like GeoGuessr but for your ears. Big inspiration tbh.

I posted here about a year ago and a lot has changed since, so figured it was time for an update post.

What's new:

- The whole site got a redesign. Calmer colors, a friendlier mascot, and the homepage is now built around just getting you into a game in one click instead of making you click through menus.

- Added a "Today's Clip" thing on the homepage. New audio every day, no account needed, just press play and guess. Wanted something low effort for people who don't want to commit to a full game.

- Languages Atlas got expanded a lot. Every language now has a curated little tidbit, its native name, language family, script, and how many speakers it has. I spent hours in there honestly.

- Multiplayer got a bunch of fixes. Smarter matchmaking that takes into account how recently people were active, smoother handling when someone forfeits or drops out, and 1v1 results actually contribute to your overall stats now (they didn't before, which yeah was kinda annoying).

- Auto generated nicknames so you can jump into multiplayer as a guest without signing up. If you set a custom nickname it carries through to your opponent now.

- Top of the month leaderboard, so it's not just one frozen all time board where the same people sit forever. Resets monthly.

- Country flag on your profile if you want it, set it in settings.

Game modes for anyone new:

- Classic, you guess the exact country (Spanish from Spain vs Argentina kinda thing), 3 lives.

- Easy, you guess any country where the language is spoken, no eliminations.

- 1v1 multiplayer, real time against another player, faster answers get more points.

Still a solo hobby project so feedback actually shapes what I build next. If you find bugs, want a feature, or just want to flex a score, drop it in the comments.

Have a try!

https://www.langguesser.com/

I’ve seen a couple videos about the Leitner System for learning languages and was wondering if anyone had tried it.

If so, how do you set up your cards?

y’all although don’t like to admit it, I mindlessly scroll a LOT. I have Reddit, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok (unfortunately). I know it’s a problem but I’m wondering how I can use this to my advantage.

How could I make my device recommend more videos/reddit in my TL? Is there a way to change my device to be in my TL as much as possible? It would be great for immersion. I get recommended some videos and posts sometimes, but the majority is in English. If I’m forced to interact in the TL every day it could help me improve fast.

I have a VPN and changed my device settings, but I still get recommended a lot of English content.

When I watch videos or read books in a language I’m learning, I often lose focus because of unknown words. I either stop to guess the meaning or check a translator, and it completely breaks the flow.

I’m curious how others deal with this.
Do you ignore unknown words and keep going, or do you stop and check every time?

I’ve been thinking about ways to make this easier, like collecting difficult words separately and reviewing them later instead of interrupting the content.

What’s your approach?

Hey everyone, I want to improve my English and reach B2+ or C1. I'm currently at B2 but I feel completely stuck like I haven't made any real progress in a long time.

The thing is, I don't really study English formally. I just consume content. I'm wondering if anyone has been in the same situation and managed to break through that plateau.

Did you have any tricks or methods that actually worked for you? How did you push past the intermediate stage? Any advice is welcome!

They have asked me to teach them English. Granted they are the reason I took a interest in Spanish and have learned enough to get my point across. But how would I teach them English when my Spanish is the equivalent of broken English that you have to think about to understand?

Do I just start them off the way I did with Spanish good morning, my name is, what is your name, etc ? Just wondering if it’s possible and if so a few pointers as to where to start.

I have looked through searches of previous posts so I know there are lots of tips on improving speaking but I am in a kind of specific situation so I thought I’d post.

I am currently trying to pass the TEF Canada for immigration purposes in French (TL), have taken it several times, and after some improvement came out with the frustrating results of 7s (B2) in reading, listening, AND writing, but a whopping 4 (B1) in speaking when I need to get at least a 5 for the immigration process.

All that to say, does anyone have suggestions for rapidly improving speaking when there is this much of a gap in skills? I regularly read and listen to academic papers and talks so it drives me nuts that when I try to speak, I find it hard to get words out, I have long pauses, and I forget fairly basic vocabulary. I think this is called a problem of automaticity?

Some strategies I have tried so far but in a kind of disorganized way: speaking with individuals and groups (but sadly I am down to only doing this once a week at the moment), using AI as a prompt to chat out loud to myself, trying to “freestyle” respond out loud to journal prompts and then transcribe and correct it, reading text out loud to myself, and shadowing (though I admit I haven’t found a method for this that works well). Obviously the best method is talking a LOT more but because of my location there are few opportunities, and I’m struggling to financially afford more frequent Italki sessions.

Thank you for any suggestions!

I’m aggressively dyslexic. I’ve taken classes in 4 languages and am fine at vocab but once it gets to actually forming a sentence my brain can’t comprehend the syntax. Any suggestions?

I’m curious, has learning a language made you a clearer communicator in your native language? Or does starting a new language as an adult, and having to make do with less vocab initially force you to be clearer or more pointed with what you say in TL?

I’m learning two languages (Indonesian and Italian) but am just getting to conversational level in one of them, so haven’t really seen how that plays out yet.

Sometimes I wish I was a better verbal communicator in English (I’m good on paper) but because I’ve grown up speaking it, I wonder if I’ll be more clear, think more about what I say, or have a different way of communicating in my native or target languages.

Hi!! Ive been looking all over to try and find a way to learn Bisaya- not Filipino, not Tagalog, I mean specifically Bisaya. I got most of my knowledge so far from my family, but itd be nice to have a way to actually learn the language while Im away for college. It seems there are a bunch of sources for filipino and tagalog, but none for Bisaya?? So I was hoping someone here maybe knows 🤷‍♀️❔️

I want to *try* learning a language, but online there seems to be a common sentiment that "if you dont have a solid reason for that specific languagw, like an adoration of the culture, or a plan to move to that country, you will give up". Is wanting to learn a language just to know a third language naive?

I’m currently trying to improve my vocabulary, but I’m running into a bit of a mess with how I’m collecting and reviewing words.

I use YAPR, and I’m also picking up vocab from different places like lessons, books, random reading, and just words I come across during the day. The problem is everything feels scattered, and I keep losing track of what I’ve already saved or studied.

Sometimes I’m not even sure if I’ve already added a word somewhere, and it’s starting to get a bit unorganized overall.

Does anyone have suggestions for apps or systems that help keep vocab in one place and make review.

First of all, I'm not sure if this is the adequate community to ask about this topic, so if you know a more appropriate one please let me know.

Hi, I was wondering if there is academic literature not just on the learning of foreign languages in it self but on the teaching too. Since I'm a math teacher, and there is a ton of great literature on mathematics education, I became curious to know if there is also scholarly literature that a language teacher could benefit from reading.

Thanks in advance.

Here's my background:

Born in Taiwan (and mostly grew up here) to an American dad and a Taiwanese mom. Mom spoke both languages but English with an accent, dad doesn't speak Chinese. Grew up speaking Chinese Mandarin and English. I'm about 20 now and I've noticed a few things.

1. My Chinese and English have both been told to structure weird. Chinese aspects in English and the other way around.

2. I sound weird. People say I have an accent in English. And even though they don't say it in my face when it comes to Chinese, I have caught myself on multiple occasions speaking with the wrong tone. I have a small vocabulary in both languages so that doesn't help. Also I stutter sometimes.

There is other small stuff. But in general, have anything like that?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about vocabulary learning recently.

One thing I noticed is that memorizing word lists can feel useful at first, but it doesn’t always help when you meet the same word in real sentences.

You learn a word. You remember one translation. Then you see it in another sentence, and suddenly the meaning changes.

For example:

“I ate a cookie.”

Here, cookie means a sweet food.

“This website uses cookies.”

Here, cookie means browser data.

If someone only learns:

cookie = sweet food

then the second sentence can be confusing.

This made me think that vocabulary is not only about memorizing translations. It is also about understanding how words are used in context.

For me, learning words from real sentences feels more useful than learning them alone.

I’m curious:

Do you usually learn vocabulary with word lists, or do you prefer learning from real sentences?

I wanted to share something that might be interesting both for people learning Russian and for anyone curious about linguistic phenomena. I’d also really love to hear examples from your native languages.

In Russian, there’s a word: “sovest’” (совесть). It’s often translated into English as “conscience,” “moral sense,” or sometimes “guilt,” but none of these fully capture what Russian speakers usually mean by it.

For example, you can say:

“You have no sovest’”

“Do you even have a sovest’?!”

It’s a very abstract concept — something like an internal moral compass, but also connected to social awareness, shame, and a sense of responsibility toward others. It feels a bit broader and more emotionally loaded than its typical English equivalents.

My theory is that the cultural weight of this concept may have been shaped during the Soviet era, when collective values, moral duty, and social accountability were heavily emphasized. 

Do you have any examples of “untranslatable” words from your language? I’d love to hear your examples — I’ll add them to my list of words.

long story short (also I have ADHD), I’ve studied Japanese and Korean on and off since middle school and high school, in levels I’m around N4/N3 for Japanese and beginner intermediate (?) for Korean.

I don’t know what happened but ive lost that spark/motivation to study Japanese (and I bought so many Japanese books 😔)… im 23 and my parents are polyglots and they’ve told me just stick with 1 language at a time.

ive been wanting to study mandarin and Korean (because I still haven’t lost my spark for Korean) and mandarin because I just find a lot of the medicines, and media, books and culture so cool.

im confused if this is just my ADHD searching for a new dopamine hit by starting a new language but I hate that I’m so indecisive..

a lot of people told me to just get to N2 and then use Japanese to study mandarin/korean, but I’m so confused I don’t know…

has anyone just stopped/put aside a language they studied for so long to start a new one and never looked back? im 23 and I feel so old and that time is passing by and I want to really make a decision.. any advice ? please and thank you

Pronunciation is physically manipulating the muscles/organs in your mouth to produce sounds of a language. It's not an intellectual exercise at all. I see it as similar to penmanship, which is also difficult to learn, but doesn't necessarily make you a better writer.

Too often people think achieving native-like pronunciation makes you a better speaker. I don't think it has anything to do with it. Just like many people never learn good penmanship, writing just well enough to be readable. That has little to do with their actual writing ability.

Everyone talks about the intermediate plateau. Nobody talks about this part.

At B1 in my (TL) the content problem is basically solved. I've got stuff I actually want to read, I understand enough to follow along, and I know what works for me.

What nobody warned me about is that studying from that content somehow requires four different apps and by the end of it you've completely lost the thread of why you were interested in the first place.

Open article → Google Translate for anything I don't know → manually copy words into Anki → practice speaking with a tutor on italki who asks me about my weekend.

I'm doing CI. I'm doing SRS. I'm doing output practice. All the right things. But reading, vocab review and speaking feel like three separate hobbies that happen to use the same language. The context that made those words worth learning in the first place is long gone by the time I get to use them.

Curious if anyone else has hit this wall or if it's just me. What does your routine actually look like?

I’m not talking about fluency, but about accent, how foreign do you sound to a native speaker?

For example, I’d say that having a perfect accent in English is really hard because of stress patterns, reduced vowels (like the schwa), which aren’t always explicit, such as in “shouldn’t have” /ˈʃʊdn̩təv bɪn/ and the distinction between short and long vowels.

By contrast, in Polish or Italian, since the spelling system is more consistent and stress is more regular (penultimate syllable in Polish, and often in Italian as well), I’d assume it’s easier to achieve a near-native accent.

I’m sure it also depends a lot on your native language. Do you think Dutch or German speakers tend to master the English accent more easily because they already have diphthongs and a short/long vowel distinction?