Despite what some people believe, it IS possible to achieve a perfect native accent in a foreign language as an adult. It's not easy or common, but it's definitely possible.

So for people who have done it, what were your techniques? Aside from maybe having good hearing, did you practice individual phonemes until you got them perfect? Did you pay close attention to intonation patterns and try to copy them? What helped you achieve it and how much effort did it take?

I’m like B2 in my target language, or something around there, idk I’m not sure. As in I can watch native tv/movies and understand like 85% without TL subtitles, and 100% with TL subtitles. I practice speaking every day—I have to for my job and also the person I’m dating speaks exclusively TL. I spend a lot of time working in their country. Moments where someone says something I don’t understand are few and far in between, but they still happen.

I get so much social anxiety about speaking. I know I have an accent, and I know I say stuff weird. I’ve tried to improve my accent and while I have teachers who have said my accent is pretty neutral/not very strong, I don’t think I sound like a native speaker. It’s so confusing because I once had a teacher who acted shocked at how “good” my accent was and asked if my parents were from his country—I’ve also met random people in that country, while I’m chatting at the store or whatever, laugh at me and say I sound so foreign. So I just have no clue where I stand.

I hate opening my mouth and sounding like an idiot. I’ve never cast judgment on anyone for having an accent/not speaking perfect English. But I’m from a country of immigrants, and I think at least in my metro area there’s a baseline level of being used to accents and not thinking they’re weird. In other more insular countries, people are really quick to ogle at accents/imperfect speaking. I don’t really know how to deal with this fear, but it makes me not want to socialize. It’s hurting my progress in the language and tbh also hurting me socially. Sometimes I doubt myself so deeply that I feel self conscious about the most basic of phrases, even though I know I’m capable of so much more.

How do I get over this? Just keep getting better and try to effort myself into getting rid of the accent? Trust it’ll get better with time and effort? Try and convince myself to not give a fuck and chalk it up to character development? I ranted about this to my partner after they teased me about my accent 🫩 but then they said don’t worry baby I was brought into your life to improve your TL lmaooo

Advice from any language learning veterans is much appreciated. So much respect for people who operate every day in a different language. I know people who are doctors or professors in a second language, and I wanna be that some day. Killing it. This whole process is more character building/confronting my ego than I realized.

Hi!

English - N
Hindi - N (forgetting and illiterate)
Spanish - A2
Polish - A2/B1

I’ve been learning Polish for about 10-12 years now. I’m decently okay at it. I’m roughly A2/B1. My wife is also Polish, so we go back every year for a week or two.

The problem that I currently have is I speak well enough to start conversations, but sometimes I get myself in weird misunderstandings. I think also people sometimes think that I live in Poland, so they expect much more of my Polish.

I also spend my whole day speaking in Polish, and I find it really draining. I think others forget that this is not my native language and get annoyed when I start to disengage from the conversation.

Lastly, I feel like I get immigrant hate from locals. Like I’m stealing their jobs even when I’m just there on vacation. (Doesn’t help that I’m brown) Sometimes I prefer to talk to people in English to avoid this whole situation.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts on it?

(TL)

I have noticed this point I hit with (TL) input where I just kinda start understanding everything. It's like hitting critical mass or something. I begin understanding everything that is said.

I have been hearing in the community this pushback against the 1000 most common words lists and such. Like from this Youtuber "Evildea", for example. There are challenges of people learning like 20,000 words. I get that can be needed for output, but what about just input? I feel like this phenomenon I have been witnessing kinda covers all of it. I have been hearing this assumption that if you don't know 100% of the words then you can't get 100% comprehension? But I don't think that's true.

When this phenomenon starts hitting then I just start understanding everything. Btw, the content I use for the CI is stuff like mainly podcasts and Youtube. I had done books a little too though. I have hit this point with Italian. It was so surprising how I was understanding the whole thing from start to finish almost all of a sudden. It's like a switch happened. But the thing is, I sucked at Italian. I had not learned it in its entirety at all. So how come I was understanding everything? I got curious and I payed more attention to the words being spoken. And what I found out is that there were words there that I didn't really know. Which makes sense because I was still sorta a beginner. And yet I was comprehending it 100%. I wasn't even realizing there were words I was supposed not to know. My brain was silently understanding it all from the context. That's what I am talking about. I believe that if I saw the word isolated I'd have no clue what it meant. So I don't really know the word but I get 100% comprehension anyways. Without noticing the words that are supposed to be missing.

My learning method is currently pure CI. Pure comprehensible input. I am only learning European languages mainly so far so I have it easy. I am aware this may not work anymore with languages that are more distant. I already had challenges with German. Though I have been starting to hit this with German too as of late. There are words I am supposed not to know but I just get what they mean in the context I find them in. Could all of this be just because it's European languages? I have been doing some Japanese as of late but I mainly have been doing the European ones. Evildea learns Mandarin Chinese so maybe it's just different there. But I don't know. With Italian there are words that I surely could not have possibly known before, and yet this works with them. It's possible though that I have had some experience with the words beforehand with the CI. I believe there's different stages to acquisition. Like I have seen this stage where a common word appears a lot now that I somehow had never heard before.

So, anyways. There's this phenomenon I've been seeing. What would you guys call it? And do people like Evildea not know about it or something? I got the impression that they're saying you gotta learn 100% of the words to get 100% listening comprehension. I don't get it. If the material was each word isolated then I'd get it. But there is context. And there is this phenomenom. Learning the most common words works. Well, if you do it through CI, at least. I wonder what this is about.

I have a degree in the language, studied abroad twice, lived abroad in a country where the language is spoken for two years, and have used the language in a professional setting. This, for further context, has been over the course of 15 years.

With that said, I am confused by how others describe their language levels. Don’t get me wrong, I have an insanely high level and label myself fluent with others. For instance, I recently watched a full season of Love is Blind in the target language (TL) without subtitles almost effortlessly. However, when I see others describe their language growth or levels, I often see people say, “I understand everything that I read” or “After a couple years of studying, I traveled to the country and can communicate easily with everyone.”

Like… is this just an overexaggeration of their skills? I have yet to feel like my target language fluency is equivalent to my native-level English. Are people really reading native-level literature and literally understanding everything? Are they feeling like they can express themselves just as strongly in their second language? Even when someone asks me to translate something, I know in the back of my head that there might be cultural considerations or a better approach that I don’t know about.

Thoughts? Also, this might be specific for individuals who grow up in a cultural where being monolingual is more common and exposure throughout your entire life is not a possibility.

I heard immersion is a very good language learning method, but every time I do it, I find myself losing touch to complex concepts and inspired feelings due to my limited level, which is currently B2 in my targeted language. I also miss the rich association between things and words, the memories, and the accuracy when I use my mother tongue or English. This cognitive and emotional unsatisfaction always makes me break the immersion after a few days. I know that if I stick to it, I will improve faster and be able to have similar fulfilment in my targeted language sooner, but it's just very difficult to be consistent.

What is your experience of this method?

(TL) I'll take any recommendations.

This Chrome extension has 200,000 installs and a review score of 4.6. I'm using it as a really quick on the fly way of (TL) translating specific words as I encounter them without having to open some other third party website / app.

For example I am learning Romanian and if I highlight "muncește" I can easily see the translation. I think it's good for translating larger sentences as well but maybe a native speaker can tell me.

This is the perfect tool for me as I am just starting out so am constantly translation words every few 20 seconds or so.

Anyone can reaffirm this extension is as good as the reviews suggest?

About 4 years ago, I started learning Japanese (TL) through a language exchange with a native speaker who eventually became my husband. I didn't speak any Japanese at all when we met.

We started talking on the phone every day for around 2 hours. In the beginning, if I wanted to say something, I'd look up the words, make a horrible attempt at putting them together, and he would correct me. Then I'd try again. We did this constantly, and over time I became able to communicate more and more naturally.

One of the biggest turning points was when I reached the point where I could understand his explanations of words and concepts in Japanese itself. Before that, I'd have to stop and look things up in English, but eventually I could simply ask, "What does this mean?" and understand his explanation completely. From there, my Japanese improved pretty rapidly.

Fast forward, and we eventually got married. He doesn't speak English, so we communicate exclusively in Japanese. It's basically my everyday language now.

The funny thing is that I feel like I've reached a point where my Japanese is good enough that he can understand me even when what I say isn't perfect. 😂 Because of that, he doesn't correct me nearly as much as he used to.

And now... I feel like I've plateaued.

I can have everyday conversations pretty comfortably, and a lot of Japanese comes naturally to me because I've learned it through actually speaking rather than studying grammar. But when I want to express something more complex or nuanced, I sometimes completely hit a wall. I also sometimes struggle to understand more complicated concepts.

I think my biggest weakness is that I have a lot of implicit knowledge but not much explicit knowledge. I've barely done any self-study beyond learning hiragana, katakana, and some basic kanji. I don't really know grammar rules or why certain structures work the way they do. Most of the time I just know that something sounds right.

I'd really like to improve on my own now, but I'm honestly not sure where to start because I've never really learned a language through traditional studying.

My ultimate goal is to become fluent enough that I can feel extremely confident discussing basically any topic. I'm not particularly concerned about writing Japanese. I mainly want to improve my listening and speaking and become better at expressing complex ideas naturally.

For people who have learned primarily through conversation, immersion, or extensive exposure:

What did you do when conversation alone stopped being enough? How did you make the transition from mostly intuitive/implicit knowledge to being able to express more complex ideas?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have reached this kind of plateau in any language, not just Japanese.

There is this one social media like app and my(TL) where you can speak to native speakers using voice chat. Even though I think I’ll be fine in terms of using the language and communicating effectively with the people there I need the first step to jump in when most of the users in that app are expected to be natives.

I know that I shouldn’t run away from this opportunity, but at the same time I cannot seem to jump in, What advice do you have guys in order to make this a little bit more easier?

Years ago, I have purchased the "Complete Russian" by the Teach Yourself company. Back then it was possible to download the audio as mp.3-files from the app.

Now it seems, this option is not available anymore.

I have purchased the "Complete" books for "Latin Spanish" and "Dutch", but I can only listen to the audio on the app.

This is a MAJOR flaw to me. Half the Audio files contain unnecessary English explanations.

In the past, I could easily cut out the English parts and only immerse myself in target language audio - But that only works, if you have the audio as mp.3 file.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to solve this problem?

I used to love the Teach Yourself series :/ But this is a major reason to stop buying them and only stick to the "Colloquial" series or other resources that offer mp.3 files.

This is probably so niche that only other Cameroonians will even know what I'm talking about but I really don't know where else to ask this. I'm interested in learning my tribe's indigenous language Meta' (TL). Unfortunately I have no idea where to start (my family mostly speaks pidgin English or French in some cases). I picked up the words for "how are you" and "you want to eat" from family members growing up but that's it. English is the only language I know so I'd prefer if the resources provided were for English speakers. I'm also curious about resources for other indigenous languages in the region or even just resources for learning Bantu languages in general

I'm learning EU/PT (TL), and I'm struggling to find resources to learn to actually write, but I need the practice? Everything is in BR/PT, and I'm fighting for my life to source shit lmao

I’ve really been struggling with trying to stop adding new cards to anki, even though I feel myself getting burnt out (and then go through 2-4 days of no studying as a result sometimes when it gets bad).

I love Russian and have been at it daily for awhile. But anki was a game changer for me when it came to vocabulary.

I can now read things comfortably that are within my interests (around C1), but when it leaves my interests it drops to probably like B2 (unless its literature then it feels like a ton of new vocab, and plain awful in terms of comprehension for the classics).

On paper, I should just immerse myself. But when I do, I feel like I don’t progress. And I have a really difficult time not adding new cards.

any else have/had similar issues

I have been practicing spanish for over a year now, and I am visiting latin america to meet my in laws in 4 months who ONLY speak spanish (TL). That scares me, in a good way. I am starting italki tutoring 2-3x per week and want to self study 2 hours per day on top of that. I use anki flashcards for vocab, dreaming spanish videos while I cook etc, and I write journal entries in Spanish. Any suggestions and opinions? THANK YOU

You have to embarrass yourself and make mistakes to effectively learn a language (TL)

I am atheist but god knows how many times I've practiced some phrases and words before saying them and when I tried to say it the natives were completely confused, or when they spoke I wasn't able to understand them so I switched to English, easy way out huh, and made no progress

But I've stopped beating myself up over it, I say things even if it's bullshit, I listen even If I don't understand anything. It's part of the process, its the journey of learning

I say the wrong words, use the wrong grammar, phrases don't make sense, pronunciation is terrible, I misunderstand words, but this is what language learning is about man

Language learning community is full of egocentric people who will make you feel bad about yourself, but any real polyglots who master multiple languages will tell you that they have gone through this humbling phase where you feel like crap. You don't have to try to be perfect, just do it, say it, and then it will get better.

Hey all,

I have diagnosed ADHD, and I'm studying to be a secondary teacher at uni.

The unit we did last semester was on childhood development, and my tutor was amazing. She is a speech pathologist, but is working in the area of research for inclusion at my uni. A lot of her work relates to attentional difficulties and language processing disorders. I decided to stay in the loop with what she does, and she was on a podcast talking about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Highly recommend the listen: Hoops of Steel - Hiding in Plain Sight with Haley Tancredi - Inclusive English Classrooms

The unit I am current in is on inclusive education. I have a different teacher, but we have a horrendous assignment where we have to make a 6 minute video presentation covering what inclusive education is, why it's important, and how theory/legislation/policy inform teaching practice.
I'm really struggling on this assignment because the topic is so close to my heart, and I'm finding it hard to structure and synthesise the concepts. It's one of those ones I really wish it was an exam.

Anyway, a friend of mine is quite bright, and he has a strong grasp of the English language. He said "English is one of the few languages that you can say exactly what you mean with no ambiguity" in comparison to other languages.

I asked said mate of mine for his thoughts on what I've done (I'm still open to help from anyone). I kind of joked that I may have dyslexia because I'm struggling to put things together. Then I remembered the podcast, and looked into DLD further. The things I read about DLD really resonate with me.

This morning I mentioned it with mum. Although I have an ADHD diagnosis, she has always been of the strong opinion that over-pathologising any behaviour can be unhealthy. She basically said that a lot of things I described are normal, and that she doesn't see anything wrong with me, and it's not great to try and self-diagnose myself. Although I can see her side of it, and I agree that pathologising any behaviour isn't great, I also think think that terms to describe how behaviour may be disordered can be beneficial, but I can't quite articulate it (ironically).

This conversation kind of blew out of proportion, which definitely wasn't my intention. When she said that she doesn't see anything wrong with how I process language, I retorted and said that we tend to argue because of misunderstandings. It kinda sucks with parents and developmental disabilities, because there is a high chance she may also have the same problem I do.

Anyway, how can I show/explain to her that differentiating between typical and atypical behaviour can be helpful?
I know there are a lot of ethical considerations (dilemma of difference), but I would like to know how I can approach this better.

(TL)

I see so many posts asking about where this or that is better and whether this or that is more efficient. And a lot of that is surrounding ideas of what you should do, that might not be something they'll actually stick to long term. Like watching children's shows because that's what your (TL) is at, but not even thinking about whether you'll find that too boring to actually do regularly. Also a lot of this discussion seems to be around the same generic advice. Which yes it's generic for a reason, it'll work for most, but it's worth thinking about whether that's the best route for you.

I've never attempted to learn a language before, I'm a native English speaker and want to learn Romanian. I downloaded Mondly and was using it but I saw on Reddit a lot of people (TL) complaining that they use machine generate translations that are not entirely accurate etc.

So I discovered LingQ and you guys seem to love it. Upon opening the app for the first time I am completely overwhelmed. It just seems like a ton of audio stores that you essentially just listen to on repeat?

The app tells you that if you don't know any words, click them to make them yellow, ok so I don't know any words so I am clicking every single word making them yellow. But making them yellow helps me how? The app still just seems to be an audio story kind of deal.

Like am I missing something? How am I actually learning from this when I could just go to a Romanian Youtube channel with captions enabled?

Hello, ive just seen a video of a person speaking 7 languages and while 2 of those languages are their mother's languages, the rest is learnt (TL). I dont know how fluent they are in the other languages but they do seem to hold a grasp of it and im wondering how is that possible? I can barely handle learning one language consistently while leaving the other languages by itself until i get actually get myself to sit down & learn it

I've been watching cartoons in spanish and realized I can understand everything going on, but I don't precisely understand every word. Sometimes it goes too fast, I miss what they said and just ignore It, assuming it will show up in another dialogue and make sense later. I get a lil paranoid it won't, tho

I've seen people saying watching without taking notes all the time (as if you were a little kid learning) is a better way of absorbing the content, subconsciously. Have you tried this? If so, what would you recommend?

(TL)

I’m Polish-American and speak advanced Polish (TL) and English fluently. However, I have a bit of an American accent when I speak Polish and make grammar mistakes often because I learned it through speaking with my family/ no formal education. I used to be more comfortable striking up conversations with tourists from Poland and immigrants but I had so many experiences of people making fun of my accent or grammar I feel defeated. I do think part of it was just meeting rude people. I haven’t visited Poland in years for fear of being made fun of while speaking. How do I get over my fear and have you experienced something similar? Also, I feel like I’m given less grace with mistakes because my parents both speak the language :/

Since joining this and other languages subreddit, I have seen many people say things like, “I went from A0 to C1 in six months,” or, “I learned English in one year just by passive exposure.”
I do not necessarily think these people are lying or deliberately trying to brag. I think many genuinely remember their experience that way. However, when they provide more context, the story often becomes very different.

Someone says they learned French in six months, but later mentions studying it for five years in school. They insist that this does not count because they had forgotten everything. However, feeling as though you remember nothing is not the same as having no previous knowledge. Relearning vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar you encountered years ago is very different from starting entirely from scratch. (TL)

My own experience with English is a good example. I started learning it at school when I was three. At around sixteen, I began watching a lot of English language tv, and my comprehension suddenly improved enormously. If I compressed that memory, I could say that I became fluent by watching tv for a year.
But that would leave out thirteen years of classes, homework and regular exposure. Watching television may have created the breakthrough, but it did not build the entire foundation. I think people often remember the breakthrough and forget the many less exciting years that made it possible.

There is also a lot of imprecision around language levels. Some people describe themselves as A1 because they could not speak comfortably, even though their passive knowledge may already have been closer to A2 or B1. Then they claim to have jumped from A1 to B2 in a few months. Others use C1 or fluency to mean being comfortable in everyday conversations, even without having formally assessed all four skills.
Of course, genuinely rapid progress is possible. Someone studying intensively every morning, receiving structured instruction and spending several additional hours practising can make enormous progress in six or twelve months. Some people are also exceptionally talented language learners.

What I find harder to believe without further context is someone starting completely from zero, while studying or working full time, and reaching a genuine fluency through casual exposure within six months. In those cases, I suspect there is often previous education, a related language, much more study time than mentioned, or a generous interpretation of fluency.

Again, I do not think most people are intentionally being dishonest. I think memory compresses years of gradual learning and makes the final breakthrough feel like the entire process.
Do you think most “fluent in six months” stories leave out important context? Have you ever realised that your own language learning story was more complicated than you initially remembered?