The BIGGEST DIFFICULTY in language learning?!
Vložit
- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- In order to create useful videos, I would like to know what you guys struggle the most with when learning a language. We are going to discuss 10 things people struggle with according to the following two articles:
news.elearninginside.com/5-co...
www.dtstranslates.com/languag...
I will also tell you what I personally struggle the most with when it comes to language learning.
What do you think? What has been your experience? Leave them in the comments :)
00:00 - Some news and today's video
01:18 - Difficulty number 1
02:03 - Difficulty number 2
03.09 - Difficulty number 3
03:52 - Difficulty number 4
04:32 - Difficulty number 5
05:43 - Difficulty number 6
06:21 - Difficulty number 7
07:56 - Difficulty number 8
08:42 - Difficulty number 9
10:18 - Difficulty number 10
11:04 - What is your biggest difficulty? What is mine?
Check out my playlists:
✔️ Language interviews:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7jVS...
✔️ LEARN CATALAN with me:
czcams.com/users/playlist?list...
✔️ LEARN SPANISH with me:
czcams.com/users/playlist?list...
✔️ LEARN GERMAN with me:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSBh...
✔️ My progress in Italian:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfm4U...
✔️ My progress in Russian:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4iq0...
If you like my project and want to support it and help it grow, here are your options:
- Interact in the videos (like, comment) 👍
- Share my content 🎁
- Become a Patreon: / couchpolyglot 🥰
- NEW: Buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/lauracouchpolyglot ☕
Right now, I am not giving private lessons. If you would like to find an online teacher on Italki, use this link and we will both receive 10$ for language classes: www.italki.com/i/CDeADd?hl=en-us
#polyglot #couchpolyglot #multilingual
When I learnt Māori, the most difficult part of learning the language was dealing with my own frustration that I was not learning as fast as I wanted to. Now that I'm learning Spanish, the most difficult thing for me is speaking. All the best Laura from New Zealand.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with those very different languages. Nice to see someone watching from New Zealand :)
Initially the hardest part was definitely understanding native speakers, so much so that I thought I would never be able to do that! After massive listening practice I can now grasp a good chunk of general input, and the most challenging part is speaking with a decent level of proficiency. Communication is rarely an issue, but I wish I had better fluency for sure.
this happens to me a lot with Italian and Russian, I can express myself but it is not proficient. And lately I have trouble even speaking Swedish at all, though my level of understanding has remained more or less the same :O
Comprehension is not so hard for me, actually I understand almost everything when I watch CZcams videos in English or read articles. What is really difficult for me is to write (including this comment) or to say anything because 1) I'm not sure in my grammar, 2) suitable words don't come to my mind, 3) sometimes I just don't know what to say (that was so annoying for my English teachers back in the day!) Btw I'm ok with this now, and I even started to study Italian a month ago with purpose to be able just to understand things. È molto divertente! P.S. у Вас отличный канал, привет из России!
In my opinion being able to write well in a foreign language is overrated unless you need it for work, nowadays you can use tools like "Deepl". I never "bothered" to learn to write in Italian, for instance. It is a skill I almost never need, and if I do need it, I can use Deepl :D
Writting well is something that will come naturally over time if you do it a lot anyways, so if you do need it you will learn it automatically :)
I'll speak for myself. The most difficult part is the listening one and it drives me crazy most of the time. What disappoints me most is even though I have studied English for so many years, I still cannot understand 100% of what they say. Yes, I'm one of those who says: I can speak, but I don't understand well.
absolutely agree.
spanish I can't separate syllables out of words to hear them and it doesn't help that the 300 or whatever spanish countries have their own words and pronunciations, filipino I can't even tell where the words are in a sentence, north carolinian I don't even know if they're speaking human and there are about 50 other varieties of english I just can't figure out what alphabet they're using, german I get stuck thinking out the compound words and get left behind while they continue talking, russian I am going along understanding and miss a couple words and it takes me a paragraph to get back in, swahili is probably the easiest language to hear out there but then they have some 9 letter word that with a few suffix/prefix subtleties equates to a sentence and I get lost in my head...
Thanks for sharing your experience. What helps me the most when I face that challenge is increasing my listening like crazy hehe. I once had to get my French back on track for my job and I would listen to an audiobook and podcasts every day for a whole month. My French comprehension improved dramatically! I had some pressure to perfom for my job, so that really made me practice a lot daily :)
maybe it can help to listen to adapted material too, natives tend to speak very fast and it can be discouraging depending on the level you have. Hope that helps :)
Of course lack of time is the biggest enemy of language learning, but on the other hand I think that some languages have their own difficulties, for example arabic writing system where You don't write vowels... And now there is a question how to take notes and read them after some months? Another barrier with foreign alphabet is that even when it is easy to learn (russian or greek) You still need to switch keyboard mode to practice language but in the same time probably You will have other things to do on the same computer in Your language and it makes practicing a little bit inconvenient... Next thing that may be encountered are cultural differences, and depending on the language it can make learning harder or easier. The most extreme thing that boosted me much is that I was suppressed that when I was able to speak only few phrases in italian, the Italians were looking at me as a one of them that lost his way of life and there is a need to bring me to Italy, and they were also teaching me their language, they were giving thousands of occasions to practice their language and when I had objective to gain only level A2, it was VERY hard to stop learning and start learning spanish :D Another extreme I met and that halted me (or I didn't have luck to find good people to practice) were that Swedes I met didn't want to speak more than three phrases, and I was rather practicing their language with Hungarians, Bulgarians etc than with native speakers, and right now I don't remember much from it. Another problem is motivation... I could try to learn russian, ukrainian, serbian, etc, but being a Polish I am able to communicate with other slavic people only after passive learning from listening to songs (exceptions are slovenian and bulgarian, that I don't understand at all), and it would be very hard to me to find the motivation to start. Another problem is with non-indoeuropean languages... When we are talking about language learning, we are used to talk about english, spanish, french, russian etc, where we are able to guess the grammar rules that will allow us to make short-cuts and learn faster (for example infinitive forms after modal verbs, future form "going to", possibility of using present tense in future: "tomorrow I have to go to work" etc, even it is possible not learning conjugation nor flexion at all and sticking to order Subject-Verb-Object in phrase, using infinitive forms and 1 case), but when we want to learn language from outside of that group, we need to make a bigger reconnaissance.
It is a complex topic, but both lack of time and cultural differences can make it really hard to learn a language. Or if it is a very difficult language, it is hard to get over the mindset of "I will never make it" or "it will take too long, so I will simply not start"
I think for me the most difficult thing is applying the grammar I have learnt and translating it into speaking the language. It happens to me a lot because I'm very good at understanding grammar rules and even orthography, mainly because I like reading about linguistics as a hobby, but many times I found my self in a position where my grammar is higher than my vocabulary so I can't say much or express my self and that demotivates me some times.
That is interesting, thanks for sharing. I am sorry to hear this demotivates you. In my head all languages sound better than when I actually speak and I think that happens to lots of people. So you are not alone! :)
hey 👋 glad you could have new equipment setting and thank you for your youtube contents.
Actually, I hope you can help me on my points that I can’t figure them out alone (i’m still thinking about it in circle and doesn’t help.
As a french woman, from me the most difficult are 1: speaking due to every words or expression I learned before don’t appear during my calls , only dull and repetitive oones only come and that’s too redundant.however I particularly have at least one call per day. so strange.
2: Listening 😭 still struggling with music and tv show while i immerse myself into it😭 and news omg the worst haha 😂 and the thing what made me feel so badly down/ disappointed of me is when i asked mu little sister to listen to a music and she recognized more words by ears I did, even though she doesn’t learn English at all. I have been learning english alone almost 3 years and my pride just taken a hit 😂. 3: stick phrases in my mind. i know the issue i have is the willingness of write down every single words i can’t understand and in fact i do that so far but after that i get overwhelmed and at the end of the day to go over them i don’t have energy anymore and fall asleep 😭 i love using associations to learn the context and also grammar or anything because it’s innovative and creative but i don’t know why my brain stick more words i have barely tried to remember or going over and those i have tried so hard they didn’t stick in my fried chicken brain at all 😭 why and how is it possible. 4: I also have an issue with understanding a context even in my native language, a few weeks ago my coach and I had to watch a stand-up comedy , I get it more or less but by the time she asked me to explain it couldn’t even some extracts. i felt so shame for. 😅 she actually didn’t do much more because i wasn’t in the capacity of understanding it. 5: when i learn a language i love learning their cultures so i watch videos,podcast,documentaries and so on, unlucky idk why i forget everything i learned and it’s exhausted and a waste of time to go back on something you have already learned or watched before. 6: i can’t translate Fr->En and En->Fr , sometimes some relatives aks me to translate something but i stay speechless unfortunately what a bummer. nevertheless i can definitely have a friendly conversation because i had an American partner and we really enjoyed calls together , she was really diligent.
i was hoping that you or anyone could clear my light up on some of my weaknesses. i hope i’m not bothering people and i’m also in a huge lack of confidence (a lot of people tend to notice that) thank you again and keep it up with your videos i like them.
Oh and I have forgotten to tell you if i’m so in rush and hard to myself it’s because i working on becoming an english coach and homework assitant in english as well (i love english grammar) so that’s why for me English learning is very serious , efficient and not the immersion like babies do. yes immersion but we have capacity of acquiring the language more efficiency. thank youuuuu 😊
Hi there, seeing what you wrote, I would recommend the following:
1) You seem to enjoy interaction and you will need it as a coach: look for a tandem, someone you can talk to regularly. Maybe someone who is learning French, so you could help each other for free
2) If money is not an issue, take one conversational class per week
3) Regarding your coaching: it is important that you become really good in English on your area of expertise. Read articles about the topic, maybe participate in free workshops in English
4) Maybe you are a "writer type" of learner. Try writting a diary in English or something related to your area of expertise. Maybe a blog? You could make it private if you do not want people seeing it yet. If you have a teacher, she/he could correct your mistakes
5) Integrate listening to your daily routine. E.g. find a podcast you listen to every morning for X amount of time (e.g. 20 minutes every morning). If it is too difficult, look for adapted podcasts. It is best if it is about a topic you enjoy or related to your coaching
Regardless of what you do, consistency is key. Do something every day and focus on what you will need.
Hope this helps!
Thank you 🙏 for your time and advice 😊
For me, the most important thing is being ok with ambiguity. This applies to perfection, grammar, not understanding everything when you listen and read, when you hear native speakers and most importantly understand that learning a language is like brushing your teeth. You must do it everyday, forever but there’s no particular end point or goal. All of these are not possible unless you can accept ambiguity.
Great point, I think that is why perfeccionists struggle with language learning!
i think for me it is discerning individual words. I live in a Catalan area and to an untrained ear the sounds can sometimes sound like one long word when it was actually many!
I get it, what helps the most is lots of listening practice. I happen to have a Catalan podcast if you are looking for adapted material :D
In my opinion the hardest part is to remember phrasal verbs ❤....😅
Those can be tricky, it is best to learn them with input (in my opinion). If you hear them enough, at some point you learn them :)
I'm learning Mandarin Chinese already having learned Spanish, and the most difficult part so far has been learning to just embrace the differences! Unlike in Spanish where it is so easy to translate nearly word for word, in Mandarin any given sentence could convey a lot more or less information than in English
Of course word order is changed a lot in Spanish, but we have such a cultural similarity!
that is interesting, thanks a lot for sharing!
difficult part is to stay focus. and not to be losing a grip in studying English. I don't speak and write in English very often most of the time just listening. Write this thoughts most difficult part.
Thanks a lot for sharing! :)
A way to improve that could be having a daily routine, even if it is 5 minutes. Like, "I will leave a comment on a CZcams video every day"
@@CouchPolyglot It is big pleasure that you respond to all of us. You motivate thousands of people to improve themself. Thank you for your kindness and for your beautiful smile)
I struggle sometimes with trusting my comprehension of the language. I’ve been learning Spanish for 3 1/2 years and German for 2 1/2 years. When I’m doing lessons with my teacher, I’ll sometimes pause before speaking and start to respond slowly because I get nervous that I misunderstood what they were saying.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. What has helped me a lot with this is listening to the language every day, even if it is 10 minutes. At least for me, it is better for my brain to listen to it every day, even if it is for very short periods of time, than once a week for like 3 hours. Hope this helps!
Our future self* is a topic in psychology - think this may be influential to a degree - depending on the person. I haven't really continued from where I started so I'm not 2 sure where the most* difficulty lies... Work, energy and motivation level I think are legitimate things to work through/around though😅💚(this should be similar but different for most people). The saying... "now you're speaking my language" also something we're all striving for I suppose🙏🤘
Those aspects play a big role for sure!
Para mi es mas difícil cuando llegas a cierto nivel y avance no es tan obvio. Pero cierto es cuando mas sabes, sepas que no sabes nada :)
Un saludo!
Exacto, eso puede frustrar bastante, aunque en realidad ya sabes mucho!
Audio Language comprehension
Thanks a lot for sharing what you find most difficult! I think with audio listening, what can help is listening to lots of input and always looking for audio that is a bit challenging, but not too much. E.g. where you can understand 70-80% and can get most of the rest thanks to context.
If it is way too difficult, it can be frustrating... and if you understand everything 100%, it might be too easy and not really estimulating for your brain. Hope thins helps :)
I have also improved a lot my audio comprehension with music!
i feel listening/understanding is really challenging. not necessarily in languages you are at home in, but the ones on the fringes. like, you have learned and worked for years, but there are days when you just don't understand shit... so, you can speak the language more or less well, you can read it without any problems, maybe you even write reasonably well, but... then there's some trivial conversation that just rushes by. and can you really say you understand a language if you don't understand it? happens to me with every language, except german, english, italian.
I know what you mean, I think there are "good and bad language days" and that is normal. It also depends on how you are doing, if you are doing well you will feel more playful and laugh at yourself if you do not understand something. If you are very tired or stressed, it will frustrate you more and you will generalise by saying "I do not know this language", when in reality it was just a sentence :/
@@CouchPolyglot you're probably right - gute zeiten, schlechte zeiten💁♂️
For me is finding recourses
Thanks for sharing, it can be very difficult for certain languages for sure 🙈
@@CouchPolyglot yes and it’s russian
No if you listen you can do the accent perfectly and punto
I do not think this applies to most people, but great for you if you are able to do that :D
@@CouchPolyglot I disagree, people ignore the accent and then they can't do it
Choosing which language to learn when you don't actually NEED to learn a language.
Yeaaah, I often feel like learning Swedish, but "I have to" learn Swiss German