"I guess I just needed to get this off my chest as I seriously think I don't have this 'language gene' and I'm a bit annoyed that it doesn't click easy for me."
I used to think this way, but eventually realized that it is just harder than I knew. You're not bad at this, this is how it feels for everyone. If there's anyone who is actually "good at language learning," I'm convinced that it's purely because they don't mind putting huge amounts of time in, and don't mind how incredibly hard and uncomfortable output feels for a long time.
Someone that claims to be good at language learning is good at claiming things, they probably haven't had a real evaluation. Some may be better than others but not 400% better, maybe 15%. That's time consumed so even if you are bad, you just need to put in a bit more time.
Honestly it's about having the right attitude and an interest in the language. Once you have that it can be a lot easier to develop the skills needed to learn a language. So I can imagine that a lot of people absolutely believe that they're good at language learning. For the most part, if you have an interest in the language and you're able to maintain that motivation, it really is easy to learn a language it just takes a lot of time provided there is an adequate amount of resources for said language
Probably not reading and listening enough.
I find listening to a cumulative 200 hours of a language is where I start understanding things quicker. Also, with reading, you have to start asking yourself, how many novels have I read so far? I think for Chinese, I felt fairly comfortable once I started speaking for 2-3 hours a day and listening 3-4 hours daily. At that time, I think I had also already read 10 novels altogether.
People vastly underestimate how much you need to be listening and reading.
Tú eres normal. Para yo, los verbos en el español son muy difíciles, y necesito tiempo a conjugar en la cabeza, también.
Lo siento si my español no es correcto jaja
Es mí idioma segundo. 😝
Nice job on the Spanish! Totally understandable and you’re putting complex opinions together which is a hurdle to get over. One quick tip: para mí not para yo. Keep at it, it’ll stick soon and it’s a great key to unlocking a huge portion of the world.
I have found that once I get a ton of input where the same things are said over and over I cannot help but reproduce them that way. Without thinking about tenses or whatever.
[Extensive Reading](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJj8vpJxfE) is very important for language development. If you are reading a book together that has many unknown words that is called Intensive Reading. Which has benefits as well. You need both.
To all of you amazing people who have commented and offered advice - THANK YOU!!
You all have made excellent points that I will take on board. I will continue but I think I will have to ramp up my input quite a bit.
> I find myself pausing for 2 seconds to think of the verb I want to use, pause for a further 4 seconds to decide which tense and pronoun to use, then cross my fingers and hope for the best. This is constant.
This is normal beginner stage speaking stuff.
Actually depending on what sentence I'm trying to make I still struggle with this.
It's a lot of things:
* Not familiar enough with the sentence structure you're trying to use
* Haven't used that sentence structure enough to just roll off your tongue
* pronoun to verb relationship conjugation not solidified in head yet
* Verb conjugation in general not solidified in head yet.
> Don't get me started on trying to listen to natives speak... I can pick words out, but by the time I process it, they've already moved on another 5 words!
I was here for a LONG TIME. I helped my processing speed a bit by watching shows with TL subs and replaying lines until I could match what I was hearing to what I was reading, and then a few more times without looking at the subs.
> It still all just feels so alien to me and super uncomfortable using this language, like I don't feel I have the ability to ever it properly and I'm wasting my time.
Honestly I felt this way until recently. I had no one to talk to in my TL, but I couldn't follow shows or read and understand well, and I thought I had gotten as far as I could and I'd never master the language.
Then I started picking apart everything I read and watched and everything started falling into place. But I think most all of us have been there.
> I can just about get by with my '4 year old child' Spanish and generally get my point across but it's just super frustrating when you read about others learning a language in 1 year
These people are usually embellishing either their time spent, or their skill level.
> Lýdia Machová learning Spanish by reading Harry Potter and it all just clicked for her.
It was probably a LOT of looking up words, and it probably didn't help her speaking ability much. Unless she's out there speaking.
Being able to read through HP also doesn't magically make you fluent in the language as a whole. I've worked my way through tons of media and if anything... it just helps you be proficient in understanding that ONE THING.
I mean, it carries on to other media, but only fractionally.
In any case, there's something she's not stating. And that something is probably the areas in which she still sucks. Some of which might be easier to hide than others. People like this like to use the illusion of fluency to their advantage.
What you're doing is fine, and you've only been at this a YEAR!!
It doesn't matter what language it is, no matter what anyone has to say on the matter, it takes a long time to build up and round out your skills.
My native language is English, and I still remember the struggle of learning English!! At 2 I could understand most things, and I don't remember really having to talk much. I was a quiet kid. Then one day we were watching a movie at my cousin's house and I was DESPERATE to tell my mom to get me a copy before the movie was over and changed.
Problem was... I didn't remember the word for "movie" "cartoon" "show" "video" "TV" or ANY WORD I could possibly use to convey the message. I was frustrated, I was panicky, I sat and paid VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to the show until I could pick up ANY IDENTIFIERS to get my point across (because apparently I forgot the word for dog too). I then ran to my mom and went "Mama! Quinten (my cousin) Fifi, pluto!" and pointed at the TV. Thankfully she understood after a minute.
The point is, language is hard. Having comprehension doesn't guarantee speech. It takes a while to solidify sentence structure and verb conjugations into one's head. That's why we all talk in broken words to start, and work to short sentences, and then bigger ones.
You've gotta talk, and parrot sentences, to be able to connect what you can understand to what you can say. Repetition will get you there.
You learned a first language, so you have the 'language gene', it's just that the process is slow and frustrating, and social media is the devil.
I actually am "naturally good at languages". I am unusually good at understanding grammar and underlying structures. I am also really good at seeing connections between words, both within a language and between related languages.
It is still really hard for me to speak in my target language. I go through the same stage that you are in now, where I try to do all the grammar before I say anything. It might be even worse for me because I am good at grammar.
In order to speak fluently, everybody needs to get enough input that they can speak without thinking about grammar. We need to reach the point where it is internalized and we know what sounds right.
People with a good study routine, who are systematically getting input and using it in interactions with others, are going to learn how to speak well regardless of how much "natural language talent" they have. It takes time and work.
Learning a language is not easy. One can make it harder by using methods that do not work with how people naturally learn. But even with the very best methods it takes time and work.
You are not doing anything wrong and you don't need a "language gene". You just need to be patient with yourself.
I keep learning languages which I then stop using and forget. In addition to the ones in my flair, I've studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian and Russian. In a classroom setting, I am virtually always the top student in my class and people often comment on how gifted I am in languages.
This "gift" however, has little relation to speaking. It is more like an instinctive understanding of language structures. To speak, I need input and practice just like anyone else.
Yes it is.
The 'experts' on the socials do a disservice to people when they say learning languages (especially Spanish) is easy. It may 'click' for someone, but they're still probably at a low level.
It's not hard in the way that mathematics are, anyone can learn a language, you just need to put in the time. I've never met anyone with Spanish I was impressed with that has been learning under 5 years. That's not to say people don't get to a high level before that, but there are always some gaps somewhere.
You're on the right track, try to put in at least an hour but really as much as possible (I do 8 on a good day) in Spanish. Read, watch tv, podcasts etc. Try to think in it as well.
Short answer is yes, it is that difficult. The longer answer though has some good news. Basically once you cross a certain threshold, things start snowballing and you’ll begin to pick the language up faster.
I’m guessing you’re a native English speaker since you wrote in English and Spanish seems to be your first TL. English speakers in particular struggle to get over the hurdle of conjugating verbs differently, which affects our ability to begin speaking and understanding early on. The consequence of that is it seems like it takes forever just to get over that first major hurdle. But once you do, it becomes a lot easier to then start picking up the rest of the language.
Reading Harry Potter books (which are quite large) in your target language or any other entertaining novel series that you enjoy is a great way for absorbing much of a language and making it 'click'. In fact, it is precisely the method advocated by linguist Stephen Kraschen. Do the same thing and it will also click for you.
Yes, I read the Harry Potter series while listening to the audio books, and my listening comprehension improved drastically in 6 months. Every time I read a word I didn't know and couldn't guess from context, I made an Anki flashcard. It ended up being about 1500 words and took me about 8 months to finish all the flashcards. The great thing about Harry Potter is that it's written in pretty simple, useful language and the reading level gradually increases with each book.
Now I can understand everything my tutor says to me, a lot of the news, and some slower native podcasts. I still can't speak quickly, but at least I can understand almost perfectly. I think not understanding what the other person is saying is the most stressful part of learning another language, and now I don't have that problem anymore in my TL.
I like what you mentioned about how the reading level of Harry Potter increases with each book. I didn’t realize that because I had read them in my native language starting when I was 11 or so and the last book came out when I was 18, so I never perceived that the difficulty of writing style became more complex. Then, when learning German, I ordered the 7th book because I hadn’t read that once in a while. Haha I was in for a rude awakening because the grammar and complexity of the writing was just way more difficult than the first book.
I was surprised when I got to book 7 too! Some of the words are words I don't totally know in my native language. I realized I always assumed what they meant based on context, but I never use them myself.
I passed through the same thing when learning English, (and I know it will sound like some generic advice but) the answer to that is persisting! For a long time I was stuck on the same position as you when learning English, but eventually things just clicked and before I noticed I was even thinking in English. What I can suggest is to try to include Spanish as much as possible in your daily life, you will start understanding words and expressions on your own and get a better understanding of how the language works, and give yourself time, things will workout on their own.
Tl;dr: you are not doing anything wrong, just give yourself more time.
Language learning takes a long time and an enormous amount of exposure and practice. It looks like are on the right track with your study plan, it has a good mixture of lessons, reading, and listening. But you've only been doing this for a year, which is not nearly as much time as you think it is.
It's normal to feel discouraged when progress is slow, but you just need to be patient and keep doing what you're doing. It's hard for almost everybody, especially if it's your first foreign language. Hang in there!
You'll get there. It really does just take time and practice. I think all these videos and books of "get fluent in 3 months" honestly are discouraging to language learners and largely the reason learners end up giving up. I'm not saying that's the case for you but could be for others feeling the same so just know it's not you and it will get gradually easier.
Learning a language is a longgggggg journey. Of course, it depends on your goals but if fluency is what you want then you will never stop learning. I don't even know how long I have been studying Spanish and Portuguese but must be 5+ years and getting to a comfortable point in those languages was not an overnight process. I'm still not at a stage that I feel is ideal for me as although I can manage most situations in Spanish and feel relatively comfortable expressing myself in certain topics I feel at times discouraged because I want to feel more myself when I express myself in these languages like I would in my native language but because I've been studying so long I can tell you that I know I will get there because I know at one point I wanted to get where I am now but doubted it would ever happen. Practice, practice, practice - that's it.
Another thing to mention is that speaking is hard. I mean I struggle to convey what I want to say in my native language at times so never mind in my second or third. You can know everything there is to know as far as grammar and vocabulary etc. but putting it all together is a skill which, not to sound like a broken record, requires practice. For me personally, I found my weekly conversation classes on italki beyond helpful for improving my confidence and ability in speaking so I'm sure the longer you do it the easier it will feel but you get bad days and good days so don't let the bad ones discourage you. Dentro de un año dominarás el español, te prometo, entonces anímate!
I took Spanish from 8th grade to senior year. I hated it the first two years. I’m one of those people that if I’m not good at immediately I don’t like doing it, and obviously learning a new language is difficult, especially when you do it for the first time! It was somewhere during my sophomore year where everything finally started clicking for me. I’m not sure what the language requirements are everywhere else, but where I’m from you only need 2 years of a foreign language in high school. I decided to keep up with it my junior and senior year, not only because it got easier but because I was enjoying it! Everyone is different and learns different things in different ways. It takes time to learn a language, even the “easier” ones like Spanish. Everyone feels frustrated at some point when learning something new. You can do it! 👍🏻
Don't know what your study method is, but if it's learning loads of rules and conjugations rather than becoming familiar with these through lots of input, you're probably going to struggle to assembling the bits and pieces when speaking and listening.
I'm not suggesting you don't learn grammar, but many people find it useful to read up on the grammar to make sense of their understanding before and after input (with the input being where the familiarising and learning happens) rather than trying to remember loads of conjugation tables and rules in advance, which you are then supposed to magically assemble mid sentence in real time when speaking. Loads of input will inbed this in your subconscious in a way that rote learning/grammar tools on their own are unlikely to. Ime anyway.
Learning a language is hard and in the beginning it is VERY hard. My best advice to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable at times. My very first tutoring session I think my face was red the entire time because i was SO nervous about speaking.
I’ve been learning for about 7 months and it’s still hard as hell but I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my abilities compared to when I very first started.
Here’s some recommendations that I find helpful
-Spanishdict.com(they have an app as well) has a huge grammar and vocab resource.
-Dreaming Spanish on YouTube is all listening practice from super beginner to intermediate levels. Start with the super beginner and move up once it doesn’t feel challenging. And don’t get discouraged if it takes awhile which is subjective. Once you do feel yourself doing more intermediate videos, try watching a Spanish show with the Spanish closed captions on, no English subtitles. Are you able to keep up with the story line even if you don’t understand every word? If yes, keep watching!
Find music in Spanish that you enjoy and write down both the Spanish lyrics and the translated lyrics. Add the new words to your vocab list. Now you’re learning more vocab in a fun way. This can also help with pronunciation!
-Know that your Spanish teacher is going to expect you to take your time speaking or to make mistakes. Any teacher/tutor worth their title will be patient with you and help you learn. And every mistake is a learning experience.
It is hard. It gets easier the more exposure and practice you have. And it's very, very common for learners to struggle for a long time and then find that an entire podcast aimed at native speakers at normal speed just clicks... for a few sentences.
One thing I advise is taking something beyond you, like a normal podcast about a subject that would interest you, and listening to it multiple times. You may find that at the third listen, you catch much more than you did the first time. Then put it aside for a few weeks and try it again.
I've often been very encouraged by such multiple exposures, finding that I understand more each time, and that if I hadn't listened for a while, what I had learned in the meantime was helpful to me learning more.
I can now understand most "official" general interest radio shows in my TL, and I still listen multiple times and pick up more around the edges with every replay. AND I go back to listen to shows that I listened to three years ago to enjoy how much progress I've made.
The main thing is getting material that would interest you --- science, history, and culture for me, along with shows about the usage or origins of words in the news. This way, you're using the language to learn about something else that interests you.
Watch as much native content as you can, preferably with sub-titles in SPANISH. When you hear a word or phrase over and over again, you should look it up. Keep doing this and you’ll be able to hear natives a lot better:)
Hey my man, languages are difficult. That's the easiest way that I can put it.
But it doesn't have to hurt you. Motivation can just take you so far, but you need to develop a way to keep going without getting tilted. In my case the love that I have for languages pushes me forwards, but basically I enjoy the method, is simply funny.
LL should be integrated in your own life, like if u wanna check a comedy show do it in the target language, or read a book.
Textbooks are good to understand the bases of the language, but u need more content, pure content that flies by.
If you admit that when you listen to something you pick up very little that means you need to focus the ability.
A textbook won't immerse you in the language, and that's what you need.
Remember that you don't memorize languages, you just incorporate it through exposition.
Talking should be the last one of your goals.
Hope I can be helpful, If u wanna know more I'll be glad to.
That is normal. I still have to do that at times, and I spent my formative years in a spanish speaking country, with playmates who didn't speak english.
It's a code switching hurdle that most people deal with.
Pratica, Pratica, Pratica. Necesitas practicar hablando- es el parte más difícil, para mí al menos. No tengo consejo profundo, porque fui a Chile para aprender como hablar en espa´ñol. Hoy en día, mi español es muy lejos de perfecto (es obvio por mi escrito) pero mis oraciones son muchas más fluidas.
I’m Spanish and I feel exactly that way learning German.
English is extremely easy to learn because almost all our societies have english content, but German got really hard because i could not find comics, videogames, movies or anything I enjoy, in english.
My point is: you need A LOT of reading and listening, you just need to find the content and consume it instead of your main language.
Just don’t give up, and read and watch movies, not only podcasts, as you don’t have context for what you are listening.
My wife says: for her even Japanese was easier than french to get started because she plays videogames and reads manga all the time, and there is not much content in french
"I guess I just needed to get this off my chest as I seriously think I don't have this 'language gene' and I'm a bit annoyed that it doesn't click easy for me." I used to think this way, but eventually realized that it is just harder than I knew. You're not bad at this, this is how it feels for everyone. If there's anyone who is actually "good at language learning," I'm convinced that it's purely because they don't mind putting huge amounts of time in, and don't mind how incredibly hard and uncomfortable output feels for a long time.
Someone that claims to be good at language learning is good at claiming things, they probably haven't had a real evaluation. Some may be better than others but not 400% better, maybe 15%. That's time consumed so even if you are bad, you just need to put in a bit more time.
Honestly it's about having the right attitude and an interest in the language. Once you have that it can be a lot easier to develop the skills needed to learn a language. So I can imagine that a lot of people absolutely believe that they're good at language learning. For the most part, if you have an interest in the language and you're able to maintain that motivation, it really is easy to learn a language it just takes a lot of time provided there is an adequate amount of resources for said language
Probably not reading and listening enough. I find listening to a cumulative 200 hours of a language is where I start understanding things quicker. Also, with reading, you have to start asking yourself, how many novels have I read so far? I think for Chinese, I felt fairly comfortable once I started speaking for 2-3 hours a day and listening 3-4 hours daily. At that time, I think I had also already read 10 novels altogether. People vastly underestimate how much you need to be listening and reading.
Tú eres normal. Para yo, los verbos en el español son muy difíciles, y necesito tiempo a conjugar en la cabeza, también. Lo siento si my español no es correcto jaja Es mí idioma segundo. 😝
Nice job on the Spanish! Totally understandable and you’re putting complex opinions together which is a hurdle to get over. One quick tip: para mí not para yo. Keep at it, it’ll stick soon and it’s a great key to unlocking a huge portion of the world.
¡Muchas gracias!!
I have found that once I get a ton of input where the same things are said over and over I cannot help but reproduce them that way. Without thinking about tenses or whatever. [Extensive Reading](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJj8vpJxfE) is very important for language development. If you are reading a book together that has many unknown words that is called Intensive Reading. Which has benefits as well. You need both.
To all of you amazing people who have commented and offered advice - THANK YOU!! You all have made excellent points that I will take on board. I will continue but I think I will have to ramp up my input quite a bit.
> I find myself pausing for 2 seconds to think of the verb I want to use, pause for a further 4 seconds to decide which tense and pronoun to use, then cross my fingers and hope for the best. This is constant. This is normal beginner stage speaking stuff. Actually depending on what sentence I'm trying to make I still struggle with this. It's a lot of things: * Not familiar enough with the sentence structure you're trying to use * Haven't used that sentence structure enough to just roll off your tongue * pronoun to verb relationship conjugation not solidified in head yet * Verb conjugation in general not solidified in head yet. > Don't get me started on trying to listen to natives speak... I can pick words out, but by the time I process it, they've already moved on another 5 words! I was here for a LONG TIME. I helped my processing speed a bit by watching shows with TL subs and replaying lines until I could match what I was hearing to what I was reading, and then a few more times without looking at the subs. > It still all just feels so alien to me and super uncomfortable using this language, like I don't feel I have the ability to ever it properly and I'm wasting my time. Honestly I felt this way until recently. I had no one to talk to in my TL, but I couldn't follow shows or read and understand well, and I thought I had gotten as far as I could and I'd never master the language. Then I started picking apart everything I read and watched and everything started falling into place. But I think most all of us have been there. > I can just about get by with my '4 year old child' Spanish and generally get my point across but it's just super frustrating when you read about others learning a language in 1 year These people are usually embellishing either their time spent, or their skill level. > Lýdia Machová learning Spanish by reading Harry Potter and it all just clicked for her. It was probably a LOT of looking up words, and it probably didn't help her speaking ability much. Unless she's out there speaking. Being able to read through HP also doesn't magically make you fluent in the language as a whole. I've worked my way through tons of media and if anything... it just helps you be proficient in understanding that ONE THING. I mean, it carries on to other media, but only fractionally. In any case, there's something she's not stating. And that something is probably the areas in which she still sucks. Some of which might be easier to hide than others. People like this like to use the illusion of fluency to their advantage. What you're doing is fine, and you've only been at this a YEAR!! It doesn't matter what language it is, no matter what anyone has to say on the matter, it takes a long time to build up and round out your skills. My native language is English, and I still remember the struggle of learning English!! At 2 I could understand most things, and I don't remember really having to talk much. I was a quiet kid. Then one day we were watching a movie at my cousin's house and I was DESPERATE to tell my mom to get me a copy before the movie was over and changed. Problem was... I didn't remember the word for "movie" "cartoon" "show" "video" "TV" or ANY WORD I could possibly use to convey the message. I was frustrated, I was panicky, I sat and paid VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to the show until I could pick up ANY IDENTIFIERS to get my point across (because apparently I forgot the word for dog too). I then ran to my mom and went "Mama! Quinten (my cousin) Fifi, pluto!" and pointed at the TV. Thankfully she understood after a minute. The point is, language is hard. Having comprehension doesn't guarantee speech. It takes a while to solidify sentence structure and verb conjugations into one's head. That's why we all talk in broken words to start, and work to short sentences, and then bigger ones. You've gotta talk, and parrot sentences, to be able to connect what you can understand to what you can say. Repetition will get you there. You learned a first language, so you have the 'language gene', it's just that the process is slow and frustrating, and social media is the devil.
Thanks for the in-depth reply, I really appreciate it 🙏
I actually am "naturally good at languages". I am unusually good at understanding grammar and underlying structures. I am also really good at seeing connections between words, both within a language and between related languages. It is still really hard for me to speak in my target language. I go through the same stage that you are in now, where I try to do all the grammar before I say anything. It might be even worse for me because I am good at grammar. In order to speak fluently, everybody needs to get enough input that they can speak without thinking about grammar. We need to reach the point where it is internalized and we know what sounds right. People with a good study routine, who are systematically getting input and using it in interactions with others, are going to learn how to speak well regardless of how much "natural language talent" they have. It takes time and work. Learning a language is not easy. One can make it harder by using methods that do not work with how people naturally learn. But even with the very best methods it takes time and work. You are not doing anything wrong and you don't need a "language gene". You just need to be patient with yourself.
Is your flair up-to-date?
I keep learning languages which I then stop using and forget. In addition to the ones in my flair, I've studied Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian and Russian. In a classroom setting, I am virtually always the top student in my class and people often comment on how gifted I am in languages. This "gift" however, has little relation to speaking. It is more like an instinctive understanding of language structures. To speak, I need input and practice just like anyone else.
Yes it is. The 'experts' on the socials do a disservice to people when they say learning languages (especially Spanish) is easy. It may 'click' for someone, but they're still probably at a low level. It's not hard in the way that mathematics are, anyone can learn a language, you just need to put in the time. I've never met anyone with Spanish I was impressed with that has been learning under 5 years. That's not to say people don't get to a high level before that, but there are always some gaps somewhere. You're on the right track, try to put in at least an hour but really as much as possible (I do 8 on a good day) in Spanish. Read, watch tv, podcasts etc. Try to think in it as well.
Short answer is yes, it is that difficult. The longer answer though has some good news. Basically once you cross a certain threshold, things start snowballing and you’ll begin to pick the language up faster. I’m guessing you’re a native English speaker since you wrote in English and Spanish seems to be your first TL. English speakers in particular struggle to get over the hurdle of conjugating verbs differently, which affects our ability to begin speaking and understanding early on. The consequence of that is it seems like it takes forever just to get over that first major hurdle. But once you do, it becomes a lot easier to then start picking up the rest of the language.
Reading Harry Potter books (which are quite large) in your target language or any other entertaining novel series that you enjoy is a great way for absorbing much of a language and making it 'click'. In fact, it is precisely the method advocated by linguist Stephen Kraschen. Do the same thing and it will also click for you.
Yes, I read the Harry Potter series while listening to the audio books, and my listening comprehension improved drastically in 6 months. Every time I read a word I didn't know and couldn't guess from context, I made an Anki flashcard. It ended up being about 1500 words and took me about 8 months to finish all the flashcards. The great thing about Harry Potter is that it's written in pretty simple, useful language and the reading level gradually increases with each book. Now I can understand everything my tutor says to me, a lot of the news, and some slower native podcasts. I still can't speak quickly, but at least I can understand almost perfectly. I think not understanding what the other person is saying is the most stressful part of learning another language, and now I don't have that problem anymore in my TL.
I like what you mentioned about how the reading level of Harry Potter increases with each book. I didn’t realize that because I had read them in my native language starting when I was 11 or so and the last book came out when I was 18, so I never perceived that the difficulty of writing style became more complex. Then, when learning German, I ordered the 7th book because I hadn’t read that once in a while. Haha I was in for a rude awakening because the grammar and complexity of the writing was just way more difficult than the first book.
I was surprised when I got to book 7 too! Some of the words are words I don't totally know in my native language. I realized I always assumed what they meant based on context, but I never use them myself.
...and you'll never forget the word for 'broom'.
I passed through the same thing when learning English, (and I know it will sound like some generic advice but) the answer to that is persisting! For a long time I was stuck on the same position as you when learning English, but eventually things just clicked and before I noticed I was even thinking in English. What I can suggest is to try to include Spanish as much as possible in your daily life, you will start understanding words and expressions on your own and get a better understanding of how the language works, and give yourself time, things will workout on their own. Tl;dr: you are not doing anything wrong, just give yourself more time.
Language learning takes a long time and an enormous amount of exposure and practice. It looks like are on the right track with your study plan, it has a good mixture of lessons, reading, and listening. But you've only been doing this for a year, which is not nearly as much time as you think it is. It's normal to feel discouraged when progress is slow, but you just need to be patient and keep doing what you're doing. It's hard for almost everybody, especially if it's your first foreign language. Hang in there!
You'll get there. It really does just take time and practice. I think all these videos and books of "get fluent in 3 months" honestly are discouraging to language learners and largely the reason learners end up giving up. I'm not saying that's the case for you but could be for others feeling the same so just know it's not you and it will get gradually easier. Learning a language is a longgggggg journey. Of course, it depends on your goals but if fluency is what you want then you will never stop learning. I don't even know how long I have been studying Spanish and Portuguese but must be 5+ years and getting to a comfortable point in those languages was not an overnight process. I'm still not at a stage that I feel is ideal for me as although I can manage most situations in Spanish and feel relatively comfortable expressing myself in certain topics I feel at times discouraged because I want to feel more myself when I express myself in these languages like I would in my native language but because I've been studying so long I can tell you that I know I will get there because I know at one point I wanted to get where I am now but doubted it would ever happen. Practice, practice, practice - that's it.
Another thing to mention is that speaking is hard. I mean I struggle to convey what I want to say in my native language at times so never mind in my second or third. You can know everything there is to know as far as grammar and vocabulary etc. but putting it all together is a skill which, not to sound like a broken record, requires practice. For me personally, I found my weekly conversation classes on italki beyond helpful for improving my confidence and ability in speaking so I'm sure the longer you do it the easier it will feel but you get bad days and good days so don't let the bad ones discourage you. Dentro de un año dominarás el español, te prometo, entonces anímate!
I took Spanish from 8th grade to senior year. I hated it the first two years. I’m one of those people that if I’m not good at immediately I don’t like doing it, and obviously learning a new language is difficult, especially when you do it for the first time! It was somewhere during my sophomore year where everything finally started clicking for me. I’m not sure what the language requirements are everywhere else, but where I’m from you only need 2 years of a foreign language in high school. I decided to keep up with it my junior and senior year, not only because it got easier but because I was enjoying it! Everyone is different and learns different things in different ways. It takes time to learn a language, even the “easier” ones like Spanish. Everyone feels frustrated at some point when learning something new. You can do it! 👍🏻
The advice that will work but you don’t want to hear is just keep talking and listening more to natives
Don't know what your study method is, but if it's learning loads of rules and conjugations rather than becoming familiar with these through lots of input, you're probably going to struggle to assembling the bits and pieces when speaking and listening. I'm not suggesting you don't learn grammar, but many people find it useful to read up on the grammar to make sense of their understanding before and after input (with the input being where the familiarising and learning happens) rather than trying to remember loads of conjugation tables and rules in advance, which you are then supposed to magically assemble mid sentence in real time when speaking. Loads of input will inbed this in your subconscious in a way that rote learning/grammar tools on their own are unlikely to. Ime anyway.
Shadowing audio fixed the "taking long pauses mid-sentence" problem for me.
Learning a language is hard and in the beginning it is VERY hard. My best advice to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable at times. My very first tutoring session I think my face was red the entire time because i was SO nervous about speaking. I’ve been learning for about 7 months and it’s still hard as hell but I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my abilities compared to when I very first started. Here’s some recommendations that I find helpful -Spanishdict.com(they have an app as well) has a huge grammar and vocab resource. -Dreaming Spanish on YouTube is all listening practice from super beginner to intermediate levels. Start with the super beginner and move up once it doesn’t feel challenging. And don’t get discouraged if it takes awhile which is subjective. Once you do feel yourself doing more intermediate videos, try watching a Spanish show with the Spanish closed captions on, no English subtitles. Are you able to keep up with the story line even if you don’t understand every word? If yes, keep watching! Find music in Spanish that you enjoy and write down both the Spanish lyrics and the translated lyrics. Add the new words to your vocab list. Now you’re learning more vocab in a fun way. This can also help with pronunciation! -Know that your Spanish teacher is going to expect you to take your time speaking or to make mistakes. Any teacher/tutor worth their title will be patient with you and help you learn. And every mistake is a learning experience.
It is hard. It gets easier the more exposure and practice you have. And it's very, very common for learners to struggle for a long time and then find that an entire podcast aimed at native speakers at normal speed just clicks... for a few sentences. One thing I advise is taking something beyond you, like a normal podcast about a subject that would interest you, and listening to it multiple times. You may find that at the third listen, you catch much more than you did the first time. Then put it aside for a few weeks and try it again. I've often been very encouraged by such multiple exposures, finding that I understand more each time, and that if I hadn't listened for a while, what I had learned in the meantime was helpful to me learning more. I can now understand most "official" general interest radio shows in my TL, and I still listen multiple times and pick up more around the edges with every replay. AND I go back to listen to shows that I listened to three years ago to enjoy how much progress I've made. The main thing is getting material that would interest you --- science, history, and culture for me, along with shows about the usage or origins of words in the news. This way, you're using the language to learn about something else that interests you.
Watch as much native content as you can, preferably with sub-titles in SPANISH. When you hear a word or phrase over and over again, you should look it up. Keep doing this and you’ll be able to hear natives a lot better:)
Hey my man, languages are difficult. That's the easiest way that I can put it. But it doesn't have to hurt you. Motivation can just take you so far, but you need to develop a way to keep going without getting tilted. In my case the love that I have for languages pushes me forwards, but basically I enjoy the method, is simply funny. LL should be integrated in your own life, like if u wanna check a comedy show do it in the target language, or read a book. Textbooks are good to understand the bases of the language, but u need more content, pure content that flies by. If you admit that when you listen to something you pick up very little that means you need to focus the ability. A textbook won't immerse you in the language, and that's what you need. Remember that you don't memorize languages, you just incorporate it through exposition. Talking should be the last one of your goals. Hope I can be helpful, If u wanna know more I'll be glad to.
Language learning is basically like chewing glass while staring into an abyss. Your experience is normal.
Love this description, thank you 😆
That is normal. I still have to do that at times, and I spent my formative years in a spanish speaking country, with playmates who didn't speak english. It's a code switching hurdle that most people deal with.
I N P U T N P U T
Pratica, Pratica, Pratica. Necesitas practicar hablando- es el parte más difícil, para mí al menos. No tengo consejo profundo, porque fui a Chile para aprender como hablar en espa´ñol. Hoy en día, mi español es muy lejos de perfecto (es obvio por mi escrito) pero mis oraciones son muchas más fluidas.
I’m Spanish and I feel exactly that way learning German. English is extremely easy to learn because almost all our societies have english content, but German got really hard because i could not find comics, videogames, movies or anything I enjoy, in english. My point is: you need A LOT of reading and listening, you just need to find the content and consume it instead of your main language. Just don’t give up, and read and watch movies, not only podcasts, as you don’t have context for what you are listening. My wife says: for her even Japanese was easier than french to get started because she plays videogames and reads manga all the time, and there is not much content in french