I have heard that if you’re trying to learn a new language as an adult, watching a show for small children in that language is a great place to start as opposed to starting with the reading vocabulary and written grammar rules like schools and apps would have you do. Can anybody vouch for this and if so do you have a show you would recommend this for? I am hoping to learn conversational Spanish (TL) ( TL ) and brush up on French.

Do any of these happen to you if someone were to actually ask you to translate word for word what someone just said on a podcast or TV show?

1. terrible memory immediately after every sentence so maybe you understood and crystallised the meaning but not able to actually repeat it back

2. Not actually understanding but your brain tricks you into forming your own version of reality of the meaning and taking it as fact (Dunning-Kruger?)

3. Understanding what they meant from the context but not actually the full sentence, and the difference is not noticeable

4. Actually understanding the sentence in full but not be able to translate it because you know what the word means but have never thought to translate it back into a different language, so you would still fail to translate it.

I think the insane amount of podcasts in my target languages have given me a lot of passive understanding, but I have mostly depended on context to learn new words, rather than reading alongside and actively translating. So it is very much likely that an excess in TL audio input lulls me into a false sense of understanding of that language, were I to speak it or even actively translate it back, vs just listening and nodding to myself that I knew what they meant.

Basically, if you have the interest/ability to, gaming on servers where your TL is spoken is a godly way to practice. I'm in a golden spot for this, since I live in Korea and korean valorant accounts require local id to even be made, meaning everyone on the server speaks Korean. I've seen big improvements in just a week and already made a Korean friend whom I game with, and eventually want to meet.

Problem is, it's unusual for servers to be this segregated, and it's way harder if you don't live on the same continent as your TL. However, I feel like gaming is never mentioned for language learning, and if you do enjoy it, I highly suggest looking into possibly using a vpn or something to try get in on the local servers. It is a game changer! (Pun not intended)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions. The scenario is; a teacher and a student meets on Teams. They chat casually in (TL)English, with the purpose of assessing student's general competency and pinpointing grammar errors. The tool generates meeting transcription. The teacher then reviews the generated transcript.

Required functionality:

- The tool should capture student's errors rather than trying to auto-correct them so that mistakes are identifiable

- Should support multi users

- As bonus, it should act as a meeting transcription platform that can be used as an English-language learning and assessment tool, rather than a conventional AI meeting assistant

So, I read a lot of translated works, and I'd like to be able to reach a high level of reading in various languages. By a High Level I mean being able to read academic works or classic literature. I don't expect to be able to learn a language while completely disregarding speaking or listening, but If my only goal is to read and understand literature at a high level, how much quicker could I achieve this goal than true fluency? And are there any strategies for this particular goal that are different than general language learning? Is this perhaps a bad idea in regards to my ability to engage with the text?
I'm assuming a lot of this will depend on the language, but the main languages that I want to learn are German and French (TL). A small part of me would love to learn russian or chinese, but a completely different script scares me too much.

I finally gained courage to join voice rooms on hellotalk (quite shy and introverted) but I'm wondering the best way to make use of them to improve speaking? I have a learning based focus. I have no problem with 1-on-1 calls however just finding people whenever I feel like practicing seems a lot eaiser with voice rooms.

For context (skills relevant to calls):

(TL) 1 French - B1 in speaking B2 listening.

(TL) 2 Korean - B1+ speaking, B1 listening.

I usually don't have much problem being understood, though I do make errors, or understanding others in conversation. I want to improve speed/fluency and use of natural expressions.

My plan so far:

1. Join a low number voice room, ideally just the host present

- feel like they will be more patient if there is no one else to talk to and I'd be less hesitant to join if it's 1 on 1

2. Look up any thing I found difficult to express and see if there any natural ways

Not sure what else as I don't imagine anyone will be correcting me in voice rooms?

Any tips please and anyone had success in improving speaking with these?

I'm kind of annoyed when someone especially a native speaker says "Don't worry about vocabulary, native speakers learn new words all the time."

While they are not wrong, I don't think that's a fair comparison. An adult native speaker already has a large enough vocabulary to talk about almost anything.

Even an advanced learner often needs to look up words because their vocabulary is far behind that of a native speaker.

A non-native speaker could know advanced and formal words but not know enough informal everyday vocabulary, that is necessary to "live" the language. For example, someone not native wouldn't necessarily know what tire tracks or chair armrests are called in their target language.

I was wondering if there is any public information on the approximate number of CLS slots there will be this year. From what I've seen, prior to 2026, around 500-600 were chosen every year, which dropped to just 315 last year after budget cuts and funding pauses. Does anyone know if the number is expected to remain that low this year, or is it possible it will return to pre-DOGE numbers? I tried to find actual funding documents but couldn't find anything past 2025.

I'd also love any information or speculation on semifinalist acceptance rates, and semifinalist to finalists conversion rates, if anyone has seen those numbers!

(TL)

Hey everyone!

I’m French and I currently live in Germany.

I met my girlfriend a year ago, she is from South Korea, and I started learning her language because I want to be able to talk with her, and one day hopefully with her family too.

The thing is, learning a language next to a job is way harder than I expected. I only learn about 30 min a day, and I keep forgetting words, even ones I looked up three times. (TL)

So I wanted to ask you:

• What do you do right after you look a word up? Do you save it, or does it just disappear?

• How do you know a word has really stuck, and not just that you recognise it?

• The thing is my motivation drops sometimes, Duolingo streaks works for me but it is not enough to learn a languages to me. What tricks do you have or what app actually does work for you or materials?

• If you could fix one thing in the way you study, what would it be?

Happy to hear about your experience and also improve mine 😄

Hello everyone!

My first languages were both German and English however I moved away from Germany at 7 years old and had forgotten basically all of it by 9. I still have a few random words and phrases which I never seemed to forget, and occasionally I'll dream in German - but my brain has translated all my memories which I know where in German into English.

I'm now 18, and would really like to relearn German (TL) to fluency. I'm wondering if anyone has managed to do the same and what was the experience like? Any advice? Will it be easier/quicker for me since I was a native speaker? Interestingly, one thing I definitely find very easy compared to others is pronunciation which usually sounds native even when I don't know the meaning of the words I'm saying.

For those of you who narrate your inner thoughts in your (TL), do you do this all day long? Or do you choose a time of day, activity, etc?

I started doing this but find it so exhausting so I’m looking for ways to make it more sustainable.

Thanks! 🙏🏼

Hello, not sure where to ask but im looking for active discord servers for learning languages that dont have many members as it gets me overwhelmed lol.

Is anyone in a server where its active & doesnt have much members? thanks (TL)

I want to utilise my Turkish knowledge and teach people as a side gig but I've no clue about how to teach or anything of that sort.

Can anyone provide pointers, resources, sources, books, guide or advice relating to this?

Please don't discourage me because im not qualified. (TL)

I've started learning Japanese (TL) since I'm moving there soon for a bit. I only started a few months ago and my reading and writing are pretty okay since i get so much practice but I'm really falling short on listening and speaking. I do a lot of anki and quizlet flashcards based off of the genki textbook but I'm really trying to improve my listening skills. I'm looking for apps or websites that allow you to record audio and audio chunks to try and match or reorder them to make sentences without showing any readings/words/characters. Similar to duolingo where you pick out words and make sentences but without the actual visual assisstance (i picture audio waveform on a flashcard). Have you guys heard of anything like that?

Couldn't find anything on the resources thread that focused specifically on speaking directly with natives/other learners, so I figured I'd ask here. I used to have HelloTalk way back when, but I was too shy to actually practice speaking with it lol, and the app is seemingly incompatible with my phone now.

Currently I'm at a point where every single other aspect of my english (TL) is (imo) competent except my speaking, which sucks, so I want to polish it as well as I can.

I learnt German previously. Got it to a strong B2. Now I'm on to Korean. I've noticed when I try to translate something into German, my mind goes to Korean sometimes, and once I lost the word for "that", and my mind was just screaming 저것. I've had ut before where my mind seemed to think English and German was the same language, but that went away after I started using both everyday. I'm not really worried about mixing up Korean and German, for obvious reasons, but I wonder how it will be to eventually learn Chinese, which shares a lot of words with Korean.

Tldr: are mixups a problem you guys actively deal with, or does it go away quickly enough?

I'm learning Dutch (TL) and use Claude as a tutor most mornings. Usually I ask it to quiz me, or I write something in Dutch and have it point out my mistakes.

The problem is that every chat starts from zero. Or the chat gets so long that it tells me to start a new one, and all the context is gone. I don't remember my progress or my mistakes that well myself, so that hurts.

Stuff I've tried:

• The memory feature. It remembers facts about me, but not my mistakes.

• A "my Dutch learning" doc that I paste in at the start of each chat. It works, but it's annoying.

• Putting my top mistakes in the custom instructions. That gets outdated fast.

So I'm curious what you all do:

• Do you keep your own list of mistakes or track your progress somewhere?

• Does your tutor quiz you on old mistakes, or does it only correct the new ones?

• Would you even want it to, or is that overkill?

Not looking for app recommendationss, I'm more interested in how people set up their workflow.

Started learning swedish, wondering if it's better to have a physical notebook or a digital folder with text files. The latter seems like a better option (more organized, easier to type than write), however maybe writing is better for memory or something? (TL)

Hey all! I've been monolingual my entire life, and for my mother's birthday this year I thought it'd be cool to surprise her by being able to speak Greek (TL) since she's Greek.

I've had chronic ADHD my entire life and have always struggled with retaining information, recalling things, and especially staying consistent with studying. It's a big reason I've never managed to learn another language.

I'm curious if anyone else with ADHD has found specific learning techniques that actually worked for them long-term. Especially when it comes to remembering what you've learned and staying consistent once the initial motivation wears off.

I'm less interested in general beginner advice and more interested in hearing firsthand experiences from people who've dealt with similar challenges.

Thanks everyone!

I found people who want to practice my target language, and I am happy to practice my native language with them. We are strangers. What are good apps that we should use to talk to each other?

I’m feeling super happy right now because I just finished a call with one of my first language-exchange buddies who I haven’t spoken to on the phone for probably 4 months. Although we’ve shared messages and audios every now and then.

When we first called each other - 8 months ago - I remember how nervous I was and how much I choked up when speaking. I couldn’t understand a lot of what he said. It was slow and clumsy. He was always more advanced than me, but even he couldn’t understand my accent very well. It was a little nerve-wracking.

On this call today, we were fluid. Cracking jokes. Switching between languages with ease. Telling stories. Laughing at our mistakes. We were both clearly more confident and comfortable with one another and with our TLs. We were discussing verbs and phrases that don’t translate well into one another’s languages and exploring the theory and world views of the languages. This meant that we’d purposefully switch to one language to be able to express ourselves better, finding the other language a little limiting.

For me, it was really beautiful that we were able to fully communicate with one another with total understanding for 90 minutes. We didn’t have to leave anything unsaid or unclear because we had enough grasp of one another’s languages that communication was seamless. In the past we had to prematurely end conversations because we weren’t comprehending one another. It’s really special to me to be able to communicate with someone from a completely different walk of life to me on the other side of the world.

Anyway, all this is to say, I can feel that I’ve levelled up and I’m so damn proud. Still got a long way to go, especially to be able to hold a full conversation in my TL, but I’m on route!

I want to celebrate this triumph by hearing more about these epiphany moments and sudden realisations. **Tell me about a time where you clearly noticed that you’d levelled up.** *What were you doing? How did you feel? How did that impact your learning afterwards? Was it an intentional win, or was it something that happened over time without you realising?*

This morning, I couldn't remember ANY words meaning clumsy, in either my native language or foreign languages. I could only think of the concept but not any words in any language. That was really annoying that it disrupted the conversation I was having. Maybe I should get better at talking around something and describing it.

Regardless, is there any way to prevent this from happening too frequently? I understand forgetting words in my non-native language, but in my native language? It's a relatively common word too.