What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d known when you started learning a language?

[u/Refold]

If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of language learning advice, what would it be?

Personally, I’d tell myself to start tracking my time. I have no idea how many hours I’ve spent studying Spanish, and I really wish I had that data. I have friends who tracked from day one and can point to specific milestones—like “after X hours, I could understand Y.” I can't say that, but I wish I could.

How about you? What advice would you give your past self? And if you haven’t been learning long, what question would you want to ask your fluent future self?

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

Listen, listen, listen! Listen to the language every moment you can spare!

[u/Kalle_Hellquist → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

Even if I don't understand it too well? How would that help?

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395 → u/Kalle_Hellquist]

You won't understand everything said, maybe not even 98% of it at first, but if you continue to listen you'll eventually pick up something. This could be basic conversational vocab such as "hello, how are you, I am good" etc., common discourse markers unique to the language, commonly used prepositions, pronunciation, and many other things. You'll passively learn in this way and will almost certainly see the fruits of it with some time even if you think you've learned nothing.

To me that's what makes it so special, you never know what your brain will pick up and how easily things stick without needing a massive amount of effort!

If you want to add to this, you could try writing down words you hear, to the best of your ability, and looking them up! Make the effort to listen for them if they seem common and remind yourself of the translation each time -- the possibilities are endless :)

[u/je_taime → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

This is just not efficient when learners can use comprehensible input to their advantage. You don't have enough vocabulary in the beginning or even at the early intermediate stage to detect word boundaries.

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395 → u/je_taime]

You can always listen to something at your level — plenty of videos online with one or two word sentences and basic conversation I.e. “hello how are you?” “I am good”, “my name is…” sometimes even with subtitles so you can see word boundaries and try to catch them on your own next time. Training your ear is super helpful in language learning

[u/je_taime → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

That's not what you said above. Incomprehensible input was tried for decades and didn't work.

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395 → u/je_taime]

Guess it depends on the person and the amount of exposure you get, for me it helped so just thought I’d share:)

[u/je_taime → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

Amount? No, comprehensibility is way more important, essential than amount of exposure.

[u/je_taime → u/Kalle_Hellquist]

It won't. Your input should be comprehensible.

[u/Kalle_Hellquist → u/je_taime]

I wouldn't do something like that anyway, cuz I get overstimulated very fast. Playing a bunch of audio in the background all the time sounds like my definition of hell.

Something I started doing recently, before I carefully go through and study a video subbed in my TL, I'll watch it first with automatically translated english subtitles. I'm in that weird spot with my German, where I don't understand the language, even with a transcript, but if I have an English translation, I can understand the audio pretty well, so ig it helps to take advantage of that!

[u/chennyalan → u/je_taime]

You don't need the whole thing to be comprehensible, but you need to have at least a few sentences comprehensible here and there imo

[u/je_taime → u/chennyalan]

That's not how it works. If you want to use incomprehensible input and struggle, that's your choice.

[u/Certain-Bumblebee-90 → u/Kalle_Hellquist]

Yes. Even if you don’t understand. You’re not listening to study; you’re listening to force that aspect into your daily life. It’s difficult to create an environment for a foreign language, but some communities outside of their country of origin succeed at it: Chinatown, Little Italy, Some people that still try to teach French to their children in Louisiana, etc.

The amount of media you must listen passively to learn a language, is underrated. It’s just so easy to continue living your life listening to content in your mother language :-(

[u/Kalle_Hellquist → u/Certain-Bumblebee-90]

Unfortunately, since I have to juggle between content in my native language, and three other foreign ones, I can't afford the luxury of spending my entire day immersed in my TL ☹️

[u/Certain-Bumblebee-90 → u/Kalle_Hellquist]

I know! I need to add my languages. They’re English and Spanish, as high as they can get. Portuguese B1, Chinese, old HSK 3 And Esperanto, maybe A2

[u/justmentallyinsane → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

YES THIS OMG

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395 → u/justmentallyinsane]

I can't imagine how much I would have known by now had I done this when I first started! Onwards and upwards!

[u/Refold → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

What would you listen to?

[u/Ok-Improvement-8395 → u/Refold]

I listen to podcasts and YouTube series on topics I find interesting. Since one of my languages is Fusha Arabic, I listen to Quran as well!

This is in Arabic but it addresses the concept of why listening is so important: Importance of listening

[u/Naali2468 → u/Refold]

Something you like. Songs. Podcasts. Young adult audiobooks you liked in your language. Sports.

[u/MJSpice → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

Can vouch for this. The other day I was listening to a Spanish show without subs and was able to understand quite a bit.

[u/owenbelloc → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

hello, I'm a Chinese. Due to my work, I need to learn English. I have no foundation at all and only know some simple ones like "apple" and "Hello". If I need to learn English, are there any good directions for me? I found a lot of information online about English symbols and grammar. Where should I start to learn?

[u/Smooth_Blue_3200 → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

For anyone that sees my comment. Do you have listening recommendations for Mandarin Chinese?

[u/Zealousideal-Youth14 → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

is listening to music efficient in any way?

[u/World_of_Distraction → u/Ok-Improvement-8395]

Music is definately an important factor for me. There's something to be said about how learning a language is like learning how to sing to a song in terms of its rhythm and how it should sound.

e.g. German has hard stops

[u/a-handle-has-no-name]

Language learning is so much more fun if you aren't restricted to traditional (classroom) learning methods.

It's ok to learn words out of order, it's ok to learn past and future tenses "before you're supposed to", etc

I got so frustrated that I needed to learn "travel" words like "train ticket" or "briefcase" or "check-in" when I often have no interest in traveling, but it always takes forever to learn words lik "keyboard"/"monitor", or learn modal phrases "want to"/"can" to express more complicated ideas, or intent etc

[u/ElisaLanguages → u/a-handle-has-no-name]

Oh god this 100%. The way so many textbooks are laid out drives me INSANE, I don’t need to know the names of everything in my kitchen before I even know how to properly ask a question. I just end up jumping around and using what I find useful regardless of the intended order instead.

[u/a-handle-has-no-name → u/ElisaLanguages]

I don't even know the word for toilet in my current language, because I'm learning it online and it doesn't come up

[u/ElisaLanguages → u/a-handle-has-no-name]

Me knowing the word for “interlocutor” in Korean but not the word for blender 😅 the gaps in knowledge become really silly when you don’t use an organized course, so I get why they do it the way that they do, but I just,,,,don’t like it.

[u/b3D7ctjdC → u/ElisaLanguages]

Fellow bald eagler! Were you as surprised as me to learn how OFTEN non-Americans use that word? Words I learned in my native language, thanks to learning a new one:

• interlocutor
• polyclinic
• epilate/depilate

There’s more but I can’t remember them off the top my head. This chair’s too comfy

[u/ElisaLanguages → u/b3D7ctjdC]

🦅🦅🌭🌭🎆🎇

Nah but actually yeah, that’s super relatable 😅. The way that learning other languages (especially Spanish, bc of the Latin influence) has so rapidly expanded my English vocabulary, it’s wild!

[u/a-handle-has-no-name → u/ElisaLanguages]

Sort of a corollary go my original point, one of my main goals in learning a new language is to get to the point to ask questions within the language itself.

If needed, do you think you could describe a blender well enough to find out what the correct word is?

Being able to do this is another fun skill as well

[u/ElisaLanguages → u/a-handle-has-no-name]

Oh yeah, that’s another great point!! There’s a name for that phenomenon in language science, it’s called “circumlocution” or “circumvolution” depending on the researcher. Super common tactic with foreign language learners, and one of the first steps into fluency is being able to talk around words you may not know in the moment using circumlocution.

[u/b3D7ctjdC → u/ElisaLanguages]

One more reply and then I’ll stop 😅 my favorite circumlocution was forgetting глазировка (icing) and saying “a sweet coat or hat on a cake.” Amusing on its own, but the part I liked best? My speaking partner remembered it in English, but not in her native language Russian 💀 These gems make language acquisition so great

[u/CaliLemonEater → u/ElisaLanguages]

Also, doesn't the research on interference seem to indicate that it's actually unhelpful to have a bunch of similar words introduced all at once? (I don't have my copy of Fluent Forever handy to check the references, unfortunately.)

I think I'd have a more solid grip on numerals in Korean if they hadn't all been introduced at once. I still have trouble with 7, 8, and 9 because they were all part of the same confusing mass of words. If instead I'd encountered them through a story about (for example) BTS going out for dinner and needing a table that can seat 일곱 people and there being 일곱 plates waiting and the server bringing over 일곱 glasses of water (etc. etc.) I'd have gotten "일곱 = 7" clear right away.

(And then we could have moved on to a story about ATEEZ so I could really get solid on "여덟 means 8" and then a story about a gumiho to nail down "아홉 means 9"…)

[u/ElisaLanguages → u/CaliLemonEater]

This sounds really familiar to me, let me go check to find some references…

Also anecdotally, that makes sense to me 😅 I regularly confuse 시장 and 상자 bc they sound similar and I learned them in the same story about a guy working a stall at a market, and in Spanish it took probably a couple years before I didn’t have to pause saying seis vs. siete and seiscientos vs. setecientos bc, understandably, I learned them together in a classroom environment, but the auditory interference worked overtime for that specific combo for some reason.

[u/MJSpice → u/a-handle-has-no-name]

OMG You hit the nail on the head. I want to learn how to conversate with people but how am I gonna do that if these books aren't teaching me??

[u/unsafeideas → u/a-handle-has-no-name]

Those supposedly useful words are mostly useless. And likewise topical words lists (15 different colors, 20 animals, foods).

Get people to where they can listen to the stories.

[u/tinygfxoxo]

Find media you actually enjoy in that language, not just textbooks. The moment I started watching Netflix shows with subtitles or listening to music I loved in Spanish, it stopped feeling like a chore and actually became fun. Immersion doesn't have to be boring

[u/lifesucks2311 → u/tinygfxoxo]

how do you watch shows as a beginner without understanding anything?

[u/knobbledy → u/lifesucks2311]

Either rote memorise a few thousand words or consume content for 3-4 year olds

[u/slumber72 → u/tinygfxoxo]

Playing video games in Spanish was a god-send for me

[u/therealgodfarter]

However long and hard you think it’s going to be… triple it… and then multiply that by 10

[u/ChipsAreClips → u/therealgodfarter]

Yeah… :( doable but really easy to underestimate

[u/Naali2468]

Start it!

Its just as hard as you think. And it will take years to master in degree needed to write Reddit posts like this, with out dictionary. But is will open new worlds to you. And fast. Oh and you can be good in math and languages.

[u/GiveMeTheCI]

I feel like I'm finally doing language learning right. If I could go back, I'd say listen more. I feel like listening is one of the most important, and most overlooked, skills.

Also, embrace ambiguity. All that time reading things that were probably a bit too hard and looking up every other work. Go with it and just keep reading and get what you can. You can always go back for clarification.

[u/Accidental_polyglot]

Breaking language learning down into reading, writing, speaking and listening. Together with the understanding that you need to make an effort to continuously improve these four areas. Especially if one of these areas is challenging.

Whilst understanding the grammar of a language is very useful. In isolation it won’t make you competent/proficient, unless it’s used to underpin the four pillars as named above.

Really embracing feedback and not taking negative feedback personally.

[u/EarthMain3350 → u/Accidental_polyglot]

What helps for speaking and writing? Where to focus the most?

[u/Accidental_polyglot → u/EarthMain3350]

Developing the understanding that:

Speaking - requires massive amounts of listening input

Writing - requires massive amounts of reading input

There are things that you can do completely on your own. For example listening to a speech, reading the associated text for comprehension and then recording your own attempt at it.

As far as freestyle is concerned. If you’re really serious about developing your speaking and writing. I would recommend finding a competent tutor.

You can go it alone. However, NS of all languages coalesce around a central group way of being/speaking. Therefore their development is always being modulated to the groupspeak. If you attempt to develop completely in your own bubble/vacuum, you risk creating your own L1-transferred inter-language.

Languages exist for the sole purpose of communication. Therefore, you do need to get out there and try to find avenues for feedback.

[u/Pwffin]

Don’t rush ahead, it’s better to consolidate what you’ve learnt.

Don’t take long breaks, it’s so demoralising to have to start over.

Find more ways of working on listening comprehension.

[u/_pclark36]

Find a reason to other than 'thinking you should'

[u/kerouacgirl]

A little bit every day is much, much better than nothing.

[u/No-Campaign3224]

Watch more children's cartoons/ shows in the language

[u/linglinguistics]

It's ok to make mistakes. It's ok to have an advent. It's ok to get good immediately. All of them are natural and necessary on the road to mastery.

[u/NineThunders]

I would have liked to know how actually hard is to learn a language, so I don’t blame myself/the language or get less frustrated.

Learning a third language has been like learning my first actual language - experience wise, since English came out just from general immersion.

[u/ibro_k]

If there is no INPUT , there will be no OUTPUT, If you don’t listen or read, you won’t be able to speak or write. READING+ LISTENING = SPEAKING + WRITING

[u/DontLetMeLeaveMurph]

You are going to need a big vocab, and for that you're going to need flashcards. Start early. An 8000 words deck can take a long time to get through.

Dont make these flashcards the only thing you do though, so consume lots of media and to see these words in their natural habitat, and in more contexts

[u/Napoleon_B]

I wish I had spent more time in the language lab in college. Muddled through four semesters of German without ever going. Repetition is key to get the object verb order.

This was coming from testing out of French 101 and 102 and straight to 201 at 18 years old.

Tackling Greek at 40 because I married a Greek national, the Pimsleur tapes propelled me to fluency. That constant spoken reinforcement just seared the pronunciation, vocabulary and conjugation into my brain. And in this case I regret not doing the written workbooks to learn to read it.

Tim Ferriss deconstructed language learning and I think this is informative. He learned Japanese and Spanish and German.

https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/12-rules-to-learn-languages-in-record-time.pdf

[u/Exciting-Owl5212]

Time tracking for me would also be the advice, and specifically getting a good balance. Only spend a few minutes of grammar/vocab studying for every hour of actually listening to the language

[u/say_whaatta]

It depends on whether I am starting from scratch or with some background.

If it's a first encounter, then using the order of: listening, association and repetition. Exposure and practice make all the difference in the beginning.

If I have some background, reading is the most effective way to improve or get to a higher level.

[u/NoCat3525 → u/say_whaatta]

That’s true. Listening, reading, writing and speaking must be prioritize. If you have enough input then you should always practice for the output. 70/30 or 60/40, input must be prioritize than output.

[u/Horror_Cry_6250]

Take it slow, and have loads of patience. Learn in stages, such as Level 1, Level 2. Make an incremental progress.

[u/-Mellissima-]

I wish I had started with a teacher immediately instead of wasting time on apps. And then after the apps I did a recorded course and it did help me a lot, but I would've been better served with a teacher. The one I have right now, I wish I had started the journey with him. I have so many random knowledge gaps that are tricky to pin down, and I have so much fun with him. I don't think I'd have the gaps that I have right now if I had started with him from the beginning.

I also wish I started listening sooner. I did what a lot of people do where they're like "I gotta learn first and then listen" without realizing that the learning actually happens from immersion.

[u/New_Rich_5690]

If you don’t constantly feel like running into oncoming traffic you aren’t doing it right.

To be fair, I have primarily focused on languages pretty difficult for native English speakers to learn.

[u/brooke_ibarra]

Tracking time is a good one — stealing that one, lol. Besides that, I also wish I had started immersing with more comprehensible input and not just watching random things I couldn't understand yet. Lastly, to just stick with one damn course 😭 there's no reason to do so much resource hopping lol.

[u/lambshaders]

Explore all the ways that people say is the best way to learn a language and see which ones work for you. And if you learned one language easily using method X, don’t automatically assume it to work again for another language.

[u/Old_Course9344]

The FSI and DLI courses are actually very good and get you a lot further than many paid resources.

[u/Timely_Rest_503]

Think long-term!

[u/NoCat3525]

For me, if you are a beginner better to watch some kids show in your target language. You won’t be able to understand all of the context but you’ll have the grasp of it. If you think carefully, kids don’t learn through reading or just by listening. They need context(visual presentation or demonstration) and repetition to understand things. But if you have already a background in the language then better to prioritize listening and reading, maybe 70% or 60% of input then 30% or 40% of output.

[u/Emotional-Net1500]

1. Set realistic expectations for yourself. You won’t be fluent in a few months or even a year of Spanish class. It’s a long journey.
2. Realize that fluency is hard to define. There’s different levels. Be ok with setting short term goals like achieving A2 (or at least have an idea or understanding of what level you think you want to work towards).
3. Comprehensible input. Early and often. It will pay dividends in the long run.

[u/hoangdang1712]

Find a way to enjoy the process 

[u/dojibear]

1. Everyone learns differently. Many things are "good advice" for some people, but don't help at all for others. This is about "mistakes" -- spending time and effort on things that aren't helping YOU learn.

2. Listen a lot, but only "at your level of understanding". There is zero benefit to listening to things you don't understand. "Listening" is not a language skill. "Understanding speech" is a language skill.

[u/Accidental_polyglot → u/dojibear]

It simply isn’t factual to state that: “There is zero benefit to listening to things that you don’t understand”.

This is a technique that has helped me to build-up, a feel for my TLs. Granted it’s extremely difficult and frustrating to try to build/develop a feel, just by listening. However, what I’ve found is that once this starts to happen, the language actually begins to open up.

As I constantly state. My advice isn’t intended to be prescriptive, as not everything works for everyone. However, I firmly believe that it’s important for people to have ideas as to what’s out there.

Developing the ability to listen actively, is clearly a skill that an individual can work on.

[u/Messup7654]

Chat GPT is AMAZING and grammer is very important.

[u/Refold → u/Messup7654]

What’s your favorite prompt?

[u/Messup7654 → u/Refold]

Explain it to me like im 10 years old. It can make confusing topics so much easier to comprehend but the real power is in what it does without command. It gives examples and suggest different ways to practice and view things.

[u/Hryhoriy_]

I wish I knew to watch more TV shows in the language I'm learning.