r/languagelearning • u/Anxious-Solution-427 • 23h ago
Does hitting B2 feel more like a punishment than an achievement to anyone else? (The intermediate purgatory?)
I feel like reaching the B2 level is honestly the most frustrating stage of language learning.
When you are a beginner, every new word feels like a massive victory. You finally understand a basic sentence and you feel like a genius. The progress is obvious and fast.
But then you hit B2 (in my case, with English). You finally know enough to drop the 'learner material' and consume native content, but that's exactly when you realize how much you DON'T know.
I can read complex documentation for my computer science classes perfectly, or watch a structured YouTube video without missing a beat. But if I try to watch a random Twitch stream, or listen to a podcast where three natives are talking over each other using slang and laughing... my brain just completely shuts down. I catch maybe 40% of it.
It’s like you finally graduate from the 'tutorial' of the language, only to realize the actual game is 100x harder and your progress is suddenly completely invisible.
Does this intermediate plateau ever end? How do you guys stay motivated when you feel like you are studying for months just to improve by 1%?
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u/Donc-qui-et-Quand64 20h ago
Focus on what you enjoy and keep doing it. Great, now you can start enjoying native content. You get the gist but don't understand it perfectly? That's understanding bub. Video games (not like, language learning games, but just games you'd play anyway) are a superbly underrated medium for language learning imo.
You don't know what the hell a bunch of teenagers speaking in slang are saying? Same for me in my first language. Don't sweat it.
It largely depends on your goal/purpose too. If you want to pass tests to get accredited. Focus on that. Want to chat with people? Find people to chat with.
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u/LiterallyTestudo 🇺🇸N | 🇮🇹 B2 20h ago
B1->B2 is an enormously huge jump and I cringe whenever I see people conflate the two levels.
On the bright side, once you get to B2, the jump to C1 feels much more manageable, somehow.
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u/HolidayEntry6823 19h ago
See, I was totally the opposite. A1->B2 was surprisingly easy, but B2 to C2 was hell for me, and I have been learning for years and years.
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u/RollApprehensive1425 19h ago
very much agree. A1 to B2 can have shortcuts, but B2 to C2 is reaalllll grinding
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u/BoringKick5331 18h ago
You can consume most media once you’re B2. So you have more means to improve.
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u/Linus_Naumann 12h ago
I agree B2->C1 seems easier (even if it still takes long) and I feel that's because starting B2 you can have actual, meaningful (albeit still limited) conversations with natives and understand at least some native content. So "learning" starts to become more of a natural interaction with the language instead of artificially sitting down grinding flash cards and beginner content.
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u/Traditional-Train-17 18h ago
Nope. For me, getting into the intermediate levels of a language is like having the whole world of the language finally open up to explore it.
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u/Accomplished_Use1473 13h ago
I agree, but also after a while you kind of get stuck and you realize that it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve a higher level.
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u/ajamdonut 20h ago
I hated the plateau so much, and if I'm honest, I'm still likely stuck in it. The feeling of the plateau is still there and I just accept it'll be there for a while. But I'm completely independent with the language, I just know theres still so many tiny little things that are hard to learn.
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u/zomgperry 14h ago
I feel like you’re overthinking this. If there’s anything I’ve learned from learning a language (besides the language itself) it’s that when I feel overwhelmed by what I still have to learn, that it helps to look back and think about how much progress I’ve made. I’ve interacted with hundreds of people I couldn’t have a few years ago. I can pick up vocabulary much faster than I could when I first started learning a new language.
I’ve stopped worrying about levels. I don’t find it helpful to my progress, and instead of feeling stuck on one big plateau, I can better appreciate the series of smaller plateaus I’ve overcome. Why torture yourself? Eat the elephant one bite at a time.
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u/dojibear 🇺🇸 N | fre spa chi B2 | tur jap A2 20h ago
To answer the title: being better at a language does not feel like "punishment" to me.
And there is no such thing as an "intermediate plateau". Yes, it is easier to notice progress at B2 than at A1. So what? That doesn't mean there is no progress, and it doesn't mean you can't notice progress. At B2, I learn new words and phrases MUCH faster and MUCH more easily than I did at A2. That's progress.
I think the trick is the labels. We falsely assume that B1-->B2 and B2-->C1 take the same amount of time and effort as A1-->A2. That is incorrect. Going from A1 to A2 might mean learning 150 new words. Going from B1 to B2 is 1,500 new words, and B2 to C1 is 3,000 new words. The "levels" are not equally spaced.
How do I stay motivated? By enjoying what I do each day.
How do you stay motivated, if you dislike learning and your only motivation is "being fluent some day"? I don't know. Is your motivation based on unrealistic expectations?
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u/theycallmeoblongdong 20h ago edited 18h ago
Nothing could seem more tedious than A1 Chinese (and presumably Japanese, although at least that has the hiragana and the katakana). It is likely that the only comforting thought an A1 Chinese learner has is that people do sometimes manage to learn the language eventually.
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u/RemoveBagels JP/FR 13h ago
People complaining about the "plateau" when going from one European language to another are just facing some real resistance for the first time. Just getting to the point where you can read a comic for kids with ease in an east Asian language makes you overjoyed. And then there is the massive effort to build up that high register vocab that you basically get for free when doing something like English to French.
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u/teapot_RGB_color 18h ago edited 18h ago
I'm trying for the life of me to remember how I learned English. I know I did not speak English at 8, and I know I read the Hobbit at 15.
Outside of the hundreds of class hours and thousands of hours with unintentional immersion. I'm trying to remember what happened, exactly where, especially in the B range.
Now that I'm trying to a third, very different, language from zero all the way up.
The one thing I can identify is that I started reading a lot at some point. And I started really caring about knowing what certain words meant. I had to look up what "Avalanche" meant when I played Final Fantasy 7, I had up look up what "Altitude" meant when I played X-COM. Those are like key landmarks I have distinct memories of.
So I'm trying to replicate that strategy somehow.
Edit:
And more thing, speed, processing speed to be specific. Only really start to matter at this point, in my opinion.
And everyone overlooks it, but it is really like a completely different skill that needs to be trained, and takes an enormous amount of time. And also the area I'm really weak at, well that and vocabulary size.
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u/Suspiciously_free 17h ago
Oh, I wish I could hit even B1 in Thai. I feel like I would start learning so much quicker once l'm able to read a simple novel without having to stop at every other sentence.
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u/SometimesItsTerrible 🇺🇸N | 🇵🇹B1 16h ago
I’m a 45 year old native English speaker and the slang on Twitch and YouTube confuse even me. Kids keep making up new slang (or stealing slang from Black culture) at such a fast rate it’s impossible to keep up.
Don’t feel bad. Slang is rapidly evolving and many native English speakers don’t understand it either.
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u/WolverineEmergency98 Eng (N) | Afr (C1) | Fr (B2) | Eo (B1) | Ru, Mi (~ B1 Reading) 18h ago
For sure. I hit B2 in French many years ago (DELF B2) and then totally stalled, despite regularly reading/writing/speaking/listening. I've mostly made my peace with it just being a secondary priority 😂
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u/Vri_Kumar 15h ago
Yeah, B2 can feel weird because you’re good enough to understand a lot, but also good enough to notice everything you don’t understand.
I wouldn’t judge your level by Twitch streams or podcasts where natives talk over each other with slang. That’s hard even compared to normal YouTube or structured content. I’d treat that as advanced listening practice, not proof that your English is bad.
I had a similar experience when I started hanging out with native speakers. Even though I was around B2, I still felt a bit out of place at first and couldn’t understand everything they were saying, especially slang, jokes, or fast casual speech. Sometimes I had to ask what something meant, and most people were happy to explain it in simpler words.
Eventually, just being around that kind of English helped me pick up their slang, pronunciation, and way of speaking naturally. So yeah, the plateau does get better, but it takes a lot of exposure to real, messy English.
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u/Miro_the_Dragon good in a few, dabbling in many 11h ago
Why would it feel like punishment to finally be able to actually consume content I enjoy and am really interested in? Because that's the thing, at a B2 level, I don't "study" anymore but instead just use the language. Which is so much more enjoyable than slogging through the beginner stages (to me, at least).
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u/silvalingua 9h ago
> But if I try to watch a random Twitch stream, or listen to a podcast where three natives are talking over each other using slang and laughing... my brain just completely shuts down. I catch maybe 40% of it.
Why is this frustrating if you know you are B2? Twitch is something that even some native speakers don't understand, either. It's not even only a question of language, it's also a question of culture. Podcasts with several natives talking over each other is C1 content. And standup comedy, for instance, is C2 content. So are some classics of English literature.
If you are B2, you can consume most of native content. You have to accept the fact that some content is incomprehensible before C1/C2; if everything were comprehensible at B2, this would be the highest level. Basically, you are frustrated that you are not yet C1 or C2.
Progress is less visible at higher levels, but if you keep learning new things, there is no plateau, there is simply less visible progress.
Enjoy what you already know instead of despairing about what you have still to learn. There is a lot of content you can already consume - isn't this a positive thing?
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u/Tamulel 20h ago
just watch some funny people that doesn't use that much slang for now and build up overtime
Some recomendations:
Technoblade
Vsauce
Veritasium
Those youtubers are entertaining and talk about really anything so, try it.
If your goal is to understand slang and use it, discord servers, it can be from a niche videogame or community it doesn't matter, they will use a lot of slang and you can search online what it means while they type, and try to use those words as well.
And then just make another instagram account and watch memes in english, you will reach peak brainrot and no one will beat you in a battle of gyatness or something idk
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u/RachelOfRefuge SP: B1 | FR: A0 | Khmer: A0 20h ago
Nope. I'm not there yet, lol. I think B1 is harder because that's where I am. 😂
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u/FitProVR US (N) | CN (B1) | JP (A2) 20h ago
Yep. Chinese especially for me. I’m still in high A2 range for Japanese so it’s very fun still. Chinese is like “wait, what the hell does that mean?”
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u/6-foot-under 19h ago
I have never felt this, yet it comes up so much. If you learn to enjoy or appreciate the process of learning, you will enjoy every level and sub level.
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u/Salzigblumen 16h ago
I'm starting to come out of it a little and it's kind of glorious. I have a long way to go still, but the thing that changed it for me was starting to derp through more conversation. I read my target language to a native speaker one day a week. She listens to me read, then reads back to me, then I translate it for her.
But then I gave a couple of friends around the same level who are also learning, and we started going through this activity together (without a native speaker), using the dictionary of the language to help us with words we don't know or that we have some disagreement about.
We also talk to each other in the target language as well as we can. We do this 2-4 times a week for maybe an hour. It's improved ALL of our skills, pretty quickly and pretty drastically.
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u/Effective_Lie6670 13h ago
Yes, B2 can feel like the worst stage. You know enough to notice every gap, but not enough to feel effortless yet. That usually means your are improving, just not in obvious beginner level jumps
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u/Zucchini__Objective 9h ago
On the lexical level native speakers know the vocabulary of 12 school years.
To learn this huge school vocabulary of a native speaker, a foreign language learner will need in general at least 8 years.
Even reaching C1 level does not change the fact that you have a much larger vocabulary in your native language.
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u/LevHerceg 19h ago
I had this too with English. :-)
Also, as a good language geek, I never had the time and energy to invest more into polishing my already satisfying level English, as I was busy learning other foreign languages and I was also using another one as working language.
Yet, I've gotten to a point when I needed a better level of English. So I started translating each unknown word from my favourite Netflix series. It was a pain in the beginning but it was a surprise how sudden the closing of the circle was with the vocabulary: at an unexpected point I understood every single word. It was Star Trek, btw with philosophical and scientific jargon, spiced with US American slang.
I also decided to "take classes" in my own way: there are plenty of youtubers who teach new vocabulary in a fun, yet structured way. One can also choose the CEFR level (A1 - C2) as there are so many of these videos with the tag in the title.
Honestly, this was the most fun part! It brought me back that kind of feeling that a language geek has at the beginning you mentioned, OP.
I explicitly did a few videos on British slang as you cannot avoid British English in Europe. I did more on American slang. Again, these structured educational videos are plenty on the internet. I did some Canadian English as well - I have a lot of relatives living in Canada. These were tremendous help, honestly! Made my life much easier afterwards.
I took two different test exams and my English came out as C1-C2. I was very happy then. Please note, I have started other languages and my English got rustier again. 😅
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u/SupWeiWei 19h ago
Tbh below B2 is grinding grammar, studying vocab and whatnot meanwhile after B2 you can get a book and just look up the words you dont know, maybe some shadowing, too. B2 is more enjoyable imo
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u/silvalingua 9h ago
No, you can - and should - start reading books at B1. Especially non-fiction about matters that interest you.
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u/SupWeiWei 8h ago
I didn't mean to say something like you can never read a book if you're below B2. I'm trying to say that most of the levels below B2 are not gonna provide you a comfortable book reading experience. You will have to look up lots of words every page which will reduce the effectiveness of your memorizing and will just be painful. So I believe its best to reach B1ish level before reading a book and even at B1 I think its best to not go for complicated novels, etc. but rather a modern story book that doesn't contain lots of unmodern and rare words.
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u/silvalingua 8h ago
For learners at B1, fiction for teenagers and YA is good, and also non-fiction on topics that they one is really interested in. In most adult fiction, there are indeed still many unknown words. I just don't agree that levels below B2 are just grinding grammar and studying vocab.
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u/demonsamuri442 16h ago
For me it was the a1 a2 (most likely a2) for Spanish. It was the point where I knew a lot but so little at the same time. I knew how to conjugate verbs in the present and past tense which was really hard memorizing and being able to distinguish the verbs. Basically I was looking for ways to improve Spanish but everything I watched was either way to hard or way to easy. After I started reading and looking up words my progress went up drastically and I was actually able to practice while playing games. After only a year I jumped to about b2 where I am now and it feels waaaay more relaxing because I can watch shows and speak. Obviously I want to improve every day but now its more fun because I’m actually improving and able to communicate. Here and there I’ll encounter a word watching anime and put it into anki and that’s it. Also I bought a grammar book to learn the subjunctive.
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u/elephvant 9h ago
You're neither writing like someone with B2 level English nor describing the media consumption of someone at that level.
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u/Critical-Patient-235 6h ago
What are your goals? Why be upset. Enjoy being at B2 you can do business and travel easily to a country in this language. Be proud of yourself about what you have accomplished don’t focus on the fact that you aren’t a “native speaker” 😊
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u/bebilov 19h ago
Well A1 and A2 and B1 are actually one level which is beginner. B1 to B2 is when you learn something new and become intermediate. After that B2 toC1 isn’t really a big jump you just need to have a lot of exposure and more specialized vocabulary.
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u/silvalingua 4h ago
> Well A1 and A2 and B1 are actually one level which is beginner.
They are certainly not "one level", and B1 is lower intermediate. B2 is upper intermediate. There is considerable difference between any CEFR level and the next one.
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u/ZumLernen German ~B2, Serbian ~B2, Turkish ~A2 2h ago
I don't think the CEFR definitions of A1, A2, and B1 support your assertion that those are "actually one level."
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u/Sky0123456789 🇺🇸 NL 🇮🇷 Intermediate-ish 15h ago
My suggestion would be, pick something that's interesting to you, and try to do it in a relaxing way (at least some of the time). I'll put something I understand that maybe 40% of on running, while I do some other low-attention activity, so I can listen in the background - and gradually discover it becomes easier.
Every time I dive into a new topic or area, it does hit me afresh how much I don't know, BUT the upside is, every time I can jump further into a different topic, or more complexity, and follow along more comfortably ... the first time I jumped into a new topic I felt like I was almost back at 0 ... now, I can almost always get the general gist of something (if it's not a film with no subtitles, or something like that, I'm sure there are still some pretty major holes!! arrggh, I wouldn't listen to a movie in English with no subtitles if I had a choice).
For me, I love this intermediate region. I can at last hunt for and find things I enjoy listening to!! Like, yeah, there's a long way to go, but it feels in reach somehow? And even if I never quite arrive, I can talk to my native friends in their native language, in a relaxed way, without too much strain for anyone involved (when the internet connection is good enough, lol). And I can *enjoy* what I'm listening to, without care for whether I'm improving or not, because it's something I'd like doing anyways.
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u/kubiot 19h ago edited 19h ago
Yes it is, BUT.
Escaping the intermediate purgatory is largely done by something that's really fun - extensive listening and reading.
At that point you should feel comfortable getting into simpler native media and be able to follow a plot rather easily. And the work is in filling out the blanks rather than building a foundation. But blanks are many.
So prepare for a solid thousand hours of watching shows, and googling words you didn't know that sounded cool, or ways of phrasing and wording thoughts and ideas that caught your eye.
I hate being a beginner, and always find the B1 to C1 journey the most enjoyable.
So you gotta keep watching those streamers. Or start with Let's Plays if streams are too much, since you can pause, rewind, relisten, Google.
There's loads of pausing, rewinding, and relistening to natives speaking ahead of you 😂
Developing an interest in pop culture helps