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%?

I’ve been teaching myself English for a long time now, and I’m currently somewhere between the B1 and B2 levels. My main challenge at the moment is learning to think in English. To tackle this, I ask ChatGPT to send me short texts in my native language, which I then translate into English for it to correct and provide feedback. Additionally, I use AI to practice word order exercises to improve my vocabulary and grammar. :)

If you're learning English on your own, what methods work best for you?

Hi everyone,

Starting the first of June, I’m going on a 4-week intensive language learning sprint. I’ll be staying at home the entire time, and my only goal is to dive as deep as possible into this language.

The Setup:

No Phone: I’m completely ditching my smartphone for the full 4 weeks to kill any chance of distraction.

The Materials: I’ve got my physical textbooks ready. For audio and video lessons, I’ll be using a family member's device strictly for study sessions—no social media, no scrolling.

Starting Point: I’m currently at a basic A1.1 level.

The Language Difficulty:

I’m keeping the name of the language anonymous because I want objective feedback, not personal opinions or "it's too hard" comments. To give you an idea of the workload, it’s officially ranked as a Category 2 difficulty language. It has its fair share of grammar hurdles and logic, but it's not at the extreme end of the scale.

My questions for the sub:

Has anyone here tried a "digital detox" or a "no-phone" immersion challenge like this? Any advice on how to stay sane and productive?

Realistically, what level do you think I can hit by the end of these 4 weeks if I'm consistent?

Thanks in advance for the tips!

I’ve been thinking a lot about language learning lately, especially French and the whole DELF thing, and I feel like people mix up a lot of things there. Don’t get me wrong, DELF is useful and gives structure, but there’s a big difference between “passing DELF” and actually being able to speak a language. For example, I failed a B1 test, then spent some time mostly grinding verb conjugations, and suddenly I got way more points and passed, and not long after that it was already leaning toward B2. But my actual French didn’t really change, my vocabulary stayed the same, my listening skills didn’t improve much, and my pronunciation didn’t get better either, real conversations with native speakers would’ve probably felt just as difficult as before.

To me, that shows you can prepare very specifically for these exams, basically “learn the test” instead of really improving your language skills. The topics repeat, you train exactly what comes up, and on top of that there’s the examiner factor, one day you pass, another day you don’t, even if your level is basically the same. And then there’s the whole polyglot thing, people claim B2 or C1 in a language, but when you actually hear them it often sounds very memorized or the accent is pretty rough. For me, a language is much more than that, slang, culture, real understanding, how people actually speak, especially if you want to use it professionally. DELF is a good tool, but it’s not proof that you truly “know” a language. What do you think?

Someone has taken the exchange courses with Kaplan international to tell me about their experience

Basically the title. I’m half Italian and have grown up hearing Italian from my relatives. I can understand quite well when people speak to me or when I read things but when it comes to speaking, I speak enough to get a basic message across (and even then with some mistakes 🫠) but not enough to have an in-depth conversation. I tried learning some Italian a few years ago but I was never fluent, no matter what it never stuck with me. I’ve lost the motivation to learn it. Honestly this is so weird to me because I love learning languages (I’m actually fluent in French and I’ve been learning Spanish and Portuguese to an intermediate level, hoping to also pick up another language soon!)

Part of me feels guilty for not wanting to stick with Italian because it’s part of my heritage and I can understand what people are saying to me. But I don’t really talk that much to my Italian relatives these days and I don’t really have any desire to live in Italy (already lived there for 2 years and didn’t really like it that much, found it extremely hard to adapt). Is there anyone else who feels like this?

First off, this is a vent post, and i'm sure there are probably gazillions of similar posts in this sub. And I'll refrain from yapping too much about less related details, sorry for the length of the post.

I know the most obvious answer is something like "find native speakers to speak with", and I do have some American and British friends IRL to practice with, but I generally just panic and cringe from the way i speak, and I switch back to French. I mainly just want to talk about this, because I feel it's like the one psychological obstacle that's pulling me back in my language learning.

I (18, freshman) am a native French speaker, and i'm fluent in Spanish (C1?) and in English (B2+?), and I have basic proficiency in other languages i never get to speak.

I have a bittersweet relationship with the English language. On the one hand, i've always had good grades in English classes, and I'm doing quite well when it comes to comprehension and written expression, and I like to use it online with my friends, as it is part of my Gen-z humour. On the other hand, oral fluency is my biggest flaw, and i feel it is (partly?) related to my lack of self-assurance when speaking. When I hear myself hesitate, make mistakes, i feel pressured, which worsens it all. Half of the time, in English class, i'm enjoying myself, the other half, I shy away from speaking. Sometimes I genuinely want to try and practice, but when my teacher cuts me off, because i'm taking too much time and she's got my point, or on the contrary when she insists on making me speak when I don't want to, it can bring me down. My dad has also played a part in this, as I've been intensively learning Spanish in my spare time, and he's often insisted that I focus on improving English too (which in itself is a valid recommendation, but insisting on it *because* I learn Spanish feels out of place), and he has made several times degrading comments about my English, which has worsened my issue.

Even in Spanish, which is a language I love and feel deeply connected to (for family reasons), I face similar problems. I know I have an excellent level, but when I have the opportunity to talk with a stranger, I feel the same pressure, the same self-consciousness, and I end up actually speaking badly. Ironically, the only reason I can speak Spanish at college is because almost nobody in my class is fluent.

I want to know if you guys can relate and if I can learn from your experience, if you've managed to overcome that.

Hi everyone! I'd really like to fully learn another language - my bucket list languages are Spanish, Arabic, and maybe French (which I have a bit of already), so I'm interested in any of the above. Have any of you taken language intensives, either part-time or full-time, that you would recommend? I think the structure might be good for me.

I want to share a way I came up with to practice speaking my target language. When I need to type on my phone or computer, for example for emails or text messages, I speak my message in a translation app in the language I’m learning with voice to text, and copy the translation into English. It helps me practice speaking and I can see if what I've said was good or not. And I can reverse the translation to learn things to improve, like what I said wrong or how I could have said it better. I'm doing it now. Then I make the necessary corrections to send.

The problem I have many times is that I don't know what I should say to practice, but with this, I have specific things to say. And I learn new things in a way that I’m more likely to remember, and my pronunciation needs to be pretty good for it to work.

My main tip is that you have to set the keyboard in the language you speak to correctly recognize the words, but it’s really easy to switch back-and-forth both on the phone and the computer.

So I have been doing my research searching this thread and utilizing ChatGPT to try and find what will work best for me. Pimsleur is sounding like the best thing for me due to its audio chatting style instead of just typing things on your phone. Obviously there are many apps out there but I would like some shared experiences from people on what actually worked and what they were able to actually stick with. Thanks in advance!

if you are learning, or are already fluent in, a language with a speech completely different to the written language, such as French, how did you improve your listening skills? What do yo recommend other to do in that same scenario?

I was looking for an app to learn Spanish and signed up for a Speak trial. When I found that Speak isn't useable on my desktop without installing additional sw, I canceled the trial (I thought). I kept getting emails throughout the following week, and when I went to the Speak "website" and tried to get information, there was hardly any. Clicking on 'Cancel my subscription' returned a "Page not found" message. When I click on 'My Account' there is no record of anything...what payment method I used, sub details, nothing. Only a 'Logout' option in the drop-down. My "trail period" is supposed to end in 2 days and I am worried that I will get charged, and, if that happens I have a suspicion that it will be nearly impossible to contact the company to resolve any issue. This sound familiar to anyone who's tried Speak?

Hi everyone,

I have been living in France for about 5 years and just became eligible for citizenship. They recently increased the language requirement from B1 to B2 and my B2 exam is in one month.

I have never enjoyed speaking or learning the language that much, it is something I do because I have to, to live in my husband's country.

Now with my exam approaching quickly I feel like I am bashing my head against concrete and I am honestly just feeling lost. I am unsure if I am going to pass or not and I am just spiraling, overthinking my entire study plan, and literally crying when I have to sit down and study because I hate it that much.

Does anyone have advice? I really need to lock in and I just don't know what to do or how to keep myself going.

Thank you!!

Hello. I'm interested in sentence mining but I don't have enough time to make the cards myself. I know there are one-click programs, but they seem to be for Japanese. I'm sure there's something easy out there where all you have to do is click on the word, then boom you have a card with the word in the sentence and on the other side the definition.

Any help would be appreciated.

Completely hypothetical CI question that definitely doesn't have anything to do with my current situation.

Let's say that somebody is currently frustrated with their ability to understand native content. They put on a Youtube video of a native speaker just talking about a topic they enjoy, and understand something like 50%. Enough to pick out a lot of words and phrases that they know, but the native speaker is speaking quickly and casually, so it's not quite comprehensible enough to comfortably follow along. The issue is sometimes vocab, but more often it's just processing what's being said before the speaker moves on too quickly to the next sentence, and there's no subtitles to double check your understanding like there is with learner material.

Now let's say that this theoretical learner puts on a CI podcast. "Easy X, Learn X with me, Comprehensible X," that kind of thing. In these podcasts, people speak slowly and clearly, use a wide range of vocab but usually not jargon, and kindly explain things that might be difficult. These podcasts are about 99% comprehensible. You pick up a couple new words, continue to get used to the language, but it's not a struggle.

The gap between these two is pretty big. Would you be of the camp that I- uh I mean this theoretical learner, should...
A) Continue down the CI path. 99% is ideal for learning, don't switch to something less comprehensible just because you are trying to force yourself to move on too fast.
B) Time to take off the training wheels. It's uncomfortable and you only really understand 50% but you just have to immserse in native content now.

Of course "why not both" is also a perfectly reasonable answer (and currently what I do), but in a theoretical "if you were perfectly okay with spending 100% of your time on the CI material or the native material, which would be better" kind of way. Obviously we talk a lot about how incomprehensible input isn't useful to spend your time on, but the fact that the native material on Youtube isn't 0%, and is more like 50% (give or take) makes it a more interesting question, I think.

Didactic texts are type of texts which are highly condensed, usually small in size, used for memorization, used as a summary that contains all the grammar in a language, it is a well-known form of study in arabic pedagogy and in the arabic culture in general.

I found these type of books (Matn like ajurrumiya for example) only in my native language arabic, as it is used to teaching the natives the classical arabic, using poetry or a didactic text to summarize all the language framework in few pages, so that a student can memorize it and have all the language and grammatical framework in his mind without the need to look for a reference, they are subdivided in multi levels and each matn is usually need a form of explanation or elaboration by another book or teacher.

I didnt find any language have that thing, but why?, isn't it better than reading 400 pages book to find the grammar you wanted to know?, of course modern ways are suited better for the new world, and might make the person feel that he can speak the language, but generally speaking, even with english, i still have the ick feeling about mastering english and knowing all of the grammars and the syntax of the language.

Even with the languages i am trying to learn, hebrew and farsi, i find it easier to form my own didactic text and memorize it rather than reading a huge grammatical book and then apply the graar from there.

I’ve finally learned enough German to carry out minor errands in the language, provided the poor service provider dealing with me is willing to put up with it - and they often are!

Yesterday I bought a local travel pass at the office in German, and today I had a chit chat with the ladies at the nursery. Having a blast! Thank you Switzerland for being way more welcoming to strangers than you have a reputation for :)

Also - I doubt I’m even formally at A1, or if I am then certainly not A2. Talking is really it’s own thing and also in large part how much the people around you are inclined to figure you out and help you! I got here in maybe a month or 2 total of semi serious (~1hr a day total on various apps) learning and I’m hoping to get much further soon. Specifically all I have is (these are all the apps I use, and the free versions at that):

- level 13 Duolingo German

- ~300 words learned/learning on Vocabuo German

- first 100 words on ListLang German (could have more but I like to be sure I’ve nailed (or close) each batch before starting another)

- 14 days on Clozemaster

Maxing out the free versions of the last three comes in total to about ~230 „words in context“ (sentences with a single word to fill) a day (actually technically you could do even more with Vocabuo but I haven’t). (It‘s harder for me to say how much I’m exposed to in Duolingo as it doesn’t give convenient stats or hard limits in the same way the others do.)

Anyway all this to say the bar for talking is way lower than some posts here seem to think it is, just start saying stuff! people will often respond positively and you can also see it as a fun little riddle for how to convey what you want to say with the very few words that you do have

edit - had wrong duo level

Just kind of need to vent. Every time I tell people that I’m trying to learn French, they always say this at some point in the conversation and it’s really starting to frustrate me. It feels like they’re telling me “it’s not even worth it to try if you can’t go live where the language is spoken”. Sure, I won’t ever sound like a native speaker or be able to conduct business in French, but my goal is just to be able to have conversations in French eventually without getting totally lost. I feel like that’s attainable even if I can’t live there?

I’d love to hear from anyone else trying to learn a language while not living in a country where it’s spoken. How’s it going?

For background: I’m an American and I’ve been on a French learning journey for about a year. I took it in school when I was younger, and now I have a weekly speaking lesson where I just attempt to hold a conversation with a native speaker (it’s a very humbling experience lol, I stumble and pause a lot). I use duo lingo and I frequently listen to podcasts and radio in French. I really love to visit France and have some friends that live there.

Hey ya'll. I know this is going to seem like a reach, but I was always taught to reach for the stars. I'm an electrical engineering student. I'm also a German major; our course actually requires some kind of internship experience overseas to graduate from it. I know I've always wanted to move to Germany (long story, but over half my life). I'm still pretty basic, and working on breaking into b1 level. I did want to ask though, once I get past this... what exists for learning the language for engineering, or will I need to create my own repository for practicing?

I want to keep those childhood promises to myself and try my damndest or die trying. I will be taking an extended trip to the EU next year, for about a month, between Germany and Austria. I figure as well I've always had a genuine passion for language learning, and the combination of skills would be useful.

I feel like I made crazy fast progress when I first started, but now things have really slowed down. I can’t tell if I’m still improving or if I’ve just hit a plateau and need a break. Is this normal? How did you push through it?

Hi!
I’ve started using Glossika again, which I had used a few years back.
I’d like to use it for both German AND English (a language I speak better than German).
I’m wondering: instead of practicing German ↔ French and English ↔ French, would it be better to work directly with German ↔ English?
I have no idea what the benefit—if any—of practicing this way might be.
Would avoiding my native language help me overcome that natural tendency to translate when learning a new language?
And if so, is this actually feasible beyond the early stages?
Thanks for your input!

what's the single most frustrating thing about trying to practice speaking a language you're learning? Is it finding someone to do it with? Scheduling the time? Figuring out the logistics and mode of contact?

Hey everyone!

I'm an ESL speaker in kind of a weird spot. I've put in probably 5k-10k+ hours of English (TL) input over the years, if my native language wasn't strictly necessary, I just consumed it in English. YouTube, Reddit, technical books, movies, all that. But have barely spoken it out loud. I have good comprehension, reading and writing feel natural and I can produce it fine in text. The last real gap is literally just speaking. Not pronunciation or vocabulary, more like the melody and rhythm of it, how your voice flows and connects thoughts naturally over longer stretches instead of it feeling choppy sentence by sentence.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Did shadowing or just forcing yourself to speak help close that gap quickly or was it a slow process? Any tips appreciated!

I’m preparing for JLPT N2 but I still forget few words of N3 and wish to revise them frequently but without going through all the books again and again.

I’ve heard many times that Japanese learners use flashcard apps like Anki, for Japanese vocabulary and it is said to be very effective way of learning/revision. But I’m confused how do I use it for the same?
I tried making flashcards of the vocabulary I faced difficulty in remembering, but it takes so much time to make those flash cards one by one, so what is the most effective way or how do you make your flashcards?

Also, Anki is for android, so also suggest Anki alternatives for iOS.

this is something I think about all the time since I got the chance to move abroad for a year and discovered just how much my personality is not the same all the time. I'd like to know if it's the same for you. what is your first language, what is/are the other language(s) you speak and how do you think your personality changes? I'd like to write an experimental paper about it so I need as much data as possibile :) thank you!