Stage 3 for Japanese. You’re totally right, Steve, about the feeling of should being able to understand but can’t… yet 😉

Phase 3 is the killer, am stuck so am frustrated I get demotivated.

Great. It is my opinion too: I focus on talking to people. Nowadays I don't care about certificates or tests. I prefer to test myself

Right. Me too. My pleasure is self selected reading in English.

Also at this point you will complete your acquisition fully passively by listening or reading stuff you enjoy. So you get there eventually of you continue, what's hard is getting past that point where you have to constantly translate cause you lack vocab. It's really frustrating, I feel like I will never pass that point

Espero que algum dia meu português seja assim seu inglês. Agora mesmo, Tô Muito ruim. Agora mesmo.. talvez estágio 3 de 5. Talvez superior 2.. Upper 2nd level🤷 mas acho que 2

I understand pretty much everything in English but I can't communicate comfortably in English, especially in speaking.

My journey for example with Braz. Portuguese was: I am into the language for a good month. Having learned all the words and grammar in an Assimil course I feel so confident and competent to listen to Brazilian News or Radio show hosts talking with local Brazilian politicians cause the language is no noise anymore after all. Great! So I set about listening to "higher" and real native stuff not recorded in a studio for learners. So what happens then? NOISE..... 😵‍💫😅

@@rvdzst totally understand you man, but keep it up, Brazil is such a huge country, so even to us seems a mess to get some words and expressions, but soon or later you gonna get used to the language

@@ocaminhodoingles The same happened to me in Spanish as well btw. Sure, of course I will continue! There are people I can already understand quite well and there are some that mumble and mutter no end, where I can imagine it should be even hard for native Brazilians to understand everything. For example to me people from Sao Paulo seem to speak clearer than people from Mato Grosso do Sul (the location of the radio station). But it´s just a first impression.

@@rvdzst yeah, I think so too, they speak quite clear in Sao Paulo, but it depends of the person too, because there is a lot of slangs some people use in some places, so that would be a difficulty also

Suzhou. I was there in 1975 and again in 2003. Great city. Great food. Cheers.

@@Thelinguist I shared your vlog with my thousands of friends and followers in Linkedin, the professional platform...thank you and welcom (back) to China to see the update, not just the local MEDIA...happy new year 2023, the year of rabbit in China, cheers, professor Kaufmann

I know the feeling. Is English your first language?

@@Tehui1974 Yes it is. Plus I'm American so they don't teach second languages in most schools except for some Spanish in high school. Now I'm 34 and a year into trying to teach myself Russian. 😂

I believe there is a natural order whereby our brains get used to the structures and patterns of a new language. Just keep going and be patient. Try to enjoy the language.

Know that it's inevitable. I just hit c1 this November after starting from a1 last October. For me, the b1 and b2 plateaus sucked. I felt like garbage. I was miserable. I had to Brite force the language by force feeding myself star wars the clone wars with no subtitles and listened to music and studied the lyrics and sang in the shower and stuff. It was all a sort of blind stumble as I very slowly got better at ordering food or selling mattresses. But when I felt the click hit and I suddenly heard everything even if I don't understand it yet I knew the faith paid off. Honestly, don't be afraid to reduce the intensity, but do it iebery day so your subconscious mind knows it's important enough to retain. I've done 10 hr days and 10 minute ones because I felt like my brain turned to peanut butter. Keep the faith, build the habits, and wait.

@@jasonjohnson6938 May I ask how you find out about your current language level? Can it only be done through an official exam? Or can we assume that the levels on LingQ more or less correspond to the levels of the EU ref. framework?

@Henryetha officially, it can only be done through an exam. I ended up taking a variety of different placement tests for high level programs. It doesn't actually matter where you are, just that you feel like you're making progress. 1200 hrs? Ok, amar y vivir on Netflix Is 60, bojack 80, swar wars 300, etc etc. The great thing about the placement tests is they're free. However, they're limited to testing your auditory and reading comprehension. Deploying the language live is much harder. But understanding ins MUCH more important

My wife and I visited Morocco a few years ago, stayed in Fez (right in the Medina) & Chefchouen and visited around by bus and taxi. The presence of French and Spanish (up north) or Berber in the south is no obstacle. People who know 2 or 3 languages have an advantage in learning more. I found Moroccans very friendly. They were willing to speak with me in Standard Arabic, which I was learning at the time, and when that failed we went to French. Many also spoke excellent English.

All normal. Just keep going.

I totally get where you are coming from; when I first started learning spanish I focused heavily on grammar and reading and eventually found myself where I wasn’t recognizing words I knew on paper in audio format. I realized I needed to just throw myself in and alternate mixing native materials (news, podcasts not geared towards learners of the language, a specific hobby or interest) and the learning materials, but for all of the learning materials like youtube channels, I increased the speed gradually 1.5x then to 1.75x and so on. Passively and actively listening for 1-3 hours daily (while driving to work, cooking, or showering), enabled me to understand most everything I heard in the span of a couple months. It takes a lot of time but is very worth while. Also I find there is a certain point where “learning materials” don’t help you advance so much as just listening and engaging with content directed for a native speaker audience. Bridging that gap between “learner material” and “native material” takes time and requires alternating between the levels of difficulty. Because not every language will have materials/comprehensible input for every stage. Ive found myself in this gap recently with hindi- All the materials for learners only bring you to an A2 level and then all the other material is B2 ish at the minimum. So Im trying to mix my youtube teachers plus movies and podcasts even tho, I couldn’t understand them at all without subtitles or hinglish frases. Best of luck in the journey and keep going!

It's a long road. I wish podcasters would provide transcripts. I go to automatic transcription sites but it's a lot work and the results are less than perfect which is tough for language learning. I think this will improve over time with AI.

Have you tried anki and immersion learning?

Focus on comprehension. Have tried to learn to read, by the way? A lot of investment up front but great dividends in comprehension.

Yes Steve, I can read Hiragana & Katakana and a few hundred Kanji. Will focus more on reading. Thank you!

Thanks for the comment but Anki, and SRSs in general, don’t seem to work for me. Ditto for immersion.

@@kenoath5717 it takes a lot time and effort for immersion, especially tolerating ambiguity earlier on. If you only read, you won't build up much listening and speaking ability. Reading is definitely something that helps too, though. I personally use the yomichan browser plugin as a pop-up dictionary

Read books, papers online, watch films, sitcoms , and so on. There's always something new to learn, even in your own language. Good luck.

I am not such a fan of graded readers. I prefer to struggle with authentic content once I am past the introductory stage or podcasts or other material with less low frequency vocabulary.

thank you

Could you tell me what you require here, or you can email me.

I am 77. My advice is based on my own experience. Don't rely on memory Don't memorize. Just get used to the language gradually by listening, reading and speaking when you get the chance without trying to hard.

чего изволите?

then it will be pretty difficult to stick to it - enjoying the process makes it something you can sustain

same

Grandfather