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Most annoying: beginning, middle or end? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4538 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 33 of 49 30 December 2013 at 6:00pm | IP Logged |
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I am not at the advanced level yet, but I definitely like the language I am studying more and more. The better I get the more interesting are the materials I can access natively, and the more interesting and relaxing I find the interactions with other people.
At the start I worried more about grammar and using Anki to jump-start my vocabulary, and am very happy to have given this up to simply read books, watch movies, and talk with people. So for me the Beginning is my least favorite, though I wouldn't say it was terrible. It was just less interesting. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5224 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 34 of 49 30 December 2013 at 6:55pm | IP Logged |
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I'm obviously odd.
I like, nay love every single step forward. From asking the French waiter for stuff that wasn't on the menu when I was 13 to trying to chat up German girls who spoke pretty good English when I was 20 to negotiating one of my first jobs in Japanese: yes, looking back my French/German/Japanese could have been better and probably should have been but each and every conversation nudges you down that line towards mastery of the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4374 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 35 of 49 01 January 2014 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
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It's hard to point it to one particular point, but for me the most frustrating part is when you realize you're moving from one category into another. It's such a slow improvement, and even as it's happening you know that there is still so much more to learn. If I had to choose a particular level, I would probably choose the point where you just start to have some spontaneity with the language but everything is still a struggle.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| cpnlsn88 Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5042 days ago 63 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, Latin | Message 36 of 49 01 January 2014 at 10:47pm | IP Logged |
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The beginning can be frustrating. However I'd definitely vote for the advanced level, though that also brings great joy as well. At the advanced level you are experiencing diminishing returns on your investment. Getting a noticeable improvement at advanced requires a huge investment and not many people notice it. It is at that point that one has to face up to a choice (albeit a prolonged one). Do I continue to learn this language and try to develop it or simply maintain what I have achieved? I kind of want to combine these so that maintenance isn't simply holding on to what I have but also finding out things, so, even at maintenance, I'm still learning more things and extending my abilities (e.g. new areas of vocabulary).
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5860 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 37 of 49 03 January 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged |
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I vote for the intermediate (middle). In this stage, textbook texts and audios are easy, but if I try to read and listen to native materials, I have a hard time understanding them. Furthermore, both my standard of written and oral production at the middle stage is still very far away from what an educated native speaker would have produced. And to improve all aspects in my target language, I need to spent more time learning the vocabulary, learn the idiomic usage of words, practice listening and speaking, in order to make it to the advance stage, where things become easier and more enjoyable.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| lsilvaj Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4135 days ago 34 posts - 42 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Russian | Message 38 of 49 09 January 2014 at 2:41pm | IP Logged |
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Middle is the longest phase, by far, and therefore the most frustrating to me.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sizen Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4344 days ago 165 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Catalan, Spanish, Japanese, Ukrainian, German | Message 39 of 49 09 January 2014 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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I loved the entire process for all the languages I have learned and am learning right
now. Even Japanese, which I eased myself into, felt enjoyable all along the way because I didn't really force myself. Then, boom, one day it all started making sense and I started using native material. Fun stuff. However, I'm starting to hate the beginning with new languages. Languages from the same family are still great because I feel like I can already understand them after only a few hours, but languages like Korean and Mandarin that I've dabbled in are a little different. I've lulled myself into a state of overconfidence wherein I feel like learning languages is a breeze because I'm used to the 2 languages I know well. Going into new languages outside of the Romance family, though, I feel like I barely have any points of reference: everything is different. I have to consciously remember new words that have little or nothing to do with anything I know and get used to new ways of formulating things I've said hundreds of times in other languages. I've tricked myself into thinking I'm good at this stuff, so now the beginning sucks (except with the Romance family). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| anethara Diglot Newbie England Joined 4247 days ago 25 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, Sign Language | Message 40 of 49 09 January 2014 at 7:40pm | IP Logged |
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Middle, in my opinion. The excitement of learning a new language will have faded yet
you'll still be fairly clumsy knowlege-wise and the serious work involved starts to feel like serious work. It's a time (in my experience) that really tests your motivation and dedication, it's so easy in that stage to lose enthusiasm and go onto another language (speaking from experience, eep...). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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