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Frustrations with language-learning.

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
17 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
teza Stone
Newbie
Brazil
Joined 4871 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes

 
 Message 1 of 17
27 November 2010 at 11:04pm | IP Logged 
What are your biggest frustrations, disappointments, insecurities and fears regarding language-learning?


On a lighter note: what are the greatest rewards associated with language-learning?
1 person has voted this message useful



languagewarrior
Diglot
Newbie
Canada
Joined 4873 days ago

5 posts - 28 votes
Speaks: English, Spanish

 
 Message 2 of 17
27 November 2010 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
One of my biggest frustrations is my inability to understand the average person who
speaks without clear pronunciation and almost mumbles when they speak.

This is not the
case with all speakers, but is very frequent in my experience.


Edit.      On a positive note I can understand almost everything when the speaker is
clear (e.g. some people I meet,dubbed movies and tv shows)and when I stop and realize
that almost two years ago I could not understand anything beyond por favor and gracias
and that in reality I have made a great deal of progress........but alas, we always want
more.

Edited by languagewarrior on 27 November 2010 at 11:57pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



The Real CZ
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5409 days ago

1069 posts - 1495 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 3 of 17
27 November 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged 
My biggest frustration: always new vocab to learn.
1 person has voted this message useful



stout
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 5131 days ago

108 posts - 140 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 4 of 17
28 November 2010 at 1:54am | IP Logged 
My biggest frustration is when I was in France...I always make an attempt to make an
effort to speak French with French people...However as soon as I open my mouth and they
hear my British Isles accented French they immediately switch to English especially if
the French person speaks English...Very frustrating indeed.

It seems a paradox...When non-English-speaking foreigners speaks French to French
people...They stick to French...In contrast when an English-speaking foreigner speaks
French to a French person...They automatically switch to English especially if the French
person speaks English.
1 person has voted this message useful



hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4890 days ago

1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 5 of 17
28 November 2010 at 2:35am | IP Logged 
stout wrote:

It seems a paradox...When non-English-speaking foreigners speaks French to French
people...They stick to French...In contrast when an English-speaking foreigner speaks
French to a French person...They automatically switch to English especially if the French person speaks English.

So there's your answer. Hang out with French speaking foreigners. Or better yet, make friends with the French. Don't just be a consumer.

The times I've been in France with an Italian friend who speaks French quite well, the French have never once tried to speak English to me. And I don't speak French :-) Even when I'm sputtering out something - obviously not well - they're patient with me. If I were by myself, I doubt it would have happened that way.

R.
==
1 person has voted this message useful



Ubik
Senior Member
United States
ubykh.wordpress.com/
Joined 5076 days ago

147 posts - 176 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Latin, Arabic (Egyptian), German, Spanish

 
 Message 6 of 17
04 December 2010 at 1:12am | IP Logged 
The biggest frustration for me I think is prepositions, followed closely by idiomatic
ways of saying something and different shades of meaning of words. Also, learning
antiquated words (like Vetter in German), using them and getting looked at weird.

When Im in mid-sentence and want to use a preposition, its such a killjoy to guess or
not
know what preposition to use.

The greatest rewards would have to be slowly, but confidently navigating my way through
a
new spoken sentence that Id previously never uttered. Also, every time I can actually
understand a native and can immediately at least answer them back in such a way that
they
know that I know what they just said even if my response itself isnt perfect.

Edited by Ubik on 04 December 2010 at 1:13am

1 person has voted this message useful



translator2
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6679 days ago

848 posts - 1862 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 7 of 17
04 December 2010 at 1:28am | IP Logged 
Frustration: Not enough time in the day to study everything I want and the tediousness of extracting vocabulary to learn.

Reward: Getting a natural high out of something I am passionate about.

Edited by translator2 on 04 December 2010 at 1:30am

1 person has voted this message useful



leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6310 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 8 of 17
04 December 2010 at 1:31am | IP Logged 
Biggest frustration - I'm not a closer. I haven't gotten any language to advanced fluency except Spanish, which I
practically grew up with. And I haven't gotten Japanese to the point where I can read it comfortably, despite several
thousand hours of study. Second place is the amount of effort required to learn a language to the point that it's
useful to me.

Biggest pleasure - the foreign women I've been able to hook up with due to my language skills. Second place is the
feeling of accomplishment I have for actually being able to speak all my languages well quite quickly. I've really
figured out what works for me, thanks in great part to the folks in this forum.


1 person has voted this message useful



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