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Most annoying: beginning, middle or end? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| PiotrR Newbie China Joined 3747 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 41 of 49 22 January 2014 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's the middle indeed.
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| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3785 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes  Speaks: Spanish | Message 42 of 49 22 January 2014 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know people are saying that the middle is the most annoying period but I just don't think so. Just hear me out.
In the beginning and middle, you just need to add a bit more time, say 300-500 hours, and you are almost in the advanced area. Just grunt it out a bit more and you are there. With the advanced area you can invest 5,000 or 10,000 more hours and your progress is extremely slow. Imagine how world-class athletes feel in objectively measurable sports like swimming, running, cycling, or something objective like fastball speed in baseball. You can invest four years of training in an olympic cycle, doing 8 daily hours related to your sport and improve a HUNDREDTH of a second in the 100m dash. Or for a less extreme example, you could be a good Division 1 college 100m sprinter and improve 3-4 hundredths of a second in your first year of hard-core college training. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6993 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 43 of 49 22 January 2014 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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The advanced beginner stage, which precedes the middle...
As a beginner, you don't expect much of yourself. As you begin to advance, the inability to do what you would like to do with a bit of ease is out of reach. Once one gets to the middle stage and can begin using native materials, it's more fun. The middle stage is long, and if one is really looking to enjoy advanced stage speaking and reading, it is humbling. I'm imagining "beginning" to be the A1/A2 level, the "middle" to be B1/B2, and "advanced" to be C1/C2. C1 is a pretty high level. I don't see that being all that frustrating LOL. Edited by luke on 22 January 2014 at 3:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5196 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 44 of 49 22 January 2014 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes but the fact that much more work is needed to improve by a very small margin doesn't make it annoying for me since at this stage you can already enjoy using your language without much problem. I would say the advanced beginner/low middle (maybe something like A2/B1) phase is the most annoying part, you have enough to do some things but clearly not enough to engage with most native speakers/material and really have fun with it. Edited by akkadboy on 22 January 2014 at 4:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3785 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 45 of 49 23 January 2014 at 4:19am | IP Logged | ||
Have you gotten to C1, C2, or C2+ yourself? If not, then you don't know how frustrating it is not improving much at all. This question really should be ideally answered by peeps that have gone through all of them. Some people that talk to me are like, "I bet that it is really hard working 24-30 hour shifts in a row at the hospital!" But if they have never done it they don't know what it is like. You gotta live it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc2 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4347 days ago 85 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan, German Studies: French | Message 46 of 49 23 January 2014 at 5:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with you, culebrilla; for me, the advanced stage is the most annoying / frustrating.
My current languages are spread out across stages (German -- advanced beginner, French -- early intermediate, Catalan -- advanced intermediate, Spanish -- advanced), and for me Spanish is the most annoying. With German and French, every new thing I do is exciting and I can feel myself getting better. With Spanish, on the other hand, I know that I'm not perfect but it drives me crazy! I am so close, I want to improve, but it feels like it is never going to happen. Every person is different, though, and especially if you're not a perfectionist, you probably would enjoy the advanced stage the most. For some reason, speaking perfect Catalan is not a priority for me, so I enjoy it a lot more. Making mistakes and not learning doesn't bother me much in Catalan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3785 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 47 of 49 23 January 2014 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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There really is no correct answer to the OP's question. It is really a matter of opinion. It seems that the middle is the consensus for HTLAL. However, you do really have to go through all the states to be able to compare. It is like responding to a question about how is social life a public vs a private school system without going through both of them. You have to experience them to know what it is like!
Edit: never been to a private school, what is it like? Edited by culebrilla on 23 January 2014 at 2:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4157 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 48 of 49 24 January 2014 at 2:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Truthfully, I was caught between the answer I gave (upper beginner) and the advanced part. As frustrating as the upper levels are when you really don't "see" any improvement until somebody actually tells you where you improved (if they ever do), I can tolerate that part more because I can more or less enjoy the language now even without visible improvements. But I'm also not in a position where C2+ would be necessary or realistic, so maybe that has some effect on my answer.
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