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Hitting a wall

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paulbottle

Hitting a wall

Post by paulbottle »

A few days ago I wrote a short note to someone in France confirming a holiday booking we had made and when we will be arriving etc. Man it was hard work. The various way of saying the same thing. Even simple things took forever. By the end I wasn't sure how to say "goodbye". I really feel like packing it all in (duolingo that is). Does everyone hit a wall? I seem to be getting worse at French and making more and more silly mistakes!

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Sofia222677

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Sofia222677 »

Kind of like how I feel about my English sometimes. The more vocabulary I learn, the less fluent I get, it seems. I'm under the impression that when my vocabulary was more limited I was able to express myself in a more confident fashion, words and expressions would come to mind more quickly and in a more natural way.

As for German, I can't seem to remember the adjective declensions, no matter how many times I revise the tables.

:it: N - :gb: B2 (working towards C1) - Learning :de: - Dabbling in :cn:, :ru:

Zimozie
Finland

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Zimozie »

Sofia222677 wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:33 pm

Kind of like how I feel about my English sometimes. The more vocabulary I learn, the less fluent I get, it seems. I'm under the impression that when my vocabulary was more limited I was able to express myself in a more confident fashion, words and expressions would come to mind more quickly and in a more natural way.

As for German, I can't seem to remember the adjective declensions, no matter how many times I revise the tables.

Try to speak to yourself every day even though that sounds a bit silly. Recently I've personally realized one thing: speaking and listening are the most vital parts of the language learning. If you know how to speak, and you understand what's spoken, then it's a lot easier to jump into the reading and writing.

I've tried to "construct" languages to my mind, that is, to understand how to put pieces together: what parts of grammar I'll need in a sentence X and then speaking it out loud.

E.g. in French:
I'm eating bread.
=Je mange du pain.
I've to understand that "mange" is conjugated according to 1. person singular "je", "du" = "de" + "le" expressing the partitive case, and "pain" is a masculine word which changes the word "de" to "du".

Then try to make it a bit more complex in your mind as you like:
Je mange du pain avec ma femme.
Je mange du pain avec ma femme dans un restaurant.

Try to change verb tenses or personal pronoun/s and add whatever comes to your mind. This should be a challenge for yourself.
Hier, je mangais du pain et buvais du café au lait avec ma femme pendant que nos enfants jouaient des yeux avec leurs portables. Nous étions dans un restaurant jusqu'à 8 heures du soir.

I really recommend to do this in your mind so your mind gets used to the patterns of your target language. The faster you can form sentences, the better you get at your target language.

When you can do this without a lot of thinking, you're becoming more fluent. Then add more complex structures and "build upon your previous knowledge", that is, broaden it. Speaking forces you to use actively the words, phrases and the structures you've learned. It's easy to advance once you achieve a certain level of fluency even though that would be just a small amount of simple sentences and structures that are grammatically correct.

So my point is, speak what you('ve) learn(ed).

And don't forget to expose yourself to the target language as much as possible, listen to e.g. French-speaking youtubers, watch news and if you've friends who speak your target language, talk with them.

I hope you get my point. It's hard to explain but I tried my best.


If I've written something incorrectly or ambiguously either in French or in English, please correct me.

🇫🇮 native, 🇺🇲 C1-B2, 🇫🇷🇮🇱🇸🇪 B2-B1, 🇪🇸 B1-A2, 🇯🇴🇪🇪🇳🇴A2-A1, 🇷🇺🇺🇦🇬🇷🇨🇳 A1
Duolingo profile: https://duome.eu/zimozie77

Saperlipopette!

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Saperlipopette! »

Steve Kauffman has a five minute video on Language Learning Burnout. I think it's great.

Paul-LeBon
United States of America

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Paul-LeBon »

Saperlipopette! wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:48 pm

Steve Kauffman has a five minute video on Language Learning Burnout. I think it's great.

I think that Steve Kauffman makes a good point about varying the difficulty of the material that you are studying. If you are always on the bleeding edge of your ability in your target language, every study session becomes an arduous exhausting slog.

jenneeeeefur
United States of America

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by jenneeeeefur »

I feel like this all the time. Every time I make a silly mistake I just get exhausted and discouraged. Sometimes I have to force myself to get through my 1 daily lesson.

I used to do the stories on days like that, but now that’s not an option since the new update.

back4morelater
Great Britain

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by back4morelater »

jenneeeeefur wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 5:49 pm

I feel like this all the time. Every time I make a silly mistake I just get exhausted and discouraged. Sometimes I have to force myself to get through my 1 daily lesson.

I used to do the stories on days like that, but now that’s not an option since the new update.

Go easy on yourself, in Duo's own words "its about progress not perfection" though I haven't see that particular one used at the start of lesson recently

I'd almost argue that getting it all right on Duo means that it's too easy for you. Just think all those mistakes are an opportunity for you to learn. And when I hit the continue button or select the wrong word from the word bank even though I know what I meant to pick - well that's just another chance to hear and practice that sentence. And at least you are doing a tree that has stories

SeanBurlington
Great Britain

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by SeanBurlington »

I feel like I've hit a wall - but much earlier in my journey

His suggestions of reading in the target language for fun are all very well - but I don't understand enough to be able to.

(I'm only 3 weeks in - and have never been a linguist)

Chrisinom
Germany

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Chrisinom »

The more you know the less you think to know - I think that hitting a wall is a common experience to language learners. The fact is that once you arrive at a certain level, you feel that you stop making progress. But don't worry, there will come a point when you say "Yes, that's it!" Anyway, the best way to learn a language is living in the country and talking to the people.

back4morelater
Great Britain

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by back4morelater »

SeanBurlington wrote: Wed Sep 28, 2022 10:38 am

His suggestions of reading in the target language for fun are all very well - but I don't understand enough to be able to.

Not even a children's book (may be one you've read in your native language) or a newspaper article where you possibly know the sort of things it's likely to be saying.?

Cifi

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Cifi »

When it was exhausting for me to read even short texts in my target language, I read cartoons, e.g. Calvin & Hobbes in Spanish. But I can seem to find many in Greek (which I understood you are learning?) For Greek even finding suitable material is challenging as a beginner with limited vocabulary.

I also like to look at videos (because I enjoy learning with audio), the simpler, the better to have a smooth start. I found a channel with children's stories in Greek that have English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreekFairyTales

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

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John Little
Brazil

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by John Little »

We've watched YouTube videos of children's nursery rhymes and songs and even adult stuff with subtitles in our target language.

We actually watched and enjoyed a whole 2 series of Coisas Mais Lindas And were surprised how much we started to understand

John661162

Cifi

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Cifi »

As this discussion is in the French forum, I add a resource for French here, too: https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoiresetContes

The one I watched and liked had subtitles in French, and you can have them automatically translated to several other languages as well.

Native: :de: Intermediate: :uk: Lower intermediate: :es: Beginner: :fr: Absolute beginner: 🇬🇷
(If there are errors in what I'm writing in either language, please do correct me - I'll never take it as offense or something like that.)

OrangeSaluki
France

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by OrangeSaluki »

I hit a wall for what seemed like forever. Also, it seems that often the harder I tried, the less progress I made. Sometimes, I had to take a step backward to go forward. For example, I would stop listening to French newscasts and go back to watching Peppa the Pig en Francais. The easier content helped rebuild my confidence, and I could progress again.

However, recently, I was in a Belgian restaurant while the staff prepared for a private event. The waitstaff spoke French to each other, and I realized I easily understood what they were saying. As I worked on my Duolingo, a waiter asked in English if I was learning French. I answered him in French and conversed pleasantly in my target language. Later that week, I was twice among French speakers and confidently carried on conversations in their native language.

Before this breakthrough, I would get so frustrated that I would often tell myself that I would never learn this language. However, I listened to French media and talked to myself in French; I read French in addition to keeping my Duolingo streak alive. It was hard work, but gradually it began to come to me (I would say it made sense, but this is French we are talking about!).

Most of my improvement came as a stairstep function, which stepped up after a period of less intense study. So keep going, and don’t be afraid to take a step or two back. If you keep working, it will come and be satisfying and rewarding.

Allons-y!

Last edited by OrangeSaluki on Thu Dec 15, 2022 12:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Corinnebelle

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by Corinnebelle »

[mention]OrangeSaluki[/mention] An inspiring story! Thank you for sharing! It shows I can make it too!

🇺🇸 L1 🇮🇱 Advanced beginner Duolingo levels

Languages without borders, languages bridging gaps, the Red Cross are my heroes.

OrangeSaluki
France

Re: Hitting a wall

Post by OrangeSaluki »

Corinnebelle wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 12:10 am

@OrangeSaluki An inspiring story! Thank you for sharing! It shows I can make it too!

Je vous en prie

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