I'd like to learn another language and not tell my family, so that one day I can stand up at dinner and start ranting in another language right out of the blue

2 days ago by FreshParsnip to c/crazyideas

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schwim 32 points 2 days ago

I've used Duolingo for about seven years to learn German and wouldn't really recommend it for achieving "rantability", I'm just at the point where I'm able to understand 80% or so of Rammstein lyrics. That's a fairly abysmal ROI for 7 years of study.

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TribblesBestFriend 17 points 2 days ago

Yeah Duolingo is shit. I’m not an English speaker regularly, I was in Britain and the first time people spoke to me I freezed 🤣.

The best thing to do is to get a good base and go for it, hoping your interlocutor will not laugh at you (which in my experience: they don’t. They correct you and serve you a pint)

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grue 12 points a day ago

"Froze" 🍺

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TribblesBestFriend 5 points a day ago

Thanks, mate

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socsa 2 points 20 hours ago

Speakn't

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hraegsvelmir 2 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, it's rough for my fellow anxious people who tend to dwell on their mistakes too much, but it's really something you just have to toss yourself into at some point. I'm sure there will be someone who had the absolute opposite experience to me, but there's never really going to be a point where you've studied enough that you can suddenly understand everything people say in your target language, and find you can confidently express yourself as well as you do in your native language. You get to a point where you're good enough to follow along most of the time and it starts to get weird being the only person who still needs to have your responses translated, and you just jump in and go for it. You will make mistakes, probably even some incredibly stupid ones. But the thing is, unless you're making your first attempt at immersion double as your audition for an episode of Locked up Abroad, your mistakes are almost never going to have any real consequences. Like, don't try and make your first foray into immersion buying a property without consulting with a lawyer who can explain what you're agreeing to, but for talking with staff at restaurants and stuff, or shooting the shit with your coworkers, 99% of the time, you will remember your mistakes long after everyone else has totally forgotten them, if they hadn't immediately done so.

Having had to do it a couple times now, I have seen both how low the stakes really are, as well as how much it will hold back your progress if you can't conquer that initial fear of making a fool of yourself.

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