Hey Pandas, What’s The Most Difficult Thing About Learning A Foreign Language? (Closed)

If you have difficulty learning to speak a foreign language, I'd be interested to hear what aspect is difficult for you. Pronunciation? Memorizing vocabulary? Struggling with grammar or syntax? Listening (a large part of learning to speak)?

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Remembering it, and sticking with learning.

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4points

Madeleine Flowers

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I am Greek and trying to learn Greek but I live in i mostly English speaking place the hardest part is probably them (my family) expects me to speak Greek as well as I speak English (so in conclusion the bar is so high it stresses me out)

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3points

AilouRos

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Joel Strauss 2 years ago

What a challenging linguistic life you lead! Pressure to learn a language rarely contributes anything positive to the learning experience. Good luck!

2points

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I am learning spanish and they expect you to remember stuff from like middle school 6-8th grade. I'm in high school now. 11th grade. I hate ppl like that.

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3points

Morgan Fairchild

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I am Polish, my husband is Canadian, and I am trying to teach my children Polish. It's one thing to teach them objects, colors, numbers, etc.
It's even easy enough to learn simple sentences like "how are you?" or "when is dinner?".
But the hard part is the ebb and flow of normal, daily conversation. They can pick out certain individual words that they've learned, but they can't respond without sounding like a two year old.

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3points

Unicorn27

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Joel Strauss 2 years ago

I'm curious, how old are your children? What a great mom you are! My husband's family on his mom's side is Polish, and he knows a few (mostly bad) words LOL. It seems to this English speaker that it's a very difficult language.

2points

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Memory. I have to review & Repeat the phrase both in that Language back to English & Then respond in A Different language & Translate. Like, Binjour then the other Person responds to hola. Both meaning Hello in Two Different languages, meaning the same translation.

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3points

Alicia Wickham

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I have a degree in German and I also studied French, Spanish, and Arabic at university. I picked up Italian, Russian and Chinese from living and working in those countries. By far the hardest experience was Arabic, as they were integrating a new 'zoom-like' classroom experience (2003), and by the time the teacher in California had introduced himself to the four classes around the US, the class was over. Daily, in-person learning is the best way to go.

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Final score:

2points

Meg Jones

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Joel Strauss 2 years ago

Yes, daily, and in person, and immersive. I find that a group is the best; more opportunity to listen.

1point

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Freaking rolling R’s!!! Still can’t do it… Perro….Perro… nope. Still comes out sounding like Parrow. My Spanish teacher despised me

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Final score:

2points

Kriptson

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Joel Strauss 2 years ago

Those rolling Rs are not easy for many people. I wonder if it's genetic. Like Spock's"live long and prosper" hand gesture.

2points

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1. Learning things by heart becomes more difficult with age. In elementary school, you soak up things like a sponge, later you have to hammer in each word. 2. Lack of immersion or opportunities to practice. 3. Overcoming your own shyness to use the language with native speakers, even if you make a lot of mistakes or getting through a book, even if it’s frustrating and you don’t understand everything. 4. On a more technical level, if there are sounds or grammatical concepts that don’t exist or are the opposite in your mother tongue.

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Final score:

2points

MarmotArchivist

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I get the languages confused in my head sometimes. I'll mean to say something in English (first language) and it will come out in German (language I'm learning) or vice versa.

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1point

Mothsoup

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Joel Strauss 2 years ago

That happened to me quite often after I'd lived in Japan for awhile. I used to dream in Japanese sometimes!

0points

#10

Pronunciation when no one you know speaks it. You can’t practice with anyone. I have a fun semi-talent where I can read things in some languages that I can’t even speak. I can usually get the basics. I was learning French in 2nd grade and decided to take up 2 more electives. I chose German and Spanish. I kept getting really confused though and ended up with the teachers making me pick just 1. Starting in 5th grade Spanish was required and the only language being taught.

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Final score:

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