jpormento's recent posts

JaeHong.S wrote:

As I am a proactive foreign language learner, I found it very interesting when I especially talk to foreigners in their languages. I love how they react when I speak their languages. This is one of the biggest facts I start learning foreign languages.

Oh yeah I think of this as one of the reasons that got me beyond my native language but this is just recently. I mean I only started traveling frequently this year and of course you will be forced to communicate with the people abroad. I don't take much time and effort to learn their language quick but I always at least memorize the basic words and phrases that are commonly used. The simple translation of yes or now would suffice. As well as phrases when you need to ask for directions. It's really a big help and yeah I guess I find it fun to see them amazed at a foreigner who can speak their language even with just few phrases. When we were in Japan, most store owners that I talked to in Japanese were happy to see that I was trying and even helped me pronounce the words and phrases properly. That's something that I really loved about it. 

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

I was a kid and tried singing along American songs (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna...), so my parents thought it would be good for their ears! As a teen, the dream of traveling around the world made me study hard, as well as teaching my schoolmates.
Besides that, learning English was (and still is) a must have for middle/ top social classes in Brazil, it's an asset, it gives you social status, even though people make it up to be trivial. Seriously, in my experience as a teacher it becomes palpable: high class students learn smoothly, lower class ones frequently have difficulties, specially with pronunciation (and tend to give up).

That's amazing that you can sing along with those great singers when you were a kid. You must have very good childhood memories because of that. I'm sure that was also helpful with your language learning because you can sing it already. As for your lower class students, maybe it's just not their time yet to love the learning process. I'm sure they will get there and learn it instead of giving up. 

That's a tough one. Now that I think about it, I also don't know any difference. I think other countries just identified their dialects as a means to have identity even if it's just a small variation of another language. That's why there doesn't seem to be any difference at all because they're just the same. 

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

Would you educate your child in his/her young age to learn a second language?
Anyway I've been rambling a lot now, I hope it's not...

Not at all. I had a good time reading it.

Having people like you who cares with those problems in their country is a good start. If no one ever notice them then nothing's gonna be solved as they will see it as if it's normal. It will get better and I pray the conditions in your country get better soon.

I would really kids to learn a new language. I always love people to learn new things and that includes other languages. There are advantages that we can benefit from this such as improvement in our brain by increasing our attention span and boost our problem solving skills as this requires focus. Next would be the immersion in the outside world where English is a major language everyone is using. I too landed most of the jobs I ever had because of my knowledge in speaking little English. I've been preferred than other candidates because of this reason alone so it does give advantage to us.

So would I educate my child at a young age to speak a foreign language? Yes definitely as I've already seen these benefit/advantages that I've been able to use in this modern world. As Kosta also said, kids in elementary schools would often be instructed in English as a way to immerse them in that language. Kids who already know the language most likely will excel in school because they can understand the teachers without difficulty. I want to teach them but there's just one thing I don't want to happen in the course of their learning. I don't want them to forget how to speak fluently in our native language. I've seen a lot of kids who are speaking very fluently in English but aren't conversant with our native language at all and somehow that saddens me. I don't know why but somehow I don't want to see the kids growing up in whatever country they're from and doesn't speak or understand their own language. But this is just me.

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

There's something you gotta be careful about when it comes to songs, though, a lot of the times lyrics aren't directly translated from the original language, but are just rewritten to sound good, and the meaning is secondary. For example, the Serbian version of "Let it go" is called "Sad je kraj", which isn't even close to the original meaning, since it means "It's the end" as opposed to "Let it go". So the moral is, I guess, enjoy your songs, but don't use them as a dictionary :D

Oh you're right. as I go along searching for other songs in foreign language that I can use for learning, I noticed some songs had that problem. I only found two so far so I didn't pay too much attention. Thanks for the heads up. I think that's something we really need to watch out for if we are going to use this method. This is fun and you may not notice that the translations are not correct anymore. 

As for them being a gold mine, yes these Disney cartoons really is. I just love how I can manage to learn a new word or two and understand them. And of course I already know most of the Disney cartoon songs out there so it's just like reviewing what's being said by the characters.

leosmith wrote:

jpormento wrote:

You can't rely on singing them to learn and understand the correct way to pronounce the words

This is a very good point and one that often gets ignored. Pronouncing words the way you hear them in specific songs is not a good idea, yet many beginners like to heavily rely on songs because they are "fun". Songs can be a good way to get comprehensible input, but caution should be taken. I advise people to wait until they are intermediate, and have a firm grasp on pronunciation, before they dig into songs deeply.

Yes, at least be on intermediate level. Or if they really want to start with songs right away, just pick the shows that you're very familiar with the lines because this will make you very alert if you see anything wrong with the translation. The last two movies I've re-watched are Hercules and Mulan. I can literally narrate the entire movie and write down the lines if I want to. It made me really alert if there's any word mentioned that seemed odd.

I think that's how they're meant to be listened to. They sing the lyrics of a jazz song without really enunciating the words properly to focus on the tone of the music. So pronunciation wise, we really don't understand it. Or at least it's very hard to understand. With regards to music though, they're good. 

I love this post!

#1 I think this is normal for everyone who's speaking to a foreigner. It's a way of getting to know each other I guess but that's just it. 

#2 This is so true I'm usually annoyed with this. When they ask this to me, they're really forceful and it's as if they're really expecting me to say something that would sound funny in their language. I think that's expected, I just don't want how aggressive they are in doing this. At least in my experience.

#3 Thankfully I hadn't received this comment yet about how I speak my language ha ha! 

#4 This is so funny! I don't know why they always think this way lol. I would understand it if they could at least give the neighborhood address or if we worked in the same company before. 

I love the idea of incorporating songs and music in learning foreign languages. I've also made a few posts and replies on learning languages using songs and music. 

Just this week my friends have been teasing me about my studies in Russian language while were in a restaurant. They then played a song translated into Russian and tried to sing it in gibberish. Of course they're just making fun while waiting for our food to be served. Then it dawned on me. It's kinda fun and this could be another addition on how we can use music/songs in learning languages. You can't rely on singing them to learn and understand the correct way to pronounce the words. But you can memorize the words this way as well as the phrases in the language you're learning.

I think other learners would also agree that its useful to memorize the words as you sing them along because that's how most teachers in toddlers would have you do, sing the Alphabet. Problem is the availability of songs that you want to sing, specially if they are in your native language, are not really translated to other languages. So we end up searching for songs of other countries. So for example if you're learning German, you need to search for German songs. This could be hard since you'll first start to memorize the tune before you can actually sing it. 

Going back to my friends, they were actually singing "Love is an open door" from the movie Frozen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9BageU6y9Y). So I quickly searched for similar popular cartoon movie songs in Youtube. I searched for the title of their songs then I added "in Russian" in my search since that's the language I'm learning. It worked. This time I searched Aladdin's A whole new world (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJbMW-CGwGs) which is even better because the subtitles have Russian and English translations. So this made me realize that there's a foreign language translation to almost every cartoon song that I watched. I'm assuming most of us do know these songs because it's either we watch them or we watch them with our kids. 

So if you're someone like me who's used to singing songs in the foreign language they're learning to memorize the words and phrases and you want to use a song that you're already familiar with, try the popular cartoon songs, more often than not they have a translation to a lot of languages. Better if you can search a version in Youtube that has subtitles both in English and the foreign language you are learning.

As for my friends, jokes are on them because I ended up singing the chorus of "Love is an open door" in Russian and I'm confident I got the correct words. Just don't ask my if I got the correct tune. :D

When I was speaking to some of my classmates in college who are also studying other foreign languages, they asked me a similar question and I told them that this is my first foreign language to study and I only do so out of necessity. In their case though, it was due to some of their immersion in other culture that made them want to study it and I can understand this as well. I was only studying English back then but I also love watching anime shows. This made me curios about it and made me want to study Japanese language sometime in the future. 

They do? In English that sounds like making a statement than asking a question although I'm sure they already understood that's the intent of saying they are curious about something. Good to know if ever I study in Korea. :)

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

It made me think about Noam Chomsky and his "universal grammar". When you learn other languages you start recognizing common patterns among them, it means you get more aware about human language itself.
Besides that, there are differences which can only be explained through grammar comparison, so it would make you more aware of your mother tongue when you are forced to look at it in a more analytical way.

Hey I thought of this thoroughly and this perfectly makes sense! I think you're right about. I'm always curious of things so I did my own grammar sentence structure comparing the language/s I'm learning and of course my native language. There were some similarities. I'm sure I just can't figure out how to construct the grammar correctly because I haven't really been good in speaking or understanding the foreign languages. Still I can see it and that's something amazing. Maybe there is really truth about it after all. 

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

I feel like it did improve my native language, in the sense that I'm fairly good at speaking and writing because I've practiced speaking and writing so much for the needs of learning my foreign languages.
I also think that having to think a lot while using a foreign language you're learning makes you think more when using your mother tongue as well,
when I accidentally mash up English words into my Serbian or Danish words into my English and end up sounding like a doofus haha.

Yeah I suppose so. I mean even now when I'm constructing sentences in a new foreign language I'm learning, I can't help but mention the words that I'm about to say in my min through my native language. Interesting. And yes, had conversations with mashed up words as well. Kinda embarrassing but it's really hilarious! :)

leosmith wrote:

I feel it temporarily makes me more aware of grammar in my own language, but that awareness disappears when I stop studying grammar in the language. conversation wise, it definitely drops my level in my native tongue a bit, although that affect too seems temporary. So imo, no it doesn't really help.

Temporary awareness, that's interesting. I know I had this feeling before but I can't exactly tell whether it's for a better cause in improving my native language or the opposite.

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

I think learning a language and its grammar consciously sometimes makes me wonder about how my own language works... I would say that too actually improve in your mother tongue you have to put conscious effort into it.

Yes I think that's it because before I mention a sentence in the foreign language I want to, I first construct it in my native language to see if it actually makes sense at all. Once I get it right, that's when I push through in completing the sentence.

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

I was told by a native speaker that Past Perfect is not used in everyday life conversations. Is it so?
Honestly, from my experience with native speakers, it really depends on the speaker themself. Some use it very often and some don't, but it definitely doesn't sound weird when they do. My British and Australian friends use it all the time, the one American guy I know doesn't use it as much. That's probably the reason why I read the first sentence in a British accent and the second in an American one haha.

Ha ha it's good that you have lots of other friends sharing the same language but different accents and usage. You get to have a different perspective on how they use some of the sentences. As for me, I recall using both versions. Not sure how I come up with different usage though.

Yes thank you. When I received a new chat, there's the sound effect, it didn't go to the top of the chat lists but at least it's highlighted in color green which it easier to be identified as an unread chat.

Hi, tried it. It's working now. I can now reply to the same chat room even when they person is offline. Thanks!

I've been reading some psychology articles lately and one article I saw in the suggested section was about learning languages where it says that we're supposed to also improve our skills in our first language if we're studying a foreign language. I find this very interesting because frankly, I didn't feel any change or improvement in my first language at all. And I tried to think about how is this possible and in what could it improve but I really can't think of any.

I've read about this on the website of Oxford University press:

I liked the article that tackles why learning a foreign language is important. One of the things mentioned though is that doing so would also improve our mother tongue skills. I couldn't help but ponder about this. As we start to focus on the mechanics of the second language, we get a better insight to our mother tongue making us more effective communicators and writers. There's no further explanation about it though.

Better insight of my mother tongue? I didn't seem to have this as I'm learning a new language. I've searched more about this kind if improvement but sadly I wasn't able to find any.

So now I'm curious if could there be any truth behind this even with out own observation. Any chance you had any similar experience like this?

Kosta.Cirkovic wrote:

I also played a lot of video games which were all in English and contained a lot of heavy duty vocabulary. It's genuinely really interesting how kids work, I didn't really speak a lot of English at the age of 9, but I was able to understand what was going on in Warcraft 3, which is a game with a complicated story that definitely doesn't shy away from using big words. Kids are really, really smart, in fact, I really think I was smarter as a kid than now haha.

Hey that's so true! I totally agree with you to surround yourself with the language you are learning. I also played a lot of video games during my childhood. I didn't understand a word that they were saying to the cinematic scenes. But I always play right after school so I guess I was able to apply what I learned in class to understanding what they characters in my game are saying. It's really nice doing it that way. Before I knew it I was able to understand the phrases that the characters are saying and it's the same with the English subtitles that comes along with it. I wouldn't be surprised if kids nowadays would be smarter than us now that they can learn almost anything they want through the internet.

By the way, I replied to a chat but the user I'm replying to is already offline. There was this option to "Send an offline message". I did send an offline message thinking that it will be sent on our chat room but it was sent to the inbox instead. I just want to suggest to have it sent to the same chat that we used because when they see my message to their inbox, they won't see the rest of our message in chat. It's as if I started a new conversation again.

Oh my there are lots to learn from east asian countries. And they're all so hard to learn! If I were to choose, I think I'd go with Niponggo. I also love to watch Anime whenever I have the time so I guess I'm influenced by Niponggo through those shows. You really can't understand what the characters are saying unless you turn the subtitles on and that's where I get to practice listening to their words. Then I'll move on to the manga (comic book) to know more about the side story of some characters which is usually provided for every anime that I've watched. From there I get to practice reading some Japanese characters. Manga are now available online both for Japanese and English translation so I get to switch quickly whenever I'm curious to know about a phrase or two. 

I guess Kosta.Cirkovic is a gamer too based on his post lol. I love playing games and watching esports tournaments but only now do I realize that most of those games like League of Legends and Overwatch have lots of Korean players. If I'm not really fond of watching anime, I think I would've choses Korean as well. But right now, I'll stick to Japanese.

leosmith wrote:

But what I think you are requesting is for unread "my language exchanges", on the LH side of the chat page, to be highlighted and the most recent on top of the list. Is that correct?

Yes, this is what I meant.

Can we have notifications for chat replies? I do notice that there's a sound effect and I'm assuming that's means someone replied to my chat. However, when I check the last of chat inbox, you still need to find which one replied to you. So I was wondering maybe there could be other notifications than the sound effect? Perhaps put the most recent chat at the top and has a mar of "unread"? 

Learning how to speak and write in French in just 17 days. Wow, that sounds brutal. I've read the article and congratulations to him, sounds like he did it anyway. I'm curious about a lot of things about his learning adventure. He said he learned the language in 17 days. I wonder how many languages and/or phrases he learned within those days. Though he did say that he already had experience in learning Spanish to fluency but it was not mentioned if he also learned it in 17 days. Writing out verbs does seem to be a good idea specially if these are the things that you would normally be doing in your day to day life. I don't think I can still write them down though like what he did. Whenever there are some things that I want to be written down for memorization, I find it helpful to do it by typing it in my computer instead. I mean, the only purpose of writing them down once you learn them is for retention, and to test if you did memorize the word, you can either repeat it or write it, and for me well I just type it now for convenience and I still remember it just the same.

Going to lunch with friends who won't slow down for you is what I find hard the most. He must be really gifted to be able to learn it that way. I'd still rather watch shows in the foreign language that I am learning so I can focus more about how the words are being used. I had the same experience when I was traveling to a different country. I did try to learn basic phrases that I can use if I ever need help with directions. As I listen to their conversations, I only got more and more dizzy so I guess that's not for everybody.

Reading children's books sounds nice. Why haven't I thought of that before. I want to learn the basics and of course materials that contains the basic foreign language are found in children's book. Smart. Writing basic essay about ourselves sounds very helpful. Other than learning foreign language, I'm also on to finding other things that can perhaps give a little bit of fun or motivation. Writing something about yourself does seem fun, so I guess I'd really be looking for words that I need to learn in order to do that.

Thanks for the sharing the article to us. I do like the tips given in that article. I just don't know if we can do the same in a matter of 17 days. This is just my opinion though. There are schools teaching foreign language courses for years. It would've been nice if we can learn it all in a matter of 17 days. 

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

I liked the method you described, but I think those people were really lucky to find one another, because it takes a lot of patience, and we're lacking it nowadays.

Yes that's true, somehow I do find a lot of us lack patience nowadays specially me. But once I identified that as my problem, I try to be patient more.

leosmith wrote:

I see there are many who feel you must enjoy the process in order to succeed; there are many polyglots who bet their livelihood on this by pushing products that are little more than pep talks.

I do agree there's a difference between enjoying and being satisfied with a method. I lack motivation and patience at most times when I'm learning my new language and I'm just glad to see other people like who can find other ways to solve this through other means. Makes learning new languages a lot more interesting now. For me at least. 

I would just like to share the similarity in learning new languages that I found and one method I've learned that maybe can help us.

As I try to make progress with my language learning, I try to always find other ways how to learn it more effectively. I also like to converse with other people who are learning the language as I do and see their progress and ask what they're doing. I've continued watching Youtube videos about it and this time the similarities in language learning that I learned was through your own method that you can enjoy and have the patience to learn it. 

Learning a new language is not really easy since we start but not knowing anything about it at all. And although we are motivated to learn the language, the motivation seems to fade away as time goes by without any considerable amount of progress.

Lydia Machova is a polyglot who also said the same thing. That people who learns new languages do so by finding ways to enjoy it. They create their own system or method on how they're gonna do it on their own little ways. Going to language classes is a good thing but instead of just sticking to their courses, you too must have your own method on how your are going to learn it.

One of the most funny and smart way she shared that I really liked is what her friend did using a group chat. Her friend added several friends in Russian. Then chatted one friend with hello, in Russian where he received another reply in Russian that he didn't understand. After he used a translator and found out what it means, he copied the reply, and sent it to another friend in the group chat and did the same thing again having the two people chat with each other with you as the middleman sending each of their replies while researching what the words mean. This way he got genuine conversations with that language and learned how the phrases are being used and so on.

Smart I would say. They all know they're in the group to learn new languages so it was okay anyway.

This is what I plan to try this week for myself while in search of other methods I can use to love learning a new language even more.

Do you guys also find other ways to love learning new languages? What do you think of this method by exchanging conversations in chats?

Lorwina.Enriquez wrote:

You may be struggling to learn English right now or which ever language you are trying to ace...

I think that speaking the language is the best way for us to learn it. I don't think that merely speaking to someone using the language forcefully can help you learn it though. Not putting any pressure in it is the key for me to learn the language. If ever I'm speaking to someone who's a native language speaker which I'm studying. I just try to have casual conversation. Just trying out the basics. It may sounds boring but I think the basic languages and phrases would help us understand and learn it in a better way. A simple hello how are you (Привет как дела) will suffice. Sentences that I use may be too short but I think the reason why it's useful for me is because I am learning the sentence structures little by little which leads to other longer sentences that I may use in other conversations. 

Peter.Jensen wrote:

The act of speeking is a direct result of a massive amount of exposure. But yes if you do find yourself in a situation with native speakers around and you've already been getting a lot of exposure, that might be a good opportunity to speak. But not as a general rule. I speak when I am ready and NOT from the get go. :)

I think this is how it's really being done. The only difference is the duration of time before each of us start practicing the language through speaking. I remember when I started, that I first tried to read the alphabets in that language until I can recognize the most basic sentence. Afterwards, I started speaking these sentences on the same time while what I've learned from the writing is still fresh in my mind. It may be better for some to wait for a year or two, but I still think that we begin to learn the new language that we want first through it's writing before speaking it.

And I say that applies only when there's a new language that we want to speak because if you think of it, none of us had the ability to read and write when we were little, yet we spoke the native languages of our parents just by listening. 

"Almost all of the language that exist now which is 6000 will no longer be spoken, there will only be hundreds left." This is weird. Now that culture's are at the brink of their extinction, government agencies and historians are being more active now in saving those cultures, which also includes their language. It's because now people are aware of the importance of every culture's language and practices which is a part of their identity.

Just like the indigenous tribe in Mexico where the language they spoke is spoken in the form of whistling. I believe they're called Sylbo. Most of their tribesmen are now moving to the cities and now they're losing children in the tribe. What they did was continue teaching this language to all of their tribe members, non members and have it recorded with other researchers and continue practicing them so as to preserve it in case their tribe does becomes extinct. Point is that people seem to love their culture now more than ever and will do anything to preserve them at specially their language. This is just one example. There are many more specially in South East Asia region. That's why I can't seem to understand why only hundreds will be left in the next century. Besides, the language is an identity of a certain group of people. I don't think anyone will surrender even if there's one language dominant than theirs.

He said it's also fun. I think they only fun part is where you're only about to start and all the adrenaline and excitement of you doing a new thing is there. When you're grinding to put a sentence or two correctly in the foreign language you're learning, that's where it ends. Or maybe just me, just my 2 cents anyway LOL. Still, like you, I do find that there's a need for me to learn a new language since foreign language is what's being used at work now and that's beneficial to anyone looking for one.

Really interesting video. Thanks for the share. I always though TED talks are based only on technological talks. Good to know they're also involved in language.

Mel.Palogan wrote:

Do you think it's best to try again? I mean I guess I can go the usual route of reading books and such but idk. Looking forward to your replies :)

I think you should try it again. It's an old but effective method when memorizing a lot of things whether it's in language learning or something else. The Idea of Spaced Repetition was introduced to us by our teachers as early as early as kinder garden and I've used this technique til college. I do understand that it can get boring but it might also be because our mind is just getting tired of trying it and you just need to rest. I had the same experience before that I get bored with it but as I try again the boredom diminishes as I start to pick up the other things that I need to remember in order for me to move to the next batch of newer information that I need to memorize. And I think that's really the goal of this method of memorization. Just like the image captured in the Wikipedia Article that you shared showing five flash cards. You're supposed to memorize one, go back, memorize, two, go back then memorize three and go on. This also becomes exhausting redoing it from the start specially when you're already at your 100th and above flash card. But it works. We just need to rest on it. With or without a flash card to me it always works. And I want you to give it a try because who knows it may not really be boredom but just the simple fact that our mind needs to rest quicker when learning new things until it paces out and gets the hang of it. 

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

My favorite language learning site/community just launched a podcast, and I am hooked!
I always like to talk about positives when I am excited about stuff. The cool thing about listening to a podcast dedicated to language learning is that I get to learn a lot about the country and culture. For example, this week they talked about how Berlin's bicycle-dedicated infrastructure should be renewed. They even talked about how people die in bicycle accidents. As someone that lives in a very chaotic city (Mexico City), the fact that people die in Berlin product of bicycle accidents sounds like a really, really weird statement (and also as something that should be resolved of course).
Back to the podcast discussion: I also wonder about many possible difficulties for people trying to learn from them. The most obvious is that it can be hard to understand what is going on at all if you don't have enough knowledge of the language.
Does anyone here have experience in learning with podcasts? How is it turning out for you? Do you find it more rewarding as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced learner?
Have you learned interesting stuff as well as me?
Or maybe you don't listen to podcasts at all and prefer other media?
Grüsse!

Hello. I never realized that there other podcasts that are related to learning new language. Most of the time I have relied on youtube videos dedicated on learning specific foreign languages that we want to study. This is the first time I learned of someone using podcasts to learn more . I will try to search for other podcasts related to the foreign language I am learning. 

Hi, I just noticed that all posts in the General Chat as well as logs are all dated "1 year ago". I also created a new thread in the general chat. I can see at the home page of the "Community Forum" Tab that I'm the last one to make the post. However I can't find it now. I guess all the old posts are showing at the top and the most recent ones are being sent to the bottom. I don't remember it being this way last time so I thought maybe this could be a bug or something.

I just want to share that I've started listing down all the words that I'm learning, about 3 or 5 per day which I'm gonna be using for the rest of the day. This is working for me so far. Sticking to those words makes me practice with them consistently even for just a day. Hopefully when I'm better I can start with the phrases. What do you think about this? I hope you guys can try this too sometime and let me know if it also helped you.

This is an excellent routing to learn the language you we are studying. I also watched a few Korean shows. I would love to do the same while I'm learning Russian. I just don't seem to see similar shows in Russian that I can watch.

Hi Yuka! This is very helpful and I think I would like to try this out for myself. Thank you for reminding of the use of such cards. I think this is the best way to guide myself before starting a conversation with someone. Thank you!

Hi! I'm still learning the basics of russian language. I'm still a beginner but I plan to practice what I learned by communicating with someone. I'm curious to those of you who practiced speaking to someone before in order to improve on the language you are learning. Have you tried both methods? Which one was helpful for you?

I know what you mean and yes they can really be funny when you're learning the English language. Can you imagine that the phrase "break a leg" actually means "good luck". You may thought of something else if you hear that phrase for the first time. And if one's about to do something in front of a crowd, one might say "knock them down" which sounds hostile but they're just wishing you good luck just the same. :)

Like all other language learners, I'm trying my best to memorize all the basics of the Russian language and try to use them in some phrases when practicing. It just dawned on me that one of the many reasons why I'm having a hard time is because of the formal and informal versions of their common phrases as well as the different versions of it. For example, when you look for the translation of the phrase "I'm sorry" in Russian, you'll find that there are different versions found everywhere online. Some youtuber says it's "izvinitye" while some websites will say that this phrase means "Excuse me". And now I've learned that it can also be said as "izvini" without the ending "tye" and will still have the same meaning. The more I learn, the more I realize how harder my learning is going to be and I won't give up until I learn them all.

I don't think it should depend on how long you're going to study them in a day. Personally I think that you should only spend at least thirty minutes or so per day when learning a new language. The rest is up to the lesson plan that you have for yourself. And the time varies for each material that you are studying. Some can be longer or shorter. The important thing is that you're learning something every time you study.

I'm more comfortable learning new languages on my own so I don't think a teacher is necessary. Helpful but not necessary. Of course there are times when there are complicated sentence structures that may be limited to understand using an app. These are the times we may need a teacher for learning. For me though, there are lots of materials on the internet and websites like this than can help us learning the language that we want and that's all the help I need for now.