What (lesson or section) blocks you the most while learning a new language?

Posts0Likes0Joined3/9/2018LocationSkopje / MK
Native
Macedonian
Other Arabic - Gulf, English, French, Spanish, Serbian

There are things that we enjoy absorbing and taking in in our lives, and there are things we are resistant to taking in and understanding. However, if you commit to learning a new language, you will be faced with lessons that oppose your desires, your initial intentions. You will be faced with things you refuse to learn, or something inside you is opposing to learning them. There are two ways to approach those moments and obstacles, and hopefully, continue. You can either make yourself learn the unwanted, and in a loving way that would look like finding a good reason to absorb the “unwanted” of the lesson, or you can take a non-conventional, but unique to yourself way, to learning the language you want to learn. Because eventually, when you are excited for 80% of the material that you take in, the other 20% will look like nothing, we don’t feel them. You won’t even notice that you have conquered the grammar that year or that you have easier time listening to natives speaking in the language, after you have enjoyed reading in it most of the time, for example, etc. So, what is that you “hate”, or dislike while learning a language, and how do you overcome it, or planning to? 


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#1
Posts0Likes0Joined3/9/2018Location

Ideally what I would do is to start speaking the language in bits and pieces to the people whom I know. Then gain mastery over those by repetition. Maybe talk to a pretty girl and try to impress her with the broken bits of the language I know. Get a discount at the local farmer with the broken bits of the language. Most people appreciate the effort and will reward you. This gratification will spur me to learn even more.

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#2
Posts0Likes0Joined7/8/2018LocationES
Native
English
Learning Spanish

Fear of speaking is the most difficult obstacle to overcome for me.


I find it very difficult to have conversations with strangers even in my native language.


To overcome this I pay for 1 hour of lessons one-on-one every week at a level which is not too difficult and we go through an actual course....no conversational Spanish, we just work through a course book.


I learn a few new things but not many. But I get to practice my speaking, I do not have to think about what to say (I just answer course questions, describe pictures etc) and it keeps my fear of speaking from becoming a huge problem for me. It helps.


However I still have not found a way to overcome my fear of speaking with strangers completely in any language.



Learning Spanish very slowly :)

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#3
Posts0Likes0Joined3/9/2018LocationSkopje / MK
Native
Macedonian
Other Arabic - Gulf, English, French, Spanish, Serbian

That's because we usually fear what people will think of us. And sometimes people judge the person, based on the performance, rather than the level of knowledge in this case, or the act itself. So, it's normal to be afraid of communicating in a foreign language, because you will probably never be as fluent as they are, or as dedicated to it like some people are, or other reasons for not being proficient. And it's normal to be afraid of what people think of us in those cases, because we want to look good, and dedicated, and kind and/or nice. However, question is what was/is your initial purpose when starting to learn this language? What did you want to learn? What is your goal? Do you want to learn it for fun, do you want to learn it to broaden your vision, are you learning it to look good in front of people and/or gain recognition, are you studying it because you love languages or because you are embarrassed if you don't know the language? So' it's never wrong or embarrassing to not be at ease when talking in a foreign language, especially at the beginning, and the thinking processes are even harder (that's why it's easier for us when we are given course questions to answer, or describing an image exercises, which are also very good by the way and also ask for contemplation!) 

Essentially, it's totally understandable and one way to overcome the obstacle is to not care what people think of you at those moments, but understand that you enjoy practicing the language, and even doing mistakes! :) wishing you good luck 


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#4
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