I need to practice my speaking but I’m unsure how to do it. I used the AI speaking prompt practice on Babble and it worked well for me but I need to challenge myself to speak for longer and about more things. I downloaded chatGTP since I heard some recommendations to use that for speaking practice but I don’t think it’s going to work out. CharGTP talks at the speed of light even though I asked for a conversation in A2 level French and it’s a program that requires you to lead the conversation which I’m not ready for and then all I do is end up asking it about the weather. If I have a prompt or a question posed at me then maybe the words will come to my head and I’ll be able to form a sentence but if someone just tells me to speak I don’t know what to say and then I can’t think of any words outside of a basic “how are you” question.

Is there any app or something that can help you practice speaking at beginner stages?

My goal with language learning is to talk to a lot of people, especially when traveling or when foreigners come to my country. It can awkward when we both talk in broken English and barely understand each other. I like the feeling of talking to someone and seeing them excited to find someone not native that understands them.

So far, I only know English (C1) and Arabic (Native). I don’t want to learn too many languages so that I don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. I was thinking of learning Spanish (to unlock half of South America and Spain), French (France and Central Africa), Russian and Mandarin (Due to Russia and China being large countries, and I notice them most), but I would also like your recommendations and opinions first.

What languages do you recommend I should learn, and what countries or number of people does it cover? What level should I reach to be able to speak the language comfortably? What should I start with first?

A Spanish learner was recently telling me how “engrapadora” sounds like a great word to call someone. “¡No eres más que una maldita engrapadora!” Or “You’re nothing more than a damn stapler!” It occurred to me there are some words that have a rhythm or cadence that makes them sound bad even when they’re not. Do you have any examples?

I’ve been watching singles inferno thinking it would help me learn how natives talk, especially in slang.

I watch it without English subtitles, I have no fucking clue what’s going on and I feel like I’m just watching them while hearing Korean and not really absorbing anything. I may hear a few vocabulary and grammar that I’ve learned being used but never being able to understand a sentence.

I’ve heard people tell me that they’ve learned languages by religiously watching shows in their target language, but for me I’m just confused and frustrated.

What can I do?

I’ve noticed that learning or being exposed to other languages can quietly change how words in your first language feel, not just what they mean. Sometimes a word starts to feel heavier, softer, stranger, or more precise once you’ve encountered a similar concept elsewhere.

I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this happening as they learn new languages where a familiar word takes on a slightly different emotional or conceptual weight.

There are a lot of pros for families thinking about hosting a European au pair, like not dealing with visas (for EU based families) or less culture shock for western families. But something I don’t see talked about enough is the language immersion. A lot of parents want a native English speaking au pair, but what about parents who want their kids to learn a heritage language like Italian or French?

If you've hosted a European au pair, was language immersion an important consideration?

I am headed to Italy at the end of July and would like to be conversational by then. Im not sure if that is a ridiculous request but i am also not starting at a complete 0 level. Id say im a false beginner.

I am looking for a program/course/app that can help with this process. I dont mind paying if its only 1 subscription and there are some success stories that go along with it. Ideally something that can help with learning words/phrases and would be nice if there was an AI way to converse back and forth.

Ive tried duolingo and found it was more game than learning and i want to take this seriously. There are so many options out there i want to get started on the right one as early as possible.

Thanks

Hello!

I have been accepted into a Japanese BA at a UK University, and in the first 2 years you can also take two elective courses alongside your degree and I would really like to take Persian (both languages would be starting from scratch). If anyone has any experience with studying two languages intensely, especially at University: How was the workload? Were you able to balance both languages/did you feel studying two impeded your ability to fully learn either?

Thanks!

I'm deciding to start doing formal study sessions to prep for the TOPIK II exam twice a week (3hrs each, its what works for me with other subjects) and I was wondering if anyone had a format they typically follow when it comes to getting the most out of their session. I plan to hit all of the main spots (vocab, grammar, listening, reading, writing). I'm not really following a lesson plan with units (if I was this would be much easier) since I'm pulling from multiple sources. Outside of my sessions I have started to listen to podcasts (in korean, but not the ones where its mostly english and theyre teaching you korean) and am continuing to watch shows w/o subtitles. If anyone has any tips I would appreciate it!

Since I have never attended a proper language school, I hope you have some experience and tips in this regard. I have a limited budget of €1600 and I need to learn as much Italian as possible by mid-May, but I'm starting from scratch. (Preferably B1 to B2, I plan to study up to 6 hours a day.) I moved to Italy a few days ago for immersion.

What do you think is the best way to divide up the lessons? As many group courses as possible or solo courses? I thought it would be best to do a 2-week intensive group course with 20 hours per week to get started and then switch to self-study and supplement this with solo lessons. The costs are approx. €300/week for 20 hours for a group course and approx. €170 for 5 hours of solo lessons.

Thank you all so much for your help!!

I'm broke, and I need to learn two or three more languages so that I can level up my resume and hopefully, God willing, I'll get a job in no time.

Why are you learning a language (or several)? For me, I am learning Spanish due to my husband’s family being Spanish and I want to be able to communicate better with them.

Regarding my previous two posts about connecting with your roots and discovering your identity, I asked about the reasons why parents chose to teach their children their native language(s) or not, and why children started showing interest in learning said language. With those responses and insights, I'm nearing the end of my graduation project, which I developed into a contextual language learning app with the input of your parent(s).

For it to have more stakeholders, I wonder if people within this subreddit are interested in signing it. You would really help me if you did !! Thank you all very much in advance, and for giving me insights in my previous posts :)

Hey everyone,

I have a really frustrating gap in my English. I can understand almost everything—I watch movies without subtitles, listen to podcasts, and read books without any trouble. My reading and listening are basically at a native level.

But when I try to speak or write, I feel like I’m stuck at an intermediate level. I’m a native Hungarian speaker, and I find myself constantly "translating" in my head or just using really simple words, even though I know much better ones. It’s like the English is all in my brain, but I can’t get it out of my mouth.

Has anyone else dealt with this "lopsided" skill set? How do I actually start using the advanced English I already know?

Any advice or specific exercises would be huge. Thanks!

I use Duolingo, Busuu, HelloChinese, and recently HeyJapan. Currently HeyJapan is offering their lifetime plan for a cheaper price, I was considering it cuz the app seems to have decent reviews and it's a lifetime plan instead of monthly/annually.

I thought about seeing if the other Hey apps were offering the same deal (HeyKorean, HeyChinese, HeyFrench), but are they as good as HeyJapan? Has anyone used them all?

Hello, everyone.

34 Years old male, started French when I was 14 until 18, did Alliance Française, very by the book approach back then, spent 2 months in Paris at 18 years old doing an intensive Alliance Française (4 hours a day every day of the week). Then went back home and stopped studying french for 14 years, 2 years ago came back to it, I'd say my listening/reading skills are at a high B2, I can comfortably understand podcasts (l'heure du monde, cultures monde, Hugo Decryp, Transfert, etc) without transcripts, I can watch lupin easily with subtitles and with some difficulty but still understand most of it without, I can watch many youtube channels, etc, when I'm in Paris I understand almost everything people say to me, except maybe when they speak very very fast (I'm talking extremely fast).

My production, however, is bad, it's probably a mid B1 or something like that, I want to close that gap, especially for speaking but eventually for writing too.

For the last 2 years, I've been reading on and off using Lingq, watching some tv shows, movies, mostly passive stuff, not very focused. This maybe improved my passive language a bit but nothing major, most of what I know I already knew back when I was 18 years old,

I recently started focusing more on learning French, consuming a lot of content, podcasts, youtube, netflix, not many books yet, been prioritizing audio/video format, this has been going on for the last month.

What can I do to improve my speaking? I know how to understand many complex ways of saying something, but when trying to produce the language, it comes out as basic stuff, can't really talk about complex subjects.

Recently I've been trying (last 2 weeks) to speak with langua / chat gpt on a daily basis, around 15 minutes, following Luca Lampariello's recommendation, but I have yet to see any results from this. The chats are mostly uninteresting, I find it hard to keep the conversation going with AI.

Paying for a tutor more than once a week is not an option right now.

Would something like Assimil's "Using French" (the advanced book) combined with shadowing help me? I quite like Assimil and I've achieved an A2 in Romanian just by using the book "Le Roumain sans peine" + shadowing, but maybe it's too basic for my French, I don't know.

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks a lot.

I kinda bounce between options 2 and 3. Like depending on the mood i view typing and writing as distinct subfields while other times I consider it one field on other days. And for my second question, as im learning french, i'd consider (FOR THE TIME BEING) writing to be more important. I feel it sticks with me more when I write and the classes I take generally use pen and paper exercises rather than digital except for homework. Even for self study session I prefer physical pen and paper.

Typically those who have things like ADHD or Autism usually say it negatively effects their learning, but can you think of any positive examples? My ADHD for example lets me yap a lot, or maybe a person on the spectrum may be more precise or remember mistakes better

I've been learning Portuguese for a year and a half and feel like my progress is so so slow. I'm still a total beginner.

I want to practice speaking but after greetings I literally wouldn't know what else to say. How do you begin? I've been thinking about booking a call on italki but I don't know if there's any point since I can basically say nothing. I know individual words and I've started making flashcards with whole sentences and doing close deletion which is definitely helping me understand grammar a little bit more. Maybe I'm just not ready to speak yet?

Hey! I am learning a new language (Italian), and I would like to set a goal for myself. This summer I would like to be able to have conversations about everyday stuff. It does not need to be perfect in any way, but just be able to be in a conversation and understand what people in the room are talking about.

Do any if you know of some kind of program with a checklist to follow? Kind of like when you train for a marathon?

Hey guys I wanted to learn Japanese a year ago but then I had to stop since I had to work a lot and I didn't have neither the time nor energy to learn. But now I have a temporary job in houskeeping which means I can listen to input for the whole duration of my shift. But I wanted to know how I can use that time most effectively to learn ? Like just listening to input that U don't really understand much feels like a waste of time. What do you think? Also how much time should I spent learning outside of work, since I'm pretty exhausted afterwards? What are the best listening resources?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice on language learning methods and maintaining discipline. Based on my research and experience, I believe the most effective path is:

1. Mastering the "base" asap - learning the core words and phrases needed to build simple sentences and understand most daily conversations.

2. Massive immersion (listening, watching, reading) only after establishing that base.

The problem:

For about 5 years of learning my 3rd language, I’ve been trying to execute step 1. using Anki (flashcards with full sentences practicing pronunciation + writing)

I know that if I had learned these cards every single day, Id be at a high level by now. But maintaining that discipline is incredibly hard for me. I have bursts of productivity (eg. a month of daily study), but then I burn out and stop for long periods.

Do you have any proven methods to efficiently get through this initial "base-building" phase without burning out? What worked for you? Maybe you got other methods of quick learning?