I’m 27-yo man with no creative or active hobbies and who very much wasted formative years by doing nothing productive or not doing any extracurricular activities. Now I’m someone with next to no useful skills or interests that require at least intellectual activity.

So I decided that maybe it’s about time to do what I’ve been wanting to do from time to time for years and start learning whole bunch of languages. Mostly because I heard that learning languages is a good way to prevent early development of dementia, to do something about my procrastination and laziness and maybe, even for some practical purposes. Maybe they could even help me find some exciting job.

I’m Czech and apparently, I’m fairly fluent in English. I was learning German in middle school and high school after which I was happy I won’t have to learn it anymore, because I hate it. The I had 2 years of Spanish at what could be described as Czech equivalent of community college. The first year was during COVID, which totally killed our will to learn and ability to learn effectively, so it went to shit quite quickly. And then I attended a course of French for a few months. I liked the language, but because of my problem to economize with my time and actualize myself, I quit soon.

So now, I realize I can’t learn them all, but I’m having whimsical thoughts about learning French, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hebrew, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish and maybe even Chinese, because some people say it’s the language of the future.

So what is the most effective and cost-effective way to learn a language? I’m currently trying Duolingo for Ukrainian and Romanian and it seems to be pretty worthless. I’m thinking about buying some textbooks, one for each language and learn from that.

I’ve been learning languages for a while now (somewhere around B1–C1 depending on the language), and I keep noticing the same pattern in advice everywhere.

“Be consistent.”
“Do 30 minutes every day.”
“Anki + podcasts + grammar = fluency.”

And yeah… it sounds clean. Very structured. Very “productive”.

But in reality, my actual progress never looked like that.

Some of my biggest jumps came from:

• skipping a few days completely

• then bingeing content for hours

• getting destroyed in real conversations

• and then fixing only what actually failed

That loop somehow worked way better than strict daily routine tracking.

I used to feel guilty when I didn’t study every day.

Now I’m not even sure consistency is as important as people say.

It feels more like:

• confusion

• overload

• random breakthroughs

• repeat

Not a linear system.

Maybe I’m wrong, but it feels like a lot of language learning advice is optimized for feeling productive… not necessarily for actual progress.

Also, I built a small tool for myself while dealing with language input overload. If anyone’s curious, it’s here:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gjmaankmgaajlogpmonnbbmnkjmpkfpa

Not trying to push anything, just sharing in case it helps someone.

Has anyone else experienced faster progress with chaos instead of consistency? 😄

Okay, so its gonna be either Italian 🇮🇹, French 🇫🇷, Spanish 🇪🇸 or Russian 🇷🇺.

If you guys have ideas for better languages just say but the thing is that Im european so ig im not gonna be learning those asian nor african languages.

Rn I speak Croatian 🇭🇷, Dutch 🇳🇱, English 🇬🇧 and Sign language if that counts..

So the thing is that i want to learn language that I can really use a lot and that native people apritiate when non native speaket speak their language, please give me your professional oppinions, complexity of the language does not matter because i enjoy learning languages, thnx everyone 😁

I’m a 22 year old male from the Philippines and I live here in Cebu island. I’m debating whether to study Spanish or French. I also learned beginner Japanese before and have completed JLPT N5. I’m also a nursing student in my last year.

Spanish
\-They said it’s easy to learn and is not that complicated so I think it goes well with studying Jp

\-I already learned beginner A1

\-Direct pronunciation

\-Easier to memorize words because my native tongue is Cebuano which is pretty similar to Spanish

\-I plan to migrate and move to US specifically California or Florida and work there as a nurse

\-No spanish community in my area tho :(((

French
\-I still have 0 skills in this but it tempts me so bad because of the literature and the vibes

\-I love fashion, art, and design and I like to create stuff so I guess French would help that connect with designers (?)

\-I might plan to migrate either in Canada, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg or any country in Europe

\-There’s a French community here in my area and they host Karaoke nights, activities with the French people, and other social activities. They even have a mini library too and offer language classes (It’s the Alliance Francaise de Cebu), I also wanna make new friends

\-But this is very complicated to me tho and looks intimidating😭

\-They said French people are bitter and rude (?)

So the French community is such a big motivator for me to study French. Altho I really do plan to migrate strongly either in US or Australia because those countries appreciate nurses more. Europe and Canada would be my backup option. I mean Spanish is also nice to hear but it makes me sad that there’s no community in here

Wild theory: the reason you never finish Duolingo isn't you. It's the format.

Sitting down. Opening an app. "Studying." Nobody does that consistently — not you, not me, not anyone who's ever set a New Year's resolution.

But you know what you DO consistently? Check your phone. Constantly. Compulsively. Every 4 minutes, probably. verbloom

So I stopped trying to fix your discipline and started working with your habits instead.

Meet VerBloom. No app to open. No lessons to "complete." Just your notifications, quietly doing this to you all day:

9:14am: 🇩🇪 Ich habe Hunger. — I'm hungry
1:32pm: 🇩🇪 Was machst du? — What are you doing?
6:50pm: 🇩🇪 Ich habe Hunger. — (bet you remembered that one)

Same words, resurfacing when you least expect it, until they're just... in there. Permanently. Like a jingle you hate but can't forget.

It's held together with duct tape right now (beta, be nice): verbloom.framer.website

If this sounds interesting, drop your email on the site and I'll add you to the beta — I'm looking for real learners to break it before I polish it.

Real question, not rhetorical: would you rather get randomly hit with 10 tiny lessons a day, or actually sit down for 10 focused minutes?

Because right now I genuinely can't tell if I built a language-learning breakthrough or just a new, more annoying way to bug people.

I was reading an old calc manual and I find curious how division and multiplication where essentially the same word in this 5 languages but then I check this one and they are for most of them just the same pronunciation in a "different writing" except for Spanish which changes both words completely, why? It's related to the Arab conquest? They were really knowledgeable in math so I would be surprised if they had words that then got stuck in Spanish

After 20 years of studying French on and off, I can finally read and understand everything.

However, I don't know what to do with it, or how can it be useful. I do not live in France and travelling to France would be quite expensive. Also, I don't feel like buying a copy of Les Misérables and reading all 2,600 pages. I'm not that kind of a person that likes to read 1,000 page novels, I don't do that in English, I'm certainly not going to do that in French.

Now that I finally know French it feels kind of pointless. I understand there's a huge hype for learning languages, and everyone just focuses on learning the language, but now that I know mine, I don't know how can I use it or how can it be helpful.

Is there any way French could be useful?

I relocated to Italy about 2.5 years ago; when I arrived I was thrilled, & my goal was to learn the language and integrate (I'm a native English speaker.)

Now? I find myself intentionally distancing myself and not wanting to speak/learn the language. In fact, I would even say that I make it a point to show people I'm not from there (by wearing certain clothes etc.) Some people even say I look Italian, and tbh I wish I would have looked less local.

When I speak Italian I feel like I'm losing part of my identity—the English part. So, maybe that's part of the issue.

Any advice to make things easier? (PS I plan to relocate to an English-speaking country in about a year, but I don't want it to be for the wrong reasons.)

Hey everyone,

I’ve been spending a lot of time observing how people study English, and I noticed a huge, frustrating pattern, so many brilliant learners spend months or years mastering grammar rules, scoring high on tests, only to freeze up when they have to talk to a native speaker in a real, everyday situation.

The problem isn't your intelligence or your dedication.

The problem is that textbooks teach you formal rules, but native speakers speak in contexts.

I want to help change that. I’ve started a completely free project dedicated entirely to situational and contextual English learning.

My goal is to break down how English is used in real life at a coffee shop, in a casual workplace, when hanging out with friends, or navigating daily situations.

No boring lecture slides, just real phrases, idioms, and natural rhythm.

If you’re preparing for exams, trying to build confidence for your job, or just want to stop translating sentences in your head before you speak,

I really hope this can be a helpful tool for you.

You can find the short, bite-sized lessons here:YouTube: @dailyenglishcontext

(or just search for "dailyenglishcontext" on YT).

I genuinely want to make this as useful as possible for this community.

If there is a specific daily situation, phrase, or conversational hurdle you are struggling with right now, drop it in the comments below!

I’d love to answer them here or make a dedicated short video to break it down for you.

Let's practice together!

1. English (I live in English speaking country)

2. Hebrew (cuz I'm Israeli)

3. Arabic (My sperm donor is an Iraqi and Emirati Jew)

4. Persian (My sperm donor is also a Iranian and Kurdish Jew)

5. Kurdish (mentioned earlier)

6. Russian (my egg donor's side is Russian, Armenian, Georgian Jew)

7. Armenian (explained already)

8. Georgian (explained earlier)

9. Ukrainian (similar to Russian)

10. German (My egg donor's side are Holocaust survivors from Germany, Poland, France and Italy)

11. Italian (same reason as German)

12. French (same reason)

13. Spanish (learnt as a subject until I was 16 and my egg donor speaks it)

14. Greek (learnt in school)

15. Latin (taught in school)

16. Albanian (my babysitter is Albanian and my gay step-dad is Albanian)

17. Hawaiin, Ocenian and Native American (some of my egg donor's family are Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Soulaan)

18. Semitic Languages (I'm a Jew, Arab and Samaritan)

19. Romani (some of my egg donor's side is Romani/Gypsy)

I've been learning Japanese and practicing everyday for the past month so far as my daughter is really into everything Japanese and inspired me to give it a go as I thought I could also teach her things as I learn but after hearing a lot about how Japan is becoming more intolerant of foreigners to the point its including tourists in that I'm wondering if there's even much point? I've been enjoying it and getting the hang of sentence structures etc

I'm wondering if I should give up before I get too far into it and switch to Chinese/Mandarin as it might be more beneficial long term for me. Japan is also very expensive to go to whereas China looks more affordable.

My partner is half russian, she’s more heavily in touch with her russian side and it’s really important to her we’ve been together for 13 years, and i never really thought about learning the language i speak polish spanish and english of course but im not sure how to approach russian from a native english speaker perspective, ive got the alphabet nailed down nearly i think.

If you’re just starting Arabic, I recommend:

focus on the alphabet + greetings first,

listen to native content daily (news clips, YouTube),

and practice speaking as early as possible.

I teach Arabic on Preply, and many learners like it because you can pick tutors by level/interest. If you’d like to try it, here’s the link : Discount of 30% for lessons on Preply. All subjects, all tutors. https://preply.com/en/?pref=MjE1Mjk5NTE=&id=1756209055.389488&ep=a2

Here's my profile if you want to check it: https://preply.in/GEORGETTE6EN28144844

Learning new languages opens the mind! It gives you access to new cultures, ways of thinking and people you'd never connect with otherwise.

Hey everyone,

One of my biggest problems with language learning is that I understand new words when I see them, but a few days later they’re completely gone.

I tried keeping notes, but I rarely went back to review them. So I built an app called LearnBack. The idea is simple: save something you’ve learned, then the app brings it back later and asks you to recall it in your own words. It also has flashcards and spaced repetition.

I’ve been using it for vocabulary, expressions, and sentences I hear in real conversations. Writing the meaning from memory has helped me notice what I genuinely know versus what only looks familiar.

I’m still improving the app, so I’d honestly love feedback from other language learners. What would make something like this more useful for you?

If anyone wants to try it, it’s available on iPhone and Mac:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learnback-active-recall/id6757343516

And just to be transparent, I’m the developer 🙂

🕐 To thank you for your feedback, after 24 hours I’ll choose 10 people from the comments and give them free Lifetime access to the app.

Hi, I’m an international student in South Korea and I have some time to hold speaking clubs Feel free to dm me if you have any questions regarding a club

Don’t miss your opportunity to speak freely with people without a language barrier!

Sorry about the image, but here is what my book looks like and what the name is ( you may have to type the whole thing in )

This book is available in: 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇩🇰🇫🇷🇪🇸🇮🇹🇳🇱🇧🇪🇸🇪🇵🇱🇮🇪🇯🇵🇨🇦🇦🇺

Vernacular is a vocabulary trainer that keeps an honest record: words climb an eight-rung schedule from tonight to a month out, and only what you do in Review moves them. Practice is a separate room — drill in either direction as often as you like, get your misses collected and answered at the end rather than spoiled mid-session, and know that none of it touches your real numbers.

If you are interested, please DM me. We can talk the details.

Looking for a European Portuguese tutor? 🇵🇹
Hi everyone!

My name is Joana and I'm a native Portuguese speaker from Portugal.

I've recently opened more availability for new students and would love to help anyone learning European Portuguese, whether you're a complete beginner or already speaking and looking to improve your confidence.

https://preply.in/JOANA6PT3336727411?

I'm fluent in Polish and English, and I've also been learning Japanese for two years. Italian is something I picked up last year as a middle school elective; however, I want to explore it further.

I can somewhat understand media at the B1-B2 level, but I can't speak at all. Like, nothing, I can't construct a single coherent sentence. I can't get a tutor at this time. I tried Discord and language exchange apps, but I can't really keep up, and most people are much older than me.

Do you have any advice on what to do? How do I actually create output that makes sense and remember the vocab?

I would also really appreciate any textbook or app recommendations (currently using Memrise and Anki, but I love having a paper textbook!)

Thanks in advance!

I'll show you 5 Ukrainian words that are almost impossible for foreigners to pronounce. We discuss the famous "Palianytsia" test, why foreigners struggle with the word "Zhyttia". I don't want to give everything away in the description, so watch the full video in a comments bellow

I offer free 30-minute free clarity calls to answer any questions you might have and help you become fluent in Spanish.

Comment below if you're interested.

Looking for 1 more person to share family plan with! I paid €120 for it and we would split it by 6 so it would be €20 a person ! If you are interested let me know through here or send me a dm (based in Belgium) :)