Difficulties in learning foreign languages

[DyslexicMission]

Hello everyone! I would like to address those who are facing difficulties in learning foreign languages.

Since childhood, I've dreamt of mastering several languages. Throughout my life, I've repeatedly attempted to learn a foreign language, but each time, I encountered failure—a seemingly invisible barrier that separated me from those who progressed further, while I remained stagnant after a year or two. Every instance was disheartening and belittling.

At the age of 48, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD, which made me realize why I struggled with language learning. This revelation stirred feelings of resentment and anger within me. However, it also became a powerful motivator for me to once again embark on learning a new language and attempt to fulfill my dream.

In my case, my diagnosis makes learning a foreign language practically impossible for me. Despite this, I have set an ambitious goal for myself: to achieve a basic level of proficiency in a foreign language within a year. Even if I fail to meet this goal within the set timeframe, I have resolved to persist until the end, even if it takes the remainder of my life. This will be my response to the conditions that led to my past failures.

Please share if any of you experience similar difficulties in learning a foreign language and how you cope with or manage them. Any experiences you have are valuable to me.

[STEM_Dad]

To be honest, I haven't really tried since I was in high school, when I leaned French. I had no way of practicing after finishing high school, so I forgot most of what I learned.

I come from a family if polyglots. While we're all native English speakers, my mom speaks Spanish, German, and a little bit of French. My dad speaks German, Spanish and Russian. My older brother speaks French, and can at least read some Vietnamese. My younger brother learned German in high school (but I don't know if he had kept up with it). My ex-wife is fluent in Spanish and knows some ASL. Our oldest two kids both speak some Spanish.

Meanwhile, I often trip over my tongue speaking my native English.

(It has always been on my bucket list to learn more languages. I'm interested in learning French better, as well as Spanish, maybe Italian. There are many languages that I've been interested in, but those are the ones that keep coming to my attention the most. I just never find the time.)

[Misstea]

I'm rarely here but I'll be rooting for you. I retained a bit of Spanish and can recall enough to loosely translate written things. My ear for it is worse than I'd like (I can understand Columbians, Argentinans, and Cubans easiest, strangely). I wanted to learn Japanese and Korean for a minute but the only hedgeway I made was picking up korean vowels only before my brain snapped and put me on the FND spectrum. I still endeavor to learn Korean though. I may not be able to speak it (I can barely speak at all at times), but I will at least be able to read and maybe write it.

[Greenbeeps]

Hi,

I got an F in GCSE French… I might have managed to bump it up to an E at college but I can’t remember…it was 30 years ago!

My other subject I struggled with was Maths…E GCSE, bumped that up to a D.

I’ve recently tried to use dualingo and obviously know more French than I can remember…I just don’t have the time to really try…so I stopped!

But…what I wanted to say was….I’ve been knitting since I was 6….fairly advanced but have never been able to follow a pattern without constantly re-reading the row that I’m doing!

Bring on Elvanse and it was like that invisible barrier disappeared!! The sort of magic that makes me feel quite emotional! So…if you’re on medication or thinking about it…it truly can remove that barrier!

I’ll go back to the languages one day and hope you have good luck with it…I would say Dualingo is good as it’s ‘Fun’🤞🌟

When I retook the maths GCSE they taught the class in a different way and I remember thinking…’oh I get it now!’

Xx

[BigWu]

There are so many ways to learn a language, don't beat yourself up over it (the stress on doing so will make it that much more difficult!)

Have you tried watching television in the language you're trying to learn? Ideally immersion would be great, but short of moving to another country hearing the language constantly will definitely help. I've been married to my wife for twenty years and have picked up only a handful of phrases but I find if I listen to what she is watching I can follow the gist without knowing every single word.

[SierraHomesick]

hello!

I homeschool my kids. I really wanted them to learn Spanish—we’re Americans and I wanted them to know at least one other language. I really enjoyed Spanish classes in high school and I even minored in it in college. I didn’t retain it though. It was just an easy and cheap minor to take.

Anyway, with my kids I think I finally figured out that we will need a tutor, either online or in person.

Eventually I’d like to travel with them to Mexico or Guatemala so we can have an immersive experience I think the best way (though expensive and time consuming) is to travel to the country whose language you want to speak and just live that language for awhile. I think we all need to train our ears more than our eyes when it comes to languages.

If travel isn’t possible, then I would look online for a tutor that can teach you through conversation.

Good luck! If I find one and get started with my kids, I’ll update you on how it’s going.

[Burhanerdem]

Thank you for your sharing. I personally read a book out loud every morning to improve my pronunciation. Something you can try it yourself.

[PeterTr]

For me, grammar is the most difficult part of learning any language. I really put a lot of effort into understanding how this or that part of speech works, how to use verbs and tenses and all that. Promova and material like promova.com/what-part-of-sp... help me a lot. I use them in my free time, when I’m not studying with a tutor, to improve and deepen my knowledge.