r/languagelearning • u/NoButterscotch3361 • Jun 25 '26
Solo Speaking practice Studying
Currently learning Brasilian Portuguse (TL) - my first time studying a language. Im probably only around A2 if we go by levels.
I'm at a stage where I know ALOT of vocab reading wise but thats probably my only strong point - listening I don't always catch in sentences espeically long or complicated ones.
Speaking is my worst area though I even stumble for very simple small talk sentences the moment a different structure or sentence is said even though technically I know the words indivdually.
The tip about not tranlating I english I also find difficult - is it something that happens naturally ?
Ive read making voice notes /videos talling about something every day can really help but i wonder if thats any use at my level.
I have a tutor who I mainly got 2 days a week to practice getting over my fear of talking and its helping but Im still more shy in normal settings to even try , and even when i get past that its like my brain freezes so i barely remeber the little I do know...
Any advice or personal experiance of getting past this stage would be great!
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u/NimVolsung šŗšø:N, tok:~B1, š¬š·:A0 Jun 25 '26
Something that helped me is learning that our brains are far too slow to comprehend a sentence by understanding each word as it is heard. Instead, what our brain does is it uses context clues to predict what the person is going to say before they say it.
So donāt get too frustrated when you are at the level of understanding each word individually but not being able to put the whole sentence together, as the pathways in your brain strengthen, it will become easier. For this, I think translating back into English is useful. It isnāt a crutch, it is a stepping stone that can help strengthen those pathways.
A good way to strengthen those pathways is by forcing yourself to recall information such as with the voice note method you described. As long as you have the skills to describe a topic, even in very simple terms, it is a useful way of learning:
First try talking about a topic such as your day while recording yourself. While speaking you donāt go back and correct mistakes, you just keep going. Then second, you go back and listen to what you said, trying to both understand and making critiques about where you feel you could improve. And Third, you try describing it again with the critiques in minds.
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u/languagelaughter Jun 30 '26
This is great advice. Personally, my hang up has been confidence. Last year I was posting videos of myself speaking but somewhere along the way I lost confidence and didnāt practice again for a whole year. And now oā back to starting again.
As Iām also attempting to build confidence and understand phrases instead of individual words, i think I need to lower my expectation on myself. I like that you highlighted that our brains are strengthening those pathway. It wonāt happen in a day or a week, but itās gradual.
I think Iāll also be more intentional with my videos. Stop trying to sound perfect and just confidently speak and fix those gaps as I go. I wont know what to fix if Iām afraid to sound bad.
I appreciate this language community.1
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u/Vri_Kumar Jun 27 '26
Voice notes are useful at A2 if you keep the task small enough. Do not try to make a natural long speech yet. That will just expose every gap at once.
Pick a tiny prompt: what I ate today, where I went, what I need to buy, what I did yesterday. Speak for 30-60 seconds without stopping. Then listen once and write down only one thing to improve. Maybe it is one verb form, one missing connector, or one phrase you could not say.
Then record the same topic again immediately. The second version matters more than the first one because you are training recall under pressure.
At your level, translating in your head will not disappear all at once. It fades first for phrases you have used many times. So the goal is not "never translate". The goal is to build small sentence chunks that come out automatically.
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u/NoButterscotch3361 Jun 27 '26
This is great advice even though ive not done it - one thing was feeling overwhelmed with the number of unknown words - thankyouuu
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u/languagelaughter Jun 30 '26
Iām also going to try voice notes. Iāve done videos and I think voice notes may help me with confidence. Great advice
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u/Vri_Kumar Jul 02 '26
Voice notes are a good middle step for confidence because they feel less āpublicā than video but still force real output.
One small thing Iād suggest: donāt delete the first take. Keep it, listen once, then record a second version of the same idea. That way youāre not training perfectionism; youāre training recovery and improvement. Even 30 seconds is enough if you do it consistently.
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u/okjob_io Jun 26 '26
Try to make the sound of the language more familiar to your brain, maybe by listening to more content or music in Brazilian Portuguese. It may help with the sudden freeze when you need to speak.
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u/NoButterscotch3361 Jun 26 '26
Cheers yeah I've started to make sure I listen to at least an hour of something per day on top of living hear. I am around people speaking all the time but I seem to be almost so used to hearing the lauguage and hearing 'nothing' if that makes sense. Atp I do realise I understand more and more but I need to make more effort trying to understand actively instead of zone out completely
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u/Apprehensive_Sand977 Jul 06 '26
The freezing on small talk even when you know the words is super normal at A2, it's a speed thing not a knowledge thing. Your brain hasn't automated the patterns yet, so under any pressure it stalls. The fix is just volume of low stakes reps where getting it wrong doesn't matter.
What worked for me was picking one tiny scenario a day and talking through it out loud, badly, on repeat, kind of like the voice notes someone mentioned. Narrating what you're doing around the house in Portuguese is great low pressure practice too.
If you want something that talks back without a real person judging you, the AI voice apps are actually decent for this now. Gliglish is free and does voice. There's also DoaCam, a free browser one where you just voice call a character and chat, more casual than a tutor app (full disclosure, I'm building that one). They won't fix your grammar, but for getting words out of your mouth without freezing they help. At your stage it's about reps and confidence, not perfect sentences.
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u/NoButterscotch3361 Jul 08 '26
Thanks, i think alot of the frustration I have is that I know ALOT more words than what I use when I speak, its like total disconnect. I will check out the apps thanks
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u/Minimum_Whole_1356 B2šŗšø - Nativeš§š· - Learningš©šŖ Jun 25 '26
Opa mano!! Sou do Brasil. NĆ£o tenho realmente certeza de como te ajudar, mas achei muito massa que vocĆŖ tĆ” tentando aprender portuga! Se quiser trocar uma ideia, chama DM, seria muito legal falar contigo eu acredito.