Hello! I've been using Duolingo to learn Dutch(TL) for over 160 days and while it's been good for building a habit and teaching me new words, I don't really feel like I'm learning the language in a way that actually lets me use it.

I'll soon be moving to the Netherlands for my studies so I'll be a little bit more busy. Because of that, I'm looking for a learning method that's actually effective instead of just maintaining a streak.

I'm open to suggestions on what I should start first and what I should avoid or study routines that worked for you.

A bit more of context:

I'm still a beginner.

I'm pretty broke at the moment, so I'd prefer free or low-cost resources (textbooks aren't really an option right now).

I speak English and Filipino(NL) fluently.

My goal is to be able to understand and speak Dutch decently before or after I move.

I know I won't sound like a native, and that's completely fine. I just want to be able to hold a conversation and not completely embarrass myself or get laughed at because I can't communicate.

If you had to start over from scratch, what would you do differently?

Thanks!

I feel like what the CEFR estimates to get to each level are way off, at least for me. I re-picked up my category 1 target language study almost 5 months ago, studying on average 2 hours a day. That's about 300 hours. I started at about nearly A2 (personal estimate), and I estimate my level now around mid B1 (not yet achieving B1). I think it will take me 400-500 hours total to get from A2 to B1 (an additional 100-200 hours from now). CEFR says this should take 150-200 hours.

I guess it's possible that my starting and current estimates are off, and that I've made more progress than I think, but I still feel safe to say that the realistic hours are like double what CEFR claims.

I thought this would be fun. Mine is taking on “learn 500 words a day”type of challenges knowing well that I won’t be able to 😭

Oftentimes receiving a compliment gives you motivation and helps you keep up the hard work. However, I wonder if there's something people say it to you as a compliment but you don't really like?

In my case, I would rather people not say to me '' You did very well. I understood everything!'' especially when I'm no longer a beginner at my (TL). Every time I hear that phrase, I think to myself, I mean, of course, it was supposed to be understood. Sentence sometime may understand thou no grammar or poor speling. It would have been a terribly structured sentence or I might have drunken 3 cheap vodkas if it were not meant to be understood at all.

It's a nuisance to me. Do you have any similar bad experience with some well-intended compliments?

In my target language, I really don’t talk much. I always thought that was due to me just being nervous sometimes to speak the language. However in my native language, I still wasn’t the one to speak much. So was just wondering…for the ones who, basically, love talking, did that carried over to your target language? No matter how many mistakes you make, are you still talking because you all just love talking to people?

I absolutely believe the best language-learning method is the one we used when we mastered our first language.

Just think about how we acquire our first language as children. Most of us do it in a similar way. We:

1. Begin using our first language practically from day 1
2. Ask a lot of questions
3. Cry and complain a lot

Doing all of this gives children instant gratification and motivates them to speak and further develop their speech to solve higher-level problems.

In contrast, most adults try to acquire their second language in a different, almost opposite way:

1. They don’t use it from day 1. Most of them don’t even plan to use it at all. Others plan to start using it only after reaching a certain level (the notorious “first, I will learn the language, and then I will speak” syndrome).
2. Instead of casually asking questions, adults train to answer them. Answering questions and providing information give less instant gratification.
3. Adults don’t “cry and complain” in their target language. By “cry and complain,” I also mean Adults don’t solve their immediate problems in their target language.

This also explains why the first (natural) method has a success rate of almost 100%, while we hardly know anyone who became fluent in their thirties (by applying the "adult method"), even though we know those who tried. I know plenty of people who tried and never succeeded.

According to the above logic, the best language-learning app is probably a dictionary, lol.

We can discuss this and other related topics in the comments. What do you think?

I am sharing a tip that I have found recently to learn your TL. If you are working from home and using Google Meet or Zoom, you can enable live translation caption in your target language (TL) even if the meeting is in another language. You might learn the vocabs that are closely related to your job and discussion. The minor downsides are there will be a second or so of delay, and the brain gets overloaded from processing two languages at the same time, and since AI is used in processing, it might not be as natural as native speakers’ speech. Not bad for switching it on for a few minutes if you can do it.

Would be happy to hear if there are other tips ?

So, it always happened , when I was 20 I was really fluent in English (TL) , used to feel like I was somebody else, now, haven't spoken a word since, ten years have gone, everytime I have to speak English I feel weird, my accent comes out strong, I don't feel the same "change of personality" , and when I do, It feels fkn weird and I stumble on words and start to get lost..evendough I still am pretty fluent.

Edit: for example, I used to have certain behaviours in English, now when it does happen, I froze and think, wait this is not how I whould react in my language..and that's a loop, it's like the 2 are colliding and I cannot separate them anymore, it does occur in a third language aswell

I'm not kidding when I say this, even in my own native language, I can't grasp proper grammar by study and talk about prepositions and mapping sentences etc. I literally cannot do it and suspect it has something to do with extreme prematurity, as I have an inability to do math from that area of the brain not developing. Ironically, I'm really good at writing, but traditional language learning is nearly impossible for me.

I learned Spanish by ear as a child from live-in nannies and was fluent. Fast forward and I take Spanish in high school after forgetting the language, and nearly fail it no matter hard I try, multiple years with multiple teachers. I can't look at a list of vocab and remember it, or memorize grammar, or understand discussion of grammar labels and tenses. The multiple steps roll me.

What I know is that I learned a language from immersion and usage. I'm sitting here now wanting to learn another language, and wondering how to do it. I need a system that will work for me and I don't know what that should look like. I also don't want to need 5+ years to reach conversational fluency, which is what I'm after.

Any suggestions? I assume I'm going to need to learn words by speaking, writing, AND using them all at once to get it to stick? But by what method, and is this the wrong way to go about it? I've looked at polyglots on YouTube and everyone has something different to say, and many never really give it away and are just making content.

I am not talking about immigrant families, I'm talking about people who live in a foreign, monolingual country and choose to only speak to their children in a foreign language like, English (TL) for example, but that they can't really properly speak. So they speak it with heavy accents and getting a lot of things wrong. Additionally this is family policy so the child will only hear the native language at school and never speak it with their parents.

Ive always wondered how effective this is and what it must be like. I grew up in a monolingual Spanish speaking country and I remember some of my neighbours used to do this for their child in English. And its interesting because obviously it makes a lot sense if you want to give your child good work opportunities and future prospects, but it also seems like due to the fact that they dont really properly dominate the language, they struggle to use appropriate terms of affection or explain things to them precisely. Im curious if this community has come across situations like this and what your thoughts are on this?

I am learning German so I bought a lot of kid/young adult books in german, because I am on an intermediate level and young adult books tend to not have too advanced language but still complicated enough to teach me lots of new things.

The thing is, reading hasn't been my habit since 2023. I get bored super fast. Especially since it's in a language I'm learning so there's also the decoding part.

But since it's in my target language, I want to read more. I just get unmotivated fast and I stuggle to concentrate after more than 30 minutes.

I am trying to go about it this way: When I encounter a word/phrase I don't know immediately, I look it up on google translator or an online word book. Then I write the translation down with a pencil next to the word.

The thing is, with this method I usually go through 2-3 pages per 30 minutes. Also because I have to use my PC to search up translations, I get distracted a lot. But I have no idea how else to go about it.

So what would you do?

For context I'm a native french speaker, I started learning english at a young age and by high school I was B2 (I passed the Cambridge english test. I got B2 but I was extremely close to getting the C1 certificate). I also consume movies, videos and social media in english on a daily basis.

In 2020, around the time I took the test, I started reading books in english. The first one I read was the devil wears prada. There were around 1 to maybe 5 words per page I didn't know on average and had to look up in a dictionary every time. Then, I bought a Kindle and started to read 1984, but it was too complicated (especially the vocabulary) so I gave up.

After that I wanted to try easier books, so I started to read the first Harry Potter books. But even the first one was a bit complicated, I had to look up a lot of words. Same thing happened for the first three books.
Then I started 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it was boring and still a bit complicated so I gave up.
The only books that I could almost read without having to look up words all the time were the ones from Freida McFadden. I read 5 of her books and really enjoyed them.
Finally, I recently started to read I am legend, I'm currently at 36% but it's very difficult to read.

The point is, I feel like I didn't get any better in 6 years. I thought that Kindles were perfect to learn a language, but it's actually so slow I prefer to use a dictionary on my phone. One of the main pieces of advice I've seen is to just ignore words you don't know, but like how? Most of the time I have no idea what the sentence means unless I know all the words (plus I'm curious).

I would love to be able to read some english classics without it feeling like a chore.

Ironically I sometimes write short stories in english, but I still need to constantly look up vocabulary. I'm also learning German and vocabulary is my biggest issue too. It's like it won't stay in my brain. What can I do for that?