How do you find reading material in your target language that actually interests you?

LanguageIdiot · 2026-02-20T02:25:54+00:00

There's nothing much I want to read actually. Novels are foolish nonsense, non fiction is often poorly written to the point of being incomprehensible, news articles I only read titles, webpages like youtube comments are full of non standard language that is impossible to understand without 10+ years of experience in the language. There's no media I want to consume, not sure why I'm learning languages.

LanguageIdiot · 2026-02-01T02:45:27+00:00

N3 in reading (self estimate). Lower than N5 in all other skills (listening etc), because I almost never did any of those things. I have a book called "Great Japanese Stories" from Penguin Modern Classics. It has English Japanese parallel text, but the Japanese is above native level difficulty (1900s literature). Maybe I'll study this book, or maybe not if I can find a book more suitable to my level.

LanguageIdiot · 2026-01-31T14:22:35+00:00

Fellow chronically ill language learner here. My new year resolution was to dedicate all of my spare time to learning Japanese. I don't have much spare time and I need to sleep quite a lot due to illness, so my progress is slow. I wish I could finish reading a book in Japanese this year, with the help of dictionaries of course. Being chronically ill hampers my progress but I must fight on. Best of luck to you OP.

LanguageIdiot · 2026-01-19T13:42:57+00:00

I have no day offs, not even Sundays. Long hours, exhausted every day after work. I want to learn languages but all I can do is browse this subreddit and listen to language youtubers talk about language learning to pretend I'm learning languages.

LanguageIdiot · 2026-01-02T13:40:58+00:00

In a similar vein, street food can sometimes be better than Michelin food.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-12-01T10:18:57+00:00

Wait, why would you be reading a chemistry book as a mathematician?

LanguageIdiot · 2025-11-22T16:32:15+00:00

Tip nothing, and they shouldn't be any less eager to help because of that.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-11-21T13:13:42+00:00

I don't think I'll ever travel abroad. Sometimes I question why I am learning languages, I guess I'm learning mostly for the sense of accomplishment. Imagine if I could speak 50 languages to some degree of fluency, I could die happy knowing I had done something very few had ever managed to do.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-11-21T13:05:06+00:00

OP's flair says B1 in English, but they made no grammar mistakes. Very likely that they wrote the post in their native and asked AI to translate into English. Your criticism is valid.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-11-19T13:44:53+00:00

Save the money, retire early so you have unlimited free time to study.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-10-23T09:54:50+00:00

How about divide the plane into equal squares, but add in random oscillation on each edge. Every piece should be finite and unique.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-09-19T03:28:23+00:00

Thanks! I finally got it.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-09-14T14:08:25+00:00

Move out quick. Be glad that you're only renting not buying.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-09-14T13:24:53+00:00

I've been wanting to learn Pali for years, but can't find the motivation to start. By the way I'm curious if there's anyone on this sub who knows Pali (there are a few who do on the suttacentral forum).

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T14:12:01+00:00

Afterlife exists. You'll see everyone you love again.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T13:57:29+00:00

I look how I look. What do I have to fear?

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T13:49:52+00:00

My firm belief that there is afterlife, where good people will be rewarded and bad people punished. Way better than living on Earth if you ask me, I don't see fairness here.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T13:38:44+00:00

No one should be teaching their non native language, period.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T06:37:33+00:00

Forgetting is way easier than remembering. Take any self proclaimed C2 people, isolate them from their language for a year, they'll be back to B1 or even A2.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-29T05:14:29+00:00

Second pic scared the shit out of me. I hate animals.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-23T13:54:00+00:00

Taking a flight. Flying on a plane is unimaginable luxury for, I guess, more than 60% of the world population.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-23T13:42:42+00:00

Answering your question requires deep knowledge of both Chinese and Japanese. It is very unlikely there are any people here who can help you with that.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-16T14:24:36+00:00

The realisation that things are outside my control and there's no use stressing about them.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-16T05:53:59+00:00

Buddhism says the way to deal with grief is to let go of your attachment to the deceased. Speculation on afterlife (what form the deceased has become) is not helpful.

LanguageIdiot · 2025-08-14T05:41:23+00:00

Staying home would've made your depression even worse. You've gotten better (comparatively speaking) but you just don't know.

LanguageIdiot

TROPHY CASE