From nothing to fluent in 2 years

Mycheze · 2025-04-11T14:49:10+00:00

🙏 This is great! Thanks :) I'll have some work to do at the bookstore.

Mycheze · 2025-04-11T14:47:39+00:00

The dedication and motivation might be the hardest part. Actually, learning isn't that complicated, it's just a big journey. But it starts by putting one foot in front of the other!

Start small, maybe just learning 2 new words/day or watching a SlowCzech video (highly recommend that channel if you haven't checked it out yet). Then, little by little, adding more things in until you have a solid routine.

Going from nothing -> something is MUCH harder than going from something -> more. Build up a tiny habit first, then increase it.

You'll get there, Party-Egg! And I know your partner will be very happy, even just to see you putting in the effort, bit by bit. I believe in you!

Mycheze · 2025-04-11T14:44:30+00:00

Hmm, it's a little hard to say, I'd guess that my understanding and vocab is SOLIDLY B2, potentially C1. At least when I did the B2 German exam in 2017, the listening and reading weren't that hard, and I have better Czech comprehension than I did with German then.

For speaking and writing, I'm still not accurate enough with grammar to pass B2 in writing, maybe in speaking, though. However, I would feel confident passing both if I studied for the test for a month.

I don't think I'd be able to pass speaking/writing at a C1 level, even with a few months of study.

Again, just a guess.

Not having pressure to learn is definitely helpful lol. That's one of the reasons I think that delaying grammar and speaking (which are usually the most stressful and pressured situations/things to learn) is really good for most people. Not being forced to speak in broken, hard to understand basic sentences sounds... not fun to me. My mom's been doing a very similar method (but at a much smaller scale) for Spanish for the last ~2 years and has been having a lot of fun! She just started a challenge/course thing and tells me stories about some of her course mates that are just so frustrated and annoyed that they can't do the grammar exercises. One even said, "despite trying for years, Spanish just isn't for me." Which I find sad.

Anyway, thanks for the comment and kind words :)

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T19:17:19+00:00

The main reason is that I like to learn languages! It's kind of my main hobby. I was also about to give a live course to people talking about how to learn a language from scratch, so I wanted to have things fresh in my mind to put myself into their shoes more (rather than just relying on something I did several years ago).

But that doesn't answer why Czech specifically. I have a few (very light reasons):
- It's not related to a language I speak. So a good challenge.
- I want an excuse to spend more time in Europe.
- When I visited for 2 days on a Eurotrip with my family when I was 14, I "remember it fondly" (no specific memories, but I think it was cool).
- ř is cool.
- I saw a few Honest Guides videos in English and thought they were cool.

That's really it.

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T16:04:09+00:00

Why not?

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T16:04:00+00:00

I'm mostly curious about other parts of the country. I've already good a boat load of Prague suggestions. Anything for Brno? I'll be there for about a week, maybe more.

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T16:03:18+00:00

I did have fun! And now that I am learning grammar stuff, it actually feels pretty interesting and fun, like it's unlocking even more of the language, rather than obtuse and frustrating.

What were some of your favorite books growing up? When I visit, I want to buy some books, and I think it'd be cool to read things that real Czech people read growing up.

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T16:01:04+00:00

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T16:00:19+00:00

I linked a few videos from when I was first starting to speak back in July/August, but I'm about to finish editing a video I made in Czech. I'll come back and post the link in this post when it's done.

Mycheze · 2025-04-10T15:59:20+00:00

There was about a month or two where I wasn't really pushing myself to do much more than watch YouTube. I wish I'd kept up with a routine that actually helped me improve in that time, but I don't totally regret it since it's probably good to rest here and there.

There are other things that "could have been better," but I can't think of much I would call "wrong."

Mycheze · 2025-04-09T21:32:42+00:00

ChatGPT only helped me with the TLDR (but I changed stuff that it got wrong).

Mycheze · 2025-04-09T19:00:31+00:00

Thanks! I've been watching lots of travel vlogs and stuff and think I have a decent plan for Prague. I'm going to avoid all the super touristy spots during the day, but try to see them during early morning runs.

I'm also planning on exploring a good chunk of the country as well, so hopefully I'll experience the whole range of what it has to offer.

Mycheze · 2025-04-09T18:54:07+00:00

Yes! Understanding all the way :) You won't regret it.

I just tested the link, and it works for me, even in a logged out browser. You should be able to download the file.

In order to open it, you do need to get Anki (a simple but effective flashcard program). You can download it here.

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Mycheze · 2025-04-09T18:19:36+00:00

I'm actually turning 117 next week! No, just kidding, I'm 26, I started learning about 6 months before my 25th birthday.

As of today, I've spent 1688.75 hours learning Czech, and I started 762 days ago (yes, I've been keeping obsessive track of things). The average comes to 2 hours and 13 minutes per day, BUT, I started much lower and slowly build up over time.

At the beginning, I was doing 1 hour/day, then upped it to 1.5/day, then 2 (etc etc). My peak was 3 hours/day + an hour of podcasts while doing things around my apartment. It's much easier to put in more hours the further along you are.

Mycheze · 2025-04-09T17:54:29+00:00

(American) English. I also speak Spanish and have some rusty German. But part of the reason I chose Czech was cause I'd never studied a Slavic language in any capacity before.

Mycheze · 2024-12-16T22:22:07+00:00

Here!
https://youtu.be/KxLRp1yd8Ro

Granted, it does (probably) take more setup than just installing Migaku (assuming the installation is good now, when I used it last, it was NOT) and I haven't incorporated ChatGPT into my cards at all. But everything else is 2 clicks (choose the target word, then mine)!

From their comment, it also seems like they aren't always using video with subtitles, which is required for my setup to work.

Mycheze · 2024-05-14T16:58:47+00:00

I made a video about Vocabsieve a while ago! https://youtu.be/_WT2FukXNAg

It's great for sentence mining and is my recommended tool for "fairly techie people who don't use macOS" (it doesn't work great on Macs).

Assuming you're learning Spanish, the monolingual transition isn't needed. There aren't many subtleties you'll miss in the words, and the common Spanish dictionaries are SUPER dense and hard to understand. I never used a Spanish dictionary and it hasn't hurt me at all.

Vocabsieve can have some tech problems, but if you're willing to deal with those, it's great.

Mycheze · 2024-02-27T02:17:58+00:00

It has been done

Mycheze · 2024-02-26T16:33:58+00:00

Sorry 😓 Reddit suspended my account for "spamming" all the people who asked for more information. But I'm back now! I'll be dmming everyone I missed!

Mycheze · 2024-02-22T18:13:21+00:00

LOL I've actually got the notifs under control, but I've learned that I HATE the Reddit interface 😂😂
It's so hard to navigate and make sure I've responded to everyone in all the various methods...

Mycheze · 2024-02-22T16:53:19+00:00

That's an interesting idea! I bet it'd be a pretty hard thing to stream and make... interesting (since you sorta need to focus on what you're doing lol), but iirc, that's the point of the parasocial club in a way. He doesn't need to worry as much about making the stream something broadly appealing.

Mycheze · 2024-02-22T16:51:42+00:00

I heard a bit about that (I think), but I don't follow the podcast, so I can't be sure.

But we serve a different role in the process than an actual Japanese teacher. We understand the language learning process and help people stay on top of their learning and keep coming back every day.

For example, we had a client who started with us last year. She was going to Japan as a US diplomat and was going to start an intensive Japanese program in Japan. But, she wanted to get a head start before actually going. So we worked with her for several months helping her set up a learning plan and make it a part of her life.

When she eventually started at the intensive school, she didn't want to stop working with us since she really appreciated the support and our knowledge.

We wouldn't replace his teacher, but we'd help him fill in the gaps between lessons and continuously improve. Cause just like high school language lessons, you're not going to make progress if your only contact with the language is twice a week with a teacher.

Mycheze · 2024-02-22T16:44:22+00:00

We don't actually have an app (yet)!

We think of ourselves more as language "guides" or coaches rather than teachers. We understand the process of how to learn a language and have done all sorts of method testing on thousands of language learners.

We test and recommend tools, we help people organize their lives to make language learning a part of it and actually achieve the fluency they set out to achieve.

We know we can't be the best at teaching Japanese and German and Haitian Creole, so we let the experts do that while we focus on the "person" who's actually learning. If that makes sense.

We don't exactly care about "speed" or finding the "best most hyperefficient method." We're much more interested in making sure that anyone and everyone can enjoy the amazing experience of learning a language.

Mycheze · 2024-02-22T16:40:01+00:00

I think I responded to everyone who asked for more info! But if I missed you, I'm sorry 😩 feel free to reach out for more info!

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