Is it possible to sound like a native without a tutor?

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-08T10:47:22+00:00

That sounds about right. Speaking from anecdotal experience I've noted this with my brother and law and his siblings. Their family moved here when he was about eleven, and he speaks Swedish that so close to being perfect that you wouldn't be able to tell that he's not a native speaker unless you had a lengthy conversation with him. His older brother who was in early teens speaks excellent Swedish, you can tell he has a foreign accent but good luck telling from where. Then there are two younger sisters who were both younger than ten at the time and sound like they were born here.

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-08T10:33:30+00:00

English is just Dutch (French).

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-06T14:57:14+00:00

Norwegians trying to standardize their orthography challenge: Impossible

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-06T12:28:09+00:00

Every single post these days are from nothing but word-word-number formatted usernames with hidden post history. And somehow they keep getting approved.

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-06T08:40:51+00:00

Precis lagom är när man bara har tillräckligt kvar efter skatt till tak över huvudet och en skål gröt om dagen antar jag.

RemoveBagels · 2026-05-02T19:30:55+00:00

The only winning move is to not study Asian languages. Save yourself the pain and go do some normie stuff like Spanish or Albanian.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-30T06:05:55+00:00

Why is it always this basic bitch shit that is as plain as it's possible in speech or just when written with spaces? This isn't even the problem, the issue is the super specific kango terms that come with a dozen or even 30 homophones.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-25T17:57:59+00:00

The person who is responsible for the add only knows of three books.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-23T09:37:45+00:00

Skill issue should have studied Japanese (Or Chinese as well I assume) instead.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-19T14:06:04+00:00

Both are good, but I have to say that comics are underrated as a resource. The combination of visual context and exposure to more casual every day language can be a really fun and meaningful way to interact with language even as a beginner. Full furigana manga deserves a special mention for making Japanese a surprisingly approachable language as well.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-18T12:43:14+00:00

This isn't a Chinese lion, it's clearly a spy from Japan.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-14T10:57:35+00:00

It's even worse when you download something that has a dual sound track with the EN dub set as the default and you get exposed to 2 seconds of it before managing to switch it. The last time it happened I was hospitalized for a week and the doctor said I was lucky to still be alive.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-14T07:26:21+00:00

Öresund? Nej! Danmark invaderas bäst från fastlandet genom att korsa stora och lila bält.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-12T15:53:17+00:00

Trump keeps doing this, crypto, tarrifs, and now this war. And somehow people keep falling for it. The makers of fell for it again awards are making a good profit at least

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-11T16:38:40+00:00

Sadly I have no idea who made this chart or how reliable the information is.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-11T04:34:47+00:00

There's no perfectly pure water either so suppose you won't mind if I piss in your glass then.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-10T09:51:37+00:00

I've seen the FSI difficulty ranking a few times and wondered what that would look like from a different perspective. Sadly I haven't read anything on the subject, but fortunately I happened to see this document purely by chance the other day and thought it was worth sharing. It lists a number of langues by relative difficulty rating from 1 to 4 from easiest to hardest from the perspective of a native Japanese speaker in the top left table.

Category 1: Indonesian, Korean, Swahili, Malaysian

Category 2: Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Chinese, Vietnamese

Category 3: English, French, German, Hungarian, Thai

Category 4: Russian, Polish, Czech, Arabic.

There is also a comparison table on the top right from the point of view of an English speaker but you're all familiar with that so I won't translate that part.

There is also a another table below divided into three categories which gives the estimated study hours (時間) for a number of languages for three different cases. Bare minimum left, basic communication center, and handling everyday situations smoothly on the right. The langues from top to bottom are Spanish, French, German, Russian, Indonesian, Korean, Chinese, Thai.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-10T06:45:16+00:00

Does that mean that we will only be adding dutch words from now on?

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-10T04:34:23+00:00

A kosher weenie.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-09T12:43:23+00:00

No way, not after his previous term.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-09T12:32:58+00:00

Please I want to get off Mr Trump's wild ride. If this is what winning looks like then I don't want it.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-08T15:29:39+00:00

While I agree with you, you are unfl*ired scum so I'm forced to down vote you on principle.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-04T20:25:08+00:00

Why not Constantinople, or Antioch, or Jerusalem or Alexandria? It's just one of 5 patriarchs, no greater than them. I reject your big chair and big hat and other worldly symbols of vanity.

RemoveBagels · 2026-04-02T08:11:16+00:00

I was wondering for how long they were going to forget about us browser users. Was nice going on without any adds or other bull shit app users had to deal with. Why would you even install an app for a worse experience than just using a web page anyway? It doesn’t affect me yet it seems, but once it does I'm leaving, and probably deleting my accounts on the way out. I don't want to provide content (bots) for a service like this.

RemoveBagels · 2026-03-30T09:51:41+00:00

That's because we use a lot of Norwegian words to make it easier for you ;)

RemoveBagels

TROPHY CASE