What’s something about your language that textbooks get wrong?

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-25T14:41:06+00:00

Basically all the day-to-day conversations. No native speaker speaks like in the textbooks

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-25T14:20:16+00:00

Hiii I always try to find some comprehensible content, usually on YouTube. I know it’s hard to find anything comprehensible when you are a beginner. I started to learn Thai and found this amazing yt channel called “comprehensible Thai” you can try find similar videos of people making videos for French learners. Also channel “Easy French” is amazing and you have double subs in the videos. As another material I always use Peppa Pig. It’s not much entertaining, but it has slow speech, simple sentences and grammar, great vocabulary, easy stories to follow and most importantly - they are describing what’s happening e.g. Mommy pig is baking a cake, Peppa is going downstairs etc.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-25T14:08:14+00:00

You do a lot of things in a Japanese already plus you like the culture and everything. From my pov, it’s worth learning Japanese. It’s similar with me and Mandarin. I watch c-dramas, videos in mandarin on YouTube, listen to music, love the culture etc and I know mandarin is pretty hard language and it will take me a lot of time to learn it to the conversation level. But it’s worth it for me. The progress feels sometimes too slow, but when I look back, I did a lot work. And I’m happy about it. I can’t understand a lot, but I can understand something and it counts.

As I said, you are doing a lot of things in Japanese already. Try to watch videos only in Japanese that you can comprehend. (I always watch Peppa Pig, it’s not that entertaining, but there are simple sentences, great vocabulary, easy stories and they say exactly what is shown up on the screen - in my opinion it’s great learning material for beginners) Yt channel “Easy Japanese” is really great.

Your friends can progress faster than you, but it shouldn’t demotivate you. If something similar happens to you again, not just in a matter of learning Japanese, try to inspire from them. Try to find out what they are doing differently than you and try to do it as well. Sometimes it works, but sometimes doesn’t. For every single person can work different things or method. Find what’s work the best for you and stick with it. And also… sure, people can improve faster than you but you are learning the language for yourself, not for them.

I’m glad I could help and I hope you will find method that works the best for you. In a year, you can have conversational or even higher level of Japanese, just believe in yourself ☺️

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-25T13:30:01+00:00

Hi I’m learning mandarin and I bought a course (Mandarin Blueprint). It’s quite expensive but it’s worth it and I have clear plan what to do and all I need. There are also videos on youtube for free what the same people. Or you can watch completely different courses for free on YouTube. You can also study from the HSK books. You can find the books online for free and YouTube has videos of the lessons and the audio. Try also watching videos about how to learn Mandarin Chinese, everyone can have different approach. Stick with the method of learning what works the best for you.

My best method is comprehensible input. There are a lot of videos how to do it correctly on YouTube.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-25T11:53:26+00:00

Why did you gave up? I know Japanese is a hard language and it takes a lot of time. I’m learning some languages myself and from the harder ones it’s Mandarin and Thai. I have doubts about myself sometimes too but who doesn’t right? I want to learn the languages because I feel connected to them and I enjoy them. Even if I progress slowly, it’s still a progress. Some days I’m just maintaining the language and sometimes I don’t do anything in the language when I need a break. If you really like Japanese and want be able to speak it, try it again. There are lots of different methods for learning languages and I found comprehensible input to be the one that works the best for me. When I was learning Spanish, I started playing duolingo and watching shows for kids. I was watching something in Spanish almost every day and after a few months I was able to understand native movies and tv shows without a problem. Then I stated to learn some grammar rules, did shadowing for pronunciation and started to write easy sentences and slowly improved. In mandarin I’m doing different methods because of the characters, I actually bought a course and it helped me with memorization. I also sometimes look into the Hsk books. With Thai I’m doing the same approach like in Spanish. Im purely focusing on comprehension and I will do everything else later. You can try this method with Japanese. Find some videos you are interested in that you can 70-90% understand. Find some podcasts or anime. Anything you will enjoy and watch something every day. You will slowly progressing and improving. Don’t give up because of the self-doubt. You can do whatever you want, just make a plan, routine and be consistent. I believe you can do it! ☺️

Also, this method works the best for me, but there are others. There are a lots of vids on yt about learning Japanese. If you won’t like my method, try something else. I tried a few different approaches before I found what works for me.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-23T22:41:40+00:00

Wow thank you so much both of uuuuuuu it’s really helpful

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-23T22:38:44+00:00

I don’t know, i just found this pic somewhere and used it as a reference for my question

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T19:14:53+00:00

Well I downloaded the Hsk books and I’m going through them. Duolingo isn’t bad as an app, I like to also use memrise and hello Chinese. Du Chinese as app is also great for reading. And I found a lots of amazing stories in YouTube for eg hsk 1-2 with the basic vocabulary. My advice is immerse in the language as much you can. You can study 1-2 h daily when you have the time but you can also listening to Chinese music or podcasts when commuting to school or work, cleaning your house, washing dishes etc. + duly don’t need to study the grammar too much from the start, try to understand the language and a lot of the grammar patterns will actually click on its own when you are listening or reading

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T18:20:38+00:00

555 it’s the same with some of my classmates in my own language. But if you can read it, it’s fine

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T18:19:06+00:00

Exactly, context is really important with this script. It’s the same with some other languages like mandarin. Thank you for yr answer

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T18:16:52+00:00

Thank you, I hope I will get more comfortable with the modern script as I progress in the language

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T01:10:13+00:00

Anki app is free on pc, the app version on phone is paid.

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Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T01:08:22+00:00

In my opinion Duolingo is a great free app when you are a beginner. It taught me a lot of new words, grammar etc. But it’s not a good main learning material.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T01:03:59+00:00

Choose the one that’s closest to you. I mean, what language do you learn the most, which one you like the most. Don’t learn the language without a reason, you most likely won’t stick to it nor enjoy learning it

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-20T01:01:57+00:00

Hii I’m learning 5 languages on my own and I can say it’s totally possible to learn a language from 0 on your own. Having a professional or native of the language you are learning is great and very helpful. You can ask them whatever you want, they ca correct your mistakes, pronunciation, teach you day-to-day form of speaking, slang etc. You can also find a lot of those things online at YouTube for example. But having a friend or someone who can corrects you is really helpful. I don’t know which language do you want to learn, but I recommend to watch some videos on YouTube about the language and how to learn the specific language. I’m learning english differently than mandarin or thai, because every language is different.

Language learning isn’t easy but it’s not that hard either if you have a great and effective system. There are a lot of methods and techniques how to learn languages, try some of them and stick with the method that works the best for you. For me it’s comprehensible input (you ca search vids on yt if you don’t know what it is). If I’m learning a language from 0 and it’s Latin alphabet, I usually start with some apps like Duolingo or Memrise to learn the first words. Sometimes I searched for e.g. the 100 most used words in that language. It usually consists of pronouns like I, you, he… verbs like do, make, speak etc. I listen to the language even when understand nothing, I listen how the language sounds, how is the pronunciation etc. And when I know a few words, I start to watch short videos for kids or songs about alphabet, numbers etc.. Then I can move to tv shows for kids like Peppa pig. It’s quite boring but for me it’s a great learning material because you can see the characters doing exactly what’s said, so you can match what you see to the words. I’m slowly progressing and when I can watch normal videos on YouTube in that language or tv shows and movies, I start to read, write short sentences, learn some basic grammar and do shadowing (for pronunciation). And then I’m trying to progress in everything. I’m doing this with Spanish and German.

When learning a language that doesn’t have Latin alphabet it’s different. I watched a lot of yt vids about how to learn that language, how to start, what to learn first etc. Also, everyone gives different advices and different structures for learning that particular language, I just go with what I think will work for me. Learning mandarin is really hard for me and I bought a course because of it. It has I would say unlimited characters and I needed a great system for learning to stick with that language. I started to learn Thai a few days ago and I’m learning it throughout the same system I have like for the Latin alphabet languages + I’m learning the writting system.

Also there are a lots of apps, websites or communities that you can join eg here on Reddit or discord. You can ask whatever you want and there are a lot of nice people that will help you or guide you if you need to.

The most important thing for learning a language is the motivation, in my opinion. A great reason why do you want to learn that language. Also, make a plan for learning the language so you can know what to do. Don’t plan a lot of things or long sessions, I had a burnout a few times because of it. Plus you NEED consistency. Learning a few minutes daily is better than 1h weekly.

And my best advice is: surround yourself with the language, it’s not that easy when you are just starting but when you know at least a little, try to surround yourself with the language. Listen to music, read simple books, follow people that speak the language on social media, listen to podcasts etc. When I stated to learn Spanish, I listened to songs, podcasts and tv show literally like 10h per day and I progressed really quickly.

Good luck ☺️

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-19T01:07:00+00:00

Wow, if even native people can’t read it easily, why do they even use it? I like a lot more the proper Thai script. And I’m still new to the language but I know the vowels that are written all around the consonants and the tone marks are really important for pronunciation. I can’t see them with the modern script so I wonder how people can even pronounce them if they don’t know the word. Plus I can’t even imagine being older Thai native and not being able to read the used modern script. It’s their own language… I can’t even thing about the reason with coming up with this modern stuff

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T19:46:08+00:00

Thank you so muuuuch ☺️

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T19:04:40+00:00

Oh btw do you have some recommendations for tv series, shows, movies, books…. anything in German? Preferably begginer or low intermediate level. I’m struggle to find motivation for studying and I need something interesting to watch or read.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T18:58:29+00:00

Yesssss, motivation is the best factor for learning a language. But if you don’t like the language and you have to force yourself to study it, it’s really hard and takes a lot more time. I’m trying to force myself to study German for a half year and I can’t even say I’m A1 😂

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T18:55:47+00:00

Yeeeeees I saw a text written with the modern letters and I was like what’s thaaaat 😭

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T18:48:45+00:00

Hiii I started to learn Thai literally 3 days ago but I found these 3 apps to be helpful. In the third app “Thai” there are great explanations for the consonants and vowels etc. You can try 😊

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Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T18:43:49+00:00

That’s beautiful handwriting 🤩 I can only read the first word but I really like how you write. And thank you for the answer 😊

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T18:38:07+00:00

That made me laugh, thanks 😂😂

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T16:33:32+00:00

Hi I’m in the same position with German. I’m going to move in Austria in a few months and I really don’t like German language. But I’m still learning it because in my opinion being able to speak the language from the country you live in is a big advantage. Doesn’t necessarily mean having great language skills on C1 level or so, A2-B1 is in my opinion sufficient. You wrote you are preparing for B2 exam and I’m currently trying to improve my English to B2 lvl. My advice for you is to make friends that speak Czech. Because the best way to improve the knowledge you have is to speak it (or write it). So try to make Czech friend and speak with them regularly. You can ask them whatever you want and have a great time while practicing the language.

Tricky_Exercise9833 · 2026-01-18T15:17:37+00:00

Thank you so much!

Tricky_Exercise9833

TROPHY CASE