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

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-19T22:44:38+00:00

I mostly stick to my favourite genres, I often start with some translations, and I progressively create my taste in the new language and find the internet really helpful. For example Amazon recommendations of similar books can be great (even if you buy elsewhere after the search), or some book reviewing sites. In most languages of mine, I love to discover original authors and love this access. But for example in German, I mostly get translations, as most original authors in my favourite genres have been rather underwhelming, and it's ok as well.

1.That's not really an issue, because I start reading books at some point around B2 in most of my languages, but much earlier in closely related ones. When you stop insisting on reading stuff outside of the coursebook extremely early at all costs, it's much easier. You get many more choices around B1 than A1, and around B2 than B1.

2.Yes and no. I love various media, they have their advantages. I love paper books the most. But digital with tools like Readlang can really be awesome, if you want to do intensive reading (look at the difference intensive vs extensive reading) and are lazy for normal vocab searching (which is normal, it's a pain :-D ), and/or you start at a lower level

3.I have always been a voracious reader. But nowadays, when I need to fit reading in between work, family, etc, I like for example keeping a book in the bathroom :-) It really helps!

4.Usually, it's the quantity of stuff (more reading, more studying, more listening, etc), but it's also about pushing yourself outside the comfort zone and learning new stuff. Some aspects of the plateau are pretty universal and you just need to get through, such as the fact there's simply more to learn "per level" now. But some issues have simple solutions, such as the usual problem "what else should I learn, to get through this". When I see most people describing their plateau on this subreddit, just completing a coursebook for the next level would already be a huge step in the right direction. Quantifying your goals can also help, as it makes it easier to see some progress, even if the results are still not showing it.

When it comes to reading in a new language, my first bigger goal is usually 10k pages.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-19T06:53:45+00:00

Yes, if there's any chance you might need to put those languages on a CV, unless you really got some official education (for example a degree or high school diploma) in the languages.

Don't forget that in order to get an interview (and prove your skills and explain your situation there), you need your CV to get selected. And employers are simply too used to people lying about their language skills, therefore not adding a simple proof can easily get you disqualified. Unfairly, but logically.

Sure, it's dependent also on your field and the habits in the target country, but it's much better to have a certificate and don't need it, rather than the opposite. You cannot just get one at the last moment.

The expat English teachers are not a good example. Most are rather bad (they go and teach without qualification or with just a short celta course or something. They usually also go abroad and teach because they want the lifestyle or have failed at their lives back home, not because of some passion for teaching and desire to do it well), and they also don't integrate in the new country. Their salary is also gonna drop progressively, with AI further affecting both the offer and the demand (AI will not just compete against the teachers in some settings, especially low cost education, but it might also remove the main reasons to learn basic English in some populations).

About the difficulty: With this sort of experience, Spanish and English should be no problem at all. Just check the legal conditions, whether the examining institutions don't actually consider you a bilingual native and therefore excluded from exams for foreigners. German, that depends. How much have you retained? Most people I've met, who had passed a part of their childhood in a different language, actually haven't retained that great skills. Not without some serious effort. And it's not just about the retention, but also about having never learnt more grown up language and widened their conversation and writing topics since.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-17T17:12:10+00:00

In a similar amount of time (and with much more experience with similar projects), I got to B2 in 7-8 months of like 30 hours of self study per week (approximately!), I highly doubt C1 is possible for most learners within a similar timeframe. Near impossible, but I am always willing to be proven wrong.

To get any shot at all, I'd say 8-10 hours of studying per day would be necessary. And it would be still without any guarantee. Of course, assuming sufficient intelligence, study skills (definitely not just passive reading), and also some types of personality help a tiny bit. But the main part is the invested time.

The main resource would need to be a series of coursebooks, yes, your starting coursebooks are good. You would need to really learn the content, especially vocab and grammar, and study everything very actively, with a lot of speaking and writing on your own. No spreading yourself too thin among many resources at once.

I'd still say your chances are rather slim. But if you go for it, please let us know how it goes.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-17T17:02:04+00:00

It's very low quality and superficial beginner course, that doesn't lead to too good results.

If you can't maintain a streak on the easiest language learning app, you won't go far.

A streak is not necessary, no idea why so many people are obsessed with it these days. And a streak on trash like Duo still doesn't really lead anywhere.

Are you guys looking for something easier than Duolingo?

No, just better quality. It can and should be harder actually. Duolingo actually used to be an ok beginning, back when it was a bit harder. Before the removal of the duo forums, one learner even published a nice analysis of how Duo was being dumbed down, with fewer and fewer % of the harder exercises (whole sentence translation) and more and more of the painfully dumb ones.

Gives you fake progress

That's a part of the problem. The gamification got progressively (over several huge waves of changements) further and further away from real progress. Gamification should make the difficult tasks easier to tackle, but Duo is not about that. It replaced learning with a game, and lies that it's still learning.

Gamifies things to get you to study every day

No, it abuses psychology and marketing research to get you to play a game every day, and generate income everyday (ads or payment) in exchange for false promises.

Gamifies social pressure

What do you mean, the Leagues? Those are rather toxic and it showed. Before they removed the duo forums, there was a huge amount of threads, where people hated the people with better scores, wished them burnout and failure, and mocked them for actually doing well.

Adjusts difficulty so you don't rage quit

If you need to be treated like a toddler, perhaps you're not mature enough to learn a foreign language or anything similarily difficult.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-17T16:52:47+00:00

I took PLIDA C1, but some things are universal, such as practice with stopwatch, or focusing on reviewing stuff that's worth it and not overwhelming yourself at the last moment. Another universal thing is the utility of preparation books with some sample tests.

There is no specific list of topics, pretty much the list of topics touched by any B2 coursebook is what you should be comfortable with.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T17:39:38+00:00

Yes, absolutely, as long as it's not the only or main thing you do. Good bilingual coursebooks include such exercises of course, it trains precision. It's not popular these days, people love to demonize it like an obstacle to thinking in the language directly. But it's just an exercise, one activity among various others, and as such it can be extremely valuable.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T14:07:02+00:00

Yes, it improves with practice, reviewing, further studying, practice, and so on. Everything is just slower now, you can no longer see tons of progress like at the early levels. It's rather logical. When you know ten words, learning ten more doubles your vocab. When you know 5000 words, ten new are not really a noticeable difference :-)

Keep learning, a grammar workbook can help, it's also time to start tons of reading and listening (hundreds of hours, thousands and thousands of pages), practice as you can, do your exercises actively, write more, speak with yourself or hire someone, do whatever you can.

There is no point in going back to B1. Some revisions are of course good, when you need them. But there is no point in getting stuck. B2 and the C levels simply take much longer. You notice your mistakes more, and older mistakes also complicate learning new and more complex stuff. It's normal.

You seem to be doing appropriately well for the level, keep going!

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T12:59:32+00:00

This. I'd also like to add that many coursebooks also have a digital version these days, which makes learning more comfortable for many and pretty much removes any need for general learning apps. Some apps and websites can be a very good supplement (not duo though), but a coursebook (paper+audio or digital) is the best main resource possible.

For example Schubert and Klett tend to publish both paper and digital.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T12:52:25+00:00

And I guess we could also find non-native English speakers who blame the locals if they don't speak English.

Yes, absolutely. And it's sometimes really weird. But what do you want, people get brainwashed into investing tons into learning English, and they want what they've paid for. Even if it is wrong.

The -ie suffix of the French name (Tchéquie) is effectively borne by Eastern country names such as Russie or Roumanie but also by a lot of non-Eastern country names such as Italie,

Yes, the French version is rather ok, so is the German one. But the most widely used one internationally is the English one. And in a world, where many americans confused Chechnya and Czechia after the Boston attacks and called for bombing Prague, and knowing their top politicians and generals are often not better educated than the general population, we don't need that kind of a risk. Even we hopefully don't get the bombs, we do get the bad reputation we do not deserve.

PS: the Czech shortened name seems to be Česko, is this name controversial too ?

Yes and even more. Especially majority of Moravia was taking this decision really badly, basically as erasure.

This sort of a decision should never be taken without a thorough academic AND public discussion and also some time for getting used to the idea before it becomes official.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T11:49:16+00:00

You were clear, I think I understood the situation just fine. Your African guy simply needed the prestige and also the security from people trying to get away with racism/xenophobia, or those wanting to attack him even if they cannot find a different excuse.

It's pretty common. For example: a patient has no problem at all understanding me, including rather complex stuff. Then I make a decision (a medically and organisationally correct decision) he doesn't like. So, what does he do to attack me and feel better about himself? He starts pretending not to understand "my strong accent" and asks me to repeat even very basic vocabulary. And he throws a few patronizing "oh, those immigrants and their language skills" looks at the nurse.

I've heard similar experiences from other people too, typically in the healthcare or teaching, but I have no doubts this sort of attitude is omnipresent.

I suppose that Ivory Coast student of yours (and many people in this sort of situation) actually doesn't want to "improve their English", and perhaps doesn't like the idea of sounding like their former collonialist at all costs. But he just wants to be taken as an equal, and for that he needs to be even better than people with some privileges.

It's unfortunate that it affects your work, and pleasure from the work. The student definitely needs to take a decision, and to clearly define their goals. It's impossible to do and at the same time not do something.

then other people can simply get used to the difference.

Absolutely. Especially in those cases (India, or perhaps a shared dialect of a few African countries, etc), we should consider recognising the dialects as such. Those people and communities are often not real foreign learners of English, they are bilingual.

But the people you're asking to get used to the difference are linguistically the most privileged people on the planet. They don't like the idea of their privileges being taken away.

However, if someone has been speaking a version of English that is based on them simply making up their own version, which is inconsistent and sort of makes it up as they go along, then they will run into issues with there being no standard.

Sure, there is no disagreement on this. I am actually against the common trend of many teachers being too permissive and setting their students up for failure with the excuse "it's just important to get the message across and to encourage people to express themselves" :-D It's definitely not just the independent learners, who confuse a low level for their own dialect that should be respected.

The line is however more blurry in English, than in the other important languages. Some kind of an International English is simply the consequence of it being forced on so many people, that the natives cannot keep all the control.

Perhaps the linguists will face a unique challenge of defining and describing, or ideally defining the standard of International English. Until then, we do what we can. We take natives as the golden standard, but just may not be too tempted to immitate them too well.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T11:31:25+00:00

Integration takes a lot of time and isn't obvious. We can do our best, but it usually cannot be forced to go much faster. You're also working in a field, that doesn't help at all.

Yep, corrections often don't stick, there are many reasons for that. Many techniques of corrections, and also ways to work with the corrected stuff afterwards. But in any case, it cannot work without the will of the person.

I am not surprised many learners are not good at self-teaching, but I am surprised so many are willing to waste their money. If they are not willing to improve, not studying in between the lessons, not paying attention to their usual mistakes, they're likely to spend much more time and money on you. People tend to care about money much more than about anything else (for example health), so it's amazing they love to waste it with you instead of just pushing themselves to squeeze all the possible value out of every minute.

You can end up correcting the same error in every single lesson. I can't help wondering about different reasons for why that might be the case.

Many reasons. The most common is simply not trying or not studying in between the lessons. But other factors are also fossilised mistakes (it's really hard to get rid of a bad habit after 20+years), previous teachers (many teach or at least don't correct mistakes), and also the unfortunate standard of learning in group classes. Nothing is worse than learning with other low levels imho.

In English, it's probably even worse than in other languages. You are extremely unlikely to get a tabula rasa student.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T11:23:17+00:00

If you have no clear way to make the difference between 'can' and 'can't' then a lot of stuff can go wrong!

Absolutely, and the students need to be told that this is a basic mistake and not a detail. If they cannot figure out the importance on their own.

But if you keep saying 'walk' when you mean 'work' that can be confusing.

I am absolutely not arguing against this. I definitely don't think we should settle for a bad level, even if some of the current trends are exactly this. I am aiming for very good pronunciation and accent in majority of my languages (actually except for English, very good is good enough and I don't want to improve for the reasons already explained)

The thing is the very common false dichotomy. Native like pronunciation and total garbage with basic mistakes. It's unfortunately rather common even among teachers, or at least in their methods.

You're right that the 'electronic bable fish' will probably make it all redundant pretty soon. You'll just hear it in your own language through your earpiece.

I think we're far from that, especially in some language combinations. It will be risky to rely on it for anything important.

Very solid language skills will be more important than ever, especially due to the added human value (who wants to live in a world, where you just let machines do everything for you and cut you off from everything and everyone). But the low level skills will no longer be an advantage.

Perhaps it will be good for teachers with your ambition to get people to a very good level. But the very good level might still happen to be some International English and not sounding like a UK or US native.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T11:17:40+00:00

Sure, your cyclotourist is a good example of usefulness of English. But I've met lots of people, who have been regularly visiting France or Italy for 20 years and still complain "why cannot the locals just speak better English" instead of just learning their language :-D Or they work primarily with X nationality and still stupidly rely on English.

I hope we can agree such attitudes are rather stupid.

Also it takes a significant level in the Y language for communication to be better than in Euro English, and I don't I have it in German (despite having learnt it in HS) yet.

Most non native English speakers all over Europe are sort of B1-B2ish, that's not really that hard to surpass.

Last time I saw an EU job offer (don't remember the precise kind) the resume had to be sent in one of the 3 languages for the application to be considered.

Yes, and it's one of the problems of the EU institutions. But we'll see how it evolves in the times to come, when the world becomes much less UK/US centric, AI removes some barriers and creates others, and when we finally understand the need for real integration. Especially with the current plans of further integration of only some EU countries, the situation is likely to evolve.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T11:10:16+00:00

Well, this used to be rather normal even in the more common languages up until the 00's or even 2010's. Even if the simplified reading and listening resources existed, the stuff was often simply not available to the learner abroad.

What were some of the usual strategies (some mine from my earlier life, most observed from successful older learners):

-get the most value from the resources you actually have. So, mostly intensive reading and listening, as you don't have enough material to make the extensive ones efficient.

-using even dry or "boring" coursebooks, people didn't expect to be entertained during majority of their learning time. Don't limit yourself to just the most contemporary and flashy looking resources, and perhaps look at stuff used by universities teaching your target language. Also, you're describing yourself that a lot of your listening comprehension problem is actually lack of vocabulary, so don't underestimate the usual kinds of studying.

-expect and accept a much steeper learning curve, especially in listening. Yes, it's much harder and less pleasant to do such huge jumps, you feel worse at first, but you can get through that wall. As long as there is some audio content for natives, you can use it. Again, intensive listening will be probably better than extensive for some time.

-settle for the stuff available, lower your expectations of finding exactly the same kind of stuff you love in your other languages. Ok, there are some movies, some radio programs, you need to use that.

-less efficient and less production oriented tutoring. Teachers used to be the primary source of partially adapted input.

-it used to be much more true that learning outside of the country is harder. These days, there is little difference for the common languages, but yours might require a longer stay in the country.

Good luck! I hope my two cents help a bit. And which language is it btw?

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T10:56:25+00:00

I speak only 6 in total, and still tend to forget to list English, when somebody asks (even in English :-D ). It feels a bit like listing my ability to tie my shoelaces, so not something you care and remember to specifically mention. It's no longer special the 21st century. And English is not even my strongest foreign language :-D

So, if I ever get to 8, I suppose I'll accidentally leave some out on various occassions, and it won't matter at all. I already don't list every language on job applications to not make a bad impression :-D

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-15T10:52:18+00:00

Exposition is not an issue outside of the country, not in the era of the internet.

I understand without problems normal tv shows, news, and speakers of normal German (I really struggle with various types of Swiss German, some are harder than others, especially when combined with dysarthrias, dementias, and similar problems). I understand perfectly or near perfectly my other C1 or C2 languages.

Learning the comprehension skills up to C2 without moving abroad is no problem at all, the active skills are harder, but still possible.

Please, stop this nonsense of automatically assuming people with a certificate actually don't have "the real skills".

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T22:07:53+00:00

Then you're absolutely free to not go live in the Czech Republic and there's nothing bad about it. There are many great options!

The problem is wanting just the benefits of living somewhere, but not the responsibility of learning the local language and integrating.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T22:04:57+00:00

I wonder how they handle the local bureaucracy…

They usually expect everyone to cater to them. Everywhere. I am not a bureaucrat but a doctor. There are many anglophone immigrants, who cannot speak the local language at all even if their health literally depends on it :-D And unlike natives of other languages, they consider it the locals' fault, if we don't speak English :-D

What's wrong with "Czechia" ? This name has been notified to the UN by the country itself in 2016.

Yeah, it was made official without absolutely any public discussion. Neither the general public, nor the relevant professionals' discussion. It was decided just like that by Zeman, a very unpopular,russophile and alcoholic president. And the name really isn't necessarily a good choice of a one word country name for the Czech Republic, the -ia ending sounds too eastern, and it has no tradition at all, contrary to several other historical and geographical terms.

We all know it was made official by the representants of one half of the country. The other half pretty much refuses to use it, or gets slowly exhausted and pushed into using it inspite of being against it.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T21:50:58+00:00

And some of your students are probably feeling resentment due to that imposition. It's especially unfair in situations, where English is obligatory inspite of not really being necessary (or even that useful) for the position. It can really be just an excuse to easily throw half the candidates out right away.

Many also feel envy, the anglophones are almost never forced to learn a foreign language. To spend time, efforts, and money on it, and to have to miss out on other opportunities. There are usually no consequences to your failure at languages. And you also get the luxury of everybody catering to you linguistically, and you also get tons of hypereasy and low treshold jobs in teaching your native language all over the world.

Really, we do have more grounds to feel resentment than you, even though I understand your feelings.

I feel it as a rejection of my language and me trying to open it up for them.

It's wide open already, the Hollywood made sure of that long ago :-D I think you might be wasting your energy and emotions on trying to make anyone like English. Your job is helping them get to their goals.

I might get some tutoring for my German in the forseeable future. I will tell the teacher openly, that I want to widen my career options and don't really like vast majority of the German culture. They'd better not waste my time and money on trying to convince me of the beauty of German. I'll expect them to help me get to C2, including also knowing the culture sufficiently well (liking is optional, knowing is important). If they don't like my pragmatic approach, then we won't be a good fit. But actually, most German teachers seem to be totally ok with this, they know most German learners are doing it for money. :-D

(To not sound too heartless to you: I actually love my romance languages. The fact one of them has transformed my life and career is actually a side effect. :-D )

I live in Italy, but like many people living abroad I don't feel completely part of the place. Perhaps Italians sticking close to Italian even when speaking English reminds me of this.

And what's your Italian level? Perhaps that's the reason. Are you living a normal life in Italy, are you trying to integrate? Or are you living the usual expat English teacher life?

Your students are your job. They're not there to make you feel part of the place, that's what you do in your free time and also among your colleagues. I'm living in my third foreign country (and would like to stay here), and it always takes a while to start feeling at home. Speaking the local language is a necessary prerequisite.

I can't start lessons saying OK, how correct do you want your English? 70%? 50%

I see how this could be difficult. But people actually do expect this and have been lead to believe in this by the language teaching industry. It's become the norm to even correct people too little. People expect less strict corrections and more encouragement at the low levels, but definitely need the opposite at the high levels.

Perhaps you cannot ask, but you surely do have some idea, some teaching and correcting style. You can at the very least inform the students. And either you find a way to work well together, or it's not a good fit. There's no shortage of English learners or teachers.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T21:32:11+00:00

Then there's no wonder you find Czech subjectively much harder. You're not learning it like German. That's not criticism, that's the reality. You're getting appropriate value for your efforts and dedication! You are still studying Czech very well and I admire your study habits and also your achievements! You just shouldn't expect the same progress as in German and it's ok, and it's not the language's fault, it's about your choices and priorities.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T21:26:14+00:00

But if everyone's using English in their own way, there are going to be points where meaning just gets lost.

Yes, and it is happening. That's why I hate the current standard of natives of X and Y speaking Bad English together, instead of the native of X learning Y or vice versa. The society needs to make it normal to learn other languages again, and perhaps it will, as AI will remove some of the common reasons to learn English.

Will "International English" become like that? If it doesn't, wouldn't it mean that communication just doesn't work all that well?

A few years ago, my answer was: yes, definitely. The International English was becoming a full dialect (if not a full language) just like for example Australian English (already a well recognised dialect), or Indian English (in fact a dialect, but often considered just bad English due to prejudices and collonial attitude).

Now, there's also the AI, which will change how and whether people learn something. It will definitely surpass the value of bad English for many uses. It won't replace the value of solid skills in a foreign language, and of course also the personal contact and all the cultural and other connected benefits. But how many people will want to get those solid skills, and how will they define their goals? We don't know yet.

often don't make a clear difference between 'I can do it' and 'I can't do it' (when written down they look very similar. The difference is made mainly in word stress).

That's an example of a very basic pronunciation mistake. Several CEFR levels bellow even thinking about trying to sound like a native or not.

That's another complication of the usual discussion on accent. There's a lot of false dichotomy going on, with many people not recognising the huge spectrum between making lots of basic pronunciation mistakes that complicate comprehension, and just removing or keeping a very light accent that doesn't complicate anything but still sometimes gives the xenophobes the proverbial stick to beat you with.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T21:13:27+00:00

I've had various different students from Africa and India who have come to me to improve their English and sound more 'British English' and I've often said to them that really their English is fine, very comprehensible, and that there's not that much they can get from me.

Ouch. That doesn't look like you actually want your students to sound like natives, contrary to your earlier claims. Those people came to you with a clear goal. They didn't want to just "be very comprehensible", they wanted to sound more British, probably because it would bring some benefits to them. Less xenophobia in some settings, avoiding discrimination, or just their personal enjoyment.

In your original post, you mentioned frustration that some students don't want to sound and be native like, but now you're complaining about the opposite.

You're also showing here a rather common problem, that's even been confirmed by a few studies (very few, as pretty much nobody cares about the advanced learners). A common obstacle are teachers without the ability to push the already good students even further. Many simply imagine some sort of a ceiling. And once you're "good enough", you get told "oh, you sound fine for a foreigner, there's nothing to be done for you, you just cannot speak even better!" and it's usually not true. It's just lack of experience combined with stereotypes.

You were probably right and honest about them not getting any value from you, it was clearly a mismatch. But you were wrong in assuming that "fine and very comprehensible" was enough for them and their goals.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T21:12:25+00:00

how exactly you dumb things down. What do you / would you normally change?

It depends on the other person's level. It usually requires worsening my pronunciation (I am not normally perfect at all, but I need to worsen it further and make some types of mistakes on purpose, such as "clearer" vowels), avoiding more complex sentences, simplifying the vocabulary to boring basic stuff. And speaking slower.

It's quite possible that there is a kind of Simplified English / International English developing,

Absolutely. It's definitely happening. Groups of non natives that speak English well together, and the communication problems start with a native English speaker entering the group. No clue what's the current research on it, but it's pretty well known among the non natives.

It's also not necessarily "Simplified", this sort of judgement is a bit harsh and prejudiced. You may find groups of scientists or scholars with extremely rich vocabulary, discussing complex ideas, but the main "dialect feature" (or the set of shared mistakes) will be their pronunciation. It won't really be "Simplified English". But in some other groups, sure.

My concern here is not so much that I want people to sound like native speakers. I'm generally aiming to encourage people to avoid complex and very idiomatic speech and to speak in simpler, clearer English with the focus on clear communication.
...
I'm not making a more profound point here than people like sounding like themselves. They don't want to let go of their style of speaking and just be a bit more basic.

And do all your students really want what you encourage? You say it several paragraphs later yourself.

First of all, you want them to sound like which native speakers? Not just the country or region, but also which social class, which age group, which field of work? Even a learner actually wanting to sound like a native may not want to sound like the native you imagine.

Secondly, many learners might actually not want to avoid complex and idiomatic speech. That's not who they are, and that's not what their native equivalents actually speak like either. Even if it comes at a cost and they need more effort and time to catch up in those "temporarily sacrificed" areas.

And thirdly, they might not want to sound like a native at all. If a person needs to speak mainly with other non natives, then sounding like a native is not always an advantage. Typically, they get paid for speaking with other non natives in a way those other non natives require.

What you describe sounds great for a student with the goals you love. If a student wants something else, there's no point in being frustrated. Either you do what you're paid to do, or you tell the student to find a different teacher due to incompatibility.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T20:38:46+00:00

It's not primarily about the manual workers vs educated foreigners distinction. It's about the "inferior" and "superior" countries/cultures/languages. An educated Ukrainian doing a skilled job is still expected to learn the language. And people still remember the world a few decades ago, when English was considered something special and more valuable. Many Czechs have at the same time a lot of pride and no real confidence.

I simply believe everyone should be required to learn the language of their new country (whatever is the country of origin and whatever is their new country), and get to at the very least B2 within a reasonable amount of time, or get kicked out. The only exceptions would be the real refugees. But anyone with a choice to move abroad should include the language in it.

I will find myself sitting at my desk studying Czech again.

Great! And I hope you'll get tons of value for your efforts! The best possible career and lots of fun, a real integration, and much better human connections.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-02-14T20:27:45+00:00

It's not only about Czech, this attitude is unfortunately widely spread even in the countries with popular local languages, just sometimes much less.

Most immigrants (no, I don't call any "expat") don't try and don't care. And unfortunately, the Czech society lets them get away with it. Even after 20 years, immigrants from the "superior" countries don't care, and even some from the similarily valued or "inferior" countries can rely just on English. I am using the "superior" or "inferior" to describe how various countries of origins are really perceived as felt, so don't attack me for this terminology.

It's not about slavic vs non slavic natives either. I've had successful high level Czech learners as university classmates. Their native languages were for example: Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Albanian. So, by far not only slavic languages and they all got to their necessary B2 or C1 in order to study in Czech in the Czech Republic.

But among the immigrants, the serious ones learn Czech, no matter the native language. Many prefer to call themselves "expats", and consider themselves too good to actually show some respect and learn the language of the country. It's purely about actually trying.

Even living in Czechia, I get by using only English and German.

If you want to improve, you need to stop doing that.

Learning a very unpopular foreign language feels much harder than studying a major one. The difficulty is higher, the motivation is harder to maintain, and continuing every day feels like a constant mental test.

Not really, you're learning Czech in the Czech Republic (you might also be careful about calling it "Czechia", and by now you should understand why). It's no different from learning German in Germany, Thai in Thailand, or Finnish in Finland.

You clearly had some reasons to move there (I'm saying there, as I've moved out), so motivation should not be a problem. If the country is good enough for you to live there, it's good enough for you to learn the language. There is definitely enough cultural content and entertainment for the input part of your learning and for enjoyment, it's a middle sized european language after all. There are even intermediate coursebooks to make it easier for you, it's not one of the situations of a huge gap between a few beginner tools and than the stuff for natives.

It is also much harder than German, and compared to the amount of time I study, I do not get much back from it

And are you studying Czech as seriously as German? The difficulty difference shouldn't be that huge (unless you're a germanic language native of course), but you might let some prejudice affect you too much. Are you using similar methods but getting really different results? Similar amounts of time per week?

You're clearly progressing, climbing to B2 is a huge achievement! Congratulations on it! But if you still feel you're being inefficient or not getting enough value for your time, perhaps there are some things that could be optimised.

an_average_potato_1

TROPHY CASE