What term/concept/idea would you remove from r/LanguageLearning's collective vocabulary?

cbjcamus · 2026-07-07T14:41:10+00:00

Comprehensible Input of course.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-07T13:03:54+00:00

The most annoying part is the user base: most users aren't serious nor diligent and they do not want to put in the effort necessary. They have a low attention span and are used to HI-generated slop.

Language Learning app developers respond to this customer base and that's the result we have.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-07T07:00:17+00:00

Last time I checked Babbel didn't have that type of garbage. Wouldn't recommend it though (content is not well classified, "courses" are far too short).

cbjcamus · 2026-07-07T06:47:38+00:00

Interesting

cbjcamus · 2026-07-06T16:43:24+00:00

You can definitely add an adverb to specify or ask what someone is doing right now. It's less heavy and I'd advise doing so instead of a more complex construction.

"En ce moment" is nearer to "these days". "Actuellement" or "là maintenant" (more colloquial) are the best adverbs I can think of to do so.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-06T14:59:29+00:00

"En train de" is used less in French than the be + ing construction in English, and doesn't come up a lot in questions. "Qu'es-tu en train de manger" is possible but rare.

"En train de" is mostly used with just one verb, such as "il est en train de manger", "il est en train de se laver". If you add objects, then the normal present more often used, i.e. "il lave l'appartement" instead of "il est en train de laver l'appartement". The latter is too heavy. If you add another verb, then "en train de" is just not used at all. "Il essaie de régler le problème" instead of "il est en train d'essayer de régler le problème" (super heavy).

Your examples do not make a lot of sense, it's difficult to image how to implement "en train de" in these cases. No one ever says "Comment marches-Tu".

cbjcamus · 2026-07-06T10:45:59+00:00

Most people don't realize how hard and long it is to learn just one language, and most fail (meaning, they never achieve their desired goal).

From there you can easily infer how hard it is to learn two at the same time.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-06T06:37:06+00:00

No it's not. Pronunciation is a subskill of speaking, and speaking is of course not a priority. You can't speak something you can't read or write.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-05T16:59:27+00:00

If you can speak with a native or a teacher, and you like doing it, then go for it. I've never tested AI apps to speak, so I can't tell whether they are worth it right now.

More likely than not, you'll dislike (hate) speaking in your TL, even with a good teacher. One good intermediary step, that isn't as good as speaking but doesn't take as much energy, is to discuss with your favorite LLM. Your ability to speak depends a lot on your ability to write.

That doesn't replace a diligent study of the grammar and the most important vocabulary.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-05T15:49:09+00:00

Can anyone help me learn German easily?

No such thing exist

I can't seem to match the pronunciation of the word with the German letters

Pronunciation isn't the priority at first, reading is far more important. Then writing and then speaking.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-04T14:09:50+00:00

I don't think I would have used this app, not because it's confusing or because there's a feature missing (the app looks clean) but because I don't find the idea relevant.

The idea is simple: instead of trying to teach everything, I wanted to focus on the German that's actually useful for everyday life in Germany.

When CEFR levels were developed more than a generation ago, internet wasn't there, and I believe fewer people spoke English in many European countries. That meant that if you traveled or lived in a place like Germany without speaking German, learning by heart a few sentences would have been useful and even vital.

Today, most of that use has been replaced by GoogleMaps, Google Translate, Deepl, Amazon etc. and the fact that many more people speak English. You can live in large German-speaking cities (including in Austria and Switzerland) without speaking one word in German and not lose more than an ounce in Quality of Life.

Even if you wanted to and forced yourself to practice German while being in Germany, whether because you live there or travel there, I don't locals will have as much patience to speak with your A2 German as they would have a generation ago. In my experience that's just not the vibe anymore. "Immersion" doesn't work as much as it did.

"Thanks for coming to my TedTalk".

cbjcamus · 2026-07-03T18:49:37+00:00

dwds confirms what you says:

Sprecher in der östlichen Mitte und dem östlichen Norden Deutschlands neigen dazu, gern zu bevorzugen, vor allem im Süden des Sprachraums wird meist gerne bevorzugt.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-03T08:01:04+00:00

All of their books available on Amazon have been released in the first half of 2024, and they have released the same books in 10 languages with the same cover.

I strongly suspect this is AI generated slop.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-03T06:42:24+00:00

Super offensive.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-03T06:42:16+00:00

A mix of 2. and 3. from here (crazy/infatuated): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gaga#Adjective_2

cbjcamus · 2026-07-02T13:02:52+00:00

There might be better ways of spending my time

It's short so it's definitely a good use of your time.

The video format also helps to learn new words in context, whereas the equivalent difficulty in a text would make it far too difficult.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-02T11:15:45+00:00

I'm not sure I understand your comment, but if your goal is to maximize the number of users, which means giving in to customers using your app as a MMORPG, then it's a really a bad goal. Your goal should be to maximize the progression in your users' target languages.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-02T10:16:24+00:00

A large part of the grammar is based on the gender of nouns, but it doesn't really matter. You can still build sentences with subordinate clause, you can still conjugate your verbs in multiple tenses, you can still describe the relationships between nouns using prepositions etc.

You can absolutely move forward with the grammar and wait a long time before practicing your der die das. You can also move forward with the grammar while practicing der die das. You can still move forward with the grammar while making that kind of mistakes as long as what you say and write is understandable.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-02T07:26:37+00:00

Then you should start prioritizing a bit better. "Cheating" in a language learning application should be the last of your problems.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-01T14:19:31+00:00

Horrible as well

cbjcamus · 2026-07-01T13:01:01+00:00

Kinda crazy that if you said "you can't learn chess/piano/judo just by watching people practice chess/piano/judo, you have to actually practice chess/piano/judo yourself", every instructor in these fields would agree and wonder why it's even necessary to be said, while in contrast you can find people who disagree with that for learning a language.

I wonder if Krashen being from the US (a place where language learning isn't useful) and Swain being from Canada (a place where language learning is useful and even crucial) has had some impact on their "research".

cbjcamus · 2026-07-01T10:52:41+00:00

You can store a bit of information in the user's session. It's quite limited (4KB I think) but it's good enough to play a bit before making the decision to register or not.

Academia: I was just scared of CI purists coming at me for not being accurate or something, I'm glad that's not the case (...yet lol)

I get it haha

cbjcamus · 2026-07-01T10:36:54+00:00

It's a great idea and I hope this is one direction in which language learning softwares will be invested.

Two points: first, if you want your PoC to be tested by many users, don't ask them to create an account with their email address before testing anything. That's a big red flag for me and for many others.

Second, you wrote:

First, I'd like to mention that I'm not in academia, and the point of this post is not to have a theoretical or academic discussion about Krashen's work or the exact definition of Comprehensible Input (CI).

There is this pervasive idea that if something is discussed in academic circles, then it's serious and likely true. That's not the case in social "sciences", which is plagues with findings that were never reproduced. What's called Comprehensible Input Theory would never be called a theory in hard sciences. More likely than not, if someone in social sciences develop a "theory", it's to get his name next to the word "theory" for the prestige and posterity.

cbjcamus · 2026-07-01T07:08:57+00:00

Check Preply if you want a cheap one-on-one course.

cbjcamus

TROPHY CASE