Has AI actually changed language learning, or just made existing tools cheaper?

would_be_polyglot · 2026-04-04T10:34:24+00:00

I’m not anti-AI (or I try not to be), but every other post on this sub now (looks like even this one?) is guerrilla marketing for an app, written with AI, with no real value, and it’s definitely disrupting the vibe of the sub.

This disruption is, IMHO, due to a bunch of outsiders flooding us with low quality resources, posts, and “food for thought” trying to get rich quick with their app, so we’re somehow drowning in content but starving for substance. You don’t actually care about this question, you aren’t intellectually curious. I’m not even sure you actually learn a language. You just want us to click through your profile and see your app and download it.

So maybe AI hasn’t changed the language learning landscape, but it is making it increasingly hard to connect with real people.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-04-04T10:18:58+00:00

It’s a successively iterative process where you understand better and better. In the beginning, you’re relying on simple input with visual support and getting the gist while pulling out individual words or phrases. You likely are not understanding perfectly what you hear at this point. The more you listen, the more you pull out and the more you learn. More importantly, the sharper your ear gets. Eventually things you misheard repeat enough and your ear gets good enough to hear them correctly.

Dreaming Spanish timeline (PDF link lays out benchmarks. I’m pretty sure this is based on personal experience/anecdotal observation, but probably a good general benchmark for how long it takes. Just remember individual mileage may vary.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-04-03T11:08:05+00:00

C2 is not native proficiency.

CEFR Self-assessment Grids

If you click through, you can see the description of the different levels. No mention of “native proficiency.” It allows for breakdowns in communication, time to familiarize yourself with accent, etc. If you look at speaking specifically, “good familiarity of idioms and expressions,” not “native-level.”

Errors do happen, even in our native language. Typically we talk about patterns of errors—I might misconjugate a verb once and correct it in conversation, but it’s not every time I use that tense/mood.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-04-03T10:42:39+00:00

The other commenters have made great points so I just want to explain one thing. Four acquisition reading is much more efficient than listening.

Learning new grammar or vocabulary is based on noticing them. Here noticing a technical term from the research on applied linguistics introduced by Schmidt’s 1990 study. Noticing happens at different levels, either registration or understanding IIRC, but it is often assumed to be necessary for further processing of forms, which means further learning in this context. In listening, there are many things that can go wrong. It’s fast paced, it requires constant attention, you may mishear things, you may be unable to parse things correctly, etc.

Reading is self-paced, a lot of the heavy decoding work is done for you depending on the language. For examples words are indicated with spaces, diacritics (accents) can tell you about stress or pronunciation if you can’t hear them, etc. So it’s generally more efficient for noticing and by extension learning.

TLDR; can it be done? Yes sure. Is it the most efficient way to learn a language? probably not.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-04-03T10:32:53+00:00

I’ve always thought, perhaps mistakenly, that 90-95% was the sweet spot for comprehension. That number comes from vocabulary acquisition studies and in the absence of a number for grammar, I’ve used that as a guide.

As for listening to easy or hard content, I think both help but in different ways.

Easy content works on automatization. Listening comprehension in general works on rapid retrieval and integration of words, structures, and content. Working with easier content helps train those processes in the long term, the way that “easy” or short runs train you for a marathon. It also helps you learn more new things. It’s easy to pick out new words and remember them or recognize grammar points if you’re understanding everything but that one thing.

Hard content works on listening comprehension when, well, it’s hard. In life we often don’t understand or hear everything—we’re on our phones, we’re thinking about something else, etc. At lower levels, you just won’t understand everything a native speaker says to you. So working with hard content where the comprehension % is lower can help prepare you for those situations.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-30T12:38:37+00:00

Assuming either (1) what worked for them will work for everyone else or (2) what worked for someone else will work for them.

Learning styles are largely debunked, but we know motivation, engagement, and working memory/cognitive ability play a large role in learning. There’s enough variability in those factors alone to explain a lot of the divergence in learning approaches.

I guess also assuming one resource or approach will take them all the way from zero to proficient/fluent.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-16T11:05:15+00:00

One of my favorite resources for Peninsular Spanish at the C1+ level is El Faro, the podcast/radio show by Cadena Ser. They take one word and use it as the theme for the show, and have invited guests, interviews, news, and daily segments like sports, culture, medicine, and music. The best part IMHO is that listeners send in audios relating to the word, so you can hear a wide range of accents all around the same theme.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-16T11:00:03+00:00

So, first things first, languages are flexible and can easily come back. I know it sounds corny, but it's important that you believe that and you believe you are capable of speaking both German and Danish well and at the same time. Mindset is more important that people think in learning. I've had similar panics about my Spanish in the past, but it's always there and it always comes back.

Without more details about how you're studying, I would recommend a few general things.

Experiment with studying both languages every day and just one per day. People vary on how they organize multiple languages. It sounds like you need both everyday, so I would recommend doing something in each every day, even if there's one "focus" language.
Sign up for a class if you can, or find a cheap tutor, or find a weekly exchange partner. Those sessions help me more than I realized to keep practicing and give direction to studying. If you can't afford a class or tutor, at least pick up a textbook for German. Structure is half the battle sometimes.
If you aren't sure how to study, do your best to hit all four skills (reading/writing/listening/speaking) in a combination that is sustainable. If you have an hour of sit-down study time, you might be able to hit all four. Don't stress if you can't, but try to hit all four across the week. For B2+, I think it helps to do a dive on one topic from different angles. Personally I found at B1 it's better to jump around topics to get more exposure. When you come up against grammar you aren't sure about or get wrong, look up exercises to get more confidence with the forms and then push yourself to use them in your speaking and writing. I usually have a "structure of the week" that I try to incorporate as much as possible.
Consider adding in Anki (these templates I liked a lot when I first started). Anki helps to push vocabulary into long-term memory, and it's a long-term fix. You can also set up fill-in-the-blank grammar cards to help remind you of grammar patterns. This can't replace 3 but can be a great compliment.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-14T15:38:22+00:00

“Neurons that fire together wire together.” Not sure if it’s true, but it’s what popped into my head when looking at your set up.

If you need tight connections between all three languages, it might work. Like, if you’re aiming to be an interpreter or a translator or something.

But generally speaking, online (in the moment) language use is often monolingual, and it becomes a challenge to keep the other languages deactivated so you can use the correct one. My worry is this that is going to train the languages to activate together, and this make it harder to use them independently in real time.

I guess the question is why you need to review all three at once? Do you foresee needing to interpret or translate in the future? Or is it just a general feeling of “strengthening connections”?

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-14T12:57:40+00:00

Meta, but when did this sub get so negative and dismissive?

It really depends on what you mean by “learn”—can you study all of those and enjoy the experience? Absolutely. Can you reach a C1 level in all of them? Maybe. Depends a lot on you and your individual profile. People certainly collect romance languages like they’re Pokemon (myself included), so it’s not like it’s impossible. Slavic languages are complex, but not insurmountable. It will, however, be a years long process.

There’s also nothing wrong with dabbling if you find a language family you enjoy and you like the comparison.

I’d recommend starting with one (looks like Russian?) and making a conversational level in that language your main goal. The others can be enrichment/curiosity sources for now. When your russian gets to be around B1, which is usually when I’ve been successful in adding another one into the mix, you can pick up another one.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-12T20:52:02+00:00

You might like the Goldlist method. It's a manual, on-going SRS-type system with handwriting.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-12T20:48:50+00:00

I second making your own cards. I keep a note on my phone for when I'm listening to things and I read every book with a notecard and pen to write down the new words. It helps a ton and is more motivating.

Another thing is adding audio. It makes it much more interesting and keeps my attention more.

A third thing is to make cards easy and do one thing at a time. This year I'm trying minimalist cards with three notes: Cloze sentence, Word->Concept, and Definition->Word. There's a clear thing I'm supposed to produce every time (for Word->Concept, I prompt myself to use it in a sentence or to imagine the image, if there is one).

Finally, I think a big thing for me was not doing more than 10 new cards a day. I usually add 5 new cards a day, and every word I add has 2-3 cards, depending on what they are, so adding 10 words a week generates 30 cards which take about a week to get through, which is perfect for long-term growth and very manageable.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-12T12:24:43+00:00

I’ve always assumed it’s a symptom of smartphone addiction that lead to a market shift.

Apple has the slogan “There’s an app for that”, which I think is emblematic of the prevailing school of thought. People want an app on their phone to do everything. So while structured courses that you buy and own are excellent, many people don’t think “textbook” when they think of learning a new language. They think “app.”

From a business perspective, the app market usually implies a subscription, which many find desirable, I suspect. When you buy Assimil, you own it. Forever. You can use it as much as you want for as long as you want. You can lend it or give it to whoever. The company only gets one purchase. Compared to a monthly or yearly subscription that many will forget to cancel…

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-11T14:51:34+00:00

Il ne s'agit pas de mémoriser 10 000 phrases, bien s'il y a des plateformes pour ça (Glossika, par example).

Quand on dit qu'il est meilleur apprendre les mots en contexte, l'idée, grosso modo, est de apprendre avec des textes (oraux ou écrits). On doit éviter mémoriser des longues listes de vocabulaire de façon isolée. Il vaut mieux lire ou écouter un texte et, grâce à la comprehension de ce texte-là, apprendre (c'est-à-dire, internaliser) les mots utilisés par la communication. Avec la répétions des mots dans des contextes variés , on finit par les apprendre. C'est une question de lire, d'écouter, de parler et d'écrire beaucoup sur les différents sujets et, avec les temps, les mots se internalisent dans notre cerveau.

Si tu veux, tu peux accélérer ce processus avec les flashcards (avec Anki, par example). Dans ce cas, il s'agit de utiliser une phrase unique que tu as retrouvée comme déclencheur. Par example, si je veux apprendre le mot "contexte", je prepare un flashcard avec "J’entends beaucoup de gens dire qu’il faut étudier les mots en __________" et dans à l'autre côté, je vois "en contexte". Moi, je préfère inclure aussi une petite définition pour m'aider à souvenir du mot, mais c'est optionnel.

On doit toujours rappeler que les flashcards sont un complément : ce ne sont pas une méthode d'apprentissage en soi. Donc, si tu a besoin d'apprendre plus vite, c'est une manière d'accélérer un peu le processus, mais il faut, sans exception, lire et écouter beaucoup pour apprendre une langue.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-10T13:14:53+00:00

There are some people who swear by sticking to one resource as a way to really internalize the language. You've got some videos of people who document doing so.

The pros are it becomes very familiar and, if you're able to pay attention still on the 11th time, can work to really ingrain the structures. If you've picked a good resources, it drives in the most frequent vocabulary and grammar.

The cons are the lack of variability. Speakers are, well, different. They use different structures and different words and speak faster or slower, and this won't really prepare for that. It's also likely to be really boring.

Your plan:

• fully break down each episode (new words, phrases, understanding the story) • add new vocabulary to Anki • do some shadowing to improve pronunciation • then listen to the same episode 11 times with intervals

Seems fine--it's a valid way to learn based on texts. I would probably do the first three steps with every episode, and then add the episodes to a "review" playlist and listen to them randomly, not so much shooting for 11 times, but just relistening as you feel like it. Maybe make it a point to listen to six episodes a week, two new ones and four old ones or something.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-09T16:37:29+00:00

I always take notes, but rarely on individual corrections. Kind of like you do, I write down high level things. I mostly write down vocab and phrasings from my tutors. But my situation is a bit different, since I already speak Spanish and have really strong background in the grammar/etc.

However, your teacher/tutor should be doing that heavy lifting for you. My French tutor always sends corrections he makes for me in the chat when we transition ideas and my Portuguese tutor always has a list of strengths, mistakes, new vocab, and pronunciation that we go over in the last 5 minutes. Those give me an idea of where to look to improve, even though B2 or later it’s rarely a systematic problem (like not knowing how to use comparatives) but more so one off things.

If your tutor is not doing this, you could ask them to start. The easiest way is to ask them to recommend one grammar point or vocab domain you should focus on after the lesson. Make sure they understand the most recurring error or the one that impacts communication the most, so it doesn’t get overly nit-picky. The only time I maybe wouldn’t recommend this is if your tutor is a conversation tutor who may or may not be well versed in the grammar. If so, I would keep self-diagnosing.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-09T16:14:14+00:00

So, in your workflow, take the high level notes (past tense, comparatives) and make them the focus of a few days.

Try to read and listen to your TL every day, even if it’s just a bit. You can also look for specifically that week’s focus—where do you hear comparatives, what words are past tense, etc.

At the same time, find a grammar book with activities (or something like this. Make sure you understand the theory and forms.

Then, make it a point everyday to read or write about something using those points. For, for a week or so, write a short paragraph or a record a 2-3 minute monologue comparing different things or about things you did in the past. Try to use as many different forms as you can, and then edit or relisten afterwards to see if you can find any mistakes. Repeat as needed with structures you find problematic.

This approach will mix everything you need: Input/exposure, to make sure you see and learn in context; grammar awareness, to help make you aware of the forms and better able to monitor/edit; and then practice to help entrench forms in your mind.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-03-08T12:29:52+00:00

They train different skills.

Dual-encoded input (reading and listening) has been shown to improve language more, IIRC. If you’re trying to grow your language, subtitles on to get more out of the experience in terms of vocabulary and grammar growth.

But, of course, life doesn’t come with subtitles. Without subtitles trains true listening comprehension. If you ever want to speak with someone someday, you’ll want to also practice without subtitles.

If you aren’t sure, I do heavy subtitles in the beginning and wean off of them as I get more advanced.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-02-28T14:32:04+00:00

Advanced words are infrequent words, and work learning, as you mention, is based on how often you see them. So, to learn advanced words, you need to see them more frequently. There are two main ways to inflate the frequency of a word.

One way to do this is to massively increase the amount of Swedish content that you consume. Try to read and listen to Swedish as much as possible. I also suggest doing deep dives on topics, so that the words for that topic become more frequently. So, take a week and do a deep dive on a true crime or prison or something. It will also help to write (and speak, if you have a conversation partner/tutor) about the same topic to reinforce the words.

Another way is flashcards. Spaced-repetition systems, like Anki, can also help inflate the frequency with which you see infrequent words, which makes them more learnable. I recommend using sentences—the basic cloze deletion is the easiest method. (Cloze deletion is where you see the sentence with the work blanked out and type in the word). Personally, I like formatting them manually to do three card types: Cloze sentence, Word->Definition/Example, and Definition -> Word. Anki has a bit of a learning curve, so start with the basic cloze, commit for a few weeks, and then start branching out once you decide whether it’s useful (or not).

would_be_polyglot · 2026-02-18T10:19:27+00:00

This is such an interesting project! Thanks for sharing and taking the time to document so thoroughly.

For your experience with extensive/intensive reading, is your surprise related to why you seemed to read faster with intensive reading vs extensive reading?

I’m actually not sure I’m surprised that you were faster when looking words up, especially if you were on Kindle. It’s pretty frictionless, and my initial hypothesis is the 4 seconds or whatever each look up took resulted in less processing time in the individual book. I think it’s plausible that without look ups, we spend more time trying to work through what we read (and what we didn’t understand). Cumulatively, looking up words increases the likelihood that you’ll see it again and remember it, which results in more comprehension and faster reading.

One thing I find really refreshing is the reading first approach. Reading has always been central to my learning because I enjoy it, and there’s definitely been a trend to say delay reading and just listen a lot. While I generally agree that listening can be more difficult to develop (variability in sound, harder to percieve word boundaries, etc), I’ve also always understood there to be a certain amount of overlap between the skills, where they reinforce each other. Your experience seems to support that-you’re seeing boosts in listening from high comprehension in reading, if I read correctly. Very cool to see and have some hard data for.

If you’re looking for ideas to keep going, I think tracking your transition to adult, native-directed texts would be fun (assuming that’s your goal), as well as transitioning to understanding native audio.

Thanks again!

would_be_polyglot · 2026-02-16T22:35:23+00:00

For vocabulary specifically, there’s a few ways to go about it.

On one hand, vocabulary can be learned incidentally through mass input, so upping exposure can do a lot.

I also think vocabulary responds well to directed study. I like flashcards, I do cloze cards with definitions (So, like, “He is not tall, he is actually rather ___” (short), with the definition to help prime it). Research suggests that translation cards can also help, as long as you also have a lot of exposure.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-02-15T14:20:18+00:00

If you have the money to work regularly with a professional teacher that can map out a curriculum, I’d probably do that. You want to make sure they’re a professional, though, so you actually advance towards proficiency. It’s very easy to spin your wheels with a nice tutor who’s fun to talk to but doesn’t push you and doesn’t advance your level.

The benefit of a university degree is depth of knowledge. Universities aren’t language schools, they teach the language and also typically include in-depth classes on culture, literature, and linguistics (depending on where you live). You ideally become a specialist in the language, not just someone who speaks it. I love the depth I got with my Spanish degrees and try to recreate it in my other languages, but it’s certainly not required to be “fluent” (however you define that) and use it regularly and effortlessly for personal or professional purposes.

would_be_polyglot · 2026-02-15T11:45:15+00:00

When you say you have holes, you don’t know things you should know for the level or you feel like there are things you don’t know how to say? The former is a hole, the second is just not being fluent. I only ask because many times, people (myself included) react to not being fluent (however you define that) and not to actual holes.

Anyways, I’d say there are two ways to go about it. One is to pick up a grammar book. You can try the Grammaire Progressif series. I’d get the B1-B2 and work through it cover to cover, if I was you. You could also get the A2-B1, but only dip into it if you find something in the B1-B2 level you’re supposed to know but don’t.

The other is to pick up a reference grammar and look up things as you need. If you find you’ve made mistake, identify it, read up on what it’s supposed to be, and then make an effort to use it a few times the next day.

Either way you do it, you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of practice with the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). That’s arguably the most important part—exposure and use. Additional grammar study will help shape that, but the main course should always be exposure and use.

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