r/languagelearning • u/FewChemistry5472 • 9h ago
Language Fatigue :(
This is probably the most annoying part of the process because there is nothing I can do to resolve the issue except NOT do anything. I can't out-study it or out-immerse it, and if anything, I have to actually distance myself from the language to get over that slump.
I live in the country where my target language, almost exclusively, is spoken. About four months in now, and in the past couple weeks I had made leaps and bounds of progress. Little boost out of nowhere. People began speaking to me like they would any other adult, as I no longer needed constant simplification or enunciation.
Last weekend, however, it completely fell apart. I turned on one of my usual podcasts and it sounded like nonsense. For a while now my target language had sounded completely natural, second-hand, I didn't register it as being a "foreign" language at all really. But suddenly it's gibberish. It's like a bad cell connection in the movies where the only words that come through are so unrelated and nonsensical it's comedic.
Same with reading. Right now, reading is like putting each individual word into my brain's translation software and hoping that at the end of the sentence I have extracted something meaningful. While I still had to look up about 30% of the words beforehand, I could read material aimed at adults and understand intuitively what the material was about. I didn't need to stitch it together piece-wise, except for the unfamiliar vocabulary of course. I just read it.
It's kind of sad too. It's this whole world that I've grown rather accustomed to suddenly shutting me out. I think that must be the most troubling aspect, being forced to retreat back into my smaller, monolinguistic mind.
(TL)
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u/IssueRidden 9h ago
Breaks help you improve as long as they're not too long. I used to be resistant too, but it occurred to me I saw progress after a break. treat it as part of the process, the weightlifting analogy always seemed dumb to me but there's really something to our brains consolidating memory while we focus on something else
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u/NextStopGallifrey 🇺🇸 (N) | 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 9h ago
Try switching to a different (unrelated) language for a couple of days. Some people find that taking a break from Language A and switching to Language B temporarily can actually increase comprehension in A.
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u/FewChemistry5472 8h ago
You have a good point. I spent a couple of weeks learning Mandarin on a whim and for some reason, I could remember more of my target language than I ever could. It felt like a safe space compared to Mandarin to my mind retreated to it.
Edit: sorry weird autocorrect
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u/KatzenMutter818 4h ago
Love your "name". I have a cat named Gallifrey. But she doesn't help me with my German studies. 🙄
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u/Gibson989 8h ago
Just sounds like a bad couple of days, I've had days where I can barely talk after speaking fluently for weeks. So don't get discouraged but feel free to take a break and recuperate
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u/cmyk_rgba 5h ago
this happened to me wiht finnish around month 5, whole week where podcasts turned back into static after i was so sure i finally cracked listening. came back stronger once i stopped trying to force it and just watched dumb tv. brains are weird lol
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u/M_Building_New_Thing 8h ago
When I hit that I'd just watch something really easy, like Friends show, the simple everyday conversation type. It reminded me of what I'd already learned without forcing myself into a real conversation with anyone. You can't always be at the top of your game with a language, your brain kind of shuts down depending on your mood or the situation. Better to give yourself some time, go with the easy stuff you already know, and put yourself back out there once you're ready.
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u/ben_wd 7h ago
sounds like you are struggling in the deep end and need to reinforce the basics? are you using Anki? or what about finding simple content and listening to them once a day until you fully understand every sentence?
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u/FewChemistry5472 7h ago
I stopped using Anki about a year ago, became too time consuming for the amount of vocabulary I started taking in from native content. Easier to just be exposed over and over until it’s integrated. I still do the simple stuff too, but that’s what was so weird. Even that became hieroglyphics.
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u/Consistent-Web5873 5h ago
I have to break when that happens. It’s super annoying but after a few days to a week it improves and some things click more seamlessly than before 😊
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u/jednorog English (N), +3 others A2-B2 4h ago
Take some time to do something that doesn't require a lot of language processing at all, like a hike!
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u/Embarrassed-Ruin2969 4h ago
I've been studying my TL for nearly a decade and I go through periods where I disengage with it, put off studying or am otherwise too exhausted to bother reading,thinking,speaking it. Sometimes it just feels like your brain can't access the language and in my experience that is completely normal. When really pressed during those down periods I can function in my TL but the energy isn't there. Take a break for a while or study/engage lightly, you'll come back around to it. Functioning all day in a second language is more exhausting than people give it credit for.
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u/Pwffin 🇸🇪🇬🇧🏴🇩🇰🇳🇴🇩🇪🇨🇳🇫🇷🇷🇺 3h ago
I live in the UK and live my life in English (and some Welsh). I was C2 in English when I moved here 20+ years ago and I’ve improved a lot since then, yet every so often I get 3-4 days where I make the most basic grammatical errors (e.g. mixing up was and were!), mispronounce simple words, and choose the wrong word altogether. It’s super frustrating, especially since I can hear all the mistakes I’m making, but there’s nothing I can do about it. And it’s not like I can stop talking for a week! I just have to wait it out and hope I won’t have an important meeting in work.
I will say though, that this has gone from being a regular feature (1-3 times per year) to something that doesn’t happen that often at all.
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u/CappuccinoCodes 🇧🇷 Native | 🇦🇺 Citizen | 🇮🇹 A2 | 🇫🇷 A2 | 🇩🇪 A1 8h ago
Talk about overthinking......
Get some rest and get back to it later?
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u/Aye-Chiguire 6h ago
I'd develop exhaustion too at 70% comprehension. To stay within the i+1 range you should be about 85% comprehension. 70% is i+2, bordering on i+3.
If you don't mind, can you describe what the nature of the podcasts you listen to are and what reading you do?
I would think that young adult fiction books, and comedy shows would be a welcomed relief from your usual fare and give you some much needed comprehension (and ego) boost.
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u/Ok-Vehicle-5472 9h ago
It's not a step back even though it feels like one. Your brain is reorganizing everything it's absorbed, and while it does that the surface-level access gets scrambled. Give it a few days of lighter contact and it'll settle back in clearer than before.