Reaching B1 and being able to consume native content is such a high
This is just a happy rant about how awesome it is to consume native content without too much struggle. It's such a wonderful feeling, and it's been carrying me for the past months.
It's now been a bit over 3 years since I started on my Ukrainian language learning (side-)quest, and I'm finally reaching a stage where I can, at last, consume two minutes worth of content without it turning into 30 minute of study time. I can finally watch YouTubers without having to stop, rewind, and re-listen to every sentence five times. Reading the news in the morning, before I'm fully awake, is slowly becoming an option. Heck, I had a meaningful conversations with a native speaker recently, with Ukrainian being our only common language. And, while doing so, I had to say «повторіть, будь ласка» (“please repeat that”) only like 20 times ;)
Sure, I still can't read a news article without having to look up some central words, and I still frequently have the displeasure of finding the lyrics for a song that I liked, only to realize that the real lyrics are completely different to what I thought they were.
But the feeling of having a real chance at understanding something is such a breath of fresh air! The high is incredible :D
Happy learning, y'all!