u/thablackadonis

The best way I’ve found to learn a language isn’t to solely focus on gamified apps but to instead use a different angles/tactics to learning where you utilize apps like Praktika as a low barrier approach to get consistent speaking in. Then find something to get passive reps in, this is where media comes in whether it’s tv, music or even podcasts. Lastly, this is where the boring stuff happens. You start adding in words from the other two methods to a method that helps you with memorization and then spending time to understand the grammar. Most people try starting with the boring stuff and adding in the fun stuff. The problem is in that method you may never actually get to the fun stuff because you gave up learning grammar 2 days in.

I grew up mostly around spanish speakers with mexican backgrounds than any other country. But as I’ve gotten older I realized that a lot of their slang is considered pretty vulgar in other places or just things you shouldn’t say but the people I was around (probably doesn’t help that I grew up in Los Angeles probably around more vatos) regularly would say things like guey (didn’t realize it was bad) or other things like chinga tu madre (this one I did know was bad tbh). Is this just who I grew up with or is there some truth in this stereotype?

So I've been trying to refine my approach to language learning and decided to do some research on what is proven to be the best way to learn a language and this is what I found and how it can be applied. In no particular order they have accuracy first which is where you spend your time on translation usually with flash cards or the more modern approach of using spaced repitition apps like anki, the only problem with this one is it limits you because you're not accounting for spontaneous sentence structure. Next is pure input where you just listen or watch in your target language this might look like listening to music or watching television shows in your target language, the only problem here is limited speaking opportunities. The next one is a talking based approach where you can do anything from tutoring, using praktika, or even just narrating your day in the new language, the only drawback here would be you can end up with inconsistent grammar since you can be understood without having perfect sentence structure. There's other methods beyond these 3 that I mentioned but I think these are the most common. What have you found to be particularly helpful in your journey?

Something I've learned in my spanish speaking journey is that there are SO many differences amongst spanish speaking countries that some rules don't always apply even though they're taught as the proper way to speak the language. Context, when learning spanish whether it's in school, using praktika or from books the usted form is taught and should be used when speaking with older people kind of like how in english we use sir or maam to show respect. but recently I heard that in some countries like Argenita and Uruguay that isn't always the case and can even seem like you're mocking someone if you use it. Not sure if I completely understand the context behind this but I thought that was crazy that I could say something that I thought of as respectful and in reality in can be taken in a negative context.

In the last few years the opinions on AI have completely flipped from when chatgpt first came out and evereyone raved about it to the point now where I feel a lot of people overly hate on it even though it can be very useful especially for language learning. As long as the person keeps in mind that it's not meant to REPLACE humans but be a supplementary tool to use alongside humans and other resources, tools like praktika or memrise or italki actually become extra volume that can help someone progress their language learning. What do you think?

As someone who has spent 20 years trying to learn spanish on and off I feel there's a lot of stereotypes around learning the language that you hear often. One I hear a lot is that you have to live abroad to immerse yourself if you really want to become fluent or the people that still say using duolingo will help you...Personally, I feel like the things that are true about learning it is yes you need to spend a lot of time around the language but you can do that without moving or living abroad. Also, you can get to conversational fairly quickly but making it to the point where you are fluent will probably take years.

What did you find most effective when learning a language? For me there wasn't one thing but everything contributed together. Duolingo helped me form habits for language learning even though I didn't learn much from the app itself. Rosetta stone and taking classes in school got me used to the characters and pronunciation of the language. Pimsleur was my first introduction to spaced repetition learning. Anki combined with spanish tv shows allowed me to use spaced repetition catered to me. Language Transfer finally made Spanish click for me and got me conversational. Italki is where i got to converse with real language speakers living in the countries with the accents I wanted to copy. and Praktika is where I'm maintaining my skill and working to get in more practice to become truly fluent. what about you guys what helped you the most?

If anyone gets contacted from Yorby don't make content for them. Me and a few others worked on a campaign for them and in the middle of it they canceled it and only paid half the creators. When I tried to reach out for payment they kept giving me the run around to ask different people. it's been months and they never paid me.

So I'm a native english speaker and a novice/intermediate spanish speaker and I'm having trouble getting to true intermediate/advanced. In the meantime though I thought it would be cool if I just got to the point where I can say simple greetings and ask/answer simple questions in multiple languages. I recently noticed Praktika added Arabic, Chinese, and Russian which funny enough I live around a lot that speak Arabic and Chinese since i'm in the bay area of california. Has anyone else tried this out, where you're not completely fluent but partially in multiple languages?

Here's the context of what I want to do and when. I'm what I would call an intermediate Spanish speaker/learner which to me means I can understand some spanish as long as people don't speak fast and I can say what I want to say I just have to think about it. My wife is salvadorian and fluent in spanish and her immediate family ONLY speaks spanish no english AT ALL. When I go to visit her family I want to be able to speak better but not only that since they live in Guatemala currently I could be a target if they knew I was american so I would want to speak and understand at a level where they can't really tell. Like maybe I'm from a different latin american country but not america. I've used language transfer to make the majority of my progress, pairing with praktika (not as consistently as I'd like to be) and anki and then previously I used to do italki tutor lessons but also fell off on those. So any tips on what I did well so far and what I should immediately stop doing?

I've used a bunch of apps and I wonder if most people have a similar feeling to me when it comes to their usefulness. Here is my list: Duolingo 4/10, Italki 7/10, Language Transfer 7.8/10, Pimsleur 5.5/10, Praktika 7.2/10, Rosetta Stone 4/10. Let me know if I'm way off or you think I'm pretty on point with my ratings

First off no language learning app alone can or will make you fluent but that doesn't mean they aren't helpful. The best apps in my opinion will help you to understand the language, increase your vocabulary, understand speech of natives and of course speak so natives can also understand you. That being said this is the stack that I have recommended to many friends after over 10 years of language learning. For comprehension language transfer is probably the goat it's free and breaks down language in a way that is extremely logical so you can understand what's going on fairly quickly. For increasing your vocabulary a combined approach of any media in the target language along with storing new words in anki deck which uses spaced repetition is phenomenal since it is built to help you remember things. Finally, for practicing speaking and listening you can pair italki for finding tutors in your target language typically for cheap ($5-$15 a session) a few times a week and praktika for essentially a tutor in your pocket who you can practice with way more often than a human tutor but get valuable feedback (and no judgement). As times change maybe so will my recommendations but for now this is the holy grail.

I'm a salesman and I spend A LOT of time driving and on the road so I like learning and listening to podcasts and working on my spanish while I drive. I used to use anki a lot but kind of hard to look at my anki deck while driving and quiz myself so I went through the language transfer lessons and now I do praktika. Is there any other primarily audio language learning resources whether apps or podcasts?

If i had to start my language learning journey knowing everything I know now I would say one of the hardest things is practicing and being consistent with your practice. Initially I thought talking to girls who were bilingual would work but I realized because I'm smoother in English I always would flip back to that. Something that I think is nice is having someone or something that stayed in the target language which for me is Spanish. I probably would do this using a hybrid approach, spend 1-2 days a week with cheap tutor sessions and then spend a small daily session with praktika which I'm seeing has a lot of different subjects that we use on a day to day basis. Anyways that's how I'm using it now but if you're just getting started you should try this out too.

As someone who has been on and off again learning Spanish, I keep hearing excessively long Spanish words like "desafortunadamente" or "Estadounidense" (kinda glad when I see it written down on my praktika sessions, otherwise I have NO clue what's being said). It just made me curious, are these long words even used in everyday vocab by Spanish speakers, or are there shorter versions of these words?

Sometimes I feel like as native English speakers we have a tendency to use big words in sentences to feel smarter and also because when we were in school we were taught to use our vocabulary. Even writing this I felt like using the word "grandiose" rather than just saying big. The problem is this never helps people that are trying to learn the language and even in normal every day conversation it doesn't really help you get your point across. So my question is which big/fancy words do you think are crucial for English learners versus those that can be replaced with more simple words?

I grew up around mostly Mexican americans and heard their spanish slang all the time and heard them use words like guey which means like dude but now I'm married to a salvadorian and she has mentioned that they don't use words like that but other words like pinche that are really bad to spanish speaking mexicans aren't as bad to her. This has somehow made it harder for me to learn spanish.

Am I missing any other words that are seen as weird in other Spanish-speaking countries?

If Duolingo is the start to learning Spanish, Praktika is the finish Post: First app I ever heard would help me learn Spanish was Duolingo, I used it every morning, moved up the ranks and even had over a 500 day streak. I was successfully hooked only problem was like every one else that's used the app you get these long streaks but never actually get to a conversational level or even close so I got my next fix using Praktika because it's focused around speaking and progressing that part. Turns out actually practicing speaking a language you're trying to learn works...who would've known.

I read a study recently where it found that if you have a problem making decisions and tend to make more emotional ones then thinking in a foreign language (assuming you know one and it's not your first language) can help you make more logical decisions.

Nobody explains these properly and they will confuse you constantly until they suddenly don't (ish - context is everything)

Here's how they're actually used:

Oh I see / I get it = "아" said with a falling tone (like a realization hitting you)

Ugh / frustration = "아" said sharply when something goes wrong

Hey! (informal call) = "아" used to get someone's attention casually

Oh wait... = "어" said slowly when you're caught off guard

Uh / filler = "어..." when you're thinking or stalling (like "umm")

Yeah I'm following = "어" as a soft acknowledgment while someone's talking

Wow / surprise = "어?!" with a rising tone when something unexpected happens

Disappointment = "어..." trailing off when something doesn't go your way

The exact same syllable can mean completely opposite things just from tone, length, and timing. No textbook prepares you for this.

Took me an embarrassingly long time to stop panicking every time I heard it and just let context do the work.

Feel free to add more. native speakers use these constantly and I'm sure there are variations I'm still missing. But these are the ones I've started noticing when practicing with tutors (italki, praktika, etc.) or watching Korean content without subtitles.