Being a beginner in a language SUCKS | polyglot diaries ep. 02

Hi friends! I've been really lacking consistency and motivation lately when it comes to learning Greek, so I thought I'd talk about the difficulties of being a beginner in a language and show you how I'm trying to overcome this slump I found myself in.
✨ time stamps
0:00 the problem
2:59 action plan
5:00 day 2
5:27 days 3 and 4
7:39 day 5
8:26 day 6
10:53 day 7
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💜 ABOUT ME:
Hi and welcome! I'm Tanya and the only thing I like more than learning languages is probably talking about learning languages (well, that and hoarding language books).
My native language is Russian and I'm currently in different stages of learning English, Greek, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Korean, and Japanese.

[@Tanyaqwert24]

Learning a language is like a roller coaster. I appreciate your honesty ❣️

[@Sam-shushu]

again I appreciate the honesty. it's very tempting to try to appear perfect online, but it can be discouraging for the audience to think everyone else is better than us. it's reassuring to see you having the same kind of problems the rest of us have, and you gave an honest discussion about how to address them and what works and what doesn't. None of my languages are to the point where I can comfortably consume a wide array of content, so the only passive learning activities available to me are listening to things I've already read on lingq. I've been stuck in this phase for a while, but it's getting slowly better. I can understand more and more mandarin, and my Korean is slowly reactivating. my goal is literally 3 minutes a day -- if I hit that and I can't do anything else that's okay. but usually once I do the 3 minutes, more automatically follows

[@langatu]

FINALLY someone said it loud and clear. I hate being a beginner and I’m actually thinking I don’t really like studying languages. I like to interact with them, comprehend them and do things around them but maybe not exactly studying them that much…

[@karyneribeiro6797]

Being a beginner is extremely bittersweet. While learning knew things everyday is rewarding and exciting, feeling like you can’t really do much is tiring, boring and very frustrating. I hope you can find a method to get out of this slump soon!

[@fatimahaljawi2047]

FRAUSTRATION is so normal while learning a new skill or language. It is just our ego wanting to stay in the comfort zone. The ego always battles against the effort we put into ourselves to become better. Frustration is part of the learning process, once we become stronger it fades away. Thank you for this pure honesty of yours ♥️💙♥️

[@Cheron88]

Great video. I studied Russian for 2 years, but not continuously, I reached A2 level, with some difficulties. I stopped, now I like to read some short stories in Russian, but I’m not in the mood to go back studying it. And I kinda feel guilty because of that! (don’t know why, maybe it’s a polyglot thing, you understand me hehehe). Now I’ve been studying Korean for 6 months, I’ll need it because I’ll study in Korea. I'm more motivated because I really need it, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed, don’t see many results and want to give up. Thanks for bringing up this subject, I feel more relieved now.

[@cheddarcheesewoah]

Honestly it’s really comforting seeing you comment… I’ve been doing Spanish for about 2 years and I’m only upper A1. It made me feel sort of guilty, but then I realised that I was not putting enough time into studying and wasn’t studying in the right way for me. I also starting Mandarin Chinese, which prevented Spanish from getting too boring since I wasn’t doing it all the time!

[@LaurenAngela_aufDeutsch]

Same thing for me with russian!

[@mub9075]

Thank you for the video! I have taken 3 weeks break and my motivation to go back is low. I have noticed that for me the hardest strech in language learning is from A2 to B1, once I get a solid B1 it becomes so much easier to use the language, to comprehend and to immerse yourself in the language.

[@tbenavente]

Yeah, I feel exactly the same way!

[@CarrieJamrogowicz]

This kind of sounds like my progression with Polish. Native English speaker who lived in Italy for a couple years as a kid, so when I took Spanish in high school it came pretty easily. Have spend the past year or so learning Polish - I like the challenge but it's such an uphill struggle that sometimes I wonder if I will ever get there. So I take "breaks" where I work on refining my Spanish, partly to remind myself that I actually am not hopeless. 😄

[@alexndre4898]

It's the first time I find a language learning youtuber that puts into words my frustrations as someone who's been living in that beginner plateau for a decade with korean. Thank you so much for the content you put out. Seeing the way you organize your day for studying and the resources you use (that resouces video was amazing by the way) is very relatable to me. I always felt like perhaps language learning wasn't for me because I got bored too quickly or lacked the patience, I think I was just studying in a way that wasn't helping me personally. Active studying everyday is extremely tiring, knowing how to balance that with entertainment is the key. Thank's to your videos, I feel like I'm starting to understand where this key lies after so long. English isn't my first language, but becase I learned it consuming content while growing up, it came so naturally to me. To be honest, picking up a text book feels like a herculean effort, but maybe with a good balance between entertainment and active study, it can be manageable. My latest attempt at korean was last year and now that I've found your videos, I feel inspired to try one more time. I'll definitely use your routine videos for ideas on how to organize and structure my own studying. Thank you💕

[@shay259]

First of all, I wish you good luck and lots of patience with Greek! I am also not a fan of this beginner stage. I hate not being able to express my thoughts in a new language, I hate feeling like a stupid 3-year-old baby. Although learning new concepts is interesting and I like the process of active studying, I would much more prefer to be at a higher level than a beginner

[@tbenavente]

Thank you! In my case, I actually don't mind not being able to express myself, it's not being able to understand others (especially books/podcasts) is what truly frustrates 😅

[@rinnaaaaae]

For me it wasn't like that with Korean. I hated to be an intermediate learner💀 because I knew the basics but still couldn't understand most part of any content. But I definitely relate to that video with Japanese! I've been trying to learn Japanese for over 5 years, but my priorities always were with Korean. So, this October I'm getting 6th level on topik and will probably start learning Japanese (for the 5th time). I had so many problems with kanji, I just couldn't learn them. But now, after starting to learn hanja, I finally start to understand how to learn characters in an easier way

[@ohlook6222]

I have a similar feeling with Chinese. I’m have super advanced language skills but a large gap in vocabulary so I cant understand any content yet and it’s so frustrating

[@itsaudreyTV]

Watching shows with subtitles is a great way to augment foreign language learning. Filipinos learn foreign languages like this, especially the learning of the Korean language. But, we hardly read or write in Korean because we don't study it. Conversationally, there are a lot who can go by with just basic or straightforward sentences. Love your videos. Best of luck!

[@tbenavente]

Thank you!

[@adventureswithmadison]

Having a lack of beginner friendly resources (or recourse in general) is why I stray from Swedish and dabble in other languages because being in the honeymoon stage of a language is super fun for me. I also make my way back to my priorities in the end though. I recently found some books in Swedish that I have been wanting to read in English so I downloaded those and imported them into link. No doubt they are far our of my level but I am trying to have fun so 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'll keep you updated on this method 😂

[@unfortunatewormpile6872]

What are you reading? I'm learning swedish too!

[@adventureswithmadison]

@@unfortunatewormpile6872 I found Atlas Six in Swedish and Project Hail Mary, upon a bunch of other books I want to get to eventually

[@user-gz6mz9oh1q]

I love beginner phase when it comes to the first few weeks, especially when learning new vocab, but after a few months it becomes a bit dull cause you can't really use the language well and the content is very limited to the beginner stuff which tends to be quite boring. Also, the more interesting content is too difficult, so you basically end up staying in a no man's land for a while until you get to the B1-B2 level where interesting content becomes more and more accessible and the process itself becomes more rewarding and pleasurable.

[@dayinthelifeofbrad]

Man. I feel this video so much. Experienced this slump around 100 hours of studying Italian. Got over it by changing study tactics. Helped a ton! Thanks for sharing!

[@Muoshie]

I really like how understandable and truthful the video you’ve made here is and actually shows others your process of trying to study the languages you are wanting to learn. I’ve had a lot of the same problems you were talking about throughout the video, I started studying languages in June, but unfortunately recently I’ve stopped studying 2 weeks ago, I’m proud of myself now for getting back on and studying since last Sunday but it kinda brings me regret telling myself “I could’ve mastered more by now”! Now, that I’m learning it again and got that motivation back, it makes me happy and really excited to be studying it again. I felt like for me motivation was the real problem, and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t usually study because I would get bored and unmotivated quick, but languages just made me excited to actually study! This is the first video I came across from you, and I really enjoyed watching it! Love how it sounded really calming really loved the honesty!

[@alexanderhalloran]

I've been binging your videos and it's really great to see how other people have ebbs and flows in their language motivation. Shifting my mindset to a weekly rather than daily view has been helpful in staying motivated

[@tbenavente]

Focusing on weekly goals/routines sounds like a great idea!

[@Gigusx]

One way to think about the beginner's stage is to appreciate it for all the highs you're get thanks to the constant feeling that you're progressing, because that stage isn't gonna last very long. It doesn't really take a lot to get to the intermediate level, at which point even though you'll have a lot more content to consume, things will also get a lot more routine and slow, so might as well enjoy the beginner stage while it lasts ;)

[@roricebotari2282]

What a relatable video! I also hate the beginner stage. For me, struggle is constant, and nothing really takes that away. I push through to get to that delicious moment when I understand a little (or speak a little) and can do something fun. I haven't found a way around it... Don't give up :D It will all be worth it!

[@user-ne6kh3dh9z]

You can do it 💙 I'm proud of you ☺️

[@tbenavente]

Thank you 💜

[@IFeelTheDark]

Really loved this video. I have been casually learning Russian vocab for the last year, going way too slow. Not using a guided course has caused me to waste so much time as I flail around without any focus. A few days ago I dived in and purchased a course for beginners and now I'm genuinely excited to get to it. I know as an English speaker it will be work to become conversationally fluent, but I'm just determined to make small steps and be consistent in my study. I like that you aren't just telling us what you did but showing us how you spend your language learning time. Watching others work on their goals and sharing wins and struggles is a great motivator to not give up myself. This is not a sprint but a marathon.

[@languagetraveller]

Thanks for your honesty, it's reassuring to see someone else is struggling with the same things. And remember - you're not a robot, don't push yourself too far ❤

[@tbenavente]

So true! Also, happy to see you here 💜 Pretty sure I've been watching your videos since before starting this channel

[@w1311]

I can relate! I started to learn Korean at the beggining of the year. but in a few weeks I understood that I couldn't combine school and learning a completely new language for me. I decided to postpone it 'til the summer. however, even when the summer came I wasn't a frequent learner and didn't have motivation. something has recently changed and now I'm learning it every singe day 'cause I'm super curious. also I realized that I spend almost the whole day watching videos in the korean language, with tips for learning korean etc.even though I enjoy the process I'm curious how far I can go.

[@francescaintheusa]

I appreciate your insights so much - I am trying to learn Armenian while working a full time job which is a monster of an alphabet and there aren’t many resources and half of the resources are for a dialect I’m not trying to learn quite yet - I appreciate you talking about the struggles of learning a language that doesn’t have as many resources

[@s.d.3435]

I've had the same frustration with French. I studied it for 5 years in school and have been studying it by myself now for 2 years. My native language is German. English was the first language that I learned on my own (mainly through shows and KZbin). So what was difficult for me were my expectations since I thought that French would be much more similar to the languages I already know. So I made slow progress which was frustrating because i thought i have been studying it for so long. But it was also challenging for me because during that time I became interested in the polyglot community and different study methods. It needed some trial and error to see what works for me because like you I can get bored easily and don't like to stick to strict study schedules. I also decided to stop learning Turkish and Spanish for a while to focus on my French and get over the plateau (from A2 to B1). And my persistence and work payed off! Last week I went on vacation to the south of France and despite ordering food in French, I even have been able to hold conversations with the people there which was lovely! So keep going guys you will get there!

[@edmundjacobs4513]

Smart video Tanya. Greek is almost as difficult as Russian. I found Ted talks in Greek with sub titles quite helpful.

[@langdinish]

Tanya, you have no idea how much I just laughed with the Plateau edit

[@CarrieJamrogowicz]

That got me too - I was listening to it in the background and was like "wait what just happened??"

[@tbenavente]

Hehe, I'm glad to know someone actually appreciated it 😅

[@piotrkolibabski]

Me too! Now I'll never be able to say 'plateau' again without smiling stupidly 😅

[@langdinish]

@@piotrkolibabski I will keep seeing Plato in my head now

[@langdinish]

@@tbenavente I assume it was hell to actually edit ahah but as a viewer, totally worth it!

[@annaspeaks373]

I really feel that, thanks to share your story❤

[@annaspeaks373]

May I ask you about your gears? Mic and camera ❤

[@tbenavente]

Sure! I use Fujifilm XS-10 as my main camera, Sony ZV-1 for vlogs + the Blue Yeti mic and the Boya M-1 lapel mic

[@sofiamastoraki4964]

Ευχαριστουμε για τα ωραια θεματα❤

[@817jorruto]

omg i feel like this with french im an intermediate advanced learning in Spanish and i can watch videos, read books or speak spanish in my every day life pretty well which makes learning and progressing in spanish super fun and exciting. With french, I just started learning it Jan 1st and while its fun, i realize that with french for a while ill definitely be doing a bunch of STUDYING for some months before I can do any real fun practicing like speaking, music tv shows etc😭😫

[@IavoidReality]

I'm the same! But I sort of tried to shift my mind and remind myself that even when I first started learning English I didn't know anything and all I needed was time and effort. I'm used to understanding everything and I sort of lost my patience when it comes to other languages. But once I started reminding myself that progress only comes with effort, studying became fun again.😅

[@tbenavente]

You're right! It took me over a decade to get fluent in English, yet here I am expecting overnight results 😅

[@Raneem33197]

I think the secret is to try to enjoy the process of active study, try not to spend too much time studying in one session and to not be in a rush. This what I am trying to do lately. So it’s important to find a textbook or app that you enjoy learning from.

[@MarAdriatnePC]

I feel the same way you do x.x haha but I had to accept that I'm a little bit slow learner, speacially because I'm learning Thai and Korean almost at the same time as a Spanish native speaker... so I have to walk a long path before to start to enjoy native content almost without looking out a word at the dictionary

[@FrankKimono744]

I learn whole sentences saying them aloud. 5 days - 300 repetitions per day at least. Later I don't need to translate. I know the meaning of words straight away like in my native language. And also I remember the meaning longer than by learning separate words. This method is called: chunking. It was a real game changer in my learning process and communication skills in English and other languages.😊😊

[@tagablue5459]

Thanks to your videos I've been motivated to pick up Korean again (I've tried to study it for about 7 years now haha), and honestly, if I can study it for about 2h a week I would be super happy already. You can be proud of the amount of work you put in your language studies, and it's completely normal to have weeks where you don't feel like studying ^^

[@tbenavente]

I definitely agree that it's completely normal to take time off when needed, but I also think it's useful to be able to differentiate between "I'm tired and I need rest" vs. "It's getting hard and tedious, so let me look for a new shiny thing/language to learn", and it seems like I'm going through the latter 😅 Best of luck with Korean!

[@tagablue5459]

@@tbenavente oh yeah of course! Hope you get out this situation as soon as possible ♥

[@swbymii]

thank you so much for this video! I'm in the exact same situation with greek right now, trying to figure out what can I do to make it more fun. I also learn languages mostly for consuming content, so studying in a traditional way consistently is the hardest 😂

[@tbenavente]

best of luck to us 😅💜

[@wolvesofthevoid1439]

yeah i encounter this a lot and end up rotating between 3 languages every few weeks. so i learn something and review it occasionally whist i study a different language.

[@byebyebae]

Trying to go back to a language or trying to gain the enthusiasm again is really hard. It's too much work sometimes but it's a journey.

[@myself6360]

I've been studying Russian for basically three months so far, and it sucks. And it's not the language or the processing of learning that sucks, but it sucks when I do not study it - for a day for example -, because I feel like I'm missing something in the process or doing it wrong. I feel alike the same things as you mentioned in this video - like being aware of you progress, but not being able to use your knowledge as you want to. Btw, sorry if I misspelled (I'm not an English native speaker, so...)

[@bartekchytry8648]

Fajny film. Miło Cię znów widzieć :)

[@tbenavente]

Dzięki 💜

[@tricotilla]

Feeling the same! In July I did almost nothing of what I had planned... I usually read (often not every day!🤦‍♀️) a chapter in french and one in english and I usually watch an episode of New Amsterdam in english and that's it! I know isn't so much but I can't do more! My energy level is very low right now! Summer sucks!😢😢😢😂😂😂

[@KiwiTigress]

I think I now know what I need to have in my life: A maintenance language, a language I'm currently sounding half decent in but still working on it....and a language I'm currently murdering the crap out of. What more could a person need 😅. #goals 👌👍

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

Babadum is fun like drops or cloze master but with pictures Play it in Esperanto to surprise yourself

[@niceasta]

I can watch live streams in Spanish. Watch videos and even understand some songs withour looking at the lyrics, but writing is total hell. Speaking is not, but writing is like hell! Before watching this video, I was watching one in Spanish. I spent 3 minutes to write basic sentences, and ended up using some Google Translator's help. That's not the stage I like: I'm a professional consumer. The main reason for me to learn a language is to be able to consume easily on it. The secondary reason, though, is communicating, and I think writing is the first step for a good communication (as an adult) - write well to speak well. I'll have to focus a lot on speaking until the end of the year. I've set a goal to stop active studies after December: I'm a native speaker of Portuguese, grammar isn't even that different, I'm just not studying well right now.

[@joreneelanguages]

Yessss I hate it so much too, im dreading starting a language where im truly forced to live out the beginner stage 😅

[@kathomgerine]

Im at the beginner stage of learning Korean and for the past couple of days I'm struggling so much with the motivation to study. I lie to myself that doing 5 minutes activities on various apps is enough but I still know it's not. I'm so happy you posted this video - I don't feel so alone. But still im so angry at myself that I just can't force myself to sit down and study for real. It's frustrating and I hope it will pass soon🥺

[@tbenavente]

Well, if it's any reassurance, it took a couple of weeks before I got consistent with what I call "survival mode" (aka doing the bare minimum) but now that my learning routine is more stable, I actually feel motivated to study more and tackle more difficult material, so definitely don't underestimate the power of tiny habits (and don't forget to be gentle with yourself!)

[@kathomgerine]

@@tbenavente Thanks. I think I needed to hear that. I'll embrace tiny habits for now!

[@hopegate9620]

I've been learning Korean for about 2 years, but I also took a whole 6 months of break in my first year. I couldn't keep that motivation and I just felt so tired. But it's fine, things happen, and tiny habits really help. After these two years, I've realized that I have a really hard time doing any active language learning in my second semester. But because this year I didn't completely stop and stuck to a couple minutes on apps and watching kdramas (with English subtitles), I still improved! Not as much as I could've in a perfect world, but that just wasn't realistic for me at the time. Every bit helps, so don't get discouraged.

[@nikit.5240]

Hahah that “plateau” bit cracked me up 😂

[@Hellenicheavymetal]

Ive been learning Greek daily for 13 months now and im still an A2 on LinqQ. It's tough.

[@OzkAltBldgCo-bv8tt]

Have you considered a translator pin that can copy words as you scroll across the page and translate them?

[@lilawelt1898]

i have the same problem with German

[@0Ensis0]

Pozdrowienia! Zachęciłaś mnie do nauki włoskiego ;) Dzięki!

[@user-gk9te7hr1y]

I didn't have the motivation to learn Chinese, but now I'm in China and I've met a lot of people I really want to talk to. This makes me want to study more.

[@tbenavente]

Yeah, that sounds like a great source of motivation!

[@ZaprawdePowiadam]

I am intrigued by the "timer" app you were using the screen of at the end of every day to show the stats - what is it? I didn't think I saw anything about it in the description.

[@tbenavente]

It's called TogglTrack and I use it to track the time I spend on my languages. I have a video about it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2Tce3ljhLaXiqs

[@ZaprawdePowiadam]

@@tbenavente fantastic! Thank you so much :)

[@embuscadeconhecimento2024]

Brasil 🇧🇷 aqui 👍

[@elenaekanathapetrova2282]

Напишу по русски, так оно быстрее. Я застряла с Хинди и не могу не сравнивать насколько я его понимаю, а точнее еще не понимаю с английским... На английском смотреть и слушать то, что мне интересно я могу достаточно комфортно. Что то могу не понимать, не парясь об этом. Это на входе. На выходе .. то бишь писать и говорить не так комфортно.. так что .. прямо сейчас я отдыхаю.. на русском пишу. В феврале текущего года я начала параллельно украинский и хинди на дуалинго.. курс практически закончен (оба два) и на украинском я могу смотреть и слушать то, что мне интересно, а вот на хинди неть... куда и как дальше вопрос повис.. и вместо того, что б найти еще ресурс учебный я начала японский.. поняла что не настолько плох мой хинди)) пока гуглила, поняла кучу культурных особенностей в анимэ, что смотрела в английском дубляже.. так что даже в кайф несмотря на то, что я еще ни на что толковое в японском не способна и кажется еще долго буду на подготовительной стадии перед реальным погружением. Но опыт изучения английского, навык учиться супер помогает. Мне нравится, что вдохновение от успеха в одном языке, можно перенести на изучение другого. Ну и для меня в изучении языка критично наличие интересного материала, который я готова смотреть и пересматривать, даже если не понятно.. Наличие хотя бы одного реально интересного видео ресурса с субтитрами на целевом языке.

[@stevenisidore5094]

My first language is English, and my second language is Spanish. My dream languages to learn are German 🇩🇪 French 🇫🇷 Russian 🇷🇺 Italian 🇮🇹 Romanian 🇷🇴 Portuguese 🇵🇹 Greek 🇬🇷 Finnish 🇫🇮 Dutch 🇳🇱 Hungarian 🇭🇺 Bulgarian 🇧🇬 Czech 🇨🇿 Polish 🇵🇱 Ukrainian 🇺🇦 Estonian 🇪🇪 Catalan 🇪🇸 Norwegian 🇳🇴 Icelandic 🇮🇸.

[@vi9397]

Как понимаю, про русскоязычный канал можно забыть?

[@rosaschwanz3038]

Носитель... ЧЕГО???? Я тут завис немного... ТАКОЙ ПРЕКРАСНЫЙ АМЕРИКАНСКИЙ АКЦЕНТ!!!!

[@TheMadnessangel]

Tbh I put a like on this video just because me too (as a French person) can't pronounce "plateau" properly ahahaha

[@tbenavente]

That's good to know ahaha

[@panikiczcock2891]

I absolutely hate this stage too! Since I have ADHD active study is very hard for me. Most of my English came from simply browsing the internet and now I'm learning Japanese and it's really difficult because of the complex writing system.

[@yejon6174]

i'm feel like i'm entering a similar beginner's slump right now, so this is perfect 🫶 let's be gentle with ourselves and keep moving forward, even if it's slow 🤍🤍