It is a very pretty language! I just can't grasp all the characters for the life of me. T A T I find my speaking and listening skills to be decent, but for literacy... that's when I just whip out some translator app LOL. I actually had the same problem when I went to China and tried to join some English/Chinese corners. (For reference, it's basically a bunch of people that gather to practice either English/Chinese with one another. I've been to a lot of English corners, and ended up wasting a lot of my time helping them with their English and socializing because I was too afraid to speak Chinese with everyone else). My sincere recommendation is that you make it very clear from the beginning that you would like to at least have maybe 10-15 mins to yourself of pure practicing Korean, so that you can also get better. I get how hard it is to come out and speak about things, especially when it's in a foreign tongue, but it sounds like they're a nice bunch of people and since you've helped them out so much, I don't think they should mind too much! You can even split about 10 mins of just Korean speaking with just 10 mins of English practice! You could try some idk, jepordy games LOL. I found that those were really fun when learning languages. A pain to set up, but the idea of it is really fun and competitive hehehe. Aside from that, I think that there's a few Discords and other things such as Reddit where you can also practice Korean! I wish you luck with your language practice ^_^

Mandarin is pretty tough! It's a lot of memorization and tones, but it's really worth it if you have some penpals or some other groups of people to speak with. There are a bunch of WeChat groups for this, Discord, and Reddit which have dedicated areas to speak and learn Chinese with others! I think there was also an Amino as well :) I also had that same problem. I wonder what APP you're using? Is it an HSK level one? DuShu is pretty fun, Pleco is good for very literal translations of things! I also have a hard time gathering motivation. I have a few books, but haven't had the energy or motivation to study into them ; _ ; I think it's easier if you think about it like this: Just 10 minutes a day. That's like the time it takes to boil water, or watch some Youtube videos. I find it might help to do some games, or watch some movies/Chinese shows/dramas (man I LOVED watching dramas LOL)!

I really hope that your language learning goes well! If you wanna practice speaking, I don't have many pointers because I suck, other than: just say it! People are pretty nice about taking the time to understand you! I don't know much about Hebrew other than it looks very complicated and I am in over my head with that one. I wish you the best of luck!! ^_^

Thanks for all the advice ! :) Now if I could actually get myself to start studying and practicing again... lol I feel like I have so much ambition but then when I finally have the time to put it in action I procrastinate hardcore.. After my midterms and when spring break rolls around hopefully I will start again

I wish you luck in your language practice as well !

I was using ChineseSkill app and HelloChinese. I think they're pretty good, considering i was able to translate to Chinese a brief text without a dictionary/text. they do teach the tones, have writing and speaking exercises, and also offer the possibility to learn based solely on the romanization (spelling?) or just the hanzi (the chinese characters), or both together. And of course, there's a human (Chinese native) reading out the words as well, and several other functions. These 2 apps are pretty similar in how they're designed and work (and free to use, with in app purchases, if you want more options ;p ) Surely there's an app for Hebrew as well ;p but that's not a priority at the moment. And thank you for all the advice and encouragement :)

good luck with your midterms! (for everyone reading/following this thread) some people like to record their progress through pictures and sharing them on instagram or tumblr -and other social media they use- i think doing so can be motivating, especially when others press the like button on the pictureor leave encouraging messages ;)

I'm just starting to learn Italian

If I recall, you mentioned that you couldn't use them (those apps you mentioned) because your phone is too old now. If you're still willing to use the apps though, I'm sure there are smart phone emulators that work on the computer! Best of luck :)

Same T T Best of luck on your midterms! I have mine coming up too ; A ; I find it helps if I study as I'm on my way to campus etc., since the commute gets pretty long orz.

Thanks ! also I agree with creating posts. I've done it on instagram before and the feedback really boosted my language abilities

I've always wanted to learn Italian ! How is it?

Good luck with your midterms too! This semester has been going by so fast that they snuck up on me and now I'm scrambling to prepare for them all T.T

I took French in high school but not in college. I’ve been self re-teaching myself French within the last couple years self but, in my case, the remembering was still there but rusty. In my case, I self-taught myself because my second masters was in Euro Studies, and there were sources I was reading for my thesis that were in French though. That’s the only language I can think of off the top of my head where I kind of self-taught but I still remembered some from high school French even though it was more than 10 years ago. I found watching tv shows in French helped, but I only needed to know French for reading mainly.

As for mandarin, I actually found watching mandarin language tv really improved my ability to speak personally. I’m semi-fluent in mandarin, but I grew up speaking the language though( born and lived in the states pretty much my entire life, but parents are originally from Taiwan so I grew up speaking mandarin and English simultaneously around the house, basically Chinglish, XD).

i use an iphone 4 with its original, not-up-to-date iOS, and 8gb storage. imagine its hardware is not good enough for the latest iOS. i will try to install at least one of the apps on my phone - i didnt try so far because i was sure it wouldnt work.. smartphone emulators for computer??? this is the first time i hear of it! /runs to look into it.... Fiancee has iphone 7 (i think it's 7,lol. a pretty popular model over here) and maybe if i beg and cry, they might let me use it for chinese learning apps. but i won'tput my hopes too high.

Nice! That's so cool that you were able to use your French to help you with your second Master's degree! I hope to reach that level of understanding when reading articles but I got a long way to go hahaha

When you would watch shows what type of subtitling did you use? For me I've been trying to watch things in my target language with captions, but then I find myself only semi-understanding due to my lack of vocab, but then if I find a video with both English and my target langauge's subtitles I tend to focus on the English .. I have no self-control!

I've done both the french with english subtitles and french with french subtitles, but i started off with using stuff I already knew in french( think watching hunchback of notre dame but in french instead of english, namely because having already seen them, I knew the plot and dialogue mostly. That and kids shows in french, or reading books in french that were considered kid's book, The Little Prince is one, but also just things like watching the Tintin cartoon in its original French).

I mostly started off with french with english subtitles though because then I could self-correct or look up something when I didn't know what that particular phrase was and then once I got to a better understanding then I started to incorporate french shows with french subtitles instead of english on the bottom. With mandarin, I watch half-half, chinese with chinese subtitles( I can read some mandarin though) but since I'm not completely fluent, even having grown up hearing it spoken, I'll usually use mandarin with english subtitles if it's something that's particular difficult or the language is archaic and I don't quite understand it. This tends to be true of period pieces because they'll use old chinese idioms and poems that are lost on me so having them translated into english makes more sense to me.

I'm teaching myself Japanese, and I've actually studied Chinese and Italian at university, as well as German in secondary. :)

I was learning French but I placed that on a pause to learn computer languages (:

I'm currently studying Russian. I'm actually majoring in it, so I'm taking college courses, but I've also got a hoard of my own resources that I've cultivated because I've struggled with motivation. I've also found that just going to class and doing the homework isn't enough to help me really learn the language.

Here are some of the things I do:

• Listen to the radio in the language. I didn't really like Russian music at first, but it's slowly grown on me. I try to listen to it as much as possible so I can really get the cadence of speech down.
• Watching movies/tv shows in the language. I watch both American movies/tv shows that I recognize in Russian as well as authentic Russian shows. I try to find ones with subtitles (also in Russian) as much as possible. Netflix has some resources in Russian, but I'm not sure what they'd have for Korean.
• Use language learning apps. I've got Drops, Duolingo, Lingvist, and Memrise in my arsenal that I use regularly. On Memrise you can even make your own "courses" and I find it much easier than with AnkoDecks. I also have other apps that are either in Russian or teach Russian grammar/vocabulary in various ways. I figured out how to "hack" my phone so that I can see the Russian play store and have access to apps that I wouldn't otherwise.
• Play games in the language. Again with the mobile apps! I've found a few games that I can convert to the Russian language and the challenge of playing the game in a different language is helping me to read the language as well as keeping grammar fresh in my mind.
• Read in the language. There is a phenomenal desktop application out there called "Learning with Text" that is free and open source. After setting it up, you just upload any text you want into the system and you teach it vocabulary as you go along. At first it's a bit overwhelming with all the blue undefined words but the more you use it, the more words you'll have definitions for right at your fingertips. And of course, the more you read, the less you will need to look at those definitions. There's also a way to test yourself through LWT but I haven't used that feature yet.
• Watch YouTube videos and read puff articles in the language. Have something you're interested in? Look it up on Wikipedia and then convert it into your target language. Then search using the translation on YouTube or in Google and enjoy the usermade videos and Buzzfeed-esque or Lifehacker-esque articles!

P.S. I was inspired by this article and this one about hitting the wall in language learning, and I remind myself of them whenever I feel frustrated with my (lack of) progress.

I've been learning Icelandic on and off for about 10 years. I have used audio CDs, written texts such as Teach Yourself Icelandic. Online resources are invaluable. I'm on an active Facebook group with some very knowledgeable people. There is plenty of online media to facilitate learning.

I also met last year around Christmas an older local by the name of Inga who is native to Iceland but now lives here in Australia. I have considered that I could ask her for some conversation practice.

I'd like to learn French in the future, also.

Thanks for the tips ! I will have to try it sometime :) now to find something to watch that will keep my attention.. hmmm hahhaha

Oh wow that's awesome ! I studied a little bit of Japanese before and I have always wanted to learn German. I am from the Cincinnati area and we have a large population of people with German heritage which is why we host the largest Oktoberfest in North America! Unfortunately, when I was going to high school my school got rid of German classes so I went with Spanish instead.

Nice! What computer languages are you currently learning?

Oh wow thank you for your detailed response!!! ;-; I have used most of the popular language learning apps such as duolingo, memerise, and anki and I do like them but they have their downfalls as well. I love the premade decks but I really wish there was an easy way to go through and 'master' all of the words I know without having to review them all. That's my biggest complaint especially since I seem to never be able to commit to a deck ! lol

I am really interested in checking out 'Learning with Text' this is my first time hearing about it and it sounds super useful!

Wow! I think you are the first person I have met that is learning Icelandic! Is there any particular reason you decided to study it?

If you want to download it, it's available here with instructions for both Windows and Mac.

I won't lie; it has a bit of a learning curve when it comes to downloading it, but once you've done it, it's marvellously easy to use. :)

I studied Spanish for a little bit as well! But, when it came to pick subjects, I dropped it because I HATED it. Probably because while my first teacher was nice, my second one was AWFUL. (Funny thing, my first teacher told me that my accent in Spanish was so good, that it was pretty much exactly like her husband's who is ACTUALLY Spanish!)

Currently I'm learning PHP (quite a friendly one) and after that I'm going to learn Javascript (and perhaps Python).

Thanks for the link!

lol ! That's funny ! I also had a bad experience with my Spanish teacher. She was super nice but I feel like she herself didn't actually know Spanish that well... which made the class feel like a waste of time.

Nice ! For my major I am required to learn Python and I really like it. I think compared to other languages it's very user friendly. I have also worked with Java and really enjoyed it too. Although now I don't remember much since I haven't touched it in a while.

I'm self learning Japanese right now. I did study it back in high school and received embassy awards for top marks, I really enjoyed learning it at high school and I did have an amazing teacher for the few years I was there. I dropped out of high school due to personal reasons so I never could pursue it in a learning environment to the full extent. Unfortunately I find it hard to dedicate the time to study it at the moment with my 9 month old son.

Right now I am practicing my basic conversational skills to get them into my muscle memory. I use a lot of flash cards since there are a lot of kanji to learn. Usually I have one side with any hiragana/katakana form that I am able to read and also a kanji form so my brain can learn to correlate the kanji with the katakana/hiragana, since kanji can be lots of hiragana/katakana morphed into one character. Then the other side is the English form in case I cannot remember the correct translation. It helps getting things wrong because you always make a point to try to remember those particular set of characters you tripped over on.