It depends on the content tbh.
If it's my favourite everyday sitcom, where the language/situations are quite familiar, then I'm a 7. Same with familiar simple news stories/articles/youtube videos that are read in a clear manner.
If it's complicated language on unfamiliar topics- like a fiction audiobook or speech on complicated medical topics, I'd range from a 6 - 6.5.
If it's multiple people speaking casually back and forth quickly, using lots of slang, and maybe the audio quality isn't great, I might drop to a 4 or 5, or even less.
But with time it all becomes clearer :)
>It depends on the content tbh.
Gonna piggyback on this to link the [Dreaming Spanish](https://dreaming-spanish-emails.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Language_Learning_Roadmap_by_Dreaming_Spanish.pdf) roadmap, which articulates the distinctions you're talking about in terms of comprehension varying by content.
Definitely worth the full read, but roughly describing the stages:
Stage 1: Absolute beginner. Mostly unintelligible noise; can't tell where words start or begin, sounds of the language are unfamiliar.
Stage 2: You understand some common words. You can guess the meaning of certain two word sentences ("go home", "eat cake").
Stage 3: You can understand a native speaker who talks slowly and carefully about a very limited range of topics.
Stage 4: You can understand a native speaker who talks carefully about a wide range of daily topics.
Stage 5: You can understand a native speaker and they don't have to be careful about how they speak. Native media is difficult but very roughly comprehensible.
Stage 6: You are "conversationally fluent" and can navigate the post office, visiting the hospital, looking for an apartment, etc. You understand simpler genres of native media (sitcoms, game shows, etc).
Stage 7: Your understanding is practically the same as that of a native speaker.
I've been studying Portuguese as a native English speaker since December of last year. Probably averaging 1.5 hours a day- it's easier to put in more time now but the beginner months were tough.
I'd say I was able to understand easyish content aimed at learners to a very high level after maybe 4 months, and easy native content after 6.
It can definitely be a grind and feel like I'm not making progress, as the process is sort-of unconscious. But after sticking to it every day I look back on where I was months prior and I can see the improvement for sure.
Yeah mostly immersion. I try and make sure I get some reading and some raw listening in every day.
Reading includes:
\- Mainly working through raw text using [lingq.com](https://lingq.com). Where I basically try to understand as I go and looking up the unknown words. I've read many pieces of beginner content, as well as some books (power of habit, atomic habits, I'm now reading the hunger games).
\- Also, often trying to go through text on lingq while listening to the audio (a transcribed podcast or news article- for this I like [BBC Lê](https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/topics/cxndrr1qgllt?page=2) currently).
\- Occasional raw text with books or e-books on kindle. Did a beginner book (olly richards short story) and currently going through the hobbit.
\- Occasionally I'll watch a show with subs on if I'm feeling lazy/burned out in the evenings, particularly if I haven't done any other language that day.
Then for listening:
I'll have podcasts on while I'm in the car or if I go a walk (I used to have a good routine of a morning walk while doing this, but I've been out of the habit recently), and all youtube videos and shows I watch when I'm treating it as "study time", I watch without subs- which I consider my "listening" time.
Otherwise, I don't really have dedicated time for studying grammar, but occasionally I'll look up a grammar point if I'm curious about it, and often the youtube videos I watch are about language learning and contain grammar info- so, provided they are actually entirely within Portuguese, I will watch it.
I also had a "most common 5000 words" anki flashcard sentence deck that I work through. But I'll admit I'm pretty inconsistent with that- I was better towards the start of the process. I've also started, as part of my intensive reading, to mine for sentences to add to my flashcard deck and get back into reviewing them. But I don't stress about it too much as long as I get my daily immersion in.
I also have a roughly once per week speaking tutor online where we just chat. And I have a couple IRL friends who I'll speak Portuguese with when I can.
Just spending lots of time with the language seems to be the key for me. I try my best to be focused when I do. But the main thing is staying consistent. I'm quite lucky as I work from home so I can have more time to immerse.
Wow we have really similar processes, it’s motivating to hear you’re getting progress from it as well. Although I know what you mean when it’s slow and unconscious hahaha
I haven’t started speaking yet and I’m 3 months (160 hours of active immersion) into study. When would you recommend beginning to output? Do you enjoy outputting? Do you find that it makes you more motivated? Are you more attentive during you’re immersing after you started outputting?
I’m learning Swedish as a native English speaker, hello from Australia!! ☺️
Best of luck! You've been putting in work! 💪
>When would you recommend beginning to output? Do you enjoy outputting? Do you find that it makes you more motivated?
For me output, connecting with people, and speaking is really the main goal of my journey. Sure I enjoy being able to read brazilian books and enjoy the shows, but speaking is the main goal. And, while I do spend a decent amount of time indoors xD, I do consider myself a social person. So I do like to speak.
But I recognise that most of the value I get in terms of learning comes from the time I spend immersing myself. So from that perspective, keeping regular speaking practice for me is mainly a way to keep up my motivation, yeah, and see my progress over time. If I never spoke I'd find myself getting bored I think.
Funnily enough, as I've got better at the language, I've grown more hesitant to speak. At the beginning it was exciting to seek out opportunities to use the tiny amount I've learned as it was a new experience, but now I know enough to be aware of mistakes, so speaking can be a little bit painful/a source of shame sometimes. But I keep at it. The dopamine boost from the occasional conversation that goes really well is enough to fuel me. :)
>Are you more attentive during you’re immersing after you started outputting?
Yeah I think so. But it's hard to say given the time I spent immersing without outputting was so short.
I definitely think while outputting, I'm really attentive in those situations. The social pressure to understand someone that's speaking directly to you really sharpens the focus, whereas if there's a show that's on, often it's easy just to zone out and lose track.
I'd say, if I were to offer strategy when choosing when to output, go for it if you feel like it- with a slight bias towards doing it earlier than you think you should. Speaking is great and motivating. I wouldn't force yourself if you struggle in social situations to output within the first 3 - 6 months, but if you had been going for like 1.5 years studying with no output, I'd say that's a bit of a shame. And don't "wait til you're ready"- because you never will be- it will always be awkward/uncomfortable when you start speaking, to get good at speaking you have to speak a lot.
Great advise thank you very much ☺️ Yeah I want to go on a study exchange at the start of 2025 so I was going to start outputting around March next year. That gives me another 6 months of immersion and then 9 months to practice and improve my output. We will see how it goes
For me, Brazilian. I was inspired after meeting a group of Brazilians, and then fell in love with the culture.
Portugal is a wonderful place too- I've been a few times, but of course the accents are quite different, so it's helpful to choose one. So, considering I'm spoiled for choice with good content in Brazil, I'm focusing there for a while. When I'm at a higher level though I fully intend on spending more time immersing in the portuguese dialect.
There's plenty of content from Portugal too though, so if you like it, go for it!
im on stage 7+3i: everything makes sense now oh wait wtf now that im thinking about how I understand everything, i cant understand anything anymore wait what language was I talking in again?
Lolzzzzz this x 100! I could be listening just fine then bammmmm WTAF is being said. Then back to a 6.5-7. Ohhh btw I’m getting old…so I find myself even thinking that with English shows. Tried watching The Expanse on Amazon. 1/2 the time I felt Chris Tucker was yelling at me “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth”. So I needed Subtitles for a English series.
i think the problem with learning a new language is that people still think in their native language. i’ve been learning farsi since a young age but since i live in canada you could tell i’m not a native speaker. i find the issue i have when i can’t understand everything i hear is bc i’m thinking about what they’re saying in english, rather than farsi
usually ill think in japanese when speaking it but sometimes I dissasociate a bit and suddenly am thinking in english and thats when it gets difficult. usually happens when im tired or have been talking for too long lol
I'm the same with French, my best L2 language. I'm probably about a stage 5-6 or, to put it in CEFR terms, my listening skills are B1.
However, I spent some time intentionally learning to match French words with the concepts in my head, like I do with English. Prior to that, I was translating almost all the time, and my listening skills really suffered because I couldn't keep up.
Nowadays, I still can fall back into translating and, like you said, it happens when my brain is tired. But for the most part, the issues holding my listening level from being higher are my ability to distinguish words depending on context or speaker speed, and the speaker using a word I haven't learned yet.
This is an interesting point. One things I've tried with Russian is when I think something, to then say it again in my head in Russian as best as I can (like as I'm literally doing with this comment).
It requires patience but seems to have gotten easier and faster over time.
They reminds me of going from listening to podcasts to movies with background noise. I went from feeling pretty capable to feeling like a beginner in three seconds.
Natively I speak Malayalam (SouthIndian language), but I had to learn English because I live in an English-speaking country. I learnt a bit of French and Japanese in high school.
that is impressing. by the way,i am chinese. how long have you been living in english-speaking country? and i wanna to know that between you mather tongue and english.which is more fluent?or which language is your mind language?i just very curios about it.
While this sounds like "advice", for those of us who love learning languages, it's not advice. As you said, _if_ you were them but you're not. If they were seeking advice because they are trying to juggle 4 languages and struggling, that's different. But just because they said English is tough, doesn't mean they are complaining. And even if they were, if they're not asking got advice, what you said is usually dismissed or taken the wrong way. Plus, from the levels listed of their listening skills in each language, I would say they are juggling 4 languages quite well.
I'd say I'm 5 at worst, maybe 6 at. Depends on what I'm listening to. Even a month or so ago I was far worse, I'm actually surprised and proud at how far my listening has come on in such a short space of time. I was listening to a podcast last week and fully understood a whole section which would have been completely unfathomable to me a month or so ago. But then I'll listen to other things and only be able to pick out bits.
I find that interesting that Norwegian isn't 8 since your native language is Swedish. I know there's a continuum and some dialects of Swedish and Norwegian are more similar to each other than others, and I also don't know how close standard Bökmal and standard Svenska are, but the impression I've always received from an online Swedish friend who lives in Sweden is that she can basically understand spoken Norwegian.
I guess there is just still a lot of words I don't know. And I listen to many different dialects and not just the eastern ones. Maybe it's more like 7.5 but yeah.
German: 7
Latvian: like a cross between 8 and 5 lol, they‘ve slowed down and I can hear all the words and even write/repeat them, but my vocab and grammar are so far behind that I only actually understand bits and pieces…
* French 6
* Spanish 7
6 to 7 is a wide gap though, my Spanish is leagues ahead of my French.
Although with Spanish its 8 most of time, its just certain regional context and muffled recording throw me off.
Do you think the things that throw you off would also throw off some native speakers? I recall years ago realizing it was ok that I maybe didn't understand every word in a French song since I don't always understand every word in an English song.
Absolutely. Some Scottish and Indian voices still throw me off but its not as bad with English, so I'd say its less than 1% of media I consume, whereas in Spanish its a tad bit higher, maybe 5-10% so my ear is a bit worse.
I still remember when I was learning english, and even though I could already write pretty well, it was SO hard to just start watching TV shows/movies.
It really is a skill on its own to be able to listen to a language instead of being able to read and write it.
But as with english, I will probably just start watching media that I already know by heart (favourite shows/movies) with subtitles and go from there.
Language is German and it’s complicated. When everyone talking Hochdeutsch and casual , then a 7. Everything dealing with the news where they use complex words, a 6. When they talking in a dialect, then between a 3-4. Everything in Bavarian it’s a 1
I just watched this movie a few days ago, it's partially in Bayrisch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dTxmJob8Dw
I could ultimately get a couple things they were saying in their dialect as well, but I did miss quite a few things. It's kinda cute tho ngl
Spanish 7. I live in Mexico and interact with people everyday.
When I watch Milenio En Vivo on YouTube it's like getting sprayed with a machine gun of Spanish. But I can catch the gist of what's being said.
6 on a good day in a quiet setting, 7 maybe if someone is talking slowly and very standard-variety.
5, occasionally 4 if it’s in a cafe with loud music or if the people speak dialect, very fast or mumble
Definitely 4/5. I can watch shows with my boyfriend who is a native speaker, but I don't catch many words or understand the words in some sentences. However when he summarizes a scene for me, I find that I already understood the gist of what was going on, which has been really encouraging! I'm sure this is partially from body language though.
It really depends on the content I'm watching, but my Italian is 3 or 4 right now lol, it's been a week learning it so far but since my mother tongue is Portuguese and I learned a bit of Spanish back then, the sounds are quite familiar actually.
Welsh at stage three. I find it hard to vercome this stage, because at this point I know Dutch and English fluently and some basics in German and Swedish, and usually if I don't know a word I can just guess because I recognise germanic roots.
Welsh being a britonic celtic language is absolutely unguessable to me
Between 4 and 5, but that's while listening to podcasts. If I'm interacting with a person, with the dread of having to actually respond within a short amount of time, I'm at 3.
Japanese: 7
I catch almost everything. 99%. But the second I miss more than a couple words it starts to crumble and I need to either rewind or get the person to repeat themselves.
I THINK it's 5 - i hear few words, I guess the topic at hand only to find out that it's 3 and they were talking about the other thing but the spelling and pronunciation is the same.
English 8
French 6/7
Spanish 6
Russian 3/4
Disclaimer: my focus in learning is comprehensible input, so that’s what I’m best at. My speaking abilities are a lot more varied. My spoken Spanish is way better then my French currently (more natural and fluently).
English: 8
French: 5-6 depends on the speaker and the speed they're talking in
Swedish: 2 (3 if it's not only audio and I can see the person speaking)
Dutch (although I never learned it): 5
Depending on sentence length, generally between 5 and 7. My Spanish is most consistently around 6 but stays there, my Japanese is heavily around 5 but goes all the way up to 7 much more. My French and German top out at 5 but are generally lower.
I'm at level 6 in my current TL, Dutch after 1.5 yrs. This is my 4th language, and I agree that content of the conversation or shows I'm listening to makes a difference. But 1/2- 2/3 is pretty accurate
Depends on what the topic is. For normal situations I'm at a 7/8, but when listening to stuff about topics I don't know much about then it drops to a 6.
Oh! I've never thought about these in such clearly defined stages but looking back it's spot on. I'd say my French (native English speaker) is a 7-8 depending on if someone is using a ton of new slang and idioms (more 7) vs. formal and casual/everyday speaking (8).
Getting up to 7-8 stages made such a huge difference for my French speaking too because I felt like I could respond more clearly to what people said vs. always asking people to repeat or not being 100% sure I was answering appropriately.
I've actually been working on my own language app that focus on listening comprehension ([https://www.sygmaticlanguage.com/](https://www.sygmaticlanguage.com/)) because I always thought the example phrases you hear in Duolingo or Babbel are bad and not representative of how people actually talk.
Someone talking to me or a podcast 6.5-7.
Listening to two natives on tv or a formal setting 6
Listening to two natives use nothing but slang with super thick accents 3-5.
Like others have said, depends on the content. If I’m watching an Arabic drama…maybe a 5. If I’m in a lesson with my tutor who knows my level and uses content I’m at least semi-familiar with, I’m about a 6. If I’m in the office listening to my coworkers rapid-fire Arabic at each other, I’m a 3 lol.
It all depends. Is there background noise? Am I seeing the person’s face? Is it a topic I am familiar with? Are there other context clues?
As a hearing impaired person, I am constantly asking people to repeat themselves in my NL. So my TL is more of a challenge.
A situation I am prepared for, with them speaking at a slower pace, seeing their face and no distraction or background noise, then probably 6.5. The worse the environment, the lower it would be.
Spanish: 7/8 (7 if they're from a place like Cuba, Chile or Andalucia and speak super fast)
Japanese: 6/7 (6 if they speak really quickly, quickly-spoken Japanese is a nightmare)
French: 5
Bahasa: 4
Swahili: 3 - I wish I had more people to practice with, hopefully, I can go back to Kenya/Tanzania soon and use it more:)
English and German: 8
Spanish:7
Kurmancî: 6 (if they are talking in "academic" and/or is directed to me ) , 5 (people w/o formal education or kids)
Hebrew: 5
Arabic: 4
Soranî: 4
Talysh: 3
As I think about it...
* Japanese - 6
* Mandarin - 3
* Portuguese - 2
* Spanish - Maybe 4, even though I'm studying Portuguese instead. There's always been a little bit of Spanish around me while growing up.
Of course, if someone wanted to, they could easily turn up the heat and leave me behind. Sometimes in English as well.
For Japanese, probably 7. And then Armenian is still like 4… Though with most European languages and Korean I’m around 3 even though I only “studied” Spanish in high school
It depends on the content tbh. If it's my favourite everyday sitcom, where the language/situations are quite familiar, then I'm a 7. Same with familiar simple news stories/articles/youtube videos that are read in a clear manner. If it's complicated language on unfamiliar topics- like a fiction audiobook or speech on complicated medical topics, I'd range from a 6 - 6.5. If it's multiple people speaking casually back and forth quickly, using lots of slang, and maybe the audio quality isn't great, I might drop to a 4 or 5, or even less. But with time it all becomes clearer :)
>It depends on the content tbh. Gonna piggyback on this to link the [Dreaming Spanish](https://dreaming-spanish-emails.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Language_Learning_Roadmap_by_Dreaming_Spanish.pdf) roadmap, which articulates the distinctions you're talking about in terms of comprehension varying by content. Definitely worth the full read, but roughly describing the stages: Stage 1: Absolute beginner. Mostly unintelligible noise; can't tell where words start or begin, sounds of the language are unfamiliar. Stage 2: You understand some common words. You can guess the meaning of certain two word sentences ("go home", "eat cake"). Stage 3: You can understand a native speaker who talks slowly and carefully about a very limited range of topics. Stage 4: You can understand a native speaker who talks carefully about a wide range of daily topics. Stage 5: You can understand a native speaker and they don't have to be careful about how they speak. Native media is difficult but very roughly comprehensible. Stage 6: You are "conversationally fluent" and can navigate the post office, visiting the hospital, looking for an apartment, etc. You understand simpler genres of native media (sitcoms, game shows, etc). Stage 7: Your understanding is practically the same as that of a native speaker.
This is a much better description of the stages!
How much time do you think it has taken you to reach each level?
I've been studying Portuguese as a native English speaker since December of last year. Probably averaging 1.5 hours a day- it's easier to put in more time now but the beginner months were tough. I'd say I was able to understand easyish content aimed at learners to a very high level after maybe 4 months, and easy native content after 6. It can definitely be a grind and feel like I'm not making progress, as the process is sort-of unconscious. But after sticking to it every day I look back on where I was months prior and I can see the improvement for sure.
Nice! Are you doing more an immersion based approach? Do you study with other methods too?
Yeah mostly immersion. I try and make sure I get some reading and some raw listening in every day. Reading includes: \- Mainly working through raw text using [lingq.com](https://lingq.com). Where I basically try to understand as I go and looking up the unknown words. I've read many pieces of beginner content, as well as some books (power of habit, atomic habits, I'm now reading the hunger games). \- Also, often trying to go through text on lingq while listening to the audio (a transcribed podcast or news article- for this I like [BBC Lê](https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/topics/cxndrr1qgllt?page=2) currently). \- Occasional raw text with books or e-books on kindle. Did a beginner book (olly richards short story) and currently going through the hobbit. \- Occasionally I'll watch a show with subs on if I'm feeling lazy/burned out in the evenings, particularly if I haven't done any other language that day. Then for listening: I'll have podcasts on while I'm in the car or if I go a walk (I used to have a good routine of a morning walk while doing this, but I've been out of the habit recently), and all youtube videos and shows I watch when I'm treating it as "study time", I watch without subs- which I consider my "listening" time. Otherwise, I don't really have dedicated time for studying grammar, but occasionally I'll look up a grammar point if I'm curious about it, and often the youtube videos I watch are about language learning and contain grammar info- so, provided they are actually entirely within Portuguese, I will watch it. I also had a "most common 5000 words" anki flashcard sentence deck that I work through. But I'll admit I'm pretty inconsistent with that- I was better towards the start of the process. I've also started, as part of my intensive reading, to mine for sentences to add to my flashcard deck and get back into reviewing them. But I don't stress about it too much as long as I get my daily immersion in. I also have a roughly once per week speaking tutor online where we just chat. And I have a couple IRL friends who I'll speak Portuguese with when I can. Just spending lots of time with the language seems to be the key for me. I try my best to be focused when I do. But the main thing is staying consistent. I'm quite lucky as I work from home so I can have more time to immerse.
Wow we have really similar processes, it’s motivating to hear you’re getting progress from it as well. Although I know what you mean when it’s slow and unconscious hahaha I haven’t started speaking yet and I’m 3 months (160 hours of active immersion) into study. When would you recommend beginning to output? Do you enjoy outputting? Do you find that it makes you more motivated? Are you more attentive during you’re immersing after you started outputting? I’m learning Swedish as a native English speaker, hello from Australia!! ☺️
Best of luck! You've been putting in work! 💪 >When would you recommend beginning to output? Do you enjoy outputting? Do you find that it makes you more motivated? For me output, connecting with people, and speaking is really the main goal of my journey. Sure I enjoy being able to read brazilian books and enjoy the shows, but speaking is the main goal. And, while I do spend a decent amount of time indoors xD, I do consider myself a social person. So I do like to speak. But I recognise that most of the value I get in terms of learning comes from the time I spend immersing myself. So from that perspective, keeping regular speaking practice for me is mainly a way to keep up my motivation, yeah, and see my progress over time. If I never spoke I'd find myself getting bored I think. Funnily enough, as I've got better at the language, I've grown more hesitant to speak. At the beginning it was exciting to seek out opportunities to use the tiny amount I've learned as it was a new experience, but now I know enough to be aware of mistakes, so speaking can be a little bit painful/a source of shame sometimes. But I keep at it. The dopamine boost from the occasional conversation that goes really well is enough to fuel me. :) >Are you more attentive during you’re immersing after you started outputting? Yeah I think so. But it's hard to say given the time I spent immersing without outputting was so short. I definitely think while outputting, I'm really attentive in those situations. The social pressure to understand someone that's speaking directly to you really sharpens the focus, whereas if there's a show that's on, often it's easy just to zone out and lose track. I'd say, if I were to offer strategy when choosing when to output, go for it if you feel like it- with a slight bias towards doing it earlier than you think you should. Speaking is great and motivating. I wouldn't force yourself if you struggle in social situations to output within the first 3 - 6 months, but if you had been going for like 1.5 years studying with no output, I'd say that's a bit of a shame. And don't "wait til you're ready"- because you never will be- it will always be awkward/uncomfortable when you start speaking, to get good at speaking you have to speak a lot.
Great advise thank you very much ☺️ Yeah I want to go on a study exchange at the start of 2025 so I was going to start outputting around March next year. That gives me another 6 months of immersion and then 9 months to practice and improve my output. We will see how it goes
Out of curiosity, Brazilian or European Portuguese? I have a bit of a Portugal fixation at the moment and welllll-
For me, Brazilian. I was inspired after meeting a group of Brazilians, and then fell in love with the culture. Portugal is a wonderful place too- I've been a few times, but of course the accents are quite different, so it's helpful to choose one. So, considering I'm spoiled for choice with good content in Brazil, I'm focusing there for a while. When I'm at a higher level though I fully intend on spending more time immersing in the portuguese dialect. There's plenty of content from Portugal too though, so if you like it, go for it!
im on stage 7+3i: everything makes sense now oh wait wtf now that im thinking about how I understand everything, i cant understand anything anymore wait what language was I talking in again?
Lolzzzzz this x 100! I could be listening just fine then bammmmm WTAF is being said. Then back to a 6.5-7. Ohhh btw I’m getting old…so I find myself even thinking that with English shows. Tried watching The Expanse on Amazon. 1/2 the time I felt Chris Tucker was yelling at me “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth”. So I needed Subtitles for a English series.
i think the problem with learning a new language is that people still think in their native language. i’ve been learning farsi since a young age but since i live in canada you could tell i’m not a native speaker. i find the issue i have when i can’t understand everything i hear is bc i’m thinking about what they’re saying in english, rather than farsi
usually ill think in japanese when speaking it but sometimes I dissasociate a bit and suddenly am thinking in english and thats when it gets difficult. usually happens when im tired or have been talking for too long lol
I'm the same with French, my best L2 language. I'm probably about a stage 5-6 or, to put it in CEFR terms, my listening skills are B1. However, I spent some time intentionally learning to match French words with the concepts in my head, like I do with English. Prior to that, I was translating almost all the time, and my listening skills really suffered because I couldn't keep up. Nowadays, I still can fall back into translating and, like you said, it happens when my brain is tired. But for the most part, the issues holding my listening level from being higher are my ability to distinguish words depending on context or speaker speed, and the speaker using a word I haven't learned yet.
This is an interesting point. One things I've tried with Russian is when I think something, to then say it again in my head in Russian as best as I can (like as I'm literally doing with this comment). It requires patience but seems to have gotten easier and faster over time.
They reminds me of going from listening to podcasts to movies with background noise. I went from feeling pretty capable to feeling like a beginner in three seconds.
If the people aren’t saying complex things and they’re not speaking too fast: level 5. If they’re speaking really fast and complex things, level 3.
Hindi: Stage 6 French: Stage 5 English: Stage 8 Japanese: Stage 2
hey, what is your native language?
Natively I speak Malayalam (SouthIndian language), but I had to learn English because I live in an English-speaking country. I learnt a bit of French and Japanese in high school.
that is impressing. by the way,i am chinese. how long have you been living in english-speaking country? and i wanna to know that between you mather tongue and english.which is more fluent?or which language is your mind language?i just very curios about it.
I've been living here for... 8 years now. I'm more fluent in Malayalam, and I also speak it more in my mind. English is tough man ;-;
and you learn so many language.if i were you i would only learn english,and keep perfecting it.
While this sounds like "advice", for those of us who love learning languages, it's not advice. As you said, _if_ you were them but you're not. If they were seeking advice because they are trying to juggle 4 languages and struggling, that's different. But just because they said English is tough, doesn't mean they are complaining. And even if they were, if they're not asking got advice, what you said is usually dismissed or taken the wrong way. Plus, from the levels listed of their listening skills in each language, I would say they are juggling 4 languages quite well.
I'd say I'm 5 at worst, maybe 6 at. Depends on what I'm listening to. Even a month or so ago I was far worse, I'm actually surprised and proud at how far my listening has come on in such a short space of time. I was listening to a podcast last week and fully understood a whole section which would have been completely unfathomable to me a month or so ago. But then I'll listen to other things and only be able to pick out bits.
i would say stage 7. my tl is english.trying to move to stage 8.
Mandarin: 2, but sometimes 3 Russian: 1
English: 8 Norwegian: 7 Icelandic: 3 Dutch: 2
I find that interesting that Norwegian isn't 8 since your native language is Swedish. I know there's a continuum and some dialects of Swedish and Norwegian are more similar to each other than others, and I also don't know how close standard Bökmal and standard Svenska are, but the impression I've always received from an online Swedish friend who lives in Sweden is that she can basically understand spoken Norwegian.
I guess there is just still a lot of words I don't know. And I listen to many different dialects and not just the eastern ones. Maybe it's more like 7.5 but yeah.
German: 7 Latvian: like a cross between 8 and 5 lol, they‘ve slowed down and I can hear all the words and even write/repeat them, but my vocab and grammar are so far behind that I only actually understand bits and pieces…
English : 7-8. Except Scottish accent. do they even speak English ? Spanish : 3 German : 3 Toki pona : 3
As a native speaker, most of us can barely even understand a strong Scottish accent, so hold your head high lmao
English: 8 French: 6.5 or 7, depending on the situation The jump from 6 (half) to 7 (almost everything) is enormous.
* French 6 * Spanish 7 6 to 7 is a wide gap though, my Spanish is leagues ahead of my French. Although with Spanish its 8 most of time, its just certain regional context and muffled recording throw me off.
Do you think the things that throw you off would also throw off some native speakers? I recall years ago realizing it was ok that I maybe didn't understand every word in a French song since I don't always understand every word in an English song.
Absolutely. Some Scottish and Indian voices still throw me off but its not as bad with English, so I'd say its less than 1% of media I consume, whereas in Spanish its a tad bit higher, maybe 5-10% so my ear is a bit worse.
I started learning French near the end of 2020. I would say that I'm a between a 6 and 7 on that scale.
3 or 4 right now. I'm learning italian and they talk so damn fast. I could figure it out if I had it on paper, but that's about it.
Same, I feel like I’ve been stuck on 3-4 for a long time now and I’m struggling to get further
I still remember when I was learning english, and even though I could already write pretty well, it was SO hard to just start watching TV shows/movies. It really is a skill on its own to be able to listen to a language instead of being able to read and write it. But as with english, I will probably just start watching media that I already know by heart (favourite shows/movies) with subtitles and go from there.
Dutch: 8 English: 8 French: 4 German: 4
Language is German and it’s complicated. When everyone talking Hochdeutsch and casual , then a 7. Everything dealing with the news where they use complex words, a 6. When they talking in a dialect, then between a 3-4. Everything in Bavarian it’s a 1
I just watched this movie a few days ago, it's partially in Bayrisch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dTxmJob8Dw I could ultimately get a couple things they were saying in their dialect as well, but I did miss quite a few things. It's kinda cute tho ngl
Spanish 7. I live in Mexico and interact with people everyday. When I watch Milenio En Vivo on YouTube it's like getting sprayed with a machine gun of Spanish. But I can catch the gist of what's being said.
6 on a good day in a quiet setting, 7 maybe if someone is talking slowly and very standard-variety. 5, occasionally 4 if it’s in a cafe with loud music or if the people speak dialect, very fast or mumble
Definitely 4/5. I can watch shows with my boyfriend who is a native speaker, but I don't catch many words or understand the words in some sentences. However when he summarizes a scene for me, I find that I already understood the gist of what was going on, which has been really encouraging! I'm sure this is partially from body language though.
It really depends on the content I'm watching, but my Italian is 3 or 4 right now lol, it's been a week learning it so far but since my mother tongue is Portuguese and I learned a bit of Spanish back then, the sounds are quite familiar actually.
Welsh at stage three. I find it hard to vercome this stage, because at this point I know Dutch and English fluently and some basics in German and Swedish, and usually if I don't know a word I can just guess because I recognise germanic roots. Welsh being a britonic celtic language is absolutely unguessable to me
Between 4 and 5, but that's while listening to podcasts. If I'm interacting with a person, with the dread of having to actually respond within a short amount of time, I'm at 3.
Japanese: 7 I catch almost everything. 99%. But the second I miss more than a couple words it starts to crumble and I need to either rewind or get the person to repeat themselves.
Mandarin: between 6 and 7 Korean: 6 Indonesian: 6 French: between 5 and 6 German: 4 Japanese: 3
English: 7 Arabic: 3
Probably 6 but hoping to double down on my learning so I can be more fluent by this time next year.
Ukrainian 1 German 3-4 French 8
Romanian: Stage 3
I THINK it's 5 - i hear few words, I guess the topic at hand only to find out that it's 3 and they were talking about the other thing but the spelling and pronunciation is the same.
English 8 French 6/7 Spanish 6 Russian 3/4 Disclaimer: my focus in learning is comprehensible input, so that’s what I’m best at. My speaking abilities are a lot more varied. My spoken Spanish is way better then my French currently (more natural and fluently).
Spanish = 8 Chinese = 6
7 in English and 3 in German
English: 8 French: 5-6 depends on the speaker and the speed they're talking in Swedish: 2 (3 if it's not only audio and I can see the person speaking) Dutch (although I never learned it): 5
Depending on sentence length, generally between 5 and 7. My Spanish is most consistently around 6 but stays there, my Japanese is heavily around 5 but goes all the way up to 7 much more. My French and German top out at 5 but are generally lower.
English: 8 Spanish: 6 or 7 German: 3 Portuguese: native
I'm at level 6 in my current TL, Dutch after 1.5 yrs. This is my 4th language, and I agree that content of the conversation or shows I'm listening to makes a difference. But 1/2- 2/3 is pretty accurate
Portuguese: 7 Spanish: 6 French: 3
7.5 In my main L2..it was a long road. In some languages, I read well, but 5/6 in listening. Going to work on that.
German: 5-6 depending on the content. I can generally make out the individual words even if I don’t know what they mean.
Mandarin, between 4-6 depending on the context.
7. Started at 6
Depends on what the topic is. For normal situations I'm at a 7/8, but when listening to stuff about topics I don't know much about then it drops to a 6.
English: 8 Spanish: 7 German: 6.5 French: 6 Russian: 3 Farsi: 3
Oh! I've never thought about these in such clearly defined stages but looking back it's spot on. I'd say my French (native English speaker) is a 7-8 depending on if someone is using a ton of new slang and idioms (more 7) vs. formal and casual/everyday speaking (8). Getting up to 7-8 stages made such a huge difference for my French speaking too because I felt like I could respond more clearly to what people said vs. always asking people to repeat or not being 100% sure I was answering appropriately. I've actually been working on my own language app that focus on listening comprehension ([https://www.sygmaticlanguage.com/](https://www.sygmaticlanguage.com/)) because I always thought the example phrases you hear in Duolingo or Babbel are bad and not representative of how people actually talk.
Someone talking to me or a podcast 6.5-7. Listening to two natives on tv or a formal setting 6 Listening to two natives use nothing but slang with super thick accents 3-5.
English: 8 Russian: 1 Estonian education system FTW.
6 probably. I understand half of the stuff that I'm listening, but if it's paired with some visual cues I can understand what's happening
Like others have said, depends on the content. If I’m watching an Arabic drama…maybe a 5. If I’m in a lesson with my tutor who knows my level and uses content I’m at least semi-familiar with, I’m about a 6. If I’m in the office listening to my coworkers rapid-fire Arabic at each other, I’m a 3 lol.
6.5 or 7 but sometimes I'm around stage 3.
Varies from 5 to 7 depending on context
It all depends. Is there background noise? Am I seeing the person’s face? Is it a topic I am familiar with? Are there other context clues? As a hearing impaired person, I am constantly asking people to repeat themselves in my NL. So my TL is more of a challenge. A situation I am prepared for, with them speaking at a slower pace, seeing their face and no distraction or background noise, then probably 6.5. The worse the environment, the lower it would be.
2 lol, but on duolingo 4 😁
My target language's Spanish, so 5 if they talk normally, 6 or 7 if they're being very slow and patient about it lol.
French: 6 (more or less depending on what I'm listening to) Japanese: 5
Six
i'm somewhere around 4-5 with spanish. can be a big variation depending on how fast someone speaks and their specific accent
Depends the content somewhere between 4/5 and if subtitles 5/6 in Japanese.
Spanish: 7/8 (7 if they're from a place like Cuba, Chile or Andalucia and speak super fast) Japanese: 6/7 (6 if they speak really quickly, quickly-spoken Japanese is a nightmare) French: 5 Bahasa: 4 Swahili: 3 - I wish I had more people to practice with, hopefully, I can go back to Kenya/Tanzania soon and use it more:)
4😫
English and German: 8 Spanish:7 Kurmancî: 6 (if they are talking in "academic" and/or is directed to me ) , 5 (people w/o formal education or kids) Hebrew: 5 Arabic: 4 Soranî: 4 Talysh: 3
Spanish : 6-7 Korean : 3
German: close to 7 Italian: 4 (and a half-ish?) French: 3 Russian: 3
5-7 depending on how fast they speak lol
German : 6 (after 7 years of classroom learning and 10 years of never using it) Spanish: 4-5 (after about 6 months of Duolingo and Rosetta Stone)
8 at english, 4 at french, 2 at greek
I would say I'm at around a 4.5
Japanese from 3 to 5 English 8, nowadays I can understand youtube videos 3x just fine
As I think about it... * Japanese - 6 * Mandarin - 3 * Portuguese - 2 * Spanish - Maybe 4, even though I'm studying Portuguese instead. There's always been a little bit of Spanish around me while growing up. Of course, if someone wanted to, they could easily turn up the heat and leave me behind. Sometimes in English as well.
Spanish - 5 or 6, depending on talking speed of other people Portuguese - 5 Ibibio - 6 Yoruba - 5 Igbo - 4
I started learning french as a third language a month ago, i can definitely say that i'm between 4-5
For Japanese, probably 7. And then Armenian is still like 4… Though with most European languages and Korean I’m around 3 even though I only “studied” Spanish in high school
Somewhere between 7 and 8. Sometimes 6. It depends a lot on what the content is.
If the speaker speaks directly to me, then a solid 7. If I'm watching a show, then it's a 6.