Plateaus

[Flexichick]

I'm getting frustrated because I think I'm hitting a learning plateau.

I studied a little bit in high school and college, and then nothing for 15 years. Now I've been studying again for 2-3 years and sometimes I think I understand a lot and other times, nothing :(

I'm surrounding myself with tons of Spanish - magazines, books, TV shows, podcasts (por supuesto!). I put the Spanish subtitles on all of the movies I watch.

So, some days I'm going along just fine and then I study something like direct v. indirect objects and I have a meltdown and feel like I know nothing again.

Somebody please tell me about your plateaus. I don't want to have a pity party all by myself ;D ;D ;D

[richardksa]

Plateaus! That infers the level remains constant. Some days I think I have dipped right down to complete ignorance and forgotten everything I have ever learned. I listen to a NIS podcast and think, "Great! I understood nearly all of that", and pat myself on the back. Next day I don't understand any of it. Somewhere on the internet there must be a learnéd treatise on learning that explains the psychology of this. One day you're riding high, the next day - nada! But oh! the good days are fantastic; those days when you understand the lot. It has been mentioned before on this forum - can't remember where. We all suffer from it. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. (Followed by theme from the twilight zone!):rolleyes:

[Edith]

Plateaus! (...) We all suffer from it. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. (Followed by theme from the twilight zone!):rolleyes:

:clap: Hear hear

When I'm having a 'bad hair day' I even feel my Spanish listening skills are going down the drain... I understand less and I can't concentrate. Dunno why. I'd like to know more about the psychology behind this phenomenon, too. What is it which makes us feel we aren't making any progress?

[Brian]

I'm with you all. There are good ear days, and bad ear days for the non-native speaker. I think that it just takes total immersion to pick up all of it. I recall Ben posting that after X years in Spain, he is able to pick up 80-90% of the newscast, which, considering that they speak muy rapido, is quite an accomplishment.

It's maddening, though.

[Flexichick]

I'm curious to know how many years for Ben. I think I've read it can take most people 8 years or so to become really fluent. But, hey, I'm from NY, we expect to do things faster ;D

[richardksa]

Gary's a teacher. Perhaps he can explain.

And it's not just language learning. I have been riding a steep learning curve in management tools and spreadsheets this year and at the end of July felt proud to have prepared all the end of month reports without a mistake. (A first, I will admit!;) ) At the end of August I opened a spreadsheet and just stared. Where should I start? What goes where? What are the names of the people I've worked with for the past ten years?? Talk about a vacuum between the ears.

I walked away from the computer annd came back two hours later and it all made sense again. Oh dear!!!

[Brian]

I think, too, that as we age, it's more of a strain to re-train the brain's ingrained paths. Not impossible, but certainly, it's more difficult.

[guapo]

I guess it also depends on what you mean by fluent. It took me two years of hard work and total immersion through actually living in Italy to achieve what I would consider to be fluency in Italian. Even after 8 years my English accent is still detectable and probably always will be.

My expectations with Spanish are lower. Unless I get the chance to move to Spain I don´t expect to get to the same level because I don´t get as much chance to speak and hear Spanish. Of course, that does not stop me enjoying all things Spanish culture can offer whilst I am learning.

[Edith]

It's maddening, though.

Very much so. I have been watching Spanish TV series for three years now and some of the dialogues still mystify me. :( This depends on who is speaking, though.

[Brian]

There's fluency, and then there's speaking natively. I'm not certain if we can ever expect to speak and hear like a native, but certainly, we can be fluido.

[guapo]

I´d certainly settle for fluido - don't always manage that in English :p

Read somewhere once that you had to have learnt a language by the time you were twelve to really be a native speaker. So it is way too late for me....

[Edith]

I think, too, that as we age, it's more of a strain to re-train the brain's ingrained paths. Not impossible, but certainly, it's more difficult.

But being able to live there would certainly make a difference.

[Brian]

But being able to live there would certainly make a difference.


Right. As I said in that post:

I think that it just takes total immersion to pick up all of it.