When We Were Killers
The salt-scented quadrangles of St Andrews University greet misfit first-year student Finn Nethercott with indifference. It is a place where
Overcoming the Intermediate Plateau
∘₊✧───✧₊∘Why You’re Stuck and How to Break Free∘₊✧───✧₊∘
We’ve all been there — downloading Duolingo with a new language-learning goal and bright ambition. Sailing through the entire first unit, learning the basics are a breeze.
But then… slowly… things stop feeling… new. Maybe they aren’t getting harder, per se, but the language learning progress just isn’t the same. It feels… stagnant.
Somehow it feels like no matter how many new words you learn, every time you turn on an anime, it’s all Greek. Sure, you can say words and phrases, but even after all the progress, it feels like you’re still pulling out your translator for every sentence. In the midst of it all, it seems like every single grammar point you learn to take a step closer towards the door of fluency actually extends the path to arriving there. Every single incorrect flashcard rep reminds you how much you really don’t know still.
So after all the time and effort you’ve put into your language learning, why does fluency feel like an illusion? And why do we feel ‘stuck’ when learning a language?
Reaching ‘fluency’ as a finality is a common language learning goal. Many people assume fluency = effortless speaking, but that’s not how language learning works. The brain processes and becomes ‘fluent’ differently at different stages.
The idea that I can ‘fluently’ express myself on certain topics while remaining not-so-fluent in regards to other topics is certainly a very real dilemma in the language learning journey. It’s almost like the easy topics are too easy, yet the hard topics are too hard… so… an intermediate level…
But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. In terms of language learning goals, while wanting to be able to perfectly utilize every aspect of a language at any given moment is indeed a dream, how realistic and measurable is this really? When we say ‘fluent’, what do we mean?
Let’s look at how we should define fluency
Fluency certainly does not equate to speaking perfectly (At least, if this is how we were to define fluency, then based on the amount of business emails I’ve received from native English speakers conflating ‘too’, ‘two’, and ‘to’; ‘their, ‘they’re’ and ‘there’; and ‘your’ and ‘you’re’, then I’d feel pretty confident in saying a large body of native-English speakers are not fluent in English).
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