It shouldn't be this hard
I’ve met thousands of language learners in my life. Literally.
And guess what? The vast majority of them are stuck and never reach the level of fluency they long for. It genuinely bugs me! Why hasn’t anyone been able to help them? Why are they struggling so much?
I can feel that thirst for fluency - and I relate to it.
Almost all resources are tailored to “casual” learners. But what about those of us who are really serious about this? Those of us who deeply desire the personal growth and transformation that comes with becoming bilingual? Don’t we matter too?
I’m usually let down by language teachers and self-study resources.
I’ll never forget the first two Mandarin courses I took. I was going to Beijing and thought I should learn some Mandarin before going. It took me 8 months to complete the two courses. They were quite intense: 3 days a week with homework between lessons and graded exams. I was working full-time too as a General Manager of a window cleaning franchise. Suffice to say I was busy.
The classes weren’t bad, but they did leave me underprepared.
For example, while in Beijing:
I was told my writing looked like “chicken scratch”
A shopkeeper mocked me when I opened my mouth to speak
I struggled to make friends
Some days in Beijing were so daunting I avoided leaving my bedroom.
At least there I was safe. Outside felt so scary and emotionally dangerous.
In the end, I was still able to successfully become rather fluent in Mandarin, but sometimes it seemed to me that I learned in spite of my classes and self-study resources; almost like I had dug a giant hole with nothing but a teaspoon.
It shouldn’t be like this. Not in the slightest.
Honestly, here’s what I would love in a language program. I crave it so deeply and can’t find anything that is structured like this. It’s so frustrating that I had to go and make a language program like this at the Calgary Language Nerds.
Manageable workload. For me that means 2 hours of class + 1 hour of homework per week. I would want the classes to be private.
Straightforward path to full fluency. I don’t just want to be conversational. I want someone to tell me exactly what to expect from zero to hero. I want full fluency.
Predictable timeline. I think about 6 months or so is reasonable to be conversational and about 2 years to be fluent.
Accurate fluency tracking. I want oral and listening tests that actually correlate to real-world fluency - not written tests. I would want to know what fluency means and I should be able to measurably see my progress.
I dream of a day where classes like this are commonplace.
For now, it looks like I can only learn languages from a tutor I personally hire and train, if I want an ideal learning experience. But maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to one day create a training platform and make this style of program more widespread.
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