i've had more progress on my target language than ever since i gave up suffering on language learning apps. i came to understand that all of them, hell, almost every course, is inefficient — they are based on misconceptions about learning stemming from schooling. all of them are enshittified — no ethical organization would sell them. we could be spending our time better
you know how you acquired your first language without thinking about it? contrary to popular belief, that ‹module› never shuts off, even in your daily life — think how you can learn slang and jargon from your surroundings, or fancy vocabulary from books and articles. in hindsight this is obvious to me, because i learnt english as a kid automatically too. you're reading the result of hundreds of hours of minecraft videos, which i didn't even take note of as helping me reach fluency
these courses, on the other hand, will take years to prepare you for basic conversations. at the beginning of this year i started watching a lot of high german media and by the second half of it i could understand everything you could throw at me. that comes after years of being the worst kid in german class, unable to comprehend anything. i kept trying out apps, but i never kept the learning up, because they felt like a chore. even if i didn't, what i would've gotten out of them is laughable. duolingo says that such a timeframe would get me to a1 — the very beginning stage. our memories just aren't that great.
speaking practice, the conventional solution to these inefficiencies, feels like an unnecessary effort. for years i barely spoke english, but when time came to use it i didn't struggle once. coming back to how we learned our first languages, for the first few years of our lives we simply listened. understanding is more tied to speaking than you think: we all use words and structures that just ‹sound right›. that gut feeling is necessary for comfortable use of the language, and translating in your head doesn't help set it on. at worst, it could fossilize your mistakes (think how you can repeat a word you misread once for years)
so my call to action is to counter the language learning industry's marketing, and stop learning languages, like we learn math, instead getting to know them, like we get to know other beings. being surrounded and entertained by the language is the fun way, the historical way, the way of every polyglot, and what all successful learners have in common, even if they attribute their success to ‹hard work›. if you'd like to see how that could work firsthand, there is even a way for you to learn a whole language by spending just 20 minutes a day for a month — see jan telakoman's toki pona series
put into practice
when starting your own journey you may look into similar material for learners if it exists and you feel would be interesting. but i don't think media for natives should be avoided! just try to get as much exposure to the language as possible. look for books, movies, tv shows, podcasts, popular creators on youtube, even games. publicly funded media libraries are a gem. seeing translations of works you've already seen works just as well. repetition can do wonders in general. my tip is to always turn on target language subtitles and to change the language on all of your devices.
in the beginnings you may feel like you're not progressing much, because unlike schooling-inspired processes, you don't learn a specific 10 words or a grammar structure with each video: you're acquiring 1/100th of hundreds of words and a bit of each grammar structure subconciously, gradually. but with time you will get to start enjoying the media in its fullest, and unlock a hobby.
this all is not to say i reject memorization wholly! in the beginning stages i supplementally study vocabulary via a spaced repetition system. it can make you roughly understand the jist of the text quicker, which will in turn get you actually acquiring sooner, but it is a fully optional boost that won't work alone. the overuse of memory will be exhausting and futile, especially with grammar, which i avoid completely. it may be of more use in complex, distant languages, but even then the mainstream courses can do a bad job