this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026

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Multilingual people of Lemmy who learned a language (or multiple) as adults, how did you do it? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 6 hours ago by user224@lemmy.sdf.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I wish we as society could simply have one language to overcome language barriers, but that's more of a content for my daydreaming.

I often encounter issues due to language barriers.
Mainly with 2 languages.

Since the start of war, I've been encountering lots of Ukrainians I can't really speak with. Especially when I was on a dorm, where they were a great majority.
Not that I tend to talk with people, but I felt weird after a while.
Probably like someone who doesn't speak Spanish in the US (at least I assume that's fairly common over there).

And now searching for a job, I found many companies want you to know German.
Which I also encountered as "would've been useful now" a few times.

Seems like I should know an answer to this, as English isn't my first language, but I have no fucking idea how I picked it up. I never made any serious attempt (i.e.: studying for more than a week) to learn it.

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[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

My second language was German - then I was forced to pick up a third in high school. It was English...
I sucked in both those mainly because I didn't want to learn. I chalk it up for my undiagnosed dyslexia - that didn't help to make it fun at all.

What made me to stick to English is: everything was English on the Internet, all the games and so on.
Then I wanted to read some not yet translated book series so went to read in English. I wasn't speaking it.
Then moved to the big old USA and now I'm 99% English only. I do understand some German but ohh boy did it move into passive knowledge...

So when you have no choice you will learn. (Tho there are so many people who don't speak English and proud of it... That's the one thing I can't wrap my head around. How can be proud of your refusal to learn.)

Edit: forgot to recommend something - I believe it is phenomenal in some cases: language transfer I tried the English to Spanish and it is amazing for a native English speaker - hut there is value for non native speaker also!

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Both you and OP would never be thought of as a non-english speaker. You guys really picked it up.

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Appreciate the compliment!
My accent is really strong and that won't change. I don't have the ability to do that.
Interesting to note: I noticed that native US speakers actually struggle more to understand really strong accented second language English.
They don't have a problem with the southern deep deep "crocodile hunter" English, but watch something with a very strong accented English - even some Ted talks - and they start to struggle.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago

I struggle with Scottish, but I think that's because they have a lot of slang mixed into the typical English words. If they took those out, I would hope I would get the rhythm. Japanese accents can sometimes be hard, but most of the time I have no issue. That might be a speed issue as well. I think exposure has a ton to do with it.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I've had coworkers look me in the face and claim that they simply can't understand what someone is saying if they have an accent. I happily take all the calls they don't want to bother putting even a little effort towards.

Of course they never struggle with southern accents and the like.