If you’re like me and you’ve fallen in love with another language, you know how crazy hard it can be sometimes to understand what exactly you’re supposed to be learning. I breathe, eat and dream vocabulary flashcards and grammar charts just so I can maybe, kind of, sort of understand a movie without subtitles or a conversation I overhear in the grocery store. Some days working on my language skills is the toughest thing and I wonder why I ever wanted to pursue this. Other days I understand so much that I fall in love all over again. If you’re dreaming of fluency in another language, you’re sure to have experienced all of these things at least once.
You totally understood what that family was talking about at the grocery store.
You probably laugh to yourself when this happens just because you’re so excited that you do know something.
Your professor decides to stop speaking in English for the rest of the class but you haven’t had your coffee yet.
You can either avoid eye contact or try to laugh at the right times; either way your professor will know you don't get it.
You try to think everything in both languages…and then get really excited when you actually do it without trying.
You think “Yes! This is it! I’m so close to being fluent!” But then ten minutes later you pick up your homework and feel completely lost.
You thought you understood that one thing, but you failed the quiz.
It probably ruined your day the first few times this happened but now you just brush it off and tell yourself to study more next time.
You learn a song really, really well and annoy your roommate by singing it so much.
It’s an exciting moment that I can comprehend and repeat all of these words okay?
You try to turn off the subtitles on the foreign film you have to watch for class.
Sometimes you know exactly what’s happening but sometimes you immediately turn them back on.
Your computer gets confused because you keep switching languages in your documents.
Excuse me, computer, aren’t you supposed to be smarter than me? Keep up!
You feel really smart when you visit home and use a bunch of random words you’ve learned, but that none of your family understands.
Sorry, I just love knowing that I could potentially use these words at any given time!
But it’s super annoying when someone randomly asks you to say something in the language you’re learning.
What do you mean? What do you even want me to say? I can’t just do that! (But really, I just can’t think of anything that sounds impressive)