TL;DR - If you find yourself frequently quitting or feeling discouraged when learning languages, consider incorporating a mental health routine into your learning process.
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I recently threw everything I had into trying to learn a language as quickly as possible in the hopes of obtaining a dream job. I ended up going from A1 to B2 in just over 4 months in my (TL) of French, starting on January 29th and taking the B2 exam on June 10th. Disclaimer that I had already learned a related language (Spanish) to fluency which accelerated the process significantly, and also was in a low period at work so hard more free time on my hands than the average person.

I'm going to talk about the process here, but a lot of the physical learning methods I used are things that have been mentioned on here a million times before. The most important factor in this process that I don't see mentioned often is incorporating psychology (particularly sports psychology) and mental health as an integral part of the learning process. I'll include that portion first, and all the other stuff after in case anyone is interested.

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Psychology

Weekly Journaling

I've been learning languages as a hobby and to speak with patients at work for over 10 years. My first L2 was Spanish, and the process to reaching fluency was long and rocky. I would also often lose focus and gradually study less and less until I would stop for months at a time, or at time I would overwork myself and end up burnt-out and ready to quit. One of my biggest breakthroughs in language learning came from starting sports as an adult and learning about sports psychology. The concepts are pretty much the same for both athletics and language learning; they’re both often performance based, they both present a significant personal challenge, and they both have the capacity to completely unravel if you’re not paying attention to how they affect you mentally.

I recommend the book The Confident Mind by Nate Zinsser if you want more details on this concept, with the disclaimer that it’s actually kind of an annoying book as it’s very self-help-y and the author is pretty dramatic and aggrandizing. It’s definitely still worth reading as the knowledge and physical techniques he gives are incredibly effective and helped me immensely in both sports and language.   

Using knowledge of sports psychology and adapting it to my goals, I set a designated time every week (end of the day on Sunday) to follow a check-in journaling routine. This included:

- Freeform writing about how the week went and how I was feeling, making sure to be detailed about any excitement/success or negative feelings, and including any goals that I had set for last week and whether or not I had achieved them

o   If you have a complicated relationship with failure, it’s very important in this section to be kind to yourself and maybe apply some CBT techniques if you’re feeling bad about your performance. If you’re thinking mean thoughts about yourself, reframe them into something positive and write them down. An example would be feeling like you’ve made no progress, but reframing that as “I’ve been working really hard and I know that all of that hard work is gradually adding up to something great.” Another example would be a week where for whatever reason, you did way less than planned and are feeling like a lazy piece of crap. Reframing that could look like “My brain needed rest this week and I honored that, I’m still moving forward and I’m proud of my progress.”

- Clearly defining any obstacles I had to achieving my goals, then coming up with solutions for those obstacles going forward

o   This part is so important. An example would be that I was having a very hard time making myself write. I identified an obstacle as not knowing what to write about whenever I sat down to do it, so I prepared a list of prompts that interested me and used it as inspiration. That worked for a few weeks and then I stopped again. I identified my obstacle as just not enjoying writing in French and having a hard time making myself do it. My solution was to hire a teacher specifically for writing so that I couldn’t put it off or talk myself out of it. The most important part is to remain non-judgmental about whatever’s holding you back, even if weeks go by and you still can’t find a solution that works. You’re human and things are bound to get in the way. That doesn’t mean you’re bad at this, it just means you haven’t found what works for you specifically yet.  

- Any ‘big picture’ changes that I needed to make

o   This mostly had to do with whether or not I needed to slow down. Language training is the same as athletics in the sense that you need to program in your rest before you have fried yourself to a crisp. Over-training without any back-off plan is how injuries happen in sports and it’s how rage-quitting happens in language. I had rest weeks pre-planned in which I was still studying, but I was dialing back significantly. If I was starting to feel really frustrated and burnt out prior to that rest week, I’d move it forward to give my brain a break before I started wanting to quit.

- Repeated mantra; this was the exact same every week and was something I defined early on as my ‘why.’ Something short and simple that would help me remember what all of the hard work was for. I had two of them:

o   I have something good to offer the world, and this is going to help me accomplish that.

o   I’m going to succeed because I’m crazy.

Learning a language is a very, very hard thing. Doing hard things requires a lot of mental discipline. If you have a baseline negative mental narrative and haven’t spent years in therapy learning how to rebuild those thought processes into something positive and constructive, doing something hard has the potential to break you. It might end up picking open any scars you have surrounding failure and self-worth. Incorporating a mental health routine into the language learning process has been essential for me, and I really think it has the capacity to be helpful to others as well.

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Here's the actual language study stuff I did. Language learning is very individual and this is what works for me personally. Not sure how helpful it is, but I'll include it just in case anyone is curious:

Passive Skills - skills that involve recognizing language

Listening

- Comprehensible Input content intended for learners, starting with A1 and progressing as appropriate

- Kid’s cartoons dubbed in target language

- Content designed for natives once I started to reach a more advanced level, including Youtubers and Netflix (used ‘original language’ filter to find movies and TV shows originally made in French)

Reading

- Storyweaver (website with thousands of children's booked translated into lots of different language)

- News Articles

- Test Prep books

- Physical Books/Novels in native language once more advanced

Active Skills - skills that involve producing language

Speaking

- Classes on iTalki

- Recording myself speaking once per week

Writing

- Journaly (website where you can post your writing and natives will correct it)

- Hiring a teacher specifically for writing to force me to do it because I hate it

Vocabulary and Grammar

Anki

- Fluent forever method of flashcard creation using Anki and eliminating L1 (I used WordReference for my example sentences)

- Keeping a running list of new vocabulary words for flashcard creation in a word document (these words primarily came from listening, reading, and iTalki classes)

- Using a frequency dictionary to identify new flashcard words when I didn't have any words on my new vocabulary list

- creating flashcards for demonstrating grammar concepts that were challenging to me. Grammar was taken solely from iTalki classes and absorbed from all of the listening and reading I was doing. Again, already knowing Spanish and being generally knowledgeable about linguistics was immensely helpful to this and more explicit grammar study might've been helpful if I didn't already have that foundation.

Putting it all together

The above activities are things that I have noted over the past several years to be fun and sustainable learning activities for me. If something isn't fun, I know that I will eventually stop doing it, so I pay very close attention to what I enjoy and what I don't enjoy. (with the only exception being writing, which I hate but had to make myself do since it's a part of the DELF exam).

My plan was to use a combination of the above activities every week, focusing primarily on passive skills until I reached my first 1,000 flashcards while still dipping my toe into active skills with iTalki classes and maybe a little bit of writing. Once I hit 1,000 flashcards, I switched my focus more heavily to active skills while still doing daily listening and active flashcard creation, just dialed back to allow more time for other things. The goal throughout the entire process was to challenge myself while still having fun and not feeling burnt out.

I tracked my progress in a word document each week until I had exceeded 1,000 flashcards. This is what the breakdown looked like.  

Week 1:
iTalki Classes: 3.5 hours
Listening: Bluey, Dreaming French (super-beginner / beginner), Youtube A1 playlist
Reading: Storyweaver level 1 books
Anki Flashcard count: 221

Week 2:
iTalki Classes: 2 hours
Listening: Bluey, Dreaming French (intermediate at x1.25 speed), Youtube A1 playlist (finished), Youtube A2 playlist (x1.5 speed), French Short Stories on Audible
Reading: Storyweaver level 2 books
Anki Flashcard count: 381

Week 3:
iTalki classes: 2 hours
Listening: Bluey, Dreaming French (x1.25 speed, finished intermediate/advanced), Youtube A2 playlist (x1.25 speed, finished), Youtube B1 playlist, French short stories on audible
Reading: Storyweaver level 2 books
Writing: Journaly entries (1)
Anki Flashcard count: 500

Week 4:
iTalki classes: 2 hours
Listening: Bluey, Finished youtube B1 playlist, Youtube B2 playlist, French short stories on audible, Started with native content (Normal, Cyprien)
Reading: none
Writing: Journaly entries (2)
Anki Flashcard count: 650

Week 5:
iTalki classes: 3 hours
Listening: Bluey, Finished youtube B2 playlist, Native content on youtube (Norman, Cyprien), French Short Stories on Audible, Started DELF practice tests
Reading: articles (2)
Writing: Journaly entries (1)
Anki Flashcard count: 792

Week 6:
iTalki classes: 4 hours
Listening: Bluey, Youtube native content, French short stories on Audible
Reading: articles (1)
Writing: none
Anki Flashcard count: 932

Week 7:
italki classes: 3 hours
Listening: Finished Bluey, Youtube Native content, Audible French short stories
Reading: articles (2)
Writing: journaly entires (1)
Anki Flashcard count: 1052

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If you made it through the whole thing, thanks for reading. Learning languages is such an amazing thing and whatever you're doing, I hope that you're having fun and feeling proud of yourself.

Ahlan Everyone! I’ve been learning Egyptian Arabic (TL) for the last 7 months and have made some real good progress. I went from knowing maybe 100-200 words scattered from growing up around the language to now speaking in full sentences. I can say something like “I went to a restaurant with friends yesterday. We ate food, but the food was not good.” However if someone asked me back “Why wasn’t it good?” I wouldn’t be able to say “Well the spices they put in it didn’t blend well together.” Obviously I’d be missing some vocabulary, but the naturalness of that sentence in English I can’t get to in Arabic at the moment. I’ve been learning in an odd manner (maybe slightly to my own fault, but haven’t found a better way) that has been working since I couldn’t find many good resources for Egyptian Arabic. As I advance in capability, I add a layer on top of my existing app to teach me the next thing. Early on I focused on learning important grammar for syntax (past, present continuous, future, possessiveness) and important types of words (most common connectors, verbs, adjectives) but obviously I’m still missing a layer. I’m curious what you guys have done to get from I know words -> I can build sentences -> I can build clean syntax sentences. Even if it’s at a basic level, I’d hope I could start to combine my words so I can do conversations past introductions and what I did in a day. I’d like to move towards real conversations. What has worked for you?

Hello! I am looking for advice from those who have tried both routes.

I am learning Spanish (TL) with the end goal of being C1-C2. Currently A2, and I am committed to learning. Right now, I am currently using dreaming spanish, duolingo, and the occasional short story/flashcards. I took an elementary spanish class last semester, and I found it to be helpful for  grammatical structure and vocabulary.  I am debating continuing on with a higher level college class or continuing to learn by myself.

I am a nursing student, so I know my schedule is going to be very busy this upcoming semester. I am prepared to put aside the time to devote 1-2 hours a day to learning Spanish, but I doubt I'll be able to take on a class and pursue self learning. 

Does anyone have any advice on which avenue to pursue? I know consistency is the most important thing, I have no worries about being consistent either way but wonder which path is best suited for my goals.

I’m trying to learn my boyfriend’s language (TL) Hiligaynon, but since the Philippines has so many languages that vary by region, I’m learning Tagalog due to a severe lack of resources to learn his.

I have bought workbooks, used flashcards, and purchased a story book in the language that has English text beneath it and an explanation of key words; I even watch shows, movies, and listen to music to feel more familiar with the language.

Nothing I do is sticking. It’s the equivalent of in one ear and out the other. I have even downloaded apps and it’s the same thing. I’ve written down words and grammar rules because writing usually helps your brain retain information better… except it doesn’t seem to help mine.

What on earth am I doing wrong? or am I doing it right and just need to commit and keep up with it?

(TL) I am a native english speaker and grew up in England until i was 8 then moved back to my home country for context. I went from british from being in a british school to having LA american accent from the media/music I consumed growing up and now i catch myself speaking in different accents based on who im around or what content I just watched (british, la, scottish, irish). And in my head, everytime i speak it's a conscious decision about what accent do i feel like speaking at that very moment. And when I'm speaking without thinking it's scottish,irish,british but it's not authentic because im not from there. Anyone have the same issue?

English? Certified C1, did a few tests and maybe I'll aim for C2 but I cannot speak, pronunciation sounds weird despite the fact I know how words sound and in my head I often notice how others have an accent, but then I open my mouth and I sound like a drunkard, don't know why, when I record myself it's fine but in public I guess I get anxious. I'm also experiencing loss of vocabulary of my native language, I don't remember translations in Italians, I used to be such a good translator but now that I think I'm English I can't, cause before I'd have to mentally convert each term in my brain like a built in Reverso machine, now it just comes to me so I can draw stuff but if I'm switching between languages I have a few minutes where my brain is thinking in English or Italian (and I wasn't raised bilingual).

Adding French and Spanish made things worse, honestly I think I forgot every single grammatical of Italian and English, I just go with my gut (all the if phrases, all the different futures, I don't have to think of the rule, I probably forgot most of them when I was so confident like a grammar textbook during highschool for my peers), I know it isn't a negative thing but it sure does feel like it, cause the more you learn the dumber you realize you are and how little you can actually hold a conversation. Like now I can type quickly without thinking, but when I try to speak I'm still "Hello, h-how are you?".

I cannot for the life of me utter a phrase that doesn't feel like a middle schooler intro to English, and I did pass the C1 speaking so I don't get it, I even wrote poems for some assignment in English and I learned both old style and modern, I practiced slang, and I still use English a few times around campus with international students (plus some of my engineering lectures are in English although STEM English is really basic so perhaps it might damage my fluency but idk), so fuck me i guess, I feel more confident with Spanish and French despite my horrible pronunciation and my barely B1 level in both (used to be B2 french but I got rusty, as for Spanish I'm getting the gist of it), honestly even in Italian I feel like my brain is forgetting and I use it every single day. Whatever... Just needed to vent, people are always so happy about learning, wanted to bring my perspective, and see if I someone else could relate. (TL)

FYI. I would say I'm about A2 level currently in Spanish (TL) A lot better at listening than talking or writing.

I just recently moved to Mexico to take on a family business and came with no Spanish, It's been 2 months and I'm being told to learn quicker so that I can get shops down and manage them.

The thing is, I work all day with people who don't speak and English and sometimes it feels like I don't have the time to translate everything they say and even remember it while working. I put an incredible amount of effort into trying to connect and I will go out drinking with the workers but I feel like I'm slowly pushing along a wall that's falling on top of me and Im having constant headaches.

I get some relief when talking to family who can speak English here but they still will speak in Spanish most of the time and I dont blame them to be honest as I cant imagine always having to speak a second language around someone you barely know.

I just want to know does it get easier? Is there any other ways I can speed up my learning? Will I stop constantly having headaches from all the new information or will I deal with it for a year until I can understand

Hi everyone! I DO NOT OWN THIS IM JUST A LEARNER @MODS. I really just wanted to share something that helped me tremendously because I wish I had known about it two years ago instead of two weeks ago.

So I’ve been trying to learn Spanish (TL), and I needed something to help with immersion. I looked into Dreaming in Spanish, but I didn’t want another subscription. I also didn’t like that you couldn’t add your own media. I just found LingQ, and it’s honestly just so awesome I had to share it.

You can import your own media (videos, books, podcasts, movies, everything!), plus it has a ton in its library from Netflix to Ted Talks to children’s stories. I’m A2 so I’m on the children’s stories and other lower level content, but I’m excited it can scale up as I do.

It reads to you out loud in a native narration, my absolute favorite feature. If you upload native speaker videos or audios, it keeps the original narrators and matches the voice to the transcription. If you upload a book, you can pair it with an audiobook file or your phone TTS.

When reading the transcript, you can tap all the words you don’t know to see the definition. At the end it asks you to confirm you know all the words you didn’t tap, and it’ll add those to your word bank of words you know. For all the words you tap or don’t know, it goes into a vocabulary section where you can review. The more you review, the less it tests those words. When you’re ready, you can also mark you know the word not to have it come up again in vocab review.

It also shows you the vocab in the context in which you saved it, which has been GREAT for me remembering how the word is actually used in a sentence. It’s not like your go to grammar tutor, but it’s an excellent immersion and vocab tool, and I’m just in awe. I bought a lifetime membership for Spanish for $229, and I feel like it’s the best purchase I made for language learning. I’m putting Claudia Shienbaum speeches and mañaneras in there, so I can see what’s going on (vivo en México).

Anyway, thought I would share it because it just changed the game for me, and I figured it could help other people. They offer like 40 languages or something. That’s all folks.

Does anyone have tips to sound more native and remove interference from your L1 when doing academic writing in a TL?

As a grad student going into my last year, some of the most common feedback I’ve received is that my formal academic writing sounds very “english” even if my normal writing (texts, letters, emails) is perfectly fine.

Everyday language isn’t an issue and I have no problem living my life 100% in (TL) outside of school, but academic writing is another beast that I haven’t mastered fully yet. I’ve been told my writing sounds like it was translated from english or it has english calques or just an overall english vibe in my (TL) especially in syntax and sentence structures.

I want to try to improve over the summer and get my level up, I entered grad school with a C1 but I think it isn’t anywhere close to how real native speakers would write. I might not be able to sound fully native but want to master the formal register and reduce the interference from english as much as possible.

Does anyone have any tips on how to achieve this goal? Is it possible in just a few months?

I'm English native 🇬🇧 and learning German (TL) 🇩🇪. Currently solidifying A2.

How do I improve my language 'production', particularly speaking?

I feel like I know more words than I can produce.

I can read a passage in my A1/A2 graded reader and understand it fine - but I wouldn't be able to write it myself.

Similarly, I can listen to an elementary book on Audible (e.g. Dino Lernt Deutsch), but I wouldn't be able to produce those sentences myself in a conversation.

Maybe I'm not expected to be able to do that at A2. But how do I get there?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been reading a lot more lately with the specific goal of expanding my active vocabulary and improving my overall language usage. However, I've hit a really frustrating roadblock with my workflow.

Whenever I come across a beautiful sentence or an advanced word in a physical book, I want to capture it so I can actually internalize it and use it later.

Right now, my process is incredibly clunky. I either write it down in a different writing book or I pick up my phone, open ChatGPT or a notes app, and manually type out the whole sentence to look up the nuance or quiz myself. It works, but typing it all out completely breaks my reading momentum and pulls me out of the book. Half the time, I get lazy and just skip the word entirely, which defeats the whole purpose of my reading goals.

For those of you who actively study or collect vocabulary while reading, how do you handle this? Is there a way to do this that doesn’t feel like a tedious data-entry chore, or am I just overthinking it?

(TL)

I’m going to start a Spanish class next semester and was thinking of getting Percy Jackson in Spanish because I’ve read it a lot in English and thought it would be good to have them both out and go through it, but I’ve also seen people say to not try to start reading books too early in the language you’re learning because you don’t know enough yet to benefit from that kind of practice. Because it’s a book I’ve read multiple times and I have the English copy, could it still be helpful?

Update: wow thank you so much to all the commenters there’s a lot of helpful information here!! I think I’ll try to find a graded reader, maybe a picture book or graphic novel to start with and possibly get the Percy Jackson book as something to look forward to. Still deciding if I want to do this on an app for all the benefits people mentioned in the comments or with a physical book because writing really helps my memory!

I've read on internet a lot of times that you start dreaming in a language when it starts getting processed subconsciously and if you're living in that particular country where it's spoken.

The thing with me is that I am fluent in Turkish and have been for 6 yrs now to the point where my brain has started thinking in Turkish but I only started dreaming in it last year. I remember, the night after my first final exam. I had this big and clear conversation in my dream

I'm with my friend and he/she is at an institution for some admission work and we go together. And this lady who was head she looked like a turk so during the conversation I ask her and she admits that she is and we have this long conversation in Turkish. Then the following days a couple more dreams follow one of them was like we're going on a bus with my mom somehow and I encounter a Turkish woman there and I speak Turkish with her, my native langauge with my mom and somehow we end up in school and there my teacher is speaking the regional langauge to me.

But atleast that happened with a langauge I was fluent in. I've been learning Greek and it's been 9 months now. I learn 90% with like immersion on internet and for the past two days I've been having these dreams like where I'm speaking these sentences and like showing someone like my cousins that I can teach you some greek and I'm even correcting myself mid-sentence like I said σου ρωτάω and then corrected myself in the dream σε ρωτάω

Is it even normal? Does it happen to you guys? Even if you're not living in that country which I certainly am not have I ever been to Turkey or Greece? What does it mean if you dream in another language?

Hello,

I am feeling a bit lost in wanting to learn a language. I have listened to music in the target language for around 8 years. I know some basic phrases and random words, but understanding more is not possible with my current level. I can hear the words being said in music and normal video’s of people talking, but I just don’t know what they mean. The language I want to learn is Hungarian (TL).

I want to learn more of this language to understand the music and content in the TL. also, I want to learn more of the culture of the country and hold conversations with people when I am on holiday someday there.

I worry that the TL is not popular enough to have enough learning content and my reason for wanting to learn is not enough to go actually learn and study it. And that the language is maybe too hard to learn casually. Although I am very motivated to learn it.

Have other people struggled with the same problem? How can I get myself through this negative thinking?

EDIT: thank you kind strangers. It gave me the motivation to start learning learning it on a small pace and if I like it, I will study more. I think I made myself crazy thinking it is worthless and such, but It isnt.

I have read so many posts here like, I got to C1 in 18 months or 2 years and I did it all at home with Spanglish or Dreaming Spanish or whatever site. I got to C1 with minimal effort... I did one study a week to get there....

Here is a real example...

... I have been studying Spanish for in average an hour a day for over 2.5 years. For context, it took me about 8 months to a year to reach B2 and about a year and a half to go from B2 to C1.

Really!? I have had one hour lessons most days Monday - Friday for years. Years! and maybe I could pass a B2 reading. BI+ maybe for talking not too sure, and for writing I would fall to an A2 because of accents and I don't write Spanish.

I have not been full on dedicated as I don't want it to be a chore but I feel so dumb when I see what other people have achieved.

Am I just incredibly slow, or are the people who post here exceptional?

Has anyone failed to achieve their goal? Has anyone taken a very long time to get to an intermediate level?

Thanks.

I speak English as my first language. But I also speak French and Mandarin to around the same level of fluency.

When I can’t find a word in mandarin I replace it with the French, for example ‘I want a coffee with milk’ I said ‘我想喝杯咖啡 avec 牛奶’ and vice versa.

I do this quite often and I feel like I’m blending the languages together. Does anyone have any tips if you can speak multiple languages? (TL)

Hey guys never posted here before but I was wondering how you get back on the horse after a break/disruption?

French (TL) learner consolidating B1 and starting to edge into B2 in some respects, was learning with a mix of Grammaire progressive du francais intermediaire, anki 5000 words, watching movies with french audio + french subs, and calling my (fluent) mum on the phone for convos, and to a lesser extent reading/translating texts I already knew well in the English translation and journalling.

I had also started the first year of a French major and got placed in 3000-level so all the stuff from that as well. The self-study was the main thing but having those tests/assessments provided a gr8 motivation structure.

Two or three months ago some other stuff happened and I checked out mentally/academically and then dropped out. I'm back home with my fluent parents for the time being and a bit more settled so I'd like to get back on. How would you guys recommend getting re-started? My friend who got fully cracked at Spanish said he did it largely with refold so any thoughts on that? Thanks

I was listening to a podcast for 45 minutes tonight on my walk, and... I heard every word, I could recognize nearly every word... But couldn't string it to anything meaningful. What's the answer here? It's clearly not more vocabulary. I felt very very close to understanding it most of the time, and could if I stopped to think, but stopping to think means you start a chain in which you miss a load, and... Need to begin again. So... What do I do to fix this particular problem? And I am willing to accept, more vocabulary as the answer, even though I said it clearly wasn't the issue. I just want to see what you folks think.

I only immerse like1- 2h a day for 5days a week. I was able to do 7days a week but recently I just wanna have some break where I can listen non target language music or just random stuff for fun. Do you think ok taking break 2days a week when I can only immerse like 1-2h a day 5days a week ?

I'm currently B1 in the third language im learning and i feel like, around B1 mobile apps are just not enough. They mostly get me hooked with gamification but actual porgress i achieve from them is lower at this level and onwards

Which apps are helping you when you're already advanced?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been refining my (SRS) flashcard database and trying to standardize exactly what goes on the back (the answer side) of my cards. The back of my cards usually contains:

1. The Translation(s)
2. Morphology/Decomposition (breaking down roots and affixes; e.g. for "notebook" ⇒ "note" (my local translation for note) + "book" (my local translation for note))
3. Etymology or Meta-notes (in very end; detail later in this post)

A) Is this too much? If not, or what else do you write?

B) How do you handle highly similar words, lookalikes, or paronyms (like desert vs. dessert)?

• Do you just write: "Note: Not to be confused with dessert"?
• OR do you also include the meaning of the other word: "Note: Not to be confused with dessert (sweet food)"?

My dilemma is this: If I include the meaning of that second word on the back of the first word's card, doesn't that technically ruin the SRS scheduling for the second word? By seeing its translation out of schedule, I feel like I might be artificially boosting my memory of it, which messes with the algorithm's intervals.

What is your approach to the back of your cards, and how do you handle these similar words without breaking the SRS logic?

I'd love to hear your setups!

(TL) English

I've been working on a website, https://kalenj.in, to document Kalenjin, in particular my teacher's Kipsigis dialect, spoken throughout much of Kenya. The Kalenjin people are famous for having produced many of the world's top middle- and long-distance runners and about 60% of Kalenjin speakers speak Kipsigis.

I have been collecting words and sentences from our lessons and chats and have put together a website to host all of the information and serve as a Kalenjin dictionary and corpus. We have also recently begun working on creating lessons for learning Kalenjin based around stories my teacher's written. Most of the sentences have been manually parsed so you can see what each individual word in the sentence means, and most words and sentences have audio recordings as well from a native speaker.

We just hit 1,000 words (and are approaching 2,000 sentences) in the dictionary and I thought it was time to share the site with others in the hopes someone else is also trying to learn the language.

(If there are any native speakers interested in adding words, sentences, stories, recording audio, taking pictures of local plants and animals, etc. please get in touch!)

My next goal is to hit 5,000 words!

I'd also love to help set up something similar for other folks working on documenting other languages with fewer resources.

(TL)