One of the most common frustrations when learning a language is feeling as though you’ve stopped making progress. However, this is nothing to worry about. Though there certainly will be times when it seems you aren’t progressing any further, this is merely an illusion, and you just have to keep going.
With immersion, you’re actually improving all the time, even if you don’t realise it. There’ll be periods when you feel as though you’re not understanding any more than you did the previous day or week, but you’ll find again and again that you have what feel like breakthrough moments, where you have a sudden leap forward in your understanding, where things just seem to click.
These are not sudden leaps. They’re the tipping points of a cumulative process developing throughout your immersion. As you keep exposing your brain to the patterns, it will become better and better at recognising them. Whilst this exposure accumulates, you’ll often feel as though you’re plateauing, but in reality, you’re constantly building towards another moment where your understanding takes another leap forward.
Don’t worry about plateaus, they’re completely normal. All you have to do is keep following the process, and to keep immersing in resources you enjoy.
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Jordan Opel on Unsplash
