Does Learning A Language Get Easier?

When you start learning a language it doesn’t take long for a sense of despair to set in when you realise just how hard it is.

Luckily the early motivation levels are usually high and you keep going, regardless of the difficulty. However, the real problem is that after a while it just doesn’t seem to get any easier, in fact it can get harder.

This can really crush your motivation and your general desire to learn the language, but you need to know it doesn’t last forever.

You have to wade through a lot of pain, but eventually learning the language will get easier, I promise and I will go through how exactly it gets easier below.

Languages Are Layered

Languages are quite layered. This is hard to explain, but as you progress you will understand what I mean.

This is a good thing as it means you can break it up into smaller lessons and different skills, which you can slowly unlock and add more layers to your language skills.  For example most beginners only operate in the present tense, but then they are able to add more layers to this, such as the future or past tense.

The problem is that it’s not a linear progression, which can make it seem like you are making no progress.

The Levels Are Not Equal

You also will find that these layers have been broken down into different levels; this is very useful for learning and gives you a road map for what you should be focusing on first.

You see this all the time on language courses, where they often us the CEFR levels. This is great, but at the same time the levels are not equal.

The amount of information you need to learn from A2 to A1 is actually pretty small, where as the gap between A2 and B1 is a lot bigger, then B1 to b2 is bigger again, and so on.

The increase in information isn’t really an issue in itself, but the fact that these levels seem to get bigger and bigger can really make you feel like the language is endless and that you have will have to work twice as hard to make progress.

This can make the language seem harder than it is, but really if you turned around and seen how much progress you had made, you would be pretty satisfied. 

The Basics Of The Language

I think it’s important to note that once you get the basics down, you will start to understand things. You will of course start with the basic framework and then it’s all about adding the layers on to this.

Having the basics is going to seem like the language is getting easier, even if you consciously know that you are missing a lot of layers.

If you think of children, say a 5 year old, they really only have the basics down, but they can still get by. This is how you will feel in your new language.

When a child watches TV or hears adults talking to each other, it can be a little confusing for them, but in general they can communicate.

This is exactly what you will experience when you hear native speakers. However, just like the child, you can build on your basic skills and slow build your vocabulary and your general understanding up to a higher level over time.    

You Can Become Comfortable In The Language

Over time you will start to get comfortable in different areas of the language, like I said above, you will get to grips with the basics and this will start to make things easier.

You will reach a point where you are very comfortable with some things, and this is when you will think things are getting easier and you can then put your focus into other things that you need to improve.

You will still face difficulties and to get to a comfortable level it can take a long time to achieve, but it is possible if you just keep going. 

Listening Becomes Easier

One of the first things you will notice getting easier is listening. You will probably have no idea what is being said, so it can seem like you are still struggling, but that is not a listening issue, that’s a lack of vocabulary issue.

Your ears will get used to the sounds and pattern of speech very quickly and you will be able to go from the language sounding like white noise, to actual words that you can pick out.

You will also notice that you can understand faster speech too, which can be nearly impossible to decipher at first.   

The good thing is that once you can understand the natural speed of natives, it doesn’t get any harder and you can then just focus on getting really comfortable with this level and then just start picking out the words that you do not understand and dealing with those.

Reading Becomes Easier

Reading will also become easier over time. You will find that the same words repeat themselves over and over again and you can get comfortable with them.

Reading is going to be the exact same as the listening, you will stumble upon a few words that you don’t recognise, but will be able to deal with this using the context, much in the way you would in your native language.     

I will assume you are a native English speaker and most of what you’ve read on this page is pretty basic, but occasionally you might bump into a word that you don’t know.

Just take the word Pogonotrophy, it’s English and you’ve probably never seen it before. You are probably reading it a few times in a confused way, but sadly here there is no context here to help you out. It probably reminds you of something else? But it actually means to grow a beard.

This is what you will do in your new language, and the more you read, the more obvious the unknown words will become and in general the whole experience will be easier.

Different Scripts

If you are learning a language like Japanese, where it is not the same alphabet, it will get easier. There are only so many letters in these new alphabets, so you will quickly master them and then start to get comfortable with them as you will just see them over and over again.

It’s not like there is suddenly going to be any new letters to make things harder for you, it can only get easier.

Okay, so there are a lot of Japanese kanji, but again, there is a limited number and the most common ones are going to be seen over and over again. You will just have to treat the unknown ones like words you do not know, like I described above.

Speaking Becomes Easier

Speaking is hard at first because your mouth is not used to making the sounds of the new language, but just like everything else I have talked about, there are only a limited amount of sounds you can make in a language.

The more you speak, the more comfortable you will become with these sounds, so the easier it will be for you to speak.

Again you may not have all the words you need, but that is a vocabulary issue, the actual act of producing the sounds will get easier for you as you practice.

Learning More Languages Makes Learning Other Languages Becomes Easier

If we look at language learning as a whole, once you learn one, any following languages will be easier.

You will have more belief in yourself after you have conquered one language, you will understand it is possible and know what strategy works for you.

Taking this knowledge to a third or fourth language is always going to make it easier for you compared to some one starting out for the first time.

Of course it will still be difficult, but you will have the edge and that alone can make the whole process that little bit easier for you.

(You can read more about – Are Some Languages Easier To Learn Than Others?)

Conclusion

Language learning will be difficult for a long time, but slowly it will start to get easier.  The secret is to just keep practicing and with time you will start to feel comfortable and things that were once hard will become manageable.

Just keep going, every step you take will bring you that little bit closer to things being easier for you in your new language.