The Silent Killer of Advanced Language Learning Progress
How to avoid it and keep improving, from the experience of a polyglot
I’ve considered myself an advanced speaker of Japanese for years now. A crappy advanced speaker but still an advanced one. If you’ve ever reached the higher stages of a foreign language, then you know the feeling.
When everything tells you you rock but your mind and heart remind you how little you know.
And yet, my awful intermediate level of Korean was always there to remind me of the difference so I began feeling at ease saying “Japanese isn’t a problem anymore” and actually believing it. Until earlier today.
After a sudden burnout with Korean, I decided to switch the language of Honkai Impact: Star Rail, the game I play most nowadays, from Korean to Japanese. Moments later, I was turning it back to Korean as I had no idea what the stats written in Japanese meant even though it was no biggie in Korean.
What’s up with that?
I was dumbfounded. And then I realized I was actually just being dumb.
I had been making the most common mistake of advanced language learners in Japanese.
Expecting my level to be consistent between topics.
