Hello,

I have noticed, in my journey to master Hindi/Urdu and learn Italian and Arabic, a phenomenon in which I have been forgetting words in English, my native language.

I have always prided myself on an elaborate vocabulary but recently, I just can't think of certain words that I would have awhile ago. Yesterday I could not think of the word 'paradox', and today I could not think of 'appraisal.'

Has anyone else experienced this while learning a new language or since become a second-language learner in general?

Hello, 

I am going to be in Italy for a few days and am trying to learn as much as possible before I go. Many learning materials, such as Teach Yourself and Pimsleur, suggest to only do one lesson a day so that you don't overwhelm yourself. I have even seen some teachers say that they recommend only 30 minutes sessions because your mind will wander. Perhaps this is only for beginners, but this contradicts the idea that immersion is the best way to learn.

Obviously, you will never become a polyglot at this speed. I spend the good part of my day either listening to lessons or speaking with native speakers, and still I am somewhat disappointed with my progress. I take anywhere between 1-3 lessons a day on italki and can't imagine how someone taking only 1 lesson a week can make any real progress.

Does anyone have a time limit for their daily studies? Do you exhaust yourself if you spend too much time studying? Do you feel like if you spend too much time studying, it is actually counterproductive? 

Please share your thoughts!

Because one difficulty of any language learner is memorizing the correct pronunciation, I thought of an idea to memorize vocabulary by words that rhyme based on a word the learner knows in confidence. 

Has anyone else used this method to memorize pronunciation?