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I’m done. I’m out.

RealisticBarnacle115
English is so difficult, I’ll never be fluent for sure. It’s like walking in a dark cave, and all of sudden, you realize you’ve been moving around the same place again and again without making any progress. I’ve lost all hope. My English will be never good. No excuse, but my country is infamous for being bad at English. Many athletes from my country have played in English-speaking countries, yet they use translators no matter how many years they've lived there. While musicians from English-speaking countries come here for concerts, we can’t even call and respond properly because we can’t catch a tiny bit of what they’re saying. One of the biggest reasons is the grammatical difference between English and our language. Our sentence structure is completely opposite to English. For example, “I ate a sandwich” would be “Sandwich ate” in my language. Verbs generally come before objects (though our language is grammatically very flexible, so word order isn’t that strict). We also don’t have articles like a/an/the, nor do we use plural “s”. Plus, we often omit subjects especially in short sentences. If you use “I” too much, someone might see you as self-centered. I’m 100% serious. “I’ll help you with your homework” would be “Homework will help.” The original English sentence sounds redundant to us. “Reddit on posting sentence English in writting now.” If you think this sounds weird, that’s how English sounds to us. Another big reason is phonetics. We only use five vowels and have almost no accents. “No accents” is a slight exaggeration, but compared to other languages, our accent is so weak and nearly flat. So, when English speakers say the names of our athletes, celebrities, or characters, it sounds off because they unconsciously replace the vowels and add accents that don’t exist in the original pronunciation. Of course, the same thing happens when we speak English. It’s hard for us to distinguish between vowels, and we often pronounce them the same way. Plus, we’re not used to putting accents, so our English sounds so robotic. Also, the fact we don’t have linking sounds contributes to our robotic speech. We enunciate each word too clearly, like saying “WHAT DO YOU DO?” instead of “What’d’u’do?” The consonants are very different too. I bet almost all of us struggle with R and L, and V and B. I've seen many advance learners still mix them up, even after decades of learning. You might be surprised, but confusing B and D is also common here. When we need to say B and D (like choosing an answer from A, B, C and D in school), we pronounce D as “deh” (like in “desert”) to make it sound different from B. In our language, consonants are always followed by vowels, so we don’t really focus on consonants themselves, meaning our ears aren’t built to distinguish them. Another possible reason is our traditional attitude toward learning foreign languages. It might sound crazy, but if you try to speak like a native speaker in school or in public and you’re not fluent enough, people will laugh at you. It sucks because one of the goals of language learning is to sound like a native, but once you try to do so, you’ll get undeserved treatment. There’s an infamous, disgusting video where a boy interviewed Cristiano Ronaldo in Portuguese, and adults around them laughed at him. That video drove me crazy when I first saw it. He might not have been fluent, but he made a great effort, and that deserved nothing but respect. What made the video famous was that after hearing the laughter, Ronald said to them “Why are you laughing? His Portuguese is good.” Shout out to CR, and the wholesome part is that eight years later, the kid became a national soccer champion in high school. Anyway, this cultural attitude might make us overly embarrassed to use English, especially when we’re young, and hold us back. Speaking of opportunities, there are actually almost no chances to speak English here. We’re an extremely homogeneous country where nearly everyone speaks the same language. And this is a double-edged sword, but everything imported here is translated or dubbed. That means that even at the graduate university level, there are books in our languages, and you don’t need to use English unless you’re dealing with papers. Movies or novels, too. Tons of people here love entertainment from English-speaking countries but don’t understand a single word of English because everything is dubbed, subtitled, or translated. So, for almost all of us, English is just another school subject, not a tool for communication or consuming contents. And if your parents, friends, teachers, everyone around you, don’t give a fuck about English, of course, you won’t either. I’m pretty much sure there are more reasons, but these are just what came to my mind off the top of my head. Being born and raised here is a nightmare for language learning. My broke ass can’t afford to live abroad either. That said, I still tried to make myself fluent in English, devoting my time to learning it because I didn’t want to let myself make excuses. But hey, I’m done. As you can see from what I wrote here, my English sucks. Maybe 90% of you don’t even understand what I’m trying to say, and my hard-to-read sentences annoy the shit out of you. Even I myself get a headache reading my own poor English. It’s like English rejects me. Time and effort will never pay off, and they only make me realize how dumb I am. Some of you might say I haven’t put in enough effort. Maybe you're right. Considering that some people here are nailing English (while the percentage is low, our country is fairly big, so there must be a decent amount of people who can speak it), my situation is just a consequence of my stupidity and lack of effort. But I’m out of energy for this, and I can’t keep rolling anymore. This journey is over right here. Salute to everyone who learns foreign languages. Y’all are special, and I wish I were like you. I didn’t want to bring negativity here, but I couldn’t help it. Just this once, please let me rant. I owe you one, and I’ve got your back all day, all night. Much love to y’all, peace out.

43 comments

ThirteenOnline
If you can argue your English is bad, in English. You have good English hahaha
dashmone
Did you write this yourself?
psychepompus2
Not gonna lie, If you wrote this yourself you're already at least a better writer than a good portion of native English speakers, and it doesn't come across as translated to my eyes. Just keep at it and don't lose what you've already learned 😀
CocoPop561
First off, your English is actually amazing, and quitting at this point would be the dumbest move in history. And secondly, I don't understand why you don't name your native language in the post. I've seen this in other posts where the author is somehow reluctant to mention where they're from or what they speak. From the dizzying references to *my native language* and the descriptive crumbs you dropped here and there, I'm guessing you're Japanese. Do you not realize what a feat it is to come from Japanese the kind of English on display in this post? That actually makes your English proficiency all the more admirable! 👍🏻🤩
renebelloche
https://youtu.be/rxUm-2x-2dM?si=dYu2CE_L-bI8dPrw
sriirachamayo
That was a really outstanding text written in English, with very few mistakes, so I don’t think you give yourself enough credit! If you think this writing would annoy native speakers, you clearly haven’t seen the writing produced by most high school and even college students who are native speakers haha. Seriously, I am not just trying to be nice here. I am guessing your writing and reading are great, but you struggle with listening and speaking? If so, it’s not your fault - for the exact reasons you explain. When we grow up without certain language sounds, our brains physically cannot distinguish them. I highly recommend the book Fluent Forever! It goes into deep detail how to learn to hear and reproduce sounds of a new-to-your-brain sounding language. As a bonus, just reading the book will help you improve your English! Every time I finish a book in my target language(s), I feel like I leveled up, even if it felt really hard and I didn’t understand everything.
Sea-Hornet8214
What language?
wickedseraph
Respectfully, OP, your English is SUPERB. There are some native speakers who wouldn’t have been able to write this well. Your post is clear, intelligible, and articulate. I think you could be a little kinder and more patient with yourself! Your English does not suck, at all. Learning languages is hard, objectively, especially if your target language is radically different from your native one. I’m trying to learn Japanese myself and it can be tough between trying to wrap my head around particles, word order, adjective and verb conjugation, figuring out kanji, how to express a thought with a more Japanese mindset (for lack of a better way of saying so) and basically all the ways Japanese is almost the exact *inverse* of English. I’m sorry that you don’t feel supported in your country. I’m sure you could find a supportive community there - apps are also helpful. There are apps out there where you can meet fellow language learners and get practice! You can do this!!! 🖤
tobotoboto
Wow. I want to reassure the OP. That screed at the top isn’t letter-perfect but it’s a SIGNIFICANT achievement! The self-assessment is much too harsh, I think. I do understand the frustration of trying to develop natural-sounding speech when there’s no one else around to talk to. Personal note: I basically die of shame whenever I need to say anything in [unidentified Language X with Japanese characteristics]. I have to remind myself that before I can do it right, I have to do it wrong 100 times. If that’s what it takes! OP is so accomplished at English that true mastery is in view, but the road looks too rough and too long. Maybe it really is too difficult to do this alone. Language depends on community. Could there be proficient native English speakers nearby who would like to trade language lessons? Could the English Language department at a local university suggest some options? I can’t make a specific recommendation, but there must be some way forward…
justwhatever22
You write with all the fluency and natural flair of a native. Please know that your written English, complete with idiom, is excellent - and that is a remarkable achievement.
old_man_steptoe
Honestly, your angry screed was so articulate I had to check when you posted it to check it wasn’t yesterday. You’re a LONG way down the road of fluency. It’ll always bug you in the future if you don’t stick with it. Like someone who played the piano as a kid but gave it up because it wasn’t cool.
CommercialAbrocoma16
hey, don’t quit this close to the finish line. it’s easy to get discouraged when progress doesn’t happen as fast as you want it to, but you’ve come so far and your writing proves it. of course, it’s your choice at the end of the day and you shouldn’t do anything that makes you unhappy. but for what it’s worth, i think you’re doing better than many native English speakers.
MethMouthMichelle
Is this bait? Ironically railing against the difficulties of learning English, in perfect English?
kjpmi
Is this just a late April fools joke?
duchuyy8650
I'm gonna be honest with you, all of these reasons look like excuses to me. It's fine if you wanna quit, but the fact that you took the time to write this post means you still care somewhat. I'm learning your language (pretty sure you're japanese) and it's kicking my ass. But I will not give up. Neither should you. Your writing's better than 100% of my peers who are studying english. Too good. It makes me think that this might be satire or a late april's fool joke (hopefully not)
blumpkinpumkins
Is this a copypasta?
Lan_613
peak April's Fools post ngl (I apologize if it isn't)
Unfair-Traffic-5760
r u in japan or china.
Htet_Aung_Shine21
Are u kidding me? This is bullshit.
itcheyness
Hey man, you wrote all that in perfectly understandable English. I think you're waaay better at the language than you think you are.
SkipToTheEnd
By the way, when you talk about 'accents', you might mean **intonation**. But either way, I'm not sure, because Japanese definitely has accents (every language does, every speaker has an accent), and also Japanese has intonation.
Re______
You're ranting about english being difficult.... In english?
TheMarksmanHedgehog
You've managed to write a coherent rant in fluent English, about how much of a pain in the arse English is as language. You're one of us.
MelanieDH1
If you can write this much in English and everyone can understand it, you’re good!
igotdahookup
Bro you just wrote a whole novel what do you mean your English isn’t good? Is this a joke? 😂
_daGarim_2
A couple points: 1. I would have expected a foreign language learner's biggest complaint to be the abomination that is English orthography, but if you're coming from a sight language, maybe the half-arbitrary way English words are spelled was actually relatively familiar? 2. Your english is fine.
Pistachio-Nutcase
bro, you literally did a long, passionate rant in good English. I think you’re set on track nicely to keep going.
sqeeezy
You are fishing for compliments. You've just caught one. You are good!
evanechis
What’s your mother tongue if you don’t mind me asking?
n00bdragon
I think this is AI generated. Too many paragraphs begin with phrases like "One of the biggest reasons", "Another big reason", "Another possible reason". It's also a rant about Japanese (presumably), ***but not English***. Based on the user's post history I don't think the person themselves is a bot, but this certainly doesn't look like a normal post for them style-wise. Also, as others have said, if anyone can write like this there is no native speaker alive who would assume they just can't English. Maybe they are horrible at speaking and listening but if OP wrote this for real they are beyond fluent in writing. I'd love to be wrong. I don't like casting aspersions on people. I hope OP really did write this and isn't just fishing for compliments.
TiberiusJCAugustus
Heck, have you tried Spanish?? Backwards speak we!
Kitchener1981
April Fools was yesterday.
OasisLGNGFan
You think your English is bad? Seriously, especially on a bad day I struggle to write as eloquently as you and it's my native language. I'm really sorry you're feeling so dejected and unmotivated, I know it's not a nice feeling but I do think it'll do you good to take a step back and realised how far you've actually come and how much you've been able to learn. I've known many, MANY people who've lived in my country (England) for years if not decades who can't speak English even nearly as well as you can. I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell it was a foreign language to you if you hadn't said as much - you speak perfectly. You are NOT stupid! The total opposite in fact so please, from one perfectionist to another, give yourself a break :) Edit: if this is in fact AI-generated then I have no hope for the future of humanity lmao
xialateek
I mean you just wrote a lengthy, detailed post in much better English than half the Americans I know would (I’m American), so you already know English regardless of how you feel about it at the moment. Not sure if you were intentionally fishing for compliments but that’s all you’re gonna get.
itsjudemydude_
Y'all... This has *gotta* be karma bait. Look at OP's account.
Mediocre-Reception12
Why are you fishing for compliments? You know you're fluent in English...
RinbeOhare
From what I can see here you're really good at the language man all things considered
cheezitthefuzz
Are you in a time zone where it's still April Fools Day or something?
Ok_Television9820
You have energy for a clearly and correctly written thousand-word rant about English, so I think you’re good.
Ancient-City-6829
It sounds like the main problem is the cultural shame your community projects on people for trying to learn a new language. Maybe your pronunciation isn't great in person, but honestly your written english seems completely fine to me. There are almost no points in your writing where I would even suspect you were not fluent in english. If youre tired and frustrated, you dont need to push yourself so hard. Consider taking a break, you can always come back later. And if you ever find yourself in an english speaking country, I have no doubt you would be able to get around just fine. Frankly, you write better than a large portion of the people living in the US. It's actually kind a trope at this point for someone who learned english as a second language to apologize for having bad english and then communicate perfectly
pi_neutrino
Native English speaker here. Did you write this yourself? It's outstanding. If you speak as skilfully as you write, then you're far far more skilled than you give yourself credit for. Allow me to express my most enthusiastic contrafibularities!
DrainZ-
"My English sucks" *Uses the word enunciate* Dude, your written English is better than the average native speaker
DrainZ-
Let me guess. You're Japanese?