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Loving French, but it leaves me when I try it
Just wanted to share a bit of frustration. I want to see if this phenomenon happens to me alone, or if other language learners experience this.
I am a male, in my mid-50's (a bit old to be learning a new language, some would say). I picked up Fluenz French Levels 1 and 2 to study before our trip to Paris. I found myself really enjoying it! So much so, that I bought the rest of the levels! I'm now deep in level 3. I do the flashcards, the lessons (of course), listen to the podcasts, and try to listen to other French podcasts from outside Fluenz as well. In other words, I've really gotten into this! I pretty much kick butt when doing the program. BUT. I find that when I actually try to speak French "in real life" (I have a friend who is a professor of French), all that great vocabulary and grammar that I can pull up so easily when working in the program just leaves my brain! Oh, it's not that I completely forget everything, but it feels like I can only "pull up" a small percentage of what I really know.
This is my first real attempt to learn a language (well, I did take several years of Spanish back in junior high and high school, but that was many years ago and I wasn't exactly studious back then). So I'm curious, do others experience this frustration (i.e. doing well in the program and less well in real life)? Is it a "normal" thing when learning a language, that gets better as one practices? Or is it just my aging brain? ;)
Thanks!
Brian