u/Alanna-1101

I first heard this idea from Vinh Giang (public speaking guru, cool guy) and it changed how I approach communication, quite a lot.

Most of us have no idea what we actually sound like in conversation. Not just your voice but your filler words, how often you trail off, whether you actually answer the question asked or just talk around it, whether your tone matches what you’re trying to say. We think we come across one way. The recording tells the truth oftentimes.

Here’s the way to do it:

Step 1: Record yourself. Often.
Voice recording on your phone work fine. No special setup needed, really. Have a full conversation with a friend and record it (let them know lol). Practise out loud for a presentation, a job interview or Do a mock language exchange with yourself.

Step 2: Wait, then listen back.
Don’t listen immediately. You’ll be defensive. Wait a few hours, or the next day. Then play it back like you’re listening to a stranger. Note:
- Filler words and habits (“like”, “you know”, “basically”, “um”)
- Where your energy drops or your voice gets small
- Whether your point actually landed clearly
- Pacing: are you rushing? Going too slow?
- For language learners: pronunciation, gender agreement, sentence structure, whether you defaulted to your native language when stuck. Praktika has a pronunciation tracker for language conversations, if you use language apps.

Step 3: Make it specific.
Don’t just cringe and move on. Write down 2 or 3
actual gaps after each listen. “I said ‘basically’ 11 times.” “I didn’t finish a single sentence confidently.” “My French r sounds are inconsistent.” The more specific the better, basically SMART problem solving.

Step 4: Record again some time later and compare!
This is where the growth actually shows up. Same scenario, a week later. Hopefully you’ll hear a difference.

I’ve had my phone for ages and I found a recording from when I was 12 speaking Spanish, really cute actually, but also showed me I actually have improved a lot in Spanish in all ways. (which I guess could be a consequence of growing up). But also doing it when I had interview prep with a camera also helped a lot recently.

The discomfort of listening back is the feedback. Your future self will sound noticeably different because of it. and maybe make good memories as well!

Hey guys as title described. White belt for about 2 years of on and off practice and wanted to challenge myself to do Ibjjf open in a month ish.

I’m also Super Heavy (86kg ish), and I’m really terrified of multiple outcomes.

Part of it is of course the anxiety of having people watch, and “losing” and etc. but part of it is that I keep on hearing about the idea of having a game plan but idk how I should formulate it, and should I formulate it differently because of my weight class.

Any advice you could provide would be super helpful!

1. BJJ - I’m there at least 4 times a week, so quite useful to speak and laugh in between sparring

2. Praktika - yap, when I can’t use friends and practice my pronunciation with the special mode (I learnt Spanish first so it’s hard for at times to mentally switch)

3. Speaking Brazilian - YouTube has always been a friend

4. Anki - it worked in med school, tho I should be more regular with it

Anything else?

Some people on here seems to either be a complete beginner or casually mention they reached C1 in fourteen months. I want to talk about the messy middle, because that is where most of us actually live.

I have been learning Spanish for about three years. I am not fluent. I can hold a conversation, understand a lot of what I watch, and occasionally surprise myself. I also still blank on basic words, still have days where my brain feels completely wiped, and still watch videos I have seen before because new content is sometimes just too much.

Here is what three years actually looked like.

Year one was genuinely exciting. Everything felt like progress because everything was new. I downloaded apps, made playlists, followed creators. My algorithm shifted within weeks. I felt like I was flying. I was not retaining nearly as much as I thought but I did not know that yet, and honestly the motivation that year carried me through to having a real foundation so I will not dismiss it.

Year two was the grammar slog and nobody warned me about it. The beginner dopamine wears off, you know enough to know how much you do not know. I nearly quit (or just put it to the side) twice. What kept me going was switching almost entirely to content I actually enjoyed rather than structured lessons. Elite, Prince Royce, Spanish podcasts about things I was already interested in. Progress felt invisible but it was happening.

Year three is where things finally started clicking in a way that felt different. Not fluency, but something closer to comfort. I stopped translating in my head as much. I started dreaming in Spanish occasionally which felt like a bizarre milestone nobody talks about (tbf I went to Spain for that week lol). Conversations stopped feeling like a performance and started feeling like actual communication, even when I made mistakes. I started to be more targeted. I had more intentional convos on topics where my vocab falls low, with friends, with Praktika, with myself, with anyone ideally. More volume in me trying to communicate to Improve.

What I wish someone had told me is that the graph does not go up steadily. It goes up fast, then feels completely flat for a long time, then jumps again when you least expect it. The flat parts are not failure. They are consolidation. Your brain is doing something even when it does not feel like it.

I am still going. Probably another year or two before I would call myself truly fluent. And I have genuinely made peace with that. The language is part of my life now in a way that feels sustainable rather than performative, and I think that matters more than the timeline.

Where are you in your journey? Would love to know I am not the only one living in the messy middle 😊

I wanted to collate some real experiences. what’s the best technique to learn?

Anything from apps, to immersion, to finding out you're somehow great at it when hyperfocused, all welcome.

No wrong answers - even "I tried and it was a disaster" is useful

Just want to give some hope ideally to somebody in my life!

I absolutely love my language journey. It has been full of ups and downs but it has genuinely been one of the most rewarding things I have taken on.

That said, I am hitting a bit of a flat patch recently and I think a lot of you will know exactly what I mean. Nothing is wrong exactly, I am still progressing, still care. But it is starting to feel more like a task I am maintaining than something I am excited about.

How did you get the joy back when it started feeling like a chore? Would love to hear what worked for you (Resources, mantras, apps etc etc)