Field notes

Method pages describe what an approach claims. These describe what somebody actually did — the hours, the exact stack, and what they say it got them. Every note is a real public post that we read and linked; none are composites or examples.

Read them as accounts, not as evidence. Almost every level here is self-graded, nobody writes up the year that went nowhere, and 6 of 6 never say whether they already spoke a related language — the single biggest thing that would change how you read the timeline.

  1. Got somewhere Portuguese

    12 months at 1–2 h a day, from scratch, on a five-app stack

    Time
    12 months
    Per day
    1–2 h
    Est. hours
    ~365–730
    Level claim
    self-assessed

    u/urcpa_soonest in r/Portuguese · names products

  2. Stalled Spanish

    A 341-day streak, six tools, and five hours of silence at a family dinner

    Time
    12 months
    Per day
    unknown
    Est. hours
    not stated
    Level claim
    self-assessed

    u/Humble_Cranberry5273 in r/languagelearning · names products

  3. Stalled Spanish

    Three years stuck on pure input, then a textbook, a teacher and an exam date

    Time
    60 months
    Per day
    unknown
    Est. hours
    not stated
    Level claim
    exam-verified

    u/DoYourWork123 in r/languagelearning

  4. Stalled Japanese

    A 1,480-day Anki streak ended, and the relief was the lesson

    Time
    48 months
    Per day
    ~1.5 h
    Est. hours
    ~1800–2400
    Level claim
    self-assessed

    u/TheStellarJay1 in r/languagelearning

  5. Tool survey Several languages

    Twenty-seven apps over eight years, reviewed one by one

    Time
    96 months
    Per day
    unknown
    Est. hours
    not stated
    Level claim
    not stated

    u/dannybooboo0 in r/languagelearning

  6. Didn't work Japanese

    Ten years of classes, textbooks and apps — and still barely past beginner

    Time
    120 months
    Per day
    unknown
    Est. hours
    not stated
    Level claim
    self-assessed

    u/kawaraban_ in r/languagelearning · names products

What these 6 notes have in common

Counts across the notes on this page, and nothing more. Six posts that people chose to write cannot tell you what works — they can only tell you what these six did. Every figure below is out of 6.

  • 5 of 6 used something for grammar
  • 5 of 6 used something for passive listening
  • 5 of 6 used something for SRS
  • 3 of 6 used something for reading
  • 2 of 6 used something for daily drill
  • 2 of 6 used something for human feedback

1 of 6 back their level with an exam. 3 of 6 name products in a way worth reading carefully.

How these are chosen

  • Real posts only. If we could not fetch and read it, it is not here.
  • Linked, not republished. Short excerpts and a link; the words belong to their author.
  • Failures kept deliberately. A page of success stories would be a survivorship-bias machine.
  • Promotion flagged. Language-learning forums carry a lot of marketing that reads like peer advice. Where a post pushes a product we say so, without guessing at intent.
  • No affiliate links, ever. Not ours, in either direction.