Studying at university can be hard – especially when you’re learning a language. Learning a language isn’t like memorising formulas to apply to problems, or remembering which philosopher said what – it is literally learning an entire language! Something completely embedded in a foreign culture, often one you are barely familiar with.

Languages, especially those with strange, foreign sounds or pronunciations (like Hebrew and Mandarin), can be especially hard at a university – they try to push you further and make you learn faster than you might be able to keep up with.

And so, in the spirit of camaraderie, below are the 6 horrors you are not facing alone when studying a language:

1. Thinking you’re completely smashing everything until an exam comes up

2. Learning all your grammar and vocab, thinking you speak like a native until a native actually speaks to you, and all you can say is...

3. Hearing how badly you speak compared to your partner

4. That sense of superiority when you hear a classmate speak worse than you

5. Not being able to speak a word of the language when it comes time to show off your “skills”

6. Suddenly forgetting how to speak the language until the conversation is over

You might be feeling it now but don’t worry – you’re not suffering alone.