Learning languages

[Meldarion]

Why is it that I can learn and remember pronunciation of a language and remember it and can read and pronounce it forever but can not remember many phrases and vocabulary? I feel like I am a dummy!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I think the answer to this question is the same as the one to "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?".

More seriously, interacting with people in the language is useful -- particularly native speakers.

I take it you're talking about all languages, not just Elvish ones?

 

[Ent]

Often 'learning and remembering pronunciations' etc. is very different than "understanding and owning the meaning" of a thing.
Until we fully grasp the meaning, we can't fully apply it.
And this generally only comes with 'interacting', as our friend Squint-eyed Southerner points out above.

Interact with it through speaking with others. Also reading things written in the language and grappling with it until you grasp why it's 'put together' the way it is. (I found reading a German and Spanish translation of the Bible side by side with the English helpful, for example.)

Good luck...my well-aged brain cannot cope with absorbing new languages any more. It's hard enough packing in more of the HoME (and other) information etc. as it is. As Sherlock Holmes might say, I have cluttered up my "brain attic" with much that is simply not useful to my current desires, pursuits, and needs. 😁