I think people are different. I spent two years in Tanzania, and managed to pick up maybe only ~1000 words of Swahili while my girlfriend became completely flue

I think people are different. I spent two years in Tanzania, and managed to pick up maybe only ~1000 words of Swahili while my girlfriend became completely fluent. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough, but what I can say is that simply immersing yourself for a couple months doesn't cut it. Funnily enough, a friend of mine spent 2 years in Japan with his wife and he never learned anything while she ended up fluent (just like my gf). Maybe men are worse at learning new languages? Or maybe they care less?