S6E19: Adults can be beginners too!

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Thursday, and welcome to the Language Confidence Project, the daily dose of language courage for people who love languages and those who really don’t, but have to learn one anyway.

And today’s episode is about asking you, how do you feel about being new at something?  

When you think of diving into something you’ve never done before in the sort of general field of hobbies and skills, never maybe even thought about before, are your first thoughts

Exciting

Intriguing

Curiosity

Potential?

Or is your first thought one of exasperation, embarrassment, or anxiety? 

I know that growing up, before I started the work that ultimately led to The Language Confidence Project, if I’d have been asked this question, I’d have gone straight to those options.

I’d have given you words like

Awkward

Inefficient

Incompetent

Unqualified

Amateur

Inexperienced

It all sounds pretty terrible, doesn’t it?

But I think they’re messages we get a lot from the outside world.

As adults, experience is currency. We love experts. We reward specialism. We value competence over almost everything else.

And that makes sense in the workplace. We need the people around us that cut our hair, perform dentistry and surgery, or prepare our court cases to be pretty darn good at what they do. We don’t want to leave responsibilities like that with curious people that just fancy having a go.

But why do we carry that belief through to every aspect of our lives?

Growing up, I never saw any adults around me being a beginner at anything. I didn’t know very many adults at all who had hobbies like crafts, playing an instrument, sports. A lot of experiences like learning to drive, doing new things at work, happen in private or away from where a child can see it. I just didn’t see adults trying things that were new to them. And especially not trying something new and having fun with it.

and if the same is true for you as well, I wonder if it’s that part of us thinks we lose the right be a beginner somewhere in childhood. It’s okay when children play a torturous string of noises on a violin or count to ten in French all muddled up or draw a stick man with the sky one inch from the top of the page. We encourage it in children! Children get to learn about the world. Children get to explore, and children get to create stuff even when it doesn’t show mastery.

Why does it have to end in childhood? Why do so many of us think that if we missed the boat in childhood, we missed our only chance to play with new things?  

As adults, we are allowed to play with new things too.

We just have to give ourselves permission.

By letting ourselves be a beginner, we get to do new stuff! And it might be really good and really fun! It might bring us into contact with new people! It might be the start of an amazing journey!

Being a beginner isn’t a bad thing. It’s not something to be ashamed of.

It’s not embarrassing to be new. It’s not embarrassing to produce work, whether that’s a painting, some music, or some sentences in another language, at the early stages on our journey. It’s really commendable.  

And every time we let people see us experiment, every time we try something new in public, every time we look genuinely joyful surrounded by the unfamiliar, we are giving other people the courage to try something new as well.

Have a wonderful day, and I will see you tomorrow.