S6E37: They were not failed experiments
Full transcript:
Good morning, happy Tuesday 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 is a really short message to remind you that saying no to something now, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re saying no forever.
In language learning, especially when this is the first foreign language we’ve seriously studied, we go through so many experiments and projects. We try so many things out. And that can be a really rewarding part of the process – figuring out what we like, what we’re excited about, and having these bursts of understanding where we just get our selves and our brains a little bit more. We learn so much about our whole selves while we’re learning a language, because learning a language really is a training ground for our whole personality, our whole everything.
But within that, there can be some disappointments. Things that we thought we’d love, and maybe even we spent a lot of money on, but then we didn’t love them. Things we really hoped would have a positive effect or would help us out in some way, but they didn’t. Things we were so sure we’d stick to, but then, we didn’t.
And so I just wanted to pop in and say, those were not failed experiments. They weren’t things that you should have been able to do, they aren’t things to feel guilty about, and it wasn’t time wasted.
Now is the time to figure out why they didn’t work. And not just vaguely “life’s too busy” or “it’s boring”, because that’s probably not specific enough to help you pick things that will work better next time. So if life was too busy, what was the actual issue? Do you need something that can be done in 20 minutes or less? Do you need something that you can break up into 5-minute intervals, so it’s easier to pick up where you left off? It might be that, while life is busy, you need something really streamlined and minimalist, one clear thing to focus on at a time, in your language learning to give you relief from the chaos around you.
If it’s boring, why? Is it that you were spending too long on one thing and did it hold you there until you got 100%? Do you need shorter, more varied exercises about one topic? Do you need to be up and doing things rather than doing textbook-style drills? Do you need the source material to feel more grounded in real life?
And remember too that just because something doesn’t work for you now, it might still be worth keeping in the back of your mind, or maybe save some brief notes on your phone or whatever, just so that if your circumstances change or your needs change, you can revisit the things you‘ve already tested. Sometimes the experiments that we think didn’t work really mean “not now” rather than “not ever”.
And if you’d like to support my work and meet some amazing people in the process, take a look at my Patreon Community of creative, multipassionate and mission driven language learners. We meet up online once a month to chat about all things language, productivity and the world, and depending on the tier you choose, I also offer weekly co-working in the Creative Space to get tons of motivation and accountability, and a personalised monthly Q&A session. There’s even the option to get a personalised coaching call and brain huddle from me. So, if you’re curious, and I would love if you could join us, the link is in the show notes.
Have a wonderful day, and I will see you tomorrow.