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The Curse of Emergency Speech – and What to Do About It

On August 11, 2017 By Noel van Vliet In Noel's Advice, Psychology, Tactics and Strategies

You probably recognize the following scenario:

You’re in an important conversation in your target language. Then suddenly, your vocabulary seems to shrink to: Yes, No and Thank You.

Call it stress or nerves, fact is it makes you feel as if all the studying you’ve done has been worthless.

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How Unrealistic Expectations Hurt Your Language Learning

On July 26, 2017 By Noel van Vliet In Psychology

It’s not your fault that you think a language should be learned quickly.

They’re all in your face about it.

In order to sell courses, the claims they make can’t get much crazier sometimes.

With so much hype, you may actually start to believe you can learn fluent Mandarin in 3 weeks…and without any effort on your part.

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Falling Off The Bandwagon…And Getting Back On It

On July 11, 2017 By Noel van Vliet In Psychology

I haven’t always been successful at learning languages.

When I was younger I tried to learn another language several times.

Only to fail every time…and usually faster than Donald Trump can say “tremendous”.

After each failure it would take years for me to try again.

Failure can hurt, you know. And the hurt would always lead me to the same conclusion:

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The Worst Thought a Language Learner Can Have

On June 25, 2017 By Noel van Vliet In Noel's Advice, Psychology

When learning a new language many negative thoughts can plague you.

But one stands out as probably the most destructive thought a language learner can have.

Think it enough, and it could be curtains for your language dreams.

What thought it is?

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Do You Really Hate to Study?

On June 20, 2017 By Noel van Vliet In Noel's Advice, Tactics and Strategies

The word studying has gotten a bad reputation in the last few years.

Mention the word and you see people cringe in agony.

To study is to die a long painful death due to immense boredom.

Language bloggers who dare to use the word, risk the chance of being called old fashioned and outdated.

We no longer study a language, we learn it instead.

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