Advice on Language Learning, Travel, and Living Abroad
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Language bloggers who dare to use the word, risk the chance of being called old fashioned and outdated.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.
We all have tough moments in our language-learning journeys.
And as much as we would like, preventing them entirely is impossible.
Any kind of learning involves at least some pain:
Whether it’s study frustration, or embarrassment from pronouncing a word incorrectly in a conversation…..
No matter what you do, some frustration is inevitable in order to grow. You can’t learn something worthwhile without challenging yourself.
That challenge can be felt as a kind of pain, a frustration. A frustration that can quickly build up, and when it does, you just might want to throw all your learning materials into the trash can.
And if your learning material is digital, you might want to smash your Smart Phone into pieces as well.
The trick, then, is to not let that frustration get the better of you.
A simple shift of mind is usually enough to accomplish that.
Some people are like robots.
They set out to do goal achieving activities every day, and they follow through on them without fail.
Day after day, they show up to get one day closer to whatever their end goal is.
They get things done….and they’re going places, while screw ups like you and me (yeah, I’m talking to you) can’t get adelante.
Don’t those people make you sick?
They used to make my stomach feel like a bag of bricks, and me like a total screw up.
Not anymore.
I stick to my schedule now. Even though it’s a very flexible one.
Here’s how I do it:
Sorry!
You can’t learn a new language in a month.
No matter what they promise you, it’s not going to happen. (At least not until they invent a language chip they can insert into your brain.)
Learning a new language is a rather lengthy process. It’s not something you do for a while and then you’re done. Some would say it’s a lifetime project.
Ever felt like you’ve come to a standstill in your language learning?
It sucks, right?
Long gone are the early days of your language journey when learning was a breeze:
The prospect of speaking a new language excited you so much … and picking up new words and grammar rules was almost as easy as breathing out.
Now, however, all you seem to do is maintain what you already learned.
If that…