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Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome.
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is …
I’m Not Making Much Progress with my New Language
So, you started learning a new language on the first of January, but you don’t feel like you’re making much progress and you feel like giving up. It sounds like you might have believed a common myth that pervades some corners of YouTube and, no doubt, the Internet in general, and that is that you can become fluent in a new language in a few months, or even a few weeks.
It’s not your fault if you believed this, because the people who claim to have done this can be very convincing. They will give you evidence. They will talk to you in the language. And, maybe, some of them are being truthful about their abilities, but others definitely are affiliated with wool and eyes.
But, so what if you’re not as far on as you thought you would be? What does it matter, if you really want to learn the language? Let’s think about what you do know already, because I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s a lot more than you knew before you started.
You will almost certainly have a small collection of words you know the meaning of and some sentences that you can make with those words. Okay, they may not be the most exciting of words, or the most useful of sentences, but it’s language and the number of words will creep up quicker than you think.
You will also be starting to get the hang of how those words are said. Some languages are more difficult than others to get this straight, but you will have made significant progress since you started, even if you do have to roll your Rs.
Grammar will also be starting to be understood. Probably, very simple sentences in the present tense. You know it’s surprising how much we use the present tense in everyday speech, when there are so many other tenses we could use. You could get by, of a fashion, with only present tense, in many circumstances.
All this is good, but maybe the problem is that you’re just lacking someone to cheer you on. You need some moral support to keep you motivated and no one you know is interested in languages. You could go online and look for people in the same boat as you on your favourite social media app and make friends with them. If you’re both interested in the same language and you support each other through the difficult stages of learning your language that might help to keep you motivated.
You could also create some kind of learning plan, which I think is better than setting actual goals. It’s difficult to know what is an achievable goal when you’re just starting out learning a language, but planning things out, something that you can tick off, will give you a sense of achievement.
Another way to keep motivated is not to do the same thing every single day. Change things up. Perhaps, study one day, listen to the language another and watch something the next. Changing things up will help to keep the motivation going.
You could also consider whether the method you’re using to learn the language is actually working for you. If you’re using a book, try out an app. If you’re learning in a class, try out a book. Not every method of learning a language suits every person, so it’s worth trying out everything you can to find the method that works best for you.
And finally, don’t beat yourself up about not achieving what you wanted to by now. Try to be happy with what you’ve achieved, so far. It’s way more than you think and, you know, it’s not even the end of January yet.
That’s all for today. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.