INTRODUCTION.
Unfortunately, there’s a belief that learning a language as an adult is nearly impossible or at least incredibly difficult. This is very far from the truth. Anyone can learn a new language. You just have to make sure you avoid a few common mistakes. Here are five mistakes people make that hinder their language-learning success.
SHOOTING FOR FLUENCY INSTEAD OF PROGRESS.
This is a very common, but rather strange fact about language learning. Unfortunately, a lot of people have only the final goal in mind, but can’t seem to enjoy the journey. We see so many people wanting to be fluent in a very short and unrealistic amount of time . They keep wondering how long it will take to reach their fluency goal. This is the wrong way to go about language learning and many things in life.
Unfortunately, a lot of people have only the final goal in mind, but can’t seem to enjoy the journey.
Shooting for fluency when you don’t know how to shape a single sentence can make the task at hand look impossible and it can be very discouraging. Learn to enjoy learning, feel proud of the little progress you make every day and reward yourself along the way. Fluency is no miracle really, if you get a little better every day and set yourself small attainable goals, it will eventually add up. Take it one step at a time and enjoy the progress you are making.
BEING AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES.
One of the biggest mistake people make is not making enough mistakes. Rather ironic, isn’t it? We like our native language because we are so darn good at it. It can be quite intimidating to speak a foreign language, but the very reason we are so good at our mother tongue is that we’ve made an unimaginable amount of mistakes over the years. As a two-year old though, we couldn’t care less if we conjugated incorrectly. We didn’t feel embarrassed. To learn a language without making thousands of mistakes is simply impossible. You need to feel comfortable with that, and even be happy to have made a mistake. Every mistake is an opportunity to get better. Communication first, perfection later.
NOT HAVING ANY PLAN OR GUIDANCE.
When we learn our first language, we have the best guidance in the world; our parents. They are the most loving, enthusiast teachers and your success is of the greatest importance to them. After all, they tried to get you to say mama for months! You will never find that kind of guidance as an adult, but you still need to find a way to be guided. Feeling like you are turning in circles and not getting anywhere is a huge waste of time and it can be frustrating. So find a good lesson plan, a teacher or a mentor to help you get to your destination with continuous progression. That’s something you can get with OUINO, for example. If you feel like you’re in a labyrinth, find better guidance.
NOT SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE ENOUGH.
To learn to speak a language, you need to speak the language. Sure, it sounds really obvious, but many people don’t do this. Of course, you need to learn some vocabulary, verbs, grammar etc. Like any great skill, you do need to learn the theory, but if you don’t put the things you learn into practice, you will have a really hard time remembering and understanding how the language works. Believe me, I know it’s not easy. But there is a certain foreign language anxiety that you need to get out of your system as fast as possible. The only way to get rid of the fear of speaking is by speaking. You need to face your fears. There are lots of different ways you can practice speaking at home at first. Hey, you can even speak to yourself out loud, I do it all the time!
NOT MAKING THE LANGUAGE PART OF YOUR LIFE.
Most people who don’t succeed in language learning don’t have a strong passion for it. If you don’t like the language you are learning, spending hundreds of hours learning it doesn’t make much sense and it likely won’t work. You need to develop a bond with this new language and make it part of your life. It has to mean something to you. So get involved with the culture, talk to native speakers, watch movies, listen to music, read books, play video games etc. All these things will help you fall in love with the language and give you the motivation you need to keep going. If every time you study the language it feels like a chore, you need to find other ways of learning. Love the culture, the people, and the language itself. If you enjoy the time you spend learning, success is just around the corner.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OUINO METHOD.
We have combined everything we know from years of language acquisition and research to create an awesome language-learning method. Visit OUINO.com to learn more.
