What, the hack, have these words in common? You could ask.
They have a lot of in common – it is the essence of language learning. I wrote about mistakes and making mistakes in my previous post, so today just shortly, maybe a small complement. If you want to do (and learn) something new, perhaps slightly but new, it is natural that you are not very good at it and what is the result? At the beginning you make more mistakes than if you were engaged in your usual rut (normal, well known) activity. You cannot avoid these mistakes, or better to say, you can but you will move only in a circle – no learning, no movement forward. It is up to you, you can choose. Children make more mistakes than we adults and the result? No need to comment.
So, allow yourself to make mistakes and this way you will allow yourself to learn. Some people unfortunately struggle with this approach.
I would like to share a short story concerning this topic with you. I know a young woman. She is a beautiful, clever, very intelligent and successful woman. I noticed that she has a small board with English vocabulary hanging on the wall in her office above her desk. We made a small chat about it. She has been learning English for a while, she is attending some courses... Her young boy is also learning English at school. He could be 12 or similar age and he is probably at lover level of language knowledge than she (his mother) is. One day he downloaded some move in original (English) language. They both started watching it. She told me one thing that struck me at that time and I had to think of it. She told me that she was VERY FRUSTRATED by not understanding it well and that her boy was on the other hand quite well and at ease. He told her that he can catch the meaning what is going on in that movie. He was fine, she was frustrated. After a short time she even finished watching it at all. He enjoyed it to the end. What happened? Yes, movies are not easy stuff for learning foreign languages... I could write about it more and I will do maybe in some next post, but now I would focus on the approach of those two „learners“. She wanted to understand fully, every word, 100% and it was not possible! She did not allow herself to make any mistakes. Yes, if you do not understand well, some parts, or nearly anything – it is a mistake. What else? She did not allow that. She a bit a perfectionist. And her learning process stopped – for that moment because of too many mistakes she were doing and was not able to accept. But what about to put it upside-down? What if she would see it differently? She could see that she can UNDERSTAND SOMETHING! That there is already some progress, some knowledge, something to be GRATEFUL for. And we have here the gratitude. It is much better feeling than the frustration. Much better approach for learning the language, isn't it? Gratitude, appreciation, joy, love, acceptance, peace or... shortly feeling well instead. And despite those mistakes you can continue to learn and you can enjoy the process at the same time. You are at FLOW!
It applies not only for language learning.
They have a lot of in common – it is the essence of language learning. I wrote about mistakes and making mistakes in my previous post, so today just shortly, maybe a small complement. If you want to do (and learn) something new, perhaps slightly but new, it is natural that you are not very good at it and what is the result? At the beginning you make more mistakes than if you were engaged in your usual rut (normal, well known) activity. You cannot avoid these mistakes, or better to say, you can but you will move only in a circle – no learning, no movement forward. It is up to you, you can choose. Children make more mistakes than we adults and the result? No need to comment.
So, allow yourself to make mistakes and this way you will allow yourself to learn. Some people unfortunately struggle with this approach.
I would like to share a short story concerning this topic with you. I know a young woman. She is a beautiful, clever, very intelligent and successful woman. I noticed that she has a small board with English vocabulary hanging on the wall in her office above her desk. We made a small chat about it. She has been learning English for a while, she is attending some courses... Her young boy is also learning English at school. He could be 12 or similar age and he is probably at lover level of language knowledge than she (his mother) is. One day he downloaded some move in original (English) language. They both started watching it. She told me one thing that struck me at that time and I had to think of it. She told me that she was VERY FRUSTRATED by not understanding it well and that her boy was on the other hand quite well and at ease. He told her that he can catch the meaning what is going on in that movie. He was fine, she was frustrated. After a short time she even finished watching it at all. He enjoyed it to the end. What happened? Yes, movies are not easy stuff for learning foreign languages... I could write about it more and I will do maybe in some next post, but now I would focus on the approach of those two „learners“. She wanted to understand fully, every word, 100% and it was not possible! She did not allow herself to make any mistakes. Yes, if you do not understand well, some parts, or nearly anything – it is a mistake. What else? She did not allow that. She a bit a perfectionist. And her learning process stopped – for that moment because of too many mistakes she were doing and was not able to accept. But what about to put it upside-down? What if she would see it differently? She could see that she can UNDERSTAND SOMETHING! That there is already some progress, some knowledge, something to be GRATEFUL for. And we have here the gratitude. It is much better feeling than the frustration. Much better approach for learning the language, isn't it? Gratitude, appreciation, joy, love, acceptance, peace or... shortly feeling well instead. And despite those mistakes you can continue to learn and you can enjoy the process at the same time. You are at FLOW!
It applies not only for language learning.
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