You know, I sometimes have the impression that some people make language learning harder than what it’s supposed to be.
You’ve met them.
It’s the ‘Oh you’ve made a mistake there’ kind of person.
The one that will tell you to come back when you have a better French, or pick on every little mistake you make.
Sometimes it’s just a native that doesn’t realise he’s being a jerk.
Sometimes it’s a learner that like to think she knows more than you.
And worse, sometimes, it’s a teacher.
I could speculate on why they are doing that, but that’s not my point here.
What I want you to realise, it that learning a language is easy. Let me explain.
Speaking another language is not hard or extraordinary
Just like using fancy words doesn’t make your idea more valuable, saying it in another language doesn’t change a thing.
(Well, mostly. But not fundamentally).
And in fact, being bilingual is not extraordinary.
Lots of people are.
So your native language, or the fact that you speak more than one, does NOT make you exceptional.
Because, after all, the process of learning another language is not hard.
It’s not harder than learning to play the guitar, or learning how to blog.
Because it’s a set of rules.
And once you master enough of those rules, you speak the language.
Of course, it seems hard. Because we’re not used (most of us) to other languages.
We are used to one way to communicate.
(And it’s more and more the case, even when it comes to our own language. But that’s another story)
So, new sounds seem extraordinary, impossible to recreate. And that fill the myth that learning a language is hard.
That means learning a language is not a complex intellectual process
In fact, if you over simplify learning a language, here’s what it looks like:
- You want to be able to do something specific (for example, say hello in French, or speaking about an event of the past in Japanese).
- You look for the information (through an app, the internet, a textbook, a teacher,..)
- You use the information to obtain a result and memorise it.
WANT – LEARN – DO (MEMORISE)
Do that enough times and boom, you speak French, Spanish, Mandarin, Créole,..
Yes, I’ll grant you this – it’s a simplified view.
(But – look at it more closely and you’ll see that this is how you can learn ANYTHING)
So we have to stop pretending that learning a language is hard. Because it’s not.
Being an Olympian is hard. Learning to let go is hard. Healing from depression is hard. Fighting addiction is hard.
But learning a language is relatively easy. And I want you to remember that, because…
Thinking learning a language is hard makes the process harder
Have you ever surprised yourself about how easy it was to do something you were dreading to do?
It happens to me a lot.
After hearing people complain about how difficult it was to start a business, it’s no wonder it took me so long to start my own.
I assimilated the idea that it was something ‘hard’. Without even trying it for myself.
Turns out, in France anyway (can’t speak for other administrations), starting a small business is very easy.
I don’t want this to happen to you.
If right now, you are thinking ’she’s crazy, I’ve been trying to learning French for years and I can tell you, it’s hella hard’ – please hear me out.
Try to tell yourself that it’s easy. Start your next learning session with the absolute certainty that you are going to smash your learning goals.
And I promise you, you will find it easy!
Being confidant, and thinking you can do it is 50% of the work. Like really!
Before I go, if it’s easy, it doesn’t make it less good
If you are a bit like me, you sort of think that everything easy is not so worth doing (or something similar).
You like intellectual challenges. And you feel proud of yourself when you tackled one.
I catch myself thinking this way sometimes.
So here’s a little reminder, that easy is good.
Easy does not mean stupid, or worthless, or insufficient.
When it comes to language learning (and learning in general), easy means:
- Quick results
- Motivating (cause easy results duh)
- Long-term
- Not overwhelming (which is a whole new level of frustrating)
Amongst other things.
So I really urge you to let go of your belief that learning a language is hard. Change your perspective, and you’ll find everything much more EASIER.
And that’s a good thing.
