Learning a language is like truck pulling at the strongman contest: it seems nigh on impossible at the beginning, but if you keep practising and building up your mental strength you can feel yourself moving forward. Then, as you overcome inertia, the wheels start rolling and you’re away, building vocab, grammar rules, listening, speaking and writing skills with each step forward. As with truck pulling however, to continue making progress you must keep the process moving—however slowly—to avoid the return to inertia. After a week or two away from the books the wheels start to slow. After a month without flashcards you’re almost standing; and after two it feels like “what language?” (or “Damn that’s a big truck!”). When that happens, the likelihood of you getting the thing moving again anytime soon is pretty slim and if you’re like most people (statistically speaking), it’s at this point your Tuesday evening Italian class becomes your pub quiz/Lost series 53 night (“just for this term”)…
Whether it be by keeping up with your Word of the Day, studying your books every night or hiring a tutor every week, make sure that you at least try and do something related to that language as often as possible (ideally don’t even let a day go by without at least thinking about a sentence in your chosen language). By keeping the truck going (however slowly) over time you lock the language into your mental framework, it stops being something you’re studying and starts being something you do. This is quite a different frame of reference when you think about it. The first is something that you can give up because “it was too hard” or “I was busy”, the second however, is a part of who you are—it may not be perfect but you can’t give it up any more than you can get rid of your first language.
So, at the very least commit to something so simple you can’t possibly make an excuse not to do. The word a day you’re learning will soon be 30 words a month and 365 words a year, not only will your language inevitably improve, as it locks itself into your mind it becomes something of a self-fulfilling routine, one that carries you through the inevitable ebbs of enthusiasm and lets you drive the truck forward when you’re back in the right frame of mind.
Simon
What do you do to keep the truck moving in your language learning? We’d love to hear from you, leave a comment below and share with the Bitesized Community….
Tags: mentalframework
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If I am stuck in a traffic jam, then I translate the car numbers around me into French.
Nice one Heather, even better that you’re doing it when you’d otherwise be bored! Great association.
I like to play music in the language that I’m studying for a few minutes before commencing studying. The music itself will get the R. lobe of the brain to work in harmony with the L. lobe and it is rather like brain-washing – one practical area working with the artistic area – fantastic. Well, anyway, it works for me – I’m 82 and am studying at university – age is defintely no barrier. I would love to hear what other people feel about music and a new language?? Best wishes to all from New Zealand. Elizabeth
EVERY EVENING, I COPY THE ‘WORD OF THE DAY’ WITH ITS EXAMPLE SENTENCE AND THE VARIOUS VERB CONJUGATIONS OR WHETHER ITS AN ADJECTIVE OR NOUN (OR WHATEVER) INTO A SMALL NOTEBOOK. THEN WHENEVER I HAVE A FEW SPARE MOMENTS I RANDOMLY OPEN A PAGE AND TRY COMMITING ALL THE INFO TO MEMORY. SOUNDS BORING AND TEDIOUS BUT FOR ME IT WORKS. I DO THIS FOR FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH AND ITALIAN. AS A RETIRED PERSON IT HELPS ME KEEP MY BRAIN ACTIVE PLUS I AM ABLE TO CONVERSE (ALBEIT HESITANTLY) WITH MY ‘FOREIGN’ FRIENDS BY ‘PHONE, TEXT, EMAILS, LETTERS ETC . I ALSO ATTEMPT VARIOUS ‘ONLINE’ QUIZZES, CROSSWORDS, AND SUCH LIKE, IN THE LANGUAGES I AM LEARNING. I ALSO DO VARIOUS COURSES ON A COUPLE OF OTHER ‘FREE’ LEARNING SITES WHERE YOU CONTACT AND HELP OTHER LEARNERS AND IN RETURN THEY HELP YOU. THAT HAS TURNED INTO SOME ‘ONLINE FRIENDSHIPS’ WHICH MAYBE WILL DEVELOP INTO PROPER FRIENDSHIPS. (OR NOT)!
@Elizabeth: Great tip thanks
Yes I agree it’s such a good combination isn’t it, music and learning (whatever you happen to learn). I have found over time that even though songs are often too complicated to understand word for word that little phrases catch in my mind with the lyrics that come back to me in other situations.
@Anjana: Wow that is commitment! Sounds like you have a whole web of tools and activities that is brilliant, everything reinforcing itself. When it comes down to it you can’t beat actually talking with people can you, once you get over the worry of getting things wrong real time feedback is the best! Just a side note, we’re working on a few new games here at bitesized as well, they’re taking a while because we’re plugging them in to some other clever technology we’re working on but watch this space for new. Thanks Anjana
I’m so impressed @Elizabeth and @Anjana! Listening to music before studying is a really clever suggestion. I’m going to try that myself. I’m also impressed that being retired is no object to language learning. Whilst it’s true that kids learn language more instinctively I don’t think it’s always harder for adults. We have the benefit of patience and wisdom on our side!
I keep the truck rolling by staying in touch with overseas friends using MSN. You also get to learn all the cool TXT speak in another languages (like rsrsrs! which is lol in portuguese). Which reminds me, we must do a little blog entry about TXTSPK!
Gareth
I am so impressed by other users of Bitesize that it gives me incentive to carry on. I write down the phrase each day and refer back to my notes quite often to find what I am looking for. Also it helps to listen over and over to the pronunciation each day.
I have lived in France for 8 years now and still find the language a challenge. My memory is not very good now.
However looking back to when I first found bitesize I feel much more confident when speaking the language and carry on with a class where we converse in French.
My 13 year old grand daughter tells me over and over to learn the verbs. they let me down a lot. So onwards and upwards.
I am a 75 year old working artist as well as a keen gardener.therefore I have limited time to give to French but still have many years to catch up with people like Elizabeth so many thanks to you.
I listen to music while I am painting which helps me to concentrate on the subject. so I will take up that idea from Elizabeth and listen before doing my French “devoir”
@Maureen we’re really glad that people’s comments are providing some motivation/inspiration, we think that a large part of learning any language is just staying motivated which is also often the toughest part. Keep an eye on this blog and also some of the new tools we’ll be releasing soon aimed specifically at how to stay motivated. Good luck, thanks for your comments
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I recently started learning Portuguese (Brazilian). Whilst reading the comments on here I have found the answer to something that was in a message sent to me (in Portuguese). I now know that rsrsrs! means laugh out loud (Lol). Thank you Simon, but most txtspk passes me by! Altho’ I suppose it does count as another language…..
That’s brilliant Anjana!