S3E7: Remember, some people do this for fun
Full transcript:
Good morning, happy Tuesday and welcome to the Language Confidence Project, the daily dose of language courage for people who love languages, and those who really don’t, but have to learn one anyway. And if you’re really struggling with your language learning at the moment, you’re stuck in a rut, you’re bored, or you’re resenting the whole process, today, I just want to pop in with a reminder that some people are genuinely doing this for fun.
They don’t need the language as an urgent or compulsory life skill. No-one’s telling them to do this. They could be doing something else, anything else. But they come back to language learning, over and over again, voluntarily, in their free time, because they found things they love about it.
So go find those people. Because guess what, They’re not all weirdos. Ok, some of them, if their locus of language interest is on the furthest end of the spectrum away from yours, will feel like they are on another planet.
But the language learning community attracts an incredibly diverse range of personalities, motivations for learning, studying styles, and people from all sorts of backgrounds.
But there are so many flavours of people who love languages, or language learning or the exact language you’re learning. Go and find those people. Maybe for real conversations, maybe just to watch their videos or read their blog posts. Let yourself discover the many kinds of beauty in language learning. The points of fascination. Find the things that make so many different types of people fall in love with language learning time and time again.
And this isn’t just for the really reluctant learners among us. If you started out as a language hobbyist, but you’ve got kind of deep into the weeds, if your focus has shifted from fun, and fascination, to a need for consistent improvement, or if for whatever reason, your language has become heavy, this might be exactly what you need too. Remember, despite all the narratives out there that say otherwise, progress does not need to be an ordeal. It doesn’t need you to speak to yourself harshly, make yourself miserable, or completely surrender your health and wellbeing to it.
So if you find yourself starting to forget how to enjoy this journey, don’t just grit your teeth and forge ahead, telling yourself stories about deferred gratification and your suffering paying off in the long run. Make it your mission for this week to find ways to add a little bit more joy into the process right now. Find topics to reignite or… ignite that curiosity.
And before I go, I’d love to invite you to take part in my first project this year, which is to have 100 chats with listeners of the Language Confidence Project in the next few months, to meet you, to hear about how your language journey is going, and to find out what carving your own path means to you. It’s a really informal 30 minute Skype chat over tea or coffee or whatever beverage you should like to bring, it’s completely free and nobody is going to try and sell you anything, and the hope is that we can chat about the hard bits of learning a language but also to celebrate your wins. If you would like to book a call, I have a Calendly link in the shownotes, and it’s also in my Instagram bio. I can’t wait to hear from you! As always, you can find the post-it note summaries for all my episodes on Instagram at @teawithemily, which is also in the shownotes!
You are doing so well, language learners, and you don’t have to do it the hard way. Remember, every tiny thing you achieve today counts, and every word matters.
Have a wonderful Tuesday, and I will see you tomorrow.