S4E42: Later, we'll build castles

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 before we start, this is just a quick heads up that this is the final week of season 4 of the Language Confidence Project, I’m taking a break over the summer, and then I’ll be back on the 4th September for season 5.

So today, I want to talk about that feeling when you’ve just spent time studying a topic, you’ve learned all this vocabulary and maybe some key facts and trivia to go with it, and then you start doing stuff with what you’ve learned, and you hate what you make.

And I know how it feels when what you create doesn’t match up with what you have in your head. And that’s partly going to be because the topics might be new. Language courses, especially at a higher level, often get you to think about all sorts of topics you’ve never really much considered before: the environment, world politics, current affairs specific to a country you might never have been to. But more than that, even with the topics you know really well, it still opens up that can of worms. Because in your native language, everything is so vivid. Your opinions are so complex and nuanced, and you can express all of them. Your inner world is so colourful and so textured and then you’re trying to find some way to get all that you-ness into whatever you’re trying to say or write and it just doesn’t work. 

And so, if this is where you’re at right now, I just wanted to share a beautiful quote by Shannon Hale, who is an American author, she writes young adult fantasy fiction, about writing her first drafts. And this is what she says:

“I’m writing a first draft and I’m reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box, so that later, I can build castles.”

And it’s exactly the same for you when you’re practising your speaking or writing in your new language. Whatever level you’re at. If you are approaching a topic for the first time, no matter how general or how specific, how technical, if you’re approaching it for the first time, it’s going to be a first iteration. It’s going to be a bit messy.

 You won’t really know what to say. Or maybe you will know what you want to say, but the words won’t come. Or you’ll get the message out, but it’ll feel too clunky, too simplistic, too amateur, not knowledgeable enough, not persuasive enough, not funny enough.

But that’s 100% a perfect place to start.

And then you’ll talk about the topic again, or you’ll have the same conversation with a different person, and this time, it’ll be a bit easier. You’ll already know what you think about the topic, your opinions will be a bit more crystalised, even if there’s still flexibility there, and some of the vocabulary will be there waiting and it’ll come naturally when you need it. The first few times you talk or write about something in your new language really is just like writing the first draft of a manuscript.

While you’re learning your language, you are shovelling so much sand and I know how impatient you are for those magnificent castles to appear. But keep going, keep creating those foundations, keep having those conversations for the first time and exploring the topics you’ve never explored before and you will get there.

Keep shovelling that sand, language learners, and the castles will come.

Have a wonderful day, and I will see you tomorrow.