S5E31: Get unstuck in five

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Monday 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 today, if you’re finding that you are paralysing yourself with questions and thoughts and worries about the whats and the hows and the whens of language learning, this is the episode for you.  

I’ve found, just through sheer coincidence this week, that the topic of overthinking has come up over and over again. In conversations with friends, in memes involving cute dinosaurs, and in some conversations with the LCP community, and I know that so many of us here are naturally deep thinkers, naturally ideas people, and it’s so easy to overthink and so hard to know when we’re doing it.

And something like language learning gives us so many opportunities to overthink. Because there are so many ways to do it. Because even if we’re all language learners around here, we’re in it for so many different reasons and with so many different goals that our paths look drastically different. Because the entire process forces us to really go within and find all the narratives we tell ourselves, all our sources of mental resistance, so much stuff from our past and the messages we’ve internalised. There is so much space to disappear into thinking and never really re-emerge into doing.

And so today, I just want to offer you a really simple way to get unstuck when you just feel like you just don’t know what you’re meant to be doing next, or if it’s going to work, or if you’re doing it right. And that is, just do five.

Let me explain.

To make progress in a language, you need to do one of three things. Either

You just need some more words

Or you just need some more grammar constructions

You just need a to make a thing that brings those two things together.

I know language learning gets complicated, but at the very foundation, that’s all language learning is.

So, if it’s more vocabulary you need right now, what’s the topic? Where is the easiest place you can either find or compile a list of the words that would be the most helpful right now? If you’re feeling super stuck, and you have no idea what to do next for the best, start with five words. Just five words that for you, are essential for that topic. Or if the topic itself if that problem, and you don’t know which one to pick, and you cannot bring yourself to just pick one, shortlist five, and go from there.

If it’s grammar, again, if you don’t know what to learn first this week and you are really overwhelmed, you’ve got no idea where to begin, go and find a language teacher on Instagram or whatever social media you use who posts daily phrases, I’m sure you follow some already, or anywhere else on the internet, or pick five from a notebook that you’ve written down and forgotten about, and find five sentence structures that you think you’d use a lot. Not the five single most life-changing. Not the five perfect phrases. Just five that look pretty useful.

And if you’re making a thing with your language, or you’re doing an assignment that someone else has set for you and you don’t know where to start, again, just write five. That might be five section titles if it’s a dissertation and you’re starting with a blank page. It might be five bullet points for a particular section you’ve already started. It might be five questions that you’re asking yourself about how to start.

So when you don’t know what to do next, when your head is full of questions and there’s no real answer, just do five. And keep it really short, maybe even set a timer for five minutes to make sure you keep it really really quick, really simple, and let yourself go for the first things that seem like obvious choices. And no, this isn’t going to solve all your questions right away, but it can do is get you moving again, it interrupts the worry cycle, and through getting those wins and moving from ruminating into doing, it gets you into a much better place to be able to actually tackle those questions in a way that might bring you to the answers you want.

So if you’re stuck today or this week, ask yourself, how can you just do five?

And if you want to really explore how you work best in the autumn and winter seasons, reflect on how things are going so far and set your goals or themes for the rest of the year, this is your last chance to sign up for the Cosy and Compassionate Productivity for Language Learners journaling workshop today at 7pm til 8-30pm Uk time and tickets are on sale until one hour before, tht’s 6pm UK time, in my IG bio and in the shownotes for this episode. It’s going to be a super relaxed and cosy way to look at how we’d like to round off the year and get some encouragement from likeminded creative, introspective and mission driven language learners. It's happening today, this evening Monday 16th October, on Zoom, 7-8:30pm UK time, tickets are £8 or just under $10, and if you would love to come but you can’t make it live, there will be a replay available too. For more information or book your place, head to the shownotes for this episode, OR my website www.languageconfidenceproject.com, or in the link in my IG bio at @teawithemily. Bring a notebook and your favourite pens, bring a beverage, and let’s make the end of this year magical.

Have a wonderful day, I would love to see you this evening, but otherwise, I’ll be here at 7am UK time tomottow.  

If you would like more information about the Cosy and Compassionate Productivity Workshop, and to book tickets, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/734781660727

I can’t wait to see you there!