S6E8: Signposts everywhere!

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Wednesday 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, I just wanted to a reminder that if you have crash landed in language world and you have no idea where to go, you are not alone.

You know what’s really nice? When the train or the bus or whatever drops you off in the centre of a town and there is one of those nice wooden signposts with three different arrows, telling which of the three paths to take to get to some good places and approximately how long in minutes it will take to get there by walking. 

But that’s not what happens in language world, is it?

There would be about 500 signposts, all pointing in different directions.

So you think right, I’ll ask someone.

The issue is not that there’s nobody to ask.

It’s that there are dozens of people milling around, waiting to be asked, willing you to ask them. There are dozens more tour guides, rushing towards you, offering you advice, offering you a tour with them, claiming they know the place better than anyone else.

How are you supposed to figure out which way is up?

You came here for a reason.

Don’t be distracted by the neon and the shiny and shouting.

Why did you come here? What are you looking for?

And that thing, that will form your north star that’s way up higher than the placards, shines brighter than the skywriting. Take some time to look at some of the signposts, but don’t stay there too long because they’ll overwhelm you.  

Once you’ve figured out your path and you’ve got started walking it, the signposts will thin out. The noise will streamline a bit. The tour guides will offer to take you to the places where you actually need to go.

But for now, don’t let yourself get disorientated by all the things you’re being offered. Let what you need be the thing that builds your path, so you’re not getting pulled in all directions by just, what’s available.

Keep going, keep focusing on what you’re here for, and this will make sense soon, I promise.  

Have a wonderful day, and as ever, don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel for even more language courage!