I am passionate about learning languages. Still, I am well aware that learning a language is not always a fun or productive experience. In this post, I cover 5 frustrating factors that can really put you off learning.
Ironically, many of these frustrators are exactly what is emphasized when learning a language in the regular school system. By taking charge of your own language learning process, you can avoid these 5 factors most of the time, or at least be aware of them.
Trap # 1: Believing that grading is everything
In a school setting, you will eventually be graded for your language skills, and that grading will most likely determine whether you are going to graduate or not.
In general, it is true that students with higher grades have a better theoretical understanding of the language. But that does not always mean they are the best at using the language.
Just consider what is being graded in school. Grading systems usually put a lot of weight on written language, because written tests can be stored and corrected at the teachers' convenience.
I was a high scoring pupil in languages in secondary school. Just after graduation, I had my first experience of working in an English language environment at the age of 18. While I could build long and complicated sentences and discuss literature, I was lost for words when I had to ask for a "broom".
So if your grades are not great, think about what is not being tested. The best way to test someone's effectiveness in using a language is probably to send the person to a market to buy certain things; a real world test. Do not tell yourself that you are never going to learn a language just because your grades are not great.
Trap #2: Perfectionism
Since you are learning something new, you cannot be perfect at it from the start, by definition. When learning a new language, it is good to be open to feedback on your pronunciation and grammar. It is very helpful to encourage teachers and friends to correct you when you are wrong, e.g. in your sentence structure or pronunciation, and try to incorporate their comments into your usage of the language going forward.
But do not let perfectionism paralyse you. I once spoke to a Chinese student in Xi'an, China, who had learnt English in school. His vocabulary was good but he had been drilled too much on using the correct tense. Because of this, he often corrected himself mid-sentence, while the sentence would have been perfectly understandable without the correction. E.g. "He has gone... eeuh went... to the market yesterday".
This kind of mid-sentence correction can really test the patience of conversation partners and also put a break on interesting interactions. It is actually better to leave the mistake there. You can always rephrase and repeat the sentence if your conversation partner does not seem to have understood what you said in first instance.
Trap # 3: Fear of failure
When you start learning a new language, you are at zero. If you never start using the language, your use for the language will stay zero. So the only way to really fail at a language is by never using it. So whatever little you know, come forward and use it!
If you keep fearing to use your newly acquired vocabulary, you will lose your motivation. So for the sake of getting better and better at the language, start using it whenever you can!
Trap # 4: No real life application
Dutch secondary schools spend roughly the same amount of time on French and English lessons in the first years. Yet most Dutch students eventually become fluent in English but nowhere near fluent in French. While an oft-quoted reason for this is the relatedness of English and Dutch, I think there is a much more significant factor.
English is all around. In the Netherlands, foreign movies and TV shows are subtitled, so we hear English. When we cross the border (which we do often, being a small country), we use English as a lingua franca with people from other parts of the world.
So before you start learning a language, think about how you are going to use it. It is fine to start learning a language for which you have no direct use, but in that case, plan on creating an active use for it. For example, if you want to learn Korean, do not assume that just watching Korean shows on TV is enough. Try to make friends with Koreans or go to Korea on holiday after a while. If you do not have the time to do that, do not bother learning the language in the first place. It will be a waste of your time.
Trap # 5: Over ambitious expectations
Sometimes I am asked whether we provide business Chinese courses. When I ask about the person's current level of Chinese, they tell me that they are entirely new to the language. They do not want to learn the basic stuff, but want to be able to use Chinese for business.
Reality check: that makes as much sense as learning partial differentiation calculus before knowing that 3+4 = 7. In order to be able to do partial differentiation calculus, you will have to be able to do additions and subtractions. It is the same for business Chinese: in order to use complex business terms, you will need to know how to use the simpler vocabulary, including verbs as 'to be', or 'to have' and pronouns like "I", "you" and "they".
If you expect to reach an advanced level in just a short time, you will be disappointed when you are just starting to get going in the process. So before starting out, try to set realistic expectations for yourself. For example, by asking people who learnt the language before how long they have taken to reach their current level.
On my website, I share my personal path to learning Chinese
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