7 Reasons why you won’t become fluent in a second language in 2023
As a languages and communication coach I have to break it to a lot of people that what they’re doing is not enough.
I hear a lot of excuses and as a language-learner, I’m guilty of propagating a few myself.
I know you think that this is the year that you’re “really going to do it!” and I commend the renewed effort after five years of unsuccessful January resolutions!
However, pleasantries aside, here’s why you won’t become fluent in a second language in 2023…
1. You use free apps as a substitute for practice
Let’s start with those of you starting from scratch with a new language.
There’s a reason why Duolingo looks strikingly similar to candy crush with its bright colours and cheap dopamine-inducing leader-board.
The aim is to hold your attention…
Whether you learn anything is of secondary importance. It’s all style without substance.
It’s the reason you can boast a 1,000 day streak without knowing how to use the conditional tense when you actually need to.
In the age of pomodoro-technique-productivity, these apps seem like the perfect stop-gap between two other things in your life that you actually consider to be important (when really they’re just making you dumber).
Excluding a David-Lynch themed sejourn to the Dordogne, (which sounds… horrible) the phrases that you are likely to pick up on these time-vacuums are almost completely redundant in the real world.
Instead of getting a semblance of what it’s like to learn a language put your money where you mouth is and use a high quality app like Babbel.
Not sponsored- Just a fan.
2. You don’t let yourself enter into a state of flow
Instead of constantly worrying about how your accent sounds to a native speaker or even just repeating what you’ve just said to someone with that approval-seeking upward inflection, focus on the flow of the conversation.
Getting into the flow of a conversation is WAY more useful than getting it right first time.
When we are engaged in active process, that nagging, hyper-critical voice of self-consciousness magically disappears.
Flow states can radically increase creativity, pattern recognition and absorption of knowledge by 470%— and in flow our ability to transmit information from short-term observation into medium and long-term storage increases rapidly .
Sounds elusive right? So, how do we know when we’re in flow state? —Well, we feel a reduced sense of self-awareness, we’re not overly obsessed with perfection and we enjoy the act of just playing with the language.
Like a child in a sandbox.
So, what induces flow?
- Clear goals induce flow — get really specific about what it is you’re going to try and do / learn today.
- Novelty induces flow — Surround yourself with new stimulus.
- Risk-taking induces flow — stop staying within the confines of what you know — do something random and dangerous.
- Cutting out distractions induces flow — just put it on airplane mode.
Ask yourself:
“Am I doing the same practices that I was doing two weeks ago or am I going to find something a little bit different today?
You’ve got to recognise when you’re just treading water and iterating on what you’ve done before versus that feeling of genuinely gaining momentum.
For data and references on flow states, check out Steven Kotler’s The Rise of Superman and Flow: The rise of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
3. You don’t do at least something every day
I get it — we’re all busy.
Whilst it would be nice to imagine a world in which we all have an extra three hours to flit around indulging each of our fleeting curiosities, and cultivating peculiar hobbies like a betrothed dilettante of yore, the reality is we’re working more hours a week than our grandparents did and reaping half the rewards.
BUT learning a language is like a game of snakes and ladders — if you think you can just roll a six and skip days at a time you’ll end up where you were two months earlier with only a hazy memory of what you’ve half-learnt.
Even 30 minutes in your target language will do —write a short twitter post, youtube, podcasts, an exercise from a textbook, a shadowing exercise, a voice-note exchange, a trip to the delicatessen down the road, recording yourself answering one of these questions , transcribing the lyrics to a song, singing a song, writing a song, finding a new netflix series, watching a yoga video, listening to a meditation, re-reading your favourite book from childhood, sexting, taking a guided tour of your own city, joining an online or in-person experience.
ANYTHING — as long as it’s not the green owl.
4. You’re certain it’s impossible to be fluent without visiting the country
The chances of my ever visiting Russia are looking pretty fucking slim right now.
My initial plans were derailed in 2020. It’s been a bad run…
Yet somehow I’ve maintained a steady focus over five years, putting in the hours around my work and just plugging along.
Four years ago I didn’t know my ‘ы’ from my ‘и’ .
Now, I’m preparing for my professional working proficiency exam in Russian…
At the same time, I’ve met scores of expats who have lived outside of their native country for years and can’t get beyond ordering a round of whichever ambiguous spirit is considered the regional speciality.
Effective immersion is just about creating systems and habits.
I’m not particularly gifted at languages. At least my school Spanish teacher didn’t think so….
But I’m getting to grips with the the practices that imitate total immersion — frequency, variety, variability, uncertainty, novelty and fluidity.
If you can use geoarbitrage and take off on a sexy language-learning adventure then do!
But you will still need to implement these (less sexy, but effective) systems.
Living abroad is only a means to an end — and no guarantee of anything lasting.
5. You don’t listen to the language enough
As early as four months old, a newborn can identify stress, pace and the rise and fall of pitch in a voice.
But it’s not until around the age of three that they begin to string a sentence together themselves.
That’s about 1,000 days of listening practice — every day for about eight hours.
Only a decade later does a child even have the critical vocabulary to communicate freely and say what they actually mean.
Let’s take Malcolm Gladwell’s arbitrary 10,000 hour rule for gaining mastery in a skill as a rule of thumb:
By the logic of the example of a newborn, it could take 3,000 hours just have the right amount of data to even get started.
Luckily, you’re not a baby.
You know a thing or two about grammar and sentence structure and you’ve already been exposed to the almost painfully rich tapestry of eclectic, regional accents throughout your life.
You get the point though — You’re going to need to do a lot more than watch a foreign-language film every now and then to practice listening.
6. You refuse to join a language club because you’re scared
Group activities are highly conducive to flow — this is because when you have a shared goal, commonality, purpose, your sense of self-consciousness decreases and you can commit to the activity.
When you’re laughing and catching up with friends, you’re not worried or preoccupied with your own thoughts because you’re tapped into something bigger than yourself.
You’re doing it as part of a team.
And team sports are a real instigator of group flow. When in flow with others you hit synchronicity and the rewards in terms of additional data i.e knowledge are exponential.
Chess-player turned political advocate Gary Kasparov advocates for punching 4% above your weight — adamant that by playing opponents just a little bit better than him he was able to transcend his previous level and reach dizzying heights.
This applies to languages too — find a group who just edge you out of your sphere of competency, just beyond your zone of comfort so that you come away with a mistakes to learn from.
You want associates who give you the right dose of encouragement in the cross-fire of a lively group discussion.
Chiming in even if you lack confidence is key. Equal participation and a shared risk brings shared rewards —all par for the course with group flow activities.
Make it a goal to find that network of collaborates, pull up a seat at the table and rise to that challenge this year. .
7. You don’t integrate feedback from the right people
It’s been said before — find a mentor!
Specifically though — find somebody who’s done it themselves and gets where you’re getting hung up.
I see mono-lingual language teachers left right and center and it makes me livid.
It’s disingenuous to say that you can help someone achieve something unless you’ve done it yourself. Here’s looking at you build-your-audience creators!
Native speakers are all well and good for practice but their perspective on their mother tongue will inevitably be different from yours as a learner.
Find someone who can give you an honest account of what the journey will be like and steer you away from the pitfalls they made on their way.
Rinse and repeat the above and 2023 might just be the year you cracked it.
Freddie Kift writes about language, communication, flow, collaboration and technology
For more information on Flow and Language Learning click here
