15 Honest truths about learning a language (＊after＊ learning 3 languages)

Hey guys welcome back to Easy English with Kat. Today I'm going to share with you 15 honest truths I have learned after learning three foreign languages. Now I am a native English speaker and I also teach English as a foreign language but I have learned three foreign languages and let me tell you in the language learning journey you learn so much and especially every language is so different and so from going through this and also seeing my students learn English as a foreign language I want to share with you the 15 things nobody talks about. So let's get started. So the first thing is that it takes way longer than you think. Now you will see video after video tiktok reel or post whatever it is that says something like become fluent in three months or this trick and you'll be fluent and it's just not true. Fluency does not happen overnight and it is going to take longer than you think longer than you plan for but that's okay. That is part of the process and there's something really beautiful about committing to that and going through it for a long time but it's not just an easy fix. I've noticed too that oftentimes you learn something and then it actually takes a really long time for that to really soak in and settle in your brain before you truly understand it and are using it the right way. I've even noticed that sometimes when I take a bit of a pause and then I come back to it for some reason everything that I learned before has really settled in my brain and I'm speaking so much better. So it's different for everyone and every language is different but it takes a long time and also on that same note the fact that it takes so much time makes you really love and appreciate the language. If it were super fast and easy it just it wouldn't mean that much to you but the fact that you invest so much into it you spend so much time on it makes you really love the language and really have a special connection with it. So it's not all bad news but I do feel like especially nowadays with all the media it's really overdone and things make you think that it's a lot easier than it actually is. Number two is that some languages are just harder than others. Now this is just an objective truth and I feel like people don't get enough credit when they learn a really hard language. Sometimes people are learning a really easy language and they're like oh I became fluent this fast and it's like well that's because that language is very simple. Now I'm not trying to be rude here but there is just an objective truth here. So when I first started learning languages I started with German and at the time I was like yeah German is pretty hard I mean if you know there's Der, Die, Das so I was like yeah it's kind of a hard language it's not impossible it's not super easy but it's hard. Then after that I went to Polish and when I started learning Polish German felt like nothing. I was like you can learn German in your sleep like Polish is so hard and so complicated that German is like shouldn't even be considered a hard language ever you know. It really put that into perspective and then I started to learn Portuguese after Polish and at that point I was like Portuguese is the easiest language ever. It was easier than Polish and it was easier than German and so it just felt like I could learn so much so quickly and it really gave me this different understanding of levels of languages. In the end no matter what you have to invest time you have to be committed you have to have tons of input and tons of output it is a commitment no matter the difficulty and it doesn't mean it's more impressive to learn one language or another but the harder the language the more time the more of an investment the more it requires from you and that is just a truth no one talks about and especially depending on your native language as well the scale of difficulty and easy for other languages is going to be completely different so when you hear polyglots for instance list off I speak all these different languages it depends on which languages they speak and where they're coming from and if they were raised speaking languages in the home I mean you just can't compare yourself to anyone else because the journey is so different from person to person and language to language. Number three is that the roller coaster is so real now one day you feel like a pro you are like I'm fluent I speak this language perfectly I can do anything I have friends I can order pizza I mean anything like you just feel so good so confident and then the next day you're like I I basically don't know anything like I never even learned a single word I can't say a single thing I shouldn't even be trying like I have zero skills and for some reason this is totally normal and I have talked about this with many different language learners before and it is a universally shared experience and honestly this feeling never really goes away even when you take a c1 exam even when you are using the language every day even when you are living in a place this feeling stays and I don't fully understand it but just know that it is totally normal if you are experiencing it this is part of the process. Number four is that apps are fun but they are not where the real growth happens now of course there is a wonderful place for gamification and especially early on when you're starting out learning a language gamifying it and really having fun with it makes a huge difference it really really helps but as you get more into the language this is not where the real growth happens if you just spend time looking on the app store doing level after level on Duolingo I mean you're not really gonna grow the real place where growth happens is the stuff that's actually really hard unscripted conversations and honestly just thinking in the language in your head making it a priority that you are thinking in that language that is where real growth happens not playing Duolingo or any of these vocabulary apps it's just not gonna do it they are great for at the start building intrigue and curiosity and getting excited about the language but after that point they just really don't do the work and the reality is that you're gonna have to put in hard work if you want to speak a language now number five is something that I only learned after learning three languages and I wish someone had told me this early on vocabulary over grammar now I know you guys can bring out the debates bring it in the comments I know what you're gonna say but really when you learn the top 1000 most common words and you start there it really accelerates your growth in speaking another language you are able to understand so much more and it just really bridges this initial gap and then when you start learning grammar and you start learning more vocabulary you have enough context to build around it now I hate working in a workbook in the language and having to look up words like and but because question I mean just super obvious words and you don't know them and you're trying to learn grammar it's the wrong order if you start with a thousand words and then you go into your workbook you can understand all the vocabulary in an a1 workbook and it makes that transition so much smoother and I don't know why nobody teaches this I feel like this is the biggest language learning hack and nobody is talking about it number six is that studying at the wrong level can hurt you if what you're studying is too hard you burn out and if it's too easy you plateau there is this perfect sweet spot and especially if you're studying on your own you have to find it because when you're on either end it really makes it 10 times more difficult when you're studying at a level where it's too hard you're just not able to absorb enough and it makes it way more tiring way more exhausting way more effort and you're gaining way less and when it's too easy it's fun maybe but I mean actually you generally get bored and you're just not learning and growing and so you really have to find that balance and it is so important you can always just look up a language test so then you get your level and then you're like okay I'm b1 and then get b1 materials actually use that because you don't want to be wasting time studying materials that actually aren't benefiting you number seven is that fewer resources is actually better now we have all been there where you start resource collecting instead of just sitting down and doing it it's way more fun to think oh maybe I should read this and maybe I should watch this and maybe this resource would be helpful or this app or this podcast and you just kind of gather and gather and gather but then your routine is super inconsistent and it just doesn't do it actually just having one workbook and one vocabulary list you're working through and one source of input is actually the best way to do it because then you can actually get in a good routine of doing it regularly rather than just thinking about this and this and this all the time to be honest overthinking your materials ends up just being another source of procrastination so you want to avoid that as much as you can number eight is that sit down studying is actually not the most important thing I have found that the most important thing actually comes down to a very specific mindset and this mindset is centered around integrating the language into your life in any way that you can so if you're listening to something you put it in that language whether that's music or a podcast a tv show a movie I mean it's about integrating into your daily life if you're going grocery shopping you should write your grocery list in that language if you are taking a shower you should be thinking in that language if you are on a run you should be thinking in that language whatever you are doing do it in that language that is where the real magic starts to happen because you introduce it into your brain you are creating your own immersion and you start to work through questions that you have places that you get stuck you start to do all of that on your own rather than in high stress conversations and so it builds a pattern of really living and experiencing the language before it's stressful if that makes sense now of course studying has its place it's important you need vocabulary you need grammar you need flashcards all of that is very important but it is not the most important thing the most important thing is exposure and actually doing something in the language as much as you possibly can and that is how you're going grow quickly number nine is that drinking occasionally actually really helps with language learning when you're drinking then you kind of break that stress barrier in your mind and you're not as scared to speak and it actually creates great opportunities to practice speaking the language I found that party environments in this foreign language are actually really good for practicing and breaking that barrier and really just trying because at that time you don't have a confidence problem and so you'll actually just speak way more and actually practice now I know that's probably not the advice you hear all the time but it actually does help so if you need to work on your confidence try that number 10 is one that honestly really took me way long to figure out and that is nobody really cares about your mistakes in your head you obsess over the mistakes and of course because it's embarrassing and you are just walking around making mistakes and everyone knows that you're not a native speaker of course but the reality is nobody cares and most of the time people don't even notice everyone actually makes mistakes in their native language all the time I've made mistakes just in this video and it's totally natural we don't know exactly what we're going to say before we say it and so we make mistakes some of the really funny light-hearted mistakes become some of your most cherished memories when learning that language and so don't beat yourself up too much about it and don't worry too much about it because it's actually one of the best parts about language learning number 11 is that your routine matters way less than your consistency now when people start learning a language they focus on perfecting their routine they're like Monday I'm doing this Tuesday I'm doing this Wednesday I'm doing this and I'm going to spend three hours here and five hours here and one hour here and it just it doesn't work long term your best friend when learning a language is consistency that's how you actually learn a language just a little bit every day it doesn't have to be anything crazy once again this actually ends up being its own form of procrastination instead of thinking so much about your routine just turn on a song or a podcast just do something in that moment that is what is so much more beneficial and people often get that confused a good routine is great but it is not the most important thing so don't obsess over it number 12 is that friendships made in a language stay in that language now sometimes we think you know we have this mutual language and we're both already fluent in there we'll just start our friendship in that language and then once I get better we can speak in this language and it never works when you start a friendship in a language it stays no matter what because your personalities are slightly different the way you interact is different I mean you change a little in a different language you're slightly different and so when you start a friendship and you're one person you can't just change it and so if you're trying to learn a language try to actually make friends in that language and it will help you to learn the language so much faster and then you will actually build friendships in that language too number 13 is a bit of a continuation of that your personality will change in another language you end up finding a sort of second self sometimes you're funnier sometimes you're more serious sometimes you're more direct sometimes you're more patient it just is different and every friend that I have that speaks another language they are slightly different in that language now I find that in German I have a little bit less of a sense of humor and in English I am generally pretty funny and so this is something like my personality just changes I don't know I guess it fits with the but it's not purposeful it just is how I speak the language and so just consider that when you're learning a language because your personality does change a little bit and I feel like people never really expect that and then they get to a point of fluency and it's quite a surprise when they start to realize that number 14 is that there is no end to language learning even if you pass the highest level of exam language learning is continuous there isn't really a destination like if I just pass this exam then I've got it check I've learned the language it just doesn't work like that it truly takes your whole life just to be living in it and experiencing it you're never at a point where you're finished and there's so much beauty in that because it becomes part of who you are in your life but you can't expect to get to a point where it's just like check completed done and number 15 is that learning a new language will make your life twice as rich once you're fluent you just cannot imagine your life without that language it unlocks culture literature connections that weren't previously available I mean it unlocks so much and so much that you can't even expect and so your life begins to be filled with all these different pieces from that language and it makes you really love the language more and experience the language more and once you are at that point you truly could not imagine your life without it and so there are really of course plateaus and hard parts that you have to get through when learning a language but what you are working towards is so amazing and such a beautiful experience and such a great richness to have in your life it is so worth all of the hard work now those are all of our 15 truths about learning a language I would love to hear in the comments below which one of these you didn't expect or seemed quite new to you thank you so much for watching I'm Kat if this video helped you please like and subscribe it really helps my channel and I look forward to catching you in the next one thanks for watching bye