9 habits that are KILLING your progress in a new language

Today I want to talk about friction. Friction in language learning, which greatly reduces our enjoyment and therefore reduces the effectiveness and the efficiency of our language learning activity. You heard me before mention LOM-CATO or CATO-LOM's formula for language learning, where it's a function of the amount of time you put in, our motivation, divided by resistance, friction, inhibition, all of these negative things that reduce the efficiency of our language learning. What I want to talk about is the forms of this friction, the forms of resistance that many of us, all of us, at different times experience, and how we can overcome the friction. Right off the bat, there are people, maybe a majority of people, who are reluctant to sound or look foolish. They feel they are intelligent in their own language, they can express themselves freely in their own language, and when they speak in a foreign language, of course they have difficulty, they think they sound foolish, they become self-conscious. In my opinion, it's easy to say don't feel that way, of course we're going to feel that way, but if the emphasis is on input, and acquiring the language, and enjoying the language, and we gradually improve in our ability to use the language, then the focus is no longer fear of seeming foolish, rather it becomes enjoying the language. Now related to that is this idea of perfectionism. A lot of people don't want to make mistakes, and here again we need to remind ourselves that making mistakes in a language we are learning is part of the process, it's a necessary stage, we have to make mistakes, the brain adjusts to these mistakes, and gradually develops more and more valid patterns of usage in the new language. So enjoy your mistakes, don't make them a source of friction. Again, along the same lines, a lot of people don't like ambiguity. Personally, I've often said the sign of a good language learner is someone who accepts uncertainty, who accepts ambiguity. You're not going to fully understand, you're going to think you understood it, and you had a mistaken understanding of a given text, but it's still the language flowing into you, and as long as you're enjoying the music of the language, the experience of acquiring the language, it doesn't matter if you don't understand it perfectly. And similarly, when you speak, you don't have to be perfect. So the desire for perfection is a form of resistance, and it's a form of friction preventing you from learning a language. Now of course, another possible source of friction would be a lack of interest in the content that you are using to learn the language. So, so many language learning textbooks are boring, you didn't choose the content, it's not something you're interested in, it's not something you're familiar with. So a lack of interest in the content is a major source of friction. I mean, we could add to that a lack of interest in the language would be a major source of friction. So make sure you are learning a language that you are genuinely motivated to learn. Find reasons to learn that language, enjoy that language, because if you're not motivated to learn that language, that's a big source of friction, and you will resist the language. Similarly, attempting to master the rules of a language is a source of resistance and friction, because you won't be able to apply those rules, you won't be able to remember those rules. You're far better off to allow a certain level of automaticity, habits in the language to develop gradually, rather than fighting this resistance of trying to remember and apply specific rules. Another form of resistance, which we all experience, is that interference from your native language. In other words, you will pronounce words that you read in a way that more corresponds to the way that would be pronounced in your native language. Even in terms of phrasing, I hear, I've often mentioned this, you know, Swedish people who typically speak English very well, they will say, it is many people here, instead of there are. There are is idiomatically correct in English. In Swedish, de är, it is, is idiomatically correct in Swedish. So, a form of resistance or friction is the tendency of your first language to interfere with how you use, probably doesn't interfere with the comprehension, but it interferes with how you use the language. It's a form of friction. Another source of friction would be the lack of an opportunity to use the language, especially for those people who are mostly motivated to speak, who think if I don't use the language, if I don't speak the language, I will forget it, or I want to speak to someone. In other words, very much output oriented. So, to me, the solution here is to focus on input, focus on enjoying the language, build up your confidence in the language. When you have an opportunity to speak, you'll start to speak, you'll gradually improve, but if you have built up a solid sense of the language, vocabulary, comprehension, you will progress more quickly when speaking. I think another source of friction is the tendency to second-guess ourselves. You know, is it really worthwhile learning this language? Why am I learning this language? The activity that I'm now engaged in, which might be listening or reading or studying grammar or flashcards, is this worthwhile doing? We all like to be doing things that matter, and I think there it's important again to stay the course. Jumping around from one method to another is another form of friction which won't help your language learning. You know, I was thinking of this image today about language learning, how it gradually accumulates in your brain, and I have mentioned since that every time we retrieve something in the language or we expose ourselves to the language, we are in a sense regenerating this web of connections in our brain. But another image which might be more helpful, which I thought of while driving, you know, when it starts to snow, at first the snow doesn't stick, particularly if it's warmer, but gradually as more and more snow falls onto the ground, the snow starts to stick and starts to accumulate, and I think part of our friction is that level of impatience that many language learners have. You know, I've been at it for so long, I still don't understand, I still can't speak, but if we accept the fact that just like the snow, initially there's no trace of the snow, and then it keeps falling, and the more it falls, the more you listen and read, the more you expose yourself to the language, the more the snow accumulates. And so you have to be patient and be willing to accept that in time, if you put in the time, and if you don't allow yourself to be discouraged by friction, if you don't resist the process, resist the language, if you believe in yourself, you will eventually get there. So I think if we have a positive attitude to the various types of friction that can impede our language learning, we will learn more naturally, more comfortably, and better. I hope this was useful to you. Thank you. Bye.