Things that no one tells you before starting a new language

lovelybluepanda:

Everyone talks about the good parts of learning a new language and everyone is always so supportive if someone says they want to learn a new language so i thought to make a post about what you have to endure since out there are so many posts about the benefits you get from learning a language.

It’s not a piece of cake.

Whoever tells you that learning a language is easy… it’s lying! After a while, yes, everything gets easier but have you ever talked to someone who hit a plateau? or someone who is dealing with irregular verbs or prepositions? what about someone who learns kanji? have you asked your friend who learns French how they deal with all those grammatical exceptions? I can go on about this for a long time and many language learners can complain here with me about articles, cases, pronunciation etc.

It’s not easy to learn a language, but it’s worth it. 

You’ll lose your mind.

I’m honest here when i say that you will forget your native language, you will mix languages, you might never be able to think in your native language as you did once. This happens when you are upper-intermediate/advanced. Your mind got used to think in another language and you won’t be able to control when you will forget basic stuff in a language.

However, you need to experience this in order to understand how amazing it is. You aren’t going to be angry (frustrated sometimes), but proud because that it means you improved.

Your memory will be universal.

I really had no idea how to call this phenomen. You will read an article on Facebook for example and you won’t realize that you just read it in French and not your native language, however, when you’ll remember that article (after a month or 2 for example), you will only remember the info. You have 75% chances to forget in what language it was.

Again, this won’t make you angry but you’ll be fascinated by this.

Headches here, headaches there, headaches everywhere.

I’m not sure if i’m the only one but taking into consideration how big this community is, i hope i’m not; 

Have you every talked in 2-3 languages at once? I don’t mean to make a mixed sentence but to talk to someone in French, to your bestfriend in English and with your mom in Romanian? plus to listen to music in Spanish? (these languages are examples) In the end your brain burns and you mix all of them but before that you will be frustrated because code-switching. You’ll need a lot of time to switch languages and you’ll give yourself a headache in the end.

However, if you think of those 5-10 minutes where you succed to control all of these languages, that’s amazing and let’s be real, after a while you won’t be bothered by those headaches.

Your emotions rule!

Your progress is connected to your emotions and thoughts. I have 2 ways to prove this to you. In highschool i had classmates who thought that English was difficult, however, my teacher had a motivational speech that inspired a girl. She was in top 5 best students in only 3 months when she was in the top 5 worst students when we started highschool. She wanted to be better, she was confident and she was smart enough to admit when she needed help. Her thoughts were only positive stuff and that English is easy so she can learn. About my other point, when you feel relaxed, you succed because you are calm and you don’t worry so you can remember almost every rule/exception.

My point here is that you should always be confident in your skills and even if you have a hard time, be positive. You can overcome whatever that grammar book throws at you!

Motivation is your sweetest enemy!

You know that rush of adrenaline you feel when you start learning a language? You feel like you can conquer the world and you can master a language in 3 days! Guess what, that motivation breaks up with you after a couple of days. You will be occasionally motivated but what will make you move forward will be your discipline. You need to develop the habit of studying/learning without feeling motivated. (or just have a secret how to be motivated forever and i want that secret if you don’t mind sharing 😉 )

Just remember that your discipline will save you when your motivation runs away. 

Screw the rules.

There isn’t a universal formula for learning languages. Everyone is different so everyone has their own way of learning/studying. You can try to use someone’s method but don’t think of it as a “rule”. The traditional learner is supposed to be solving exercises in a workbook and use books almost every single time when they want to learn something. If you don’t want that, change it. I’ve met learners who don’t touch grammar books, they preferred listening to others and picking up patterns. (my bestfriend is like this and i hate him so much! he learned Romanian in 1 year and a half because he kept watching videos) Also, i’ve met learners who like playing games like Duolingo, they have no notebook but they know the grammar rules just as well as someone who is in a class. And of course, there’s the traditional student with workbooks who is a master at solving exercises. And these aren’t the only types of learners, these are only the main ones.

My point is, respect how others are learning/studying, but experiment and find your own style, you got your own formula.

Are you grey?

I chose this title because when i was a beginner in Danish, i wanted to impress this one friend and instead of asking “how are you?” i asked if he’s grey because i mispelled a word. The idea is that you will make mistakes and some will be so funny that you will never forget them. You will be embarrassed for a while but after, you’re going to laugh too and you’ll realize how much you grow because of your mistakes.

Never be embarrassed of your mistakes, you’re learning and that’s the point in the end.

You’ll try to give up.

You will have so many reasons to give up. Maybe you thought it will be easier, maybe some irregular verbs are torturing you or maybe you hit a plateau, but in the end you will try not to. No one really complains a lot on tumblr (or any other social media actually) about the difficulties they have to face while learning but that doesn’t mean the other learners have a better time. Don’t be harsh with yourself when you have to deal with something difficult.

Always remember why you started and if you need help, look for someone who can help you. People don’t show their weaknesses but that doesn’t mean they don’t have them so someone will know how to help. You just have to look for solutions, not excuses.