Why you’re struggling to stay consistent in your studies and why you need more CLARITY.
Before you create a study plan for your self, the first thing you need to priotize is language learning clarity!
Language learning is all about creating habits and maintaining consistency to make long-term progress. If you don’t have the habits and systems in place, you are going to struggle to learn languages.
Period.
And so, the first step in creating these habits is to CLARIFY your intentions.
In this post, I want to share with you:
- Mistakes that many polyglots make in their language studies.
- Why these mistakes are problematic.
- How you can avoid these mistakes in your own studies.
Before I begin, let’s first clarify what it means to have CLARITY in your language studies. What I mean by this is, you want to fully understand your WHY—why you want to learn languages in general and why you want to learn the specific languages on your list.
You want to identify your current state—what do your language learning habits look like now, what are your habits for each specific language you are learning—and your desired state—where you want your language habits to be and what you want to be able to do with your language skills.
Why?
It’s important to gain this insight in your language studies because this will become your guiding principle for your study system. As Rowena Tsai states in many of her videos, this becomes your “North Star”, “my why, my purpose, my cause, and my belief as to why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
If you know your purpose, this Guiding Principle, it will be easier for you to stay on track with your studies and harder for you to make these mistakes listed below.
Mistakes That Many Polyglots are Making in their Language Studies (And Why You Should Start With Language Learning Clarity FIRST)
Mistake #1: They focus on the destination more than the journey.
One HUGE mistake many language learners make is putting entirely too much pressure on themselves to reach their desired state. They force themselves to regularly measure their level of achievement to the point where they often forget why they even wanted to reach this goal in the first place.
They miss out on the opportunity to check-in with themselves and ask, “does this goal still make sense for my Guiding Principle?” It becomes less about their ‘why’ and more about checking off a box to say “done!”
This hyper focus blinds them to the progress they are actually making, and often leads to frustration and disappointment.
And this is exactly what we DON’T want!
Mistake #2: They want to be “perfect” — and try to do things the “right” way.
Raise your hand if you are a self-proclaimed perfectionist!
Don’t worry, I am too. However, the mistake that many language learners make when identifying as a perfectionist is that they put way too much pressure on being “perfect”. They:
- Don’t want to text or type in chats because they want to make sure their grammar is perfect.
- Refuse to talk with people until they feel “ready”.
- Avoid specific strategies because they want to do it the “right” way.
- Spend more time preparing and researching strategies online than actually DOING the work
The reason this is a mistake is because when you focus on trying to be perfect, you miss opportunities for improvement and growth, opportunities to connect with others, AND you neglect your WHY—the reason you started learning in the first place.
As a perfectionist myself, I’ve learned personally that there is a time and a place to prioritize your high standards vs when you should prioritize practice and improvement. You can’t improve without making mistakes and getting corrections.
And to be honest, no one is perfect.
Think about your own habits in your native language. Do you always use perfect grammar? Do you spell every single word correctly?
We tend to sound a lot more casual in our speech than we do in writing, and oftentimes, real conversations are filled with slang and colloquialisms, or words you make up with your friend groups.
Mistake #3: They compare themselves to others and seek external validation.
Language learners often compare themselves to other people in the language learning community.
They see pictures on Instagram of the ways people take their notes, or the books they use, and then evaluate their own notes and resources.
They hear how much progress someone has made in _ amount of time, and they start to doubt themselves and wonder why they can’t do the same.
STOP THIS!
Right now.
Seriously!
No one else in the world is like you. There are so many factors, experiences, and actions that make you who you are. And in this same way, there are so many factors, experiences and actions that influence your language studies.
For example, maybe it’s your learning style that’s different from the person you’re comparing yourself to.
Or maybe it’s their work/school life that is different from yours.
Or the amount of time they can spend studying vs how much you have to spare.
Or their resources are different.
Whatever it might be, redirect that energy into your own studies and save yourself the headaches and frustration. It’s not worth your mental health.
How to Avoid These Mistakes in your Own Studies ( With Language Learning Clarity!)
Now that you have a better idea of some of the mistakes many language learners make, I want to share some tips you can apply immediately to help you avoid these mistakes and clarify your own Guiding Principle. Let’s take a look!
Tip #1: Focus on the journey and practice.
Focus your time & energy on your language learning journey. Enjoy the process of learning, of trying out different strategies to see what works for you, of learning more and more about yourself as a learner.
Focus on being understood, and what steps you need to take to get your ideas across to other people. The rest will come with time, practice, and review.
Focus on the long-term, and the actions you need to take each and every day to see your “why” realized.
That’s what will make the difference.
Tip #2: Remember your “why”.
Remember why you decided to learn languages in the first place.
In other words, go back to the reasons why you wanted to learn the specific languages—why you chose to go on this journey to learn spanish, or japanese, or arabic.
Embrace your Guiding Principle and let that be the thing that tells you if you’re “right” and if you’re staying true to your system. Or if the system isn’t working for you anymore.
And if it’s not working, change it.
Tip #3: Stop comparing yourself to others.
Instead of comparing yourself to others, compare your current self to your past self, and make a plan on what you can do to improve even by 1%. As James Clear says here, “You don’t need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.”
Consider trying one of these ideas:
- Celebrate your wins, no matter how small they may seem.
- Look back at where you started to remind yourself of where you started.
- Acknowledge your disappointments. Use this data to brainstorm ways to improve, to make changes to your system that support this ‘why’.
And if you want tips on how to build these clarifying habits into your study system, take a look at my post here, where I give some strategies on how to incorporate habits into your language studies.
What about you?
Are any of the mistakes above one you have made in your own language studies?
Which tip do you want to try out for yourself?
Let me know in the comments below!
PS. If you’re making these mistakes in your own language studies and want help to create your own study system and build consistently, check out my Fluency Framework Notion Template to get started.
— The Polyglot Fox