Why learners abandon the process
Welcome back. Today we’ve arrived at the 4th key to learning a language: “do a little every day, relaxed and stress-free.” Remember, you can listen to this video several times to help your brain truly absorb the language.
To start off, I’m going to remind you of the first three rules. The first was “listen to a lot of English content.” The second was, “repetition, repetition, repetition.” The third reminded us of the importance of using our dead time. Today, I’m suggesting that you relax, and start learning without any stress, which is a very important rule when we are learning a new language.
This 4th rule is very important. I’ve actually been an English coach in Germany for the last 15 years, and I can’t tell you how many students I’ve helped learn to speak English by giving them a relaxed atmosphere where they don’t worry about being judged. A lot of the German adult students I’ve worked with had really great comprehension, and honestly, quite a high level of speaking ability, but they were terrified to speak because, through their experience in a traditional school, they overthought about the grammar and wanted to make sure everything was 100 percent correct.
I think this illustrates a common obstacle for many language learners: you don’t want to talk, because you will make a mistake and you will look stupid. When it comes time to speak, they feel stressed, because speaking English doesn’t come naturally. But if you don’t manage these emotions, you’ll never be able to speak English as well as someone who can.
Especially in Germany, a lot of this comes from wanting to get good grades on the English exam, which requires exactly these ineffective and, quite honestly, unpleasurable tasks like memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar rules. In fact, if our brains are not ready for a grammar rule, exactly because we haven’t exposed our brains to enough real, authentic English content, there is no way to force our brains to truly understand it. I’ve actually made a video on this idea, and if you’re interested, you can click on this link now or the one I’ve pasted in the description below.