I have heard every reason
for why people think
that they are literally unable
to learn a language,
whether it's that they're too old,
too dumb, too busy,
too broke, any number of things.
The thing is,
every one of these reasons
why you may feel like you're unable
to learn a language...
they're all myths. They're not true.
So in this video, I'm
going to debunk five common language
learning myths, explain
where they might be coming from,
and what you might
want to consider instead.
If you're new here, Hi, my name is Jamie.
I'm a language coach
and my job is helping
online language learners
find an approach that works for them
so they can stay consistent
and motivated long term.
So if that sounds good to you,
make sure to subscribe
and hit the bell to be notified
when I post a new video every Wednesday.
The first myth is one of the most common
and is that you're too old
to learn a language.
This can look like a couple
of different things.
It could look like somebody
being above like 18
and thinking that
the fluency, like, gate has cut off.
I don't know what that means,
but people have said that to me.
I've heard that
because they're at a point
where they are no longer able
to pronounce things
without an accent
that it's impossible,
or that it'll take too long
because children,
they learn how to speak
their native language
really, really quickly, right?
And so as an adult,
we have jobs, we have lives,
we just don't have that kind of time.
So it's just not possible.
All of those are wrong.
All of those are, like, incorrect.
Despite the fact
that there is no cut off for fluency,
despite the fact that you may have to try
a little bit harder
for pronunciation than you might want to,
the one thing that I really want
to focus on right now
is the idea that children
learn languages quickly.
They don't.
Not really. Not when you think about it.
Let's say that
it's going to take you two years
to get conversationally fluent.
That's a general, like,
that's not a rule.
That's just a pretty good,
decent approximation
of what might be
a reasonable expectation,
depending on a bunch
of different factors,
let's say two years.
Think about the average two year old.
Can the average two year olds speak?
Depending on the two year old.
But most people, generally
speaking, to get to like
the level of fluency
that I'm speaking at now,
that doesn't happen in two years.
Even for children
in their native language,
it takes a lot more than two years.
It takes like five years of total
constant immersion.
And then you have to realize that
K through five, you know,
the United States, K through
five is where you learn
how to use your native
language correctly.
You learn grammar rules,
you know, you learn new vocabulary,
all sorts of things.
This is when it first starts
becoming explicit education
where you're like,
taught specifically
to communicate in a way
that's appropriate and,
you know, fluent, whatever it is.
But by then, children
have already had five years
of constant immersion,
like they don't have any choice
but to communicate in the language
if they want to express their needs.
Now, imagine that you're
in a similar place
where you are forced to communicate
in your target language for five years.
Before you have any explicit education,
you're going to pick up
a lot more than a child
is, like if you go and live in a country
where they speak
your target language natively
and you're there for five years,
it's not even a comparison.
There is no comparison.
You're going to be
significantly more ahead than a five year
old child would be,
because the difference is
that you would be intentionally learning.
And when you are intentionally learning
for however many years,
it's going to put you so much
more ahead of a child
who is not intentionally learning.
The second myth is one
that I don't feel like
is really necessarily
like front of mind
for a lot of language learners
like they feel this myth.
But when you say it out
loud, they're like, Oh yeah, obviously.
Like, that's not accurate,
but that's not how I feel emotionally.
And that myth is
that you have to be perfect.
A lot of language learners
are absolutely terrified
of being imperfect.
We're afraid of not
having the right pronunciation.
We're afraid of not
conjugating appropriately.
We're afraid of using
the wrong vocabulary.
We're afraid of so many things
that will prove that
we are not a native speaker,
that we are learning this language
because the thing is
that learning another language
is a really a vulnerable thing.
And so we kind of tend
to want to hide behind
that and like convince other people,
Oh no, we speak,
I speak this language natively.
I'm really confident in this language.
And so, no, I'm not vulnerable.
I'm not embarrassed.
I know what I'm doing.
And so a lot of language
learners tend to want to hide the fact
that they're not 100%
certain all the time.
And that fear holds a lot of people back.
The thing to remember
about imperfection, though, is that
we don't even speak
our native language perfectly.
We don't.
Nobody speaks their
native language perfectly
because the point
of speaking a language
is not to be perfect
and grammatically perfect
and pronouncing correctly
all the time and conjugating
correctly all the time.
That's not the point.
The point is to communicate.
It's just that in our native language,
we're not ever going to be questioned
about whether or not
we're speaking correctly.
I mean, if you're,
you know, white,
but that's another topic altogether.
I mean, think about it.
How many times do you listen
to a popular song,
and you love the song,
but you're not 100% sure on the lyrics.
How many times do you see
people using bad grammar or no grammar
or pronunciation on the internet
when they're like typing
and you don't even,
you don't think about it,
you don't care because you get the point.
You understand what
they're trying to communicate
with our native language.
We tend to just kind of
ignore our imperfections
because we're used to it.
But because speaking a new language
is a new experience
and it's a vulnerable experience,
and we're not 100% sure all the time,
we just glamp on
to every single imperfection and
fear that so much.
But you're never going to be perfect.
And that's OK,
because if you were perfect,
you'd sound funny.
The third language learning myth
that I want to talk about in this video -
it makes me feel kind of sad - and htis
myth is that you're not smart enough
to learn a language.
Now this can come from a couple
of different places:
it could come from taking language
classes in school
and being made fun of and bullied for,
you know, not knowing a word or
pronouncing incorrectly
or, you know, whatever
it is,
it could come from
having like a really bad teacher
that wasn't accepting of mistakes
and accepting of learning
new things and really creating a space
where you are safe to be vulnerable.
It could come from trying over
and over and over to learn a language
and then always failing every time,
and so assuming that it's a "you" thing
and not something else
(that one
I see a lot with my clients, especially).
If you genuinely believe
that you're not smart enough
to learn a language,
I want to help you restructure
that a little bit.
If you "fail" to learn a language
or if you haven't done
well in school and
made to feel bad about it, it's
not because you're not smart enough.
It's because of whatever
is happening in the world around you,
whether it's the people who are around
you or the approaches
that you're using or,
you know, whatever comes up in life
that keeps derailing you all the time.
I mean, I get it.
It's easy to feel dumb and inferior
when you find a course
or a book or an app
that has all these raving reviews
and it seems to work for everybody,
but it doesn't work for you.
And so you assume, well,
this has worked for everybody else,
but it hasn't worked for me.
So must be a "me" thing.
I must just be dumb, or I must be unable
to learn a language or,
you know, whatever comes from that.
And honestly,
this is one of the main reasons
why I started coaching, is to show
what language learners that it's not that
there's something wrong with you.
You're not unintelligent.
You're not,
you know, lazy or any number
of different adjectives.
It's that you need to find
an approach that works for you.
And thanks to the internet,
there are like unlimited approaches.
You just have to know how to sift through
and find the one that works for you.
Once you find that approach
that works for you,
then you'll start to see and gain
that confidence in yourself,
because you'll start to see that
you can actually get closer
and closer and closer to your goals.
Is there a language learning
that you know is a myth logically,
but emotionally, you still believe?
Let me know in the comments
section below.
Language learning
myth number four
is the idea that you can't learn
unless you are immersed in a classroom,
have the right app,
have the right book,
have more time in your life, whatever
excuse that you can put in there.
This one tends to come from
like the hodgepodge of information
that there is online
about different language
learning resources,
every language learning app
saying the best way to learn language,
the fastest, most efficient,
whatever it is,
different ways to learn a language
has you assume that there is a preferable
or perfect or best way
to learn a language,
which is just not true.
And so even if it's subconscious,
if you believe you need to find
that perfect method,
whether it's a classroom with a teacher
or you're immersed in it, or whatever
the case may be,
if you believe that
unless you have that thing,
you are unable to learn a language,
well, you're just not going to try.
The reality is,
there are no rules
to learning a language.
And if somebody tells you otherwise,
they're probably trying to sell you
something that you don't actually need.
You absolutely don't need
to be in a classroom or abroad
or any number of things,
to learn a language, and in fact,
even if you do accomplish those things,
there's absolutely
no guarantee that you'll,
you know, all of a sudden just WOOP!
and like, reach your goals, be fluent
and whatever it is.
In reality,
all it takes is a show that you like
in the language.
All it takes is some fun vocabulary.
All it takes is recording yourself,
speaking on your phone.
All it takes is a free app
where you connect with native speakers.
Any number of these strategies
and approaches and resources
might work for you.
It's just a matter of finding
the one that does work for you.
It doesn't matter if you're abroad or
if you're in a classroom
or if you have a teacher.
Those don't actually,
they're not hard and fast rules.
They're not black or white rules.
And if you can't get
those things for any reason,
that doesn't have anything
to do with your ability
to learn a language,
you just have to find a different avenue.
And the last myth
about learning languages
is the idea that you don't
have the discipline.
A lot of language learners
realize that language
learning is a long term thing,
that you have to be
consistent over the long term,
and when they aren't
able to stay consistent
in the long term, again,
they assume it's something within them.
They assume is that they're lazy,
they don't have the discipline,
they don't have the motivation,
there's something
inherently wrong with them
that is like creating this problem.
Fair warning:
this next piece of advice might seem
kind of like frou frou B.S.
surface level,
not actually helpful,
like, "you've got this!" advice,
but I promise it's not.
You are just fine the way that you are.
There's nothing wrong
with your discipline or lack thereof.
There's nothing wrong with your,
you know, level of motivation,
all sorts of things.
It's not a "you" problem.
In reality, it's a problem
with the approach that you're taking
and it's not your fault.
Like I said, language learning
can look like whatever it is
that you want it to look like.
And just because
you try and sit down and study
every single day
and you can't because you get bored of it
or you get distracted or you forget, it's
not something that's wrong with you.
It's just that approach
doesn't work for you,
and you have to find the approach
that will work for you.
It's your job to find
what approach works for you.
Fortunately, that's exactly what I teach
my coaching clients with my 90 day
program called The Method.
I teach language learners
how to understand what it is
they want to achieve, how to achieve it,
and of course, how
to stick to it in the long term.
And if you relate to this video,
you'd be a great candidate to join us.
So if you relate to this video,
make sure to click the link
below in the description
to learn more about The Method.
And if you like this video,
make sure to check out these videos next.
Otherwise, have a wonderful day, and
I will see you next time.