Do you want to learn a language,
but the concept of fluency
just causes you stress
you're always feeling like
you're not fluent enough
and you don't really know
what fluency looks like.
All you know is that everybody else
seems to be more fluent than you,
and there's nothing you can do about it.
If that's the case, stick around.
Because in this video, I'm
going to talk about six reasons
why learning a language
isn't getting fluent.
I'm going to share with you
how to reframe your mindset
so that you can learn languages
and have fun doing it and enjoy it,
and not just freak out over
whether or not you're
getting fluent fast enough
or whether or not you're doing
the right thing to get fluent.
If you're new here, hi,
my name is Jamie, I'm a language coach
and my job is to help
online language learners
like you achieve their goals,
get past their obstacles
and truly love language learning
so that they can achieve their goals,
whether that's fluency or something else.
If sounds good to
you make sure to subscribe
and hit the bell
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all about language
learning every Wednesday.
The first thing to know about fluency
is that it's almost more of a bragging
right in some ways
than any actual expression
of understanding
or being able to communicate
with a foreign language,
especially here on YouTube.
Everybody loves to talk about
how they got fluent in a language
quickly, easily, with music,
with movies, really fast, whatever
sort of like adjectives
that they plug onto fluency.
It's really clickable.
And so it creates a cycle
where people who watch these videos
assume that fluency
should be something easy and quick.
And so when that doesn't happen,
it just feels terrible
when in reality, fluency
doesn't actually mean much.
And I'm going to elaborate more
on that concept at the end of the video,
so make sure you stick around.
But basically, when you see strangers
on the internet talking
about how they get fluent
in so many languages,
you have to be really careful
about how much stock you put into that
and make sure you're taking everything
with a grain of salt.
And I know it's easier
said than done, but
stop comparing yourself to others,
especially strangers on the internet
who you've never actually met.
The second thing to keep in mind
is that there are tons of reasons
to learn a language,
and most of them aren't actually fluency.
One of the first things
that my language coaching
clients learn is how to understand
what exactly they want
to learn in their target language,
and a lot of times
speaking isn't actually
a big priority for them.
In reality, it might be more important
for them to understand movies,
it might be more important to read books
in the language,
it might be more important
to just have a challenge.
It might be more important
to keep up with a pen pal.
By the way, these are all goals
that my past coaching
clients have had
when they realize that speaking
isn't actually important to them.
All of these clients have realized
that when they're comparing themselves
to other people who are getting fluent
so quickly, so easily
and like showing off on the internet
that they're comparing themselves
not only to strangers on the internet,
but they're also comparing
skills that aren't important to them.
They don't actually want to be fluent.
They want other things
from their language learning.
But when you're always expecting
somebody to be fluent
or you're expecting
yourself to be fluent,
it really invalidates
all the other skills
that you or someone else may have.
Imagine spending all this time
and energy learning to understand
books in Russian.
And then somebody asks you
to say something in Russian
and you just can't.
And somebody says, Oh,
wow, your Russian sucks.
It completely invalidates
all the effort you put into a thing
that you actually want to achieve
when a conversation jut
doesn't matter to you.
The third thing that focusing
strictly on fluency
and nothing else does is puts
way too much pressure on you.
Like I said, many language learners
aren't nearly as interested
in conversational fluency
as they are in other things.
But when you're convinced
that you want fluency
because that's what you're supposed to do
and you ignore the things
that you actually want,
it makes something
that could be so awesome into something
that causes you a lot of stress
and just makes you feel
really guilty about yourself.
For example, for years,
I've said that I want to take the C2 exam
in Spanish to prove that I'm like,
perfectly native, like fluent.
Honestly this is the first time
I've ever said this publicly,
but I now realize that
that wasn't actually my goal.
I didn't actually want to put in the work
to take that exam or get to that level.
It's not something
that genuinely made me happy,
which is why even after so many years
of telling myself
that I wanted to achieve
that, I never did.
I never even got close.
In reality, I am super competitive,
and I thought that
if I said that I was
accomplishing this thing,
then I would feel
a certain level of pride in myself.
But in reality,
I just watched the years go by still not
getting any closer to that goal
and not actually wanting to.
So now, in present day,
while I am just doing
the things in Spanish
that I want to do in Spanish
and not the things that I feel like
I should want to do,
it's a lot more enjoyable, and my
my Spanish is actually a
lot better than it was before.
Have you ever changed your mind
about what you want to do
with your language?
Let me know in the comments
section below.
The fourth thing that tends to happen
when we focus on
fluency is looking at language
learning as a destination
and not a journey.
It's easy enough to say that language
learning is a long term thing
and then also always
be looking at the finish line.
And then when you're
a month into studying and you're still
you still don't feel like you're
any closer to the finish line,
you get really frustrated.
It's like, why am I not fluent yet?
I spent all of this time,
and I'm still not where I want to be.
It kind of creates this like black
and white view of language
learning and fluency
that either you're fluent or you're not.
And if you are not fluent,
then there's something wrong with you
because look at all
these people who are fluent.
When, in reality,
in order to accomplish a long term goal,
you have to enjoy the process.
You have to enjoy the journey.
You just can't enjoy the journey
if you're so focused on the destination.
So instead of obsessing over fluency
and just getting there and being there,
you need to think about
what you want to actually do
in order to achieve that goal.
I mean, sure, goals are great.
Goals can be fine,
but the journey is the thing that needs
to be getting more of a focus
because if you're always just playing
with apps or reading
text books or whatever it is
and you look up from what you're doing
and say, am I fluent yet?
And you don't feel any different.
It's going to be really disappointing
over and over and over again.
The fifth way to differentiate
learning a language and getting fluent
is to think about
all of the statements of "learn
a language in five minutes
a day", or like ten minutes
or 15 minutes, or whatever
different language
apps tell you that they can do for you.
With only five minutes
a day, you're not going to be able
to have the most fluid conversations.
I mean, it just it takes some time.
But does that mean that
if you only have five minutes a day,
you can't accomplish anything?
Absolutely not.
But there are tons of other things
you can do with those five minutes
in order to feel
that sense of accomplishment and actually
grow your language
learning and build up
your skills over time.
Can you spend five minutes
reviewing difficult vocab?
Can you spend five minutes
reading a news article?
Can you spend five minutes
listening to music?
Those are all totally valid
ways of practicing your language
while not necessarily actively
working towards fluency.
Because none of those are speaking,
none of those are practicing
having a conversation.
So while the direct
end result of all those activities
isn't necessarily speaking,
it can help you to learn a language
and eventually get you to fluency.
But you know, that's not necessarily
the primary reasoning behind
doing those things.
But again, just focusing on fluency
totally invalidates
any of the million other things
that you could do to
keep yourself open to the language
and learn more about the language.
And finally, tip number six
and this is the big one.
There is no strict definition of fluency.
It's a vague concept.
There's no actual,
strict understanding of it.
Some people say that
fluency is knowing a few key phrases
in order to survive.
Some people think fluency is being able
to go into a restaurant and feeling
comfortable ordering food.
Some people think fluency
is building entire
deep, long lasting relationships
based only with that language.
And those are all correct answers.
None of them are wrong.
What happens when people just strictly
want to be fluent
and then don't really have a clear
understanding of what their goal is?
Every single time
they make a mistake
or conjugate something wrong
or have a negative experience in any way,
they assume, No, I'm not fluent,
I am terrible, I'm stupid.
I must not be able to learn languages.
I must not have gene,
that special gene or whatever.
It is, all sorts of things.
But in reality,
I don't know anybody's
definition of fluency that involves
absolute perfect grammar
and like perfect pronunciation
and all that stuff.
It's just
that's a whole other part of speaking
that isn't necessarily fluency.
So how do you know
if you actually want to be fluent
or if your goals are something else?
And if you do want to be fluent,
how do you know what that means to you?
And then once you do know
the answers to those questions,
how do you get there?
How do you get your goals?
If you're asking yourself
these questions right now,
I highly recommend
you click the link below
in the description
to learn more about my 90 day
self-paced coaching
program called The Method.
When you join us, you'll learn
how to clarify your goals
to something that's
meaningful and personal
and exciting to you,
how it is you want to accomplish it,
and what resources
will actually make you happy and actually
give you an enjoyable experience
and you'll learn how to stick to it
in the long term, no matter what happens,
so you can be a long-term
language learner who actually
accomplishes their goals.
Click the link below in the description
to learn more about that.
And if you like this video, I recommend
you check out these videos next.
Otherwise, have a wonderful day,
and I'll see you next time.