Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here, and today I'm going to talk to you about
Atomic Habits and language learning.
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So Atomic Habits is a book that I recently bought.
I bought it for a variety of reasons.
I bought one copy each for my two grandsons.
The girls got other books.
Uh, I have a brother who is in, uh, eastern Canada and he has been
bedridden and he has to gradually train himself to get outta bed
and start using his muscles more.
It's a long road, so I bought him an audiobook version and I bought
myself an audiobook version, and I've been listening to it.
And here's what I think is, is very valuable in the book
Atomic Habits by James Clear.
By the way, I will leave a link to a summary of the book, which the author
himself has put up on the internet.
And there are also, if you Google, you'll find lots of references to this book.
In essence, what the author demonstrates and illustrates is the fact that if
you wanna achieve something, it's not enough just to think in terms of
the goal: I want to be rich or, uh, you know, my brother might be saying,
I want to be walking again soon, or for language learning, I want to be
fluent in such and such a language.
What matters much more than your sort of long-term goal, your ambition, what
matters more is what you do every day.
And he uses a number of examples early in the book to illustrate how
very small actions if repeated, have tremendous effect over the long haul.
Uh, he mentions, for example, that he himself was in an accident where he
was hit by a baseball bat in a game and it damaged his eye, his nose, uh,
maybe even his cognitive functions.
And by dint of working at it very, very persistently, over two years,
he fully regained his ability to play baseball and has done very well.
Uh, he mentions an example of the British uh, cycling team,
which had never done well.
And then they decided to apply the principle of 1% improvement on
all the things that they did from diet, to training, to equipment
to where they slept and, and, and where they studied and you name it.
And the net result was a significant 30 odd percent improvement, or at least,
uh, they started winning championships and the, the Tour de France and so forth.
Uh, he also gives the example of an airplane in which leaving, say the, uh,
an airport on the east coast heading towards the west coast of the United
States, if it's even a few degrees off its flight plan, by the time it
reaches its destination, it'll be hundreds of miles off its destination.
So there's this tremendous cumulative effect of small actions.
What this means is, if you want to get somewhere, it's not just
about where you want to get it's, it's what you are doing every day.
To what extent are you taking advantage of the time that you have?
To what extent do you have habits that are gonna help you move in the
direction that you want to get to?
And, um, you know, I've certainly felt this when it comes to language learning.
Uh, at LingQ for example, we don't measure what you have achieved in the language
because that's to some extent subjective.
We measure your level of activity.
If you get active, if you spend time with the language, you will improve.
If you are active and if you have positive habits, you will work towards
whatever goal you want to achieve.
And the other thing, by the way, about Atomic Habits is, uh, it's
sort of a new year's resolution time.
So a lot of people would like to, uh, you know, get more fit or learn a language
or, uh, you know, uh, improve their eating habits or whatever it might be.
So it's very timely to, to have a book that gives you some ideas
on how to develop better habits.
So, and he talks about then focusing on your habits, actions, repeated actions
that you can do, but regularly that will improve you more than some very
ambitious goal or nebulous motivation.
And he has this sort of pattern when it comes to habits.
He says to develop a new habit, and I'm going from memory, I may
not remember it all, but you need to have something that triggers,
triggers the desire to do something.
So the trigger, uh, and then that's followed up by the craving.
So maybe you suddenly feel your stomach and there's a kind of a, a roll of fat
there, the result of eating too much food over Christmas, that's a trigger.
You then have a craving.
I want to go and work out.
Uh, then that whatever has...
you have, you are now craving to do it has to be sort of easy for you.
It has to be something you can actually do.
So you can actually go to the gym.
Uh, and then there has to be a sense of satisfaction once you've done it.
Uh, each time you go to the gym, you feel good about yourself, and that is in itself
enough satisfaction to keep you going so that you have this sort of cue or trigger
followed by, uh, some kind of something about it that's appealing or attractive.
It's not enough to be triggered.
You have to wanna do it.
Uh, and then you have the response, what do you actually do about it?
And then you have the reward.
If all of that falls into place, you will gradually develop that as a habit.
He says a number of things that are very interesting in the book, and I
really recommend getting the book.
He also says, you know, start off by doing something easy.
He talks about a two minute activity.
Uh, so again, uh, I have said this before in one of my videos.
Uh, you know, when you're going through a new text, don't worry
about all of the words that you can't remember or, or don't understand,
or that you don't understand all.
Go through it once half understanding.
Go through it again.
As long as you have an activity which is pleasant and where you
have a sense of achievement, uh, don't have to bite off too much.
And sometimes if you'll just start in any activity that will lead you to maybe
something else or lead you to continue.
But the important thing is to get started.
He also talks in his book about this um, I can't remember what term he used, but
you can be engaged in these activities and not see any results for the longest time,
and then there is sort of a tipping point.
There can come a tipping point where all of a sudden the cumulative effect
of these improvements or of these actions or this habit is going to show
it itself in terms of, you know, all of a sudden pushing you towards your goal.
I'm not sure that I agree with that all the time.
I think there's a, a gradual cumulative effect.
It's just that we don't feel that improvement.
Uh, and I've often said, you know, when it comes to language
learning, trust your brain.
If you are putting in the time, if you are listening, if you are reading
even small amounts, that is gradually improving you, the brain is getting
a better handle on the language.
I'm not sure that when it comes to language learning, there's
this sudden moment when we sort of all of a sudden jump to fluency.
I think it's a constant continuous effort, but every little bit we do,
and I think this is an important point in the book, um, you know, if it's
only five minutes, do five minutes.
If it's 10 minutes, do the 10 minutes.
Don't let a day go by without doing something, because over
time the cumulative effect of small actions is very large.
And that's another reason why at LingQ we have these, uh, we have
these LingQ, at least these uh, streaks that you can maintain.
So there's some motivation having set a goal.
He also talks about the importance of measuring your activity.
So if you set yourself a goal, I'm gonna read so many words, or save so
many words, or listen to so many hours.
Then, and then we have the sort of composite measure, which is the coins, and
if you commit yourself to a certain level of activity, then you'll wanna maintain
that level of, of activity every day.
And it's better to have a lower level of activity and maintain
that rather than sort of shooting your bolt, uh, one day and then not
doing anything for two, three days.
Uh, again, it's, it's all about these, you know, taking advantage of the time
you have during the day, uh, to, um, commit yourself to positive, uh, habit.
That cumulative cumulatively are going to, you know, impel
you towards your, uh, objective.
He talks about layers of ac...
of, of habits, and in particular he focuses on the importance
of your identity habits.
Uh, he uses the example of someone who says they wanna quit smoking or
wants to quit smoking, and someone says to them, have another cigarette.
One person says, I'm trying to quit.
The other person says, I'm not a smoker.
So that's a much more positive habit to have in terms of your, uh,
you know, identity of who you are.
So if you're learning a language, you don't say, I'm trying to learn a language.
I am a language learner.
I am a person who learns to speak other languages to a high degree of proficiency.
I am a language learner.
To have that habit built around your identity of, of who you are is going to
make you more positive, more confident, uh, and keep you on track, I think,
uh, better than just saying, well, I'm kind of trying to learn this language.
Um, so there are, I'm just touching on some of the points in the book.
Um, I think it's a valuable book.
Uh, I don't do it justice in, in the sort of things that I'm
able to remember about the book.
Uh, but when we come to language learning, we not only need to
train ourselves in the habit of doing a little something every day.
Even it's a small, even if it's a small amount, we need to train ourselves
in the habit of, of recognizing that every little bit we do, listening,
reading, speaking, writing is moving us towards our objective.
Even if we're not conscious of the fact that we are improving, we are.
And the cumulative effect of small actions is very large, both in terms of
language and in terms of other things in life as he explains in the book.
So we need to develop those, uh, learning habits, but we also need to
train our brains in new language habits.
And, uh, so we sort of, uh, as language learners, we have sort of
two aspects of, of habits that would need, we need to develop our learning
habits, our attitudinal habits, our uh, self-identity as language, as
language learners, those habits.
But at the same time, we're helping our brain develop new language habits so that
patterns in the new language vocabulary, in the new language structures, in
the new language pronunciation, the new, new language, all of which are
different from our native language or other languages that we speak.
We need to train our brain in these new habits.
And just as with other, the cumulative effect of small actions is very large,
and we just have to believe that if we persist, if we maintain our activity,
the brain will develop the language habits that are necessary in order to
become comfortable in a new language.
So there you have it, atomic habits as applied to language learning.
I have talked about habits before as it applies to language learning, so
I'll leave you with a couple of videos.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.