Knowing a foreign language can be life changing – it comes with a boatload of benefits for the hardworking learner.
But for the average person who starts and tries to learn his target language, he knows it’s not that simple.
Some learners persevere and make it through, but many don’t continue or put the goal off in the future.
If you’re just getting started with languages, it would be wise to ask yourself if it’s worth the journey.
Here are 5 practical points to consider before you go all in with your target language. It’s probably best not to proceed if many of them bother you.
1. Languages Are Confusing
You have an excellent command of your native language. And it’s serving you well at work and in your personal life.
So why even bother taking on a new language? If any, it would only get in the way and cause confusion in your head every time you study it.
It’s not easy to assimilate foreign content in your head as your brain filters the unnecessary information when it first receives them. It requires a ton of input in your target language to even get a chance at understanding what was said or read.
Imagine the time commitment you’ve given towards studying, it could have been better spent on other important things in life, such as honing your craft in your line of expertise or devoting time to your family.
2. Lacking Motivation Only Leads to Burnout
Language learning requires consistent study and practice especially every day.
Personally from experience, I find that it’s not easy to form good language habits over the long run. There are things that would just get in the way.
And if you don’t have a powerful enough reason to learn your target language, it becomes harder to sustain the motivation to continue the journey. This of course leads to burnout.
At least you would retain what you’ve already learned, should you decide to stop now.
3. You Want to Impress Friends and Look Smart
Have you seen those YouTube videos of polyglots who could speak more than 10 languages?
Or videos of people who could suddenly converse with natives and end up shocking them?
You may have secretly desired to do the same thing, which is why you decided to learn a new language.
Question is, are you willing to do the upfront work?
Because if any, that desire soon fades the moment you realize how much you need to learn regardless of what language you’re targeting. It might not sustain your motivation in the long run.
And besides, there are better ways to impress people that don’t take much time unlike learning languages. Unless you just want to throw one or two sentences to make you look cool, then you can get away with a little bit of memorization.
4. You’re Required to Learn It, And You Just Hate It
if taking up a language curriculum is part of your requirements in school, then you know what I mean.
You can probably pass any subject in school without ever understanding what you learned, especially if you hate the subject, such as your French class.
It’s understandable if you need to learn a language because of work – at least you’re learning it to earn a living.
But you simply won’t get far in a foreign language if it’s not your desired target in the first place, and you’re being forced to learn it.
They say “boredom is the enemy of language learning”, and it makes sense. When you’re bored, you have no incentive to continue what you’re doing.
You might as well stop, then focus on doing something more interesting.
5. You Want to Become Fluent Fast
I’ve seen for myself the plethora of apps and programs (and YouTube clickbaits) that promote the angle of being able to ‘learn a language fast’ and in ‘as little time as possible’. I’ve also witnessed the selling point of being able to learn a language while sleeping.
While all these may sound promising, the reality is that it takes a LOT of time to get good at any language.
In fact, language learning is one of those fields that you just can’t cheat the number of hours in.
If you don’t understand this and you’re not prepared to dedicate time and effort into this skill, you might as well drop it right from the start.
Still Want to Learn a New Language?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to scare you away.
These five points simply serve as a ‘checklist’ to prepare you as you venture in a foreign language.
Having one new extra language in your toolkit is definitely beneficial and is worth considering, it won’t be a waste at all.
But for practicality reasons, here I am, warning you in the journey ahead. I’ve at least witnessed the points above during my Korean journey, and for some reason I still keep going with the language.
Are you going to continue learning your target language? Or is it time to move on doing something else?
What’s your target language? Are you learning it right now, or do you feel like not continuing anymore? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
