Fixing Mindset Problems
In the last lesson, we talked about the mindset needed to learn English efficiently and enjoyably. But what if you're not having fun? What if you're getting discouraged because you're not progressing as quickly as you'd like?
At a certain point in everyone's language-learning journey, language learners start having these feelings. We lose motivation, things become boring or frustrating, and we might even think about giving up.
If you haven't felt these things yet, you probably will at some point. I want you to return to this page when you start feeling bad about learning English. This lesson will help you to get back on track and continue making progress toward your goals.
Overcoming Doubts
Doubts come from various sources, so we'll cover each of them first.
As humans, we naturally want to compare ourselves to others. We might feel bad if we think that we're not learning as quickly as them. We might start questioning whether we're smart enough to learn another language. We might wonder when things are going to start getting easier!
The Valley of Despair
The Valley of Despair refers to a dip in confidence that occurs after initial progress.
If you've never heard of the Dunning-Kruger Effect or The Valley of Despair, I'll explain it a little more clearly. The X-axis, the horizontal axis, shows how people start from knowing nothing about a topic to knowing everything about a topic. The Y-axis, the vertical axis, shows how confident we are in the topic.
When we begin learning something new, we have zero knowledge and zero confidence (we know that we know nothing). But as we begin to learn a little, our confidence quickly increases! We see fast progress and begin thinking, "I'll master this by the end of the month!".
However, the early confidence wears off when we realize that we didn't understand HOW MUCH there is to learn about this thing! We actually can't master this in a month, it's going to take multiple years to become an expert.
At this point, we drop into the so-called "Valley of Despair".
For language learning, The Valley of Despair usually comes at the time that people start immersing. They start listening to the language and realize that it's very hard at the beginning. Their confidence drops and this is where a lot of people lose motivation. They realize how little of the language they know and that this is going to be a long journey.
I don't want anyone to fear the Valley of Despair, just be aware of it. It's just a phase. You'll briefly feel discouraged, but you'll remember this graph, and that the phase doesn't last very long. As you continue learning, you'll leave The Valley of Despair and your confidence will grow at a healthy rate. You're smart, you can do this!
Why Am I Not Learning English Quickly?
"Quickly" is a relative term. "Quickly" compared to what or to whom?
The reason that I brought up Language Learning Liars in the previous lesson was because these people are using shame as a weapon to sell their products. They want to make you think that you're stupid for not using their methods.
Why would you waste years learning English when you could become fluent in one month?
These claims are too good to be true. But when so many influencers say they became fluent so quickly, it is easy to doubt yourself.
You might also see other people online who are bragging about their language-learning abilities! They're not trying to sell anything, so they might seem more trustworthy, but their bragging causes some doubt for you.
There are two reasons for this:
- People often exaggerate online.
- Some people are really good at learning English.
Let's talk about each of these points in turn.
1. Exaggeration. Oftentimes, people aren't 100% truthful online, even when they're not trying to sell something. Maybe they learned English in 3 years, but they studied hard for 6 months, so they say "I learned English in 6 months, it was easy". In reality, the first 2.5 years probably taught them a lot, and that's why they progressed quickly during the last 6 months. At this point, you might be thinking about how I said I studied French for 1.5 years, but I used efficient methods for 1 year. At least I give the full story! You can interpret the story as you want, but I don't believe Duolingo got me very far in the first 6 months. And when I started using efficient methods, I studied for 8-10 hours a day, so I won't claim that it was easy. I try to be transparent about my language-learning journey because I want you to have accurate expectations for learning English.
You fix the problem of people exaggerating by having accurate expectations for the time and effort required to learn English.
2. Language-learning abilities vary. Some people are better at learning languages than others. I don't think that intelligence is the main reason for this, I believe the following items play a role:
- The methods they use (efficient ones are better)
- The time invested in studying (more is better)
- The similarity between English and their native language (more similarity is easier)
- The experience from having learned previous languages (knowing multiple languages makes it easier to learn another one)
You fix the problem of others having advanced language-learning abilities by increasing your own!
How do you improve your language-learning abilities?
Throughout the roadmap, we're going to be teaching you efficient methods for learning English. You will be in control of the amount of study that you dedicate to learning English each day, but I'll show you how to fit more learning into the time you already have.
As for the similarity between English and your native language, there's nothing that can be done about that. For example, a native Spanish speaker typically learns English faster than a native Chinese speaker because Spanish is more similar to English.
The last point—previous language-learning experience—we can't really control that either. Either you've learned other languages before, or you haven't. But the more languages you know, the faster you'll learn new ones. So learning English will help you to learn other languages in the future, which is a cool benefit!
Internal Doubts
The way that you think about yourself has a large impact on who you are and what you can become.
You don't need to worry whether you're smart enough to learn English; you are! As we discussed in other lessons, you were smart enough to learn your native language. Therefore, you're smart enough to learn English too. English isn't more complex or complicated than your own language, it's just different.
Negative self-talk is really harmful to your motivation, so try your best to refrain from thinking that way. You ARE a smart person. You CAN learn English. You WILL learn English. It's impossible to not learn English if you are immersing in the language. Even if you tried, you couldn't prevent your brain from making connections between different parts of the language to create meaning out of the noise.
Breaking Through Plateaus
A lot of English words come from French, and they can be difficult for English learners. A "plateau" is a raised, flat piece of Earth. We use the word plateau metaphorically to mean a period of time when someone's progress has slowed significantly or stopped entirely; it's when we feel stuck at a certain level. The Dunning-Kruger graph doesn't show any plateaus, but if there was a section where the line was horizontal, that would be a confidence plateau.
Plateaus in language learning are almost always imagined, they're not real. We THINK we've plateaued because we haven't NOTICED any progress recently, but that's usually because noticing progress is difficult even if progress is still occurring.
Like I was saying, if you're immersing in English, you can't prevent your brain from improving its understanding of English, even if you wanted to. With immersion, language learning progress is inevitable; it's sure to happen.
An important point though: you have to be challenging yourself for improvement to happen. If you're watching the same episode of "Friends" and you already understand every word, then you won't make progress and you will plateau.
If you are challenging yourself, your brain will make progress. If you're understanding some things, but not everything, your English level is improving.
So plateaus in language learning are generally a myth. You ARE improving, it's just hard to notice sometimes.
We usually recognize our own improvements in bursts or pulses. It's not a continuous line as the Dunning-Kruger graph shows. When we learn languages, we feel like we make jumps from one level to another, but we don't notice the small steps in between. Each day of studying improves us a little, but we don't end the day thinking "My English is much better than it was this morning!". However, you will be able to say "My English is better than last month!".
If you feel like you're at a plateau even though you are immersing in English with content that is challenging for you, just remember that you're probably going to notice a big improvement soon.
Overcoming Boredom and Lack of Motivation
Even when we have a strong reason for wanting to learn a language, motivation comes and goes. Sometimes we are excited about learning, so it's easy to study! Other times, it's more difficult.
They say "variety is the spice of life" meaning that variety gives flavor to our life, it makes life interesting. I don't recommend constantly jumping from one thing to another, but if you're bored, it might be time to try something new.
You can continue to learn English but do so with different content. If you spend your immersion time watching YouTube videos, try an English TV show! Try video games in English. Try reading more—like a novel—in English. The point is that you're still immersing in English, you're just using English in a different way.
After studying in the same way for weeks or months, it becomes tedious. Remember, fun is a requirement. If the fun is gone and you're hating English, you need to switch things up. It's much better than quitting entirely.
This is not just for English study. People have interests that come and go. We don't want to do the same things every single day for months or years. Stop thinking about English for a moment... Even if you love reading, you don't want that to be the only fun thing that you do for the rest of your life. You'll want to watch something fun, listen to something fun, or learn something fun from time to time. So do those things! But whatever you do, make sure it's in English.
When we get to the Input chapter, I'll give you a ton of different ideas for English content that you can use for immersion.
Revisit Your Goals
At this point in the roadmap, we've only briefly touched on the idea of making goals. We'll talk more in-depth about goals very soon, but I asked you earlier to start thinking about why you're learning the language.
One of the best remedies to solving mindset issues is simply remembering why you started learning English in the first place.
Take some time to think about why you were excited to learn English. Was it for a job? For family or friends? For traveling or relocation?
Whatever your reason, take some time to fantasize about it for a while. Do some research; look at some photos!
What will it mean for you to get an English-speaking job? More money or flexibility? What could you do with that extra money and freedom? How would it change your life?
Do you want to form relationships with English speakers? What will you be able to do with them if you can speak their language? Do you like the idea of finding a partner or a spouse who speaks English? Or maybe you just want some online friends to text with? You could talk to each other about your different cultures.
Check out some photos of places you'd like to visit in America or England! There are so many beautiful places to see and experiences to try out. Browse some English travel blogs to get ideas.
Revisiting your goal with this kind of exercise can help you get excited about learning the language again! Sometimes when we are so focused on studying something, we forget why we originally wanted to put ourselves through that struggle. We start a language-learning journey by thinking "I'm going to do this hard thing in order to get this awesome thing". But then we focus on the hard thing and stop thinking about the awesome thing that we'll get in return. From time to time, it's good to remind our brains of the awesome things that we're working for.
Blast and Cruise—The Last Resort
What if you're so tired of English that the thought of studying it makes you feel sick?
After my second trip to France, I stopped studying the French language. I reached my goal and didn't feel the need to study hard anymore. But I still had my French friends, I still followed some French meme accounts on Instagram, I still listened to French music, and I still occasionally watched some of my favorite French YouTubers.
In weightlifting, there's a concept called "Blast and Cruise" which is used usually in the context of using steroids. But it's a good principle for life, in general. Blast and Cruise is when you are intense for a while, and then take it easy for a while. After resting, you begin the next blast period.
Before I visited France, I was "blasting" for a year. I studied all day, every day. After France, I entered "cruise" mode. I stopped TRYING to learn French, but I still consumed some French content just because I enjoyed that content. I wasn't trying to improve my French, I just liked laughing at memes and listening to my favorite musicians, and those things happened to be in French.
As a result, even though I haven't studied French for years, I can still speak French right now. I can understand written and verbal French. My French level hasn't decreased at all, and I would even say some aspects of it have improved a little bit! With no studying!
Of course, I would have made much more progress if I had continued studying every day, but I just didn't feel the desire to do that anymore, and that's okay, my goal had been reached.
If you haven't reached your English goals, the Blast and Cruise strategy is a last resort. It's not going to help you improve quickly, but it's a lot better than quitting entirely.
So if you're absolutely hating English right now, then stop studying. Just enjoy your favorite English content for a while. If you don't understand something, don't look it up, just move on. Forcing yourself to do something you hate is not going to help you improve in the long-run. You need to remove the frustrating parts and just focus on the fun parts for a while.
When you stop hating English and just enjoy some English content for a while, you won't lose progress. Even better—you'll be ready to make even more progress when you're ready for your next "blast" session!
I would recommend this strategy if you've studied hard for several months and you're feeling terribly unmotivated. It's time to cruise for a couple of months. After that, you'll be excited to make more progress again.
Chapter Conclusion
That wraps up the first chapter of the roadmap. While we covered a lot of theory and not a lot of practical advice yet, it was important to lay the foundation for success with The English Tea Break Method.
In the last several lessons, I explained how the roadmap works, my French story and why I know this method is effective, and where The ETB Method came from. We then talked about some of the important terminology (immersion, input, and output), and the key principles of the method. Finally, we discussed the psychology required for the method by establishing realistic expectations and the mindset needed to learn English efficiently.
In the next chapter, we're going to "Get Started" learning English. I know, most of you will have already gotten started long ago, but I encourage you to quickly read through this chapter because some of the lessons will be important for understanding other lessons later in the roadmap.