3 mindset shifts to overcome fear in language learning

Let’s talk about it…Learning a new language is scary. Stepping into the unknown… also scary. Raising your voice and potentially embarrassing yourself if you make a grammatical mistake, worrying if your accent isn’t right, that you’ll use the wrong word or verb tense, and anything else language related that you can think of… BIG scary.

Submitting yourself to these feelings, shedding your confident shell, and making yourself vulnerable and open to judgement and criticism is a critical and often the most difficult part of the journey of language learning. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the language learning process if you choose to embrace the potential awkwardness, embarrassment, and above all the fear associated with learning a new language. Here are 3 mindset shifts that you can implement today when fear attempts to stop you from accomplishing your language goals:

Shift #1. Understand that no one, I repeat, NO ONE speaks any language perfectly

I don’t care how long you’ve studied or how many countries you’ve visited, anyone who claims to speak a language perfectly is lying. Language is alive and constantly changing. New slang words, Twitter lingo and text talk are popping up every 5 minutes, and dictionaries are incredibly large and dense books to memorize. It is next to impossible, even with all the advances of technology to know, implement, and correctly incorporate all of these different sources into your daily spoken language. This is great to keep in mind if you’re stressing out over confusing ‘por’ and ‘para’ or bashing yourself for conjugating “estar” incorrectly.

Shift #2. Accept that mistakes are meant to be made in language.

When learning a new language, practice and patience are the best teachers. The phrases that will stick with you are usually the ones that you messed up once or twice (or three times). You will learn to say “tengo calor” (I’m hot) on a 90 degree day instead of “estoy caliente” (I’m horny) after getting your third weird reaction in a row. Trust me! Bonus tip: Write down the phrases that trip you up. In one column place the correct phrase and meaning and in another write the incorrect phrase and how it is interpreted.

Shift #3. Remember that it’s just communication

When all is said and done, the basic goal of language, verbal and non-verbal is to communicate. You do this day in and day out without much thought. When you do it in Spanish, try to think of it as changing from one TV channel to the next, similar to changing from ESPN to ESPN2. You’re still talking about sports, but a different team is playing. Because you spend your entire day communicating and interacting with other people a large part of your language learning and use in real life will be based on observation and interpretation of your surroundings as well as the interactions between those around you. Considering what is not being said can help take the pressure off of you to say the right thing in the right way.

Cheers to your success!!

~Dr. Cort