After thousands of classes of teaching, I am no longer excited when I see students that learn fast because I know that they will probably quit sooner or later. I am more excited when I see students that are consistent because I know that this is the personality that will make them successful in language learning.
My number one advice that always works 🐶
I can never trust myself to get anything done.
Since it’s all my decision it’s totally fine even if I fail and I will still be alive and happy, I can live with it.
I watched a video about ‘how to train your dog’ by Cesar Millan the dog trainer. In one of his episodes, he brought a bad-mannered dog into a pack of well-mannered dogs that he trained. In about a week, the behavior of the bad dog starts changing in a better way.
I am no different from that bad-mannered dog. I know that being consistent is the key to success but it’s so hard. Too hard and I give up after a few days. But if I collaborate with someone or a group of people who have a higher level of consistency, if I tell them my specific plan and we work out a plan on how to accomplish it, then it becomes too embarrassing to quit or give up.
I want to show that person that I can do it, that I’m not a noob who spits out non-sense. I’m back to my primitive instinct to be accepted and respected.
I am lucky to get to work with my boyfriend who is a very consistent person. 3 years of learning Thai and he has never missed a week.
We created a Thai language project and we decided to write a blog on Thai language every day (this website). When I was lazy he doesn’t let that happen and said that he is going to do alone. How can I ever let him down? So though I had to stay up until late, I had to do it. I had to show him that I’m capable of writing something as easy as a blog.
I realized that it’s very important to define specific action (not just I want to write a blog, but I want to write a blog every day) and collaborate with people that possess the personality that I want to possess (in this case consistency).
Importance of being consistent
When you prove it to YOURSELF that you can be consistent, consistency becomes easier to achieve. Because there’s no more conflict with yourself whether you can achieve it or not.
Consistency in learning a language is transferable to other languages and most importantly, other areas of life.
Snowball analogy ☃
Have you ever seen a snowman? Have you ever made one?
See, if you had ever accomplished in rolling a hand-size chunk of snow into a big gigantic ball you will realize that if you stop too soon the snow will melt and you have to start over again. But if you persistently and consistently roll that ball it will get bigger and bigger then it will gain momentum and the size and weight of the ball will help pick up the snow easily and the work becomes easier and so much faster.
The same thing applies to learning a language. Consistency is the Key. It’s so crucial to your learning success.
🚫 Bad teacher + non-consistent learning = Don’t even think of starting
🚫 Good teacher + non-consistent learning = failure
🤞 Bad teacher + consistent learning = might take long but you will get there
✅ Good teacher + consistent learning = you are on the right track.
Take away
- Consistency is the key to language learning success.
- Collaborate with consistent people to develop this crucial personality.
… in training a dog to sit you must always get the dog to sit every time you give the command. You cannot allow the dog to disobey at any time or the dog will think that this command only applies once and awhile. Consistency is the key…
Catherine Pulsifer
Train yourself like you would train a dog and you will see success.
Grace is a passionate language learner and teacher. She teaches 6 languages and is about to reach her goal of speaking 10 languages.
Her focus is on learning languages effectively and in the shortest amount of time.