Episode 44
How to start making progress with your English again [Let's get your English unstuck!]
This episode is for you if you have been feeling stuck with your English. Like no matter how hard you push or try, you can't seem to make progress anymore.
By listening in today, you'll learn 3 practical things you can begin doing today to help you create momentum with your English.
I want to begin by sharing a quote from a great article I read a few weeks ago. It's by Karen Otavalo, a young immigrant from Ecuador who immigrated to the United States.
During those initial months of transition, words eluded me. When they did surface, that all-too-familiar fear rippled through me. Speech used to be one of the things I was strongest at, and seeing myself fail at something so essential — not only to get my ideas across but also to be taken seriously — was disheartening. It didn’t help that despite hours of practice sometimes it seemed like I wasn’t getting better.
I learned quickly that impatience doesn’t help things along. Language acquisition is rarely a linear path. More effort doesn’t always translate into more progress. Instead, I had to learn to be patient, and that isn’t an overnight transformation either.
I love that quote, and enjoyed reading the article. (I suggest you give it a read.) Karen highlights something that everyone experiences in their English learning journey, and that maybe you are experiencing now: A language learning plateau.
A fast beginning, and then all of a sudden, everything slows down and it feels like no matter how hard you push, you just can't seem to make progress anymore.
If that feels like you today, then this episode, and the following episodes in through February, will be for you. We'll be talking all about language learning plateaus and what you can do to break through them.
Today: Getting momentum back.
First things first: Let's get real.
- No instant fixes.
- No language hacks.
- No 'Ah-ha' moment will come to your rescue.
But this is what we often look for. A silver bullet. To repeat myself, there isn't one.
Here are 3 things you can do today to begin building momentum again:
- Realize where you are. You are experiencing a normal part of learning and language learning. (You're not broken!)
- Don't look for those instant fixes. You need to put in the work. But it doesn't have to hurt! Look for and engage with, English that you enjoy. (Movies, TV shows, Books, Friends etc.)
- Who are you connecting with in English every day. Make a point of building a relationship with someone who you can talk to in English beyond, "Hi, how are you doing?"
Next week: Breaking free from depending on class, course book, and safe vocabulary.
Links:
Here's what it was like for me to transition from ESL to mainstream classes.
Transcript
There's no instant fixes for this. I'm sorry to have to
Speaker:tell you that there's no instant fixes. There are no
Speaker:language hacks that you can download off the Internet,
Speaker:no cheat codes. There's nothing that you can find that
Speaker:will instantly get you moving again. There's not
Speaker:like some special aha. Moment where
Speaker:you will have it and then all of a sudden your English will start moving
Speaker:again. None of that, unfortunately, is going to happen.
Speaker:Well, not sadly, but kind of normally
Speaker:for us humans, we tend to look for those quick fixes, don't
Speaker:we? I know I do. We want to find something that will
Speaker:get us moving quickly. But unfortunately,
Speaker:in this circumstance, there are no quick fixes. There are no silver
Speaker:bullets. So we just need to have that
Speaker:in mind.
Speaker:Well, hello there and welcome to the speak English
Speaker:fearlessly podcast. This is the podcast
Speaker:for motivated english learners who want to speak English
Speaker:fearlessly and learn practical tips and
Speaker:strategies to conquer the selfup exam. I also
Speaker:love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people,
Speaker:people just like you who are working towards
Speaker:becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their
Speaker:experiences together. Who am I? Well,
Speaker:my name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an english teacher
Speaker:for over 16 years and I now work to help students
Speaker:prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes.
Speaker:Two weeks ago, we had a
Speaker:snowstorm. It wasn't anything serious, but
Speaker:it was enough to cancel school for a day and
Speaker:turn our roads into a challenging place to drive.
Speaker:It also blocked my van in. I did a little bit
Speaker:of shoveling to get my van moving and I tried to get
Speaker:out the normal way I normally do,
Speaker:and I moved a few inches and then
Speaker:I heard the awful sound of tires
Speaker:spinning and no amount of turning the wheel this
Speaker:way or that backing up and trying again
Speaker:could get me through, I was
Speaker:stuck. And it took me a better part of 30
Speaker:minutes of digging and shoveling and pushing and
Speaker:lifting snow out of the way to finally break
Speaker:free. Getting stuck, it's a
Speaker:terrible thing to have happen, isn't it? Have you ever been
Speaker:stuck in the snow before? It can happen to your car, your
Speaker:van, your truck, but it can also happen in your
Speaker:life. You can get stuck in your life. I bet you know
Speaker:exactly what I'm talking about. Getting stuck
Speaker:can happen to anyone, and getting stuck can
Speaker:also happen in your English learning journey.
Speaker:And over the next five weeks, we're going to take a look
Speaker:at some practical ways to help you get unstuck
Speaker:with your English learning. So if you've been feeling
Speaker:like no matter what you do, you just can't move your English
Speaker:forward. Then follow along with me. We're going to be working
Speaker:together to get you moving again. And I want
Speaker:to begin today's episode by sharing a quote from a
Speaker:really great article I read a few weeks ago. It's
Speaker:by Karen Otavelo, and she is a young
Speaker:immigrant from Ecuador who immigrated to the United States.
Speaker:And I'm just going to read this quote to
Speaker:those. And in the article, she shares her personal
Speaker:experiences of what it was like to be in an ESL
Speaker:classroom, learning together with a group of people
Speaker:who are in the same situation as her, not from the same countries,
Speaker:but in the same situation. And what it was like to eventually
Speaker:transition outside of the safety of the ESL
Speaker:classroom and into regular, everyday class.
Speaker:And where we pick up in this quote is her
Speaker:just beginning to talk about what those first few days
Speaker:and weeks were like being in that regular classroom
Speaker:after being in the relative safety of an
Speaker:ESL classroom. And even though it was relatively safe,
Speaker:as you'll see if you read the articles, even there in the ESL
Speaker:classroom where she was learning English with a group of other people,
Speaker:there were definitely moments where she experienced fear and
Speaker:challenge and like she was having to push through
Speaker:a lot of obstacles. But this is what she
Speaker:says. The first weeks, the first
Speaker:few days, the first few months were like in
Speaker:regular school. So she says, during those
Speaker:initial months of transition, words
Speaker:eluded me. When they did surface, that all
Speaker:too familiar, fear rippled through me.
Speaker:Speech used to be one of the things I was strongest at,
Speaker:and seeing myself fail at something so essential not
Speaker:only to get my ideas across, but also to be taken seriously,
Speaker:was disheartening. It didn't help that despite
Speaker:hours of practice, sometimes it seemed like I wasn't
Speaker:getting better. Oh boy, I can sure identify with
Speaker:that. But anyway, it keeps going. I learned
Speaker:quickly that impatience doesn't help things
Speaker:along. Language acquisition is rarely a
Speaker:linear path. More effort doesn't always
Speaker:translate into more progress. Instead, I had
Speaker:to learn to be patient. And that isn't an over
Speaker:transformation, an overnight sorry, an overnight
Speaker:transformation either. Oh, I just love that
Speaker:quote. And I bet if you take the time to read
Speaker:that article, you'll really identify with a lot of things that
Speaker:Karen shares. So I encourage you give it a
Speaker:read. I've put a link to it in my show notes,
Speaker:but yeah, you'll totally identify with some of the things that
Speaker:she shares. But Karen
Speaker:highlights something that everyone experiences in their English
Speaker:learning journey and that maybe you are experiencing
Speaker:now. And it's called a learning plateau.
Speaker:Specifically a language learning plateau.
Speaker:And what that means or what a language learning plateau
Speaker:is when you have a fast beginning where
Speaker:you are feeling like you're making lots of progress, which
Speaker:normally happens when you're just getting started with something,
Speaker:when you're just learning a new skill, when
Speaker:you're just learning English for the first time, the very
Speaker:beginning feels like you're making quick progress, you're learning new words,
Speaker:you're having new experiences. And because of that
Speaker:newness, things feel like you're
Speaker:learning things a lot faster. But then
Speaker:as you go along, everything begins to slow down.
Speaker:And it feels like no matter how hard you push, just like what Karen
Speaker:shared in that quote, no matter how hard you push, you
Speaker:just can't seem to make progress anymore. If
Speaker:that feels like you today, then this episode and the
Speaker:following episodes all through February will be for
Speaker:you. We're going to be talking about language learning plateaus and
Speaker:what you can do to break through them. We're going to go
Speaker:practical. Like when you are done listening to one of these
Speaker:episodes, you are going to have a tool, a thing that
Speaker:you can try, something that you can do to
Speaker:begin breaking through that plateau. If that's where
Speaker:you feel you are right now, these
Speaker:next episodes are going to help you. Now I'm going to have to pause and
Speaker:get something to drink because I am battling
Speaker:the leftovers of COVID My whole family got
Speaker:sick over the Christmas break and I got sick with
Speaker:COVID It was rough. It stole my
Speaker:voice and I still have this lingering cough.
Speaker:I probably will be coughing partway through this because it seems
Speaker:like the more I talk, the more my voice gets agitated and I
Speaker:start coughing. So I'm taking drinks every so
Speaker:often just to try to make sure I don't start coughing.
Speaker:It keeps my throat and my mouth
Speaker:wet and hopefully not drying out,
Speaker:which is when I start the cough. So fingers crossed. I
Speaker:hope I can make it through this. But today's episode is
Speaker:all about getting momentum back. Like what we said
Speaker:before, when you first start learning English, it
Speaker:feels like you're making immense progress. Like you're
Speaker:going quickly. I remember what it was like when I was learning
Speaker:Spanish. Those first few weeks and months felt
Speaker:like I was learning new things every hour, every
Speaker:couple of hours. I just felt like I was making so
Speaker:much progress and quickly, and I was.
Speaker:But reality quickly sets in, doesn't it?
Speaker:So what you need to have in
Speaker:mind is this, first things
Speaker:first. If you are experiencing
Speaker:that plateau where the learning curve is no longer
Speaker:going up, but it just feels like it's going flat.
Speaker:The first things that you need to realize are
Speaker:one, there's no instant fixes for this.
Speaker:I'm sorry to have to tell you that there's no instant fixes.
Speaker:There are no language hacks that you can download off the
Speaker:Internet, no cheat codes. There's nothing that you can
Speaker:find that will instantly get you moving again.
Speaker:There's not like some special aha. Moment
Speaker:where you will have it and then all of a sudden your English will
Speaker:start moving again. None of that, unfortunately, is going to
Speaker:happen.
Speaker:Well, not sadly, but kind of normally
Speaker:for us humans, we tend to look for those quick fixes, don't
Speaker:we? I know I do. We want to find something that will
Speaker:get us moving quickly. But unfortunately,
Speaker:in this circumstance, there are no quick fixes. There are no silver
Speaker:bullets. So we just need to have that
Speaker:in mind. There's not a quick fix for this. Instead,
Speaker:here are three things that I want to leave you with today.
Speaker:Three things that you can do that will help you to get
Speaker:moving and create that momentum again. First of
Speaker:all, realize where you are. Realize
Speaker:where you are. If this is you, you need
Speaker:to realize that you're experiencing something that's normal. It's
Speaker:a normal part of learning anything new.
Speaker:Learning a language is not excluded from this.
Speaker:You're experiencing a learning plateau. It
Speaker:happens to everybody. And that should encourage
Speaker:you, because when you are stuck in a learning
Speaker:plateau, you're going to be feeling discouraged. You're going to be feeling
Speaker:like giving up. You're going to be feeling like,
Speaker:I don't know what I've gotten into, but I just can't do this anymore. I
Speaker:don't know what's wrong with me, but keep in mind,
Speaker:you're not broken. You're not doing things wrong.
Speaker:This is a normal part of learning something new.
Speaker:So number one, I want you to tell yourself today,
Speaker:this is normal. Everybody experiences this when they
Speaker:try to learn something new. And when your thoughts try
Speaker:to tell you that you're a loser or that you suck at learning English,
Speaker:or I'm never going to get this. You need to remind
Speaker:yourself of that. Maybe you need to write this down and put it on
Speaker:a postit note and stick it on your mirror every day. Or write a
Speaker:note on your cell phone that every time you turn on your cell phone, you
Speaker:see this note that says, it's a normal part
Speaker:of learning to experience that flat line
Speaker:that no matter how hard you push, you just can't seem to make
Speaker:progress. Number two, stop looking
Speaker:for those instant fixes, remember? There are none.
Speaker:The only way to push through a learning curve
Speaker:plateau is to put in the work, to be
Speaker:patient. Just like what Karen was talking about at the beginning in that
Speaker:quote that I shared with you. Patience is everything
Speaker:when you are working through a learning
Speaker:plateau. But as you are putting in
Speaker:the work, it doesn't have to hurt. You need to tell yourself this.
Speaker:You need to look for and engage with English that you enjoy.
Speaker:And we've talked about this before in other episodes, haven't we? Do you remember?
Speaker:Be looking for things that you actually like, but make sure that
Speaker:you are looking for movies that you like, tv shows that you
Speaker:enjoy, books that you actually enjoy reading,
Speaker:spending time with friends that you actually
Speaker:enjoy being around who speak English.
Speaker:The point is, look for ways to connect with English in
Speaker:ways that you like, because that's the
Speaker:only way that you're going to break through this learning
Speaker:plateau, by doing things that you enjoy
Speaker:and putting in the work. Finally, point
Speaker:number three. And this is kind of related to that friends
Speaker:part, who are you connecting with in
Speaker:English every day? Ask yourself this. Who am
Speaker:I connecting with in English every day? And you need
Speaker:to be making a point of building a relationship with someone who you
Speaker:can talk with in English that goes beyond. Hi, how are you
Speaker:doing? I'm fine, thank you. How are you? Yeah, it needs to
Speaker:go beyond that. It needs to go deeper. Like maybe
Speaker:a coworker, someone that you can discuss work situations
Speaker:with in English, or a buddy to go watch a movie
Speaker:with, for example. And then after the movie, you can talk about it, or
Speaker:someone that you can talk with that will take you beyond
Speaker:the surface level. English conversations of hi, how's
Speaker:it going? How are you? You need to go beyond that. You need to
Speaker:have someone who will actually talk with you in English
Speaker:about everyday things. So
Speaker:three things that I want to leave you with today that you can
Speaker:take and use today. One, realize
Speaker:where you are. You're not broken. You are
Speaker:experiencing something normal. Number two, don't look
Speaker:for instant fixes. Stop doing that. It's
Speaker:normal to want to find an instant fix, but there isn't one to this. You
Speaker:just need to put in the work, and you can put in the work
Speaker:by doing things you actually enjoy. Are you
Speaker:and number three, who are you connecting with in English every
Speaker:day? Make a point of building friendships
Speaker:with people that will help you talk about things that are beyond the
Speaker:weather, beyond. Hi, how are you doing? And talking
Speaker:about your life. Talking about things that you are doing on a day
Speaker:to day basis. Your family, your kids work
Speaker:situations. You need to have those conversations happening
Speaker:with you and with a person who is also an english
Speaker:speaker on a regular, everyday basis.
Speaker:That's what I want to leave you with today. Next week,
Speaker:we're going to be taking a look at breaking free from
Speaker:your english classes, your course books and
Speaker:safe vocabulary. So join
Speaker:me next week and thank you for listening today.
