Thursday, September 29, 2011

J'ai fait des progrès

When do you know you are making progress in learning a new language? ...
When you suddenly find you are not making progress. When you find that you have hit a wall and to proceed to the next level you need to push harder. And when you start questioning yourself if it was a good idea in the first place.

You see, picking up the first few words like bonjour, comment allez vous, il est, ils sont, is easy. The first few words come almost effortlessly. If that were not the case, you wouldn’t even pursue it far. But as you dig deeper you find things getting tougher. That’s when the real test begins. That’s when you start questioning your wisdom. And paradoxically, that shows that you have made progress.

So, what are the options?

The first and the easiest option is, of course, to lower your goals. You wanted to speak fluently. Now suddenly you just want to ‘manage’ your way through. (“after all I am not going to live in France”).

Other options:
a) Step back, give it a small break (not too much though), build up your enthusiasm and give it another go.

b) Avoid the tendency to restart all over – the tendency to perfect what you have already learnt is actually an escape mechanism to stay in the comfort zone.

c) Mix it up. Start looking for new sources of learning French. Internet is full of them.

d) Try some online quizzes. Here try BBC Quiz in French.

e) Try showing off your skills. Showing off puts pressure on you to sustain the image.

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