10 things I never do when learning a language

Hi, today, I want to talk about 10 things you shouldn't do, 10 don'ts

when it comes to language learning.

I'm not trying to put those out there as negative things, because these are

things that I feel sap your confidence and confidence is so important in

language learning and I relate it to.

To golf, I actually am a very poor golfer.

For my age, I'm relatively flexible, relatively strong, relatively athletic.

A lot of people who are not as athletic as I am are much better golfers.

And that's because I struggle with some of the very same issues in my golf

that I think some language learners struggle with in their language learning.

So here we go.

Number one, don't put pressure on yourself.

Don't put pressure on yourself not to speak.

Don't put pressure on yourself to speak.

Don't put pressure on yourself to speak well.

Speak when you want to and let it all come out.

Rely on your instincts.

Don't put pressure on yourself.

Don't think you're going to master the basics.

We often hear this, just master the basics, as if there's something

basic, whether it be a vocabulary item or a structure in the language.

First of all, you can't master it.

It doesn't prevent you from acquiring more words, from acquiring more

familiarity with the language.

It's a bit, again, like the golf swing.

Whenever I try to have a perfect golf swing, try to remember all the things that

I'm supposed to do, I play more poorly.

If I just swing naturally, With confidence, I do better.

In fact, one of the things that triggered this video was an audiobook

that my son suggested to me, because we played golf yesterday in Palm Springs

and it didn't do very well as usual.

And he said, you've got to listen to this book by Dr. Bob Rotella, where

he talks about the psychological side of golf, where you can't

expect to be perfect all the time.

And so don't try to master the basics.

Acquire the language through listening and reading, as I say all the time here.

And then when you have a chance to speak, just go with what you got.

And I am guilty of doing the same in golf, of not doing this.

But now that I have been listening to this audiobook, I'm going to try my best.