A Letter to Your Children

How does writing improve your ability to speak a new language

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! Recently in the world of vibecoding, everyone is trying to figure out the next best notes app, the perfect productivity product to sell, or something that will help increase people’s memory abilities. The truth, however, is that nothing employing technology will ever truly be able to outshine the perfection that is pen and paper.

Keeping a written record of your life

As much as this is advice for people who are learning a new language, it is also something that is worth doing in your native language. Every day will not be interesting. That is clear. Writing on the dull days will, however make it easier to write on the days when you have something to exciting to discuss. Even if you only do it 4 days per week, the habit will pay dividends quickly.

Your life is more than likely not an epic tale of fighting off monsters and rescuing innocent civilians. If it is, you really have no excuse to skip journaling. Even if it is not, you can write about it in a way that makes it feel more exciting. This may, or may not, end up having real world effects. You will never know unless you try it out for a few weeks, though.

Always start with the most important or exciting things, but you real challenge is to make the mundane feel exciting. If you can’t make it exciting, make it funny or sad or hopeful. Use the time to dream about what life could be versus what it is or reflect on how things have changed over the past 5 years. Personally, when I look back five years, my life is unrecognizable in all of the best ways.

But if I hadn’t been doing this very exercise throughout that time, it would be easy to overlook the small steps that were taken to reach this point. People say to “enjoy the journey” but the reality is that, in the moment, the journey can really suck. Only upon thoughtful review can much of daily life be appreciated. It’s like when you live close to a beautiful location.

When I lived in Arizona, the grand canyon was close. So close, in fact, that most people never really made it out to see it. Why? Simple. It was always there. When something is ever present, taking it for granted is very easy to do. Once I did finally go, I made it my goal to go with as many people who have never been as possible. What an incredible couple of years that ended up being.

You never know what you are taking for granted unless you give yourself a chance to sit down and think about the things you do and have in your life. If you are truly struggling to write about things, write down 10 things for which you are grateful. Gratitude has a way of inspiring. Who knows, you might start with 10 things and end with 10 pages.

Passing on the things that matter

Personally, one of the main reasons that I spend so much time writing is because I have never thrown away a handwritten letter. If someone took the time to sit down and actually write something to me, then it is something that I deem worth keeping. Since this is true for me, it is likely true for others as well. With that in mind, I like to believe that books filled with my thoughts are something my children deem worth keeping.

Long after I am gone, I want my children and, ideally, their children to have the ability to pick my brain. There are many moments throughout the day in which I find myself wanting for the words of wisdom from family and friends who have passed. You can’t control everything, you often can’t control much of anything, but you can control the legacy that you leave behind.

We all know that our parents walked five miles up hill both ways in the pouring rain to get to school. But imagine if you could actually read the things they were thinking and feeling in that moment, rather than how they think and feel about it now. Imagine reading about your parent’s nascent relationship and how they felt as they planned for their family.

Of course you do not have to write with the future in mind. Most of the time when you finally have a spare moment to sit down and write, you will not be thinking about the future. If anything, this is the one time when you will be unable to think, or worry, about the future. Getting the days events out of your head and on to paper will, though, have quite the clarifying effect.

Above all, the reason you should be writing is because your ability to think has a ceiling. If you would like to raise that ceiling, you must write. Thinking often happens outside of the mind. Speaking to yourself, bouncing ideas off of someone, or writing. Either way, thinking is incredibly difficult to do when alone. As you write, you give yourself a person with whom you can share and test your ideas.

Growing your language skills

Whatever you do choose to write, one of the important steps that most people skip is review. I understand. In fact, I am one of those people who skips the review more often than I should. The truth is, however, that the first time you do something is rarely going to be the best. Setting aside even 10 minutes once per week to improve your writing will have a measurable impact on your language abilities.

Making mistakes in front of yourself should not be an issue. If it is, that is something you need to work to overcome immediately. Yes, you will always be your own harshest critic, but it will be next to impossible to confidently hold a conversation with a native speaker if you are afraid to make mistakes when no one else is watching or listening.

Improving your second language almost always involves improving your first. Writing is hands down the best way to improve your native language abilities because it is one of the few times in your life when you will have everything you think laid out. It is incredibly easy to breeze past mistakes when you speak. In any language. This is not true of writing. Those mistakes you can see; those mistakes you can correct.

Conclusion

No one knows your story but you. That means that no one can tell you that you are explaining it incorrectly. No one can correct you on your narrative except for you. That said, no one can write your story for you either. If you want your story to be told, and you should, then it is incumbent upon you to tell it; and if you are going to make the effort to tell your story, you should tell it to the best of your ability.

This is not the first, and it likely won’t be the last, time that I bring up writing. It is still and has always been the one thing that everyone fights me on because it is hard. I understand that it is hard. However, there is simply no replacement. Nothing will pay off quite as much in the short and the long term. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go out and do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.

Second Language Strategies is a reader-supported publication. The strategies in this post are a fraction of what’s available to paid subscribers. The full Guides library, including The First 30 Days blueprint and advanced acquisition frameworks, is waiting for you on the other side.

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