Learning a New Language is NOT Complex
Simple ways to learn a language are not necessarily easy ways to learn a language
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! When I was younger, one of the things I really loved to do was make really simple tasks far more complex than they needed to be. Then, one day, my dad told me a powerful truth. The smartest people in the world can make a complex topic seem simple while the dumbest people in the world can make a simple topic seem incredibly complex. So I should always, “keep it simple, stupid” and I have ever since.
The reason people make things complex
Most language learning advice is like most advice for cooking sourdough. There are a lot of ways to make things more complicated in order to feel more productive or more hard working, but most of those things don’t actually help at all. In fact, my biggest conspiracy theory is that a vast amount of topics are purposely overcomplicated in order to keep money flowing.
For example, with bread you can measure flour and dough (balance vocab and grammar), make sure that everything is the absolute perfect temperature (ensure your topics are specific to the exact things you want to do/talk about), get a spray bottle (flashcards) and the best Dutch oven (a paid membership to a language app), and you can do EVERYTHING right, but at the end of the day the product will be the same as someone who put flour, salt, and water into the oven.
Science based lifting is much the same. So yes, you can do 100 things to move the needle a fraction. Alternatively, you can do the things you know work and soar. At the end of the day, the sad truth is that most of, if not all, the best advice is actually rather boring. If you are looking for an “exciting new way” to learn a language, or anything for that matter, you are searching for the wrong thing.
Unfortunately, when people do start looking for “exciting and new” or “super fast” they usually end up in a sales funnel. The easiest way to sell something is to sell a problem to which you already have a solution. So if the problem has already been solved, and the information is all free online, the best thing a salesperson can do is create “complexities” to solve. I bring up sourdough because that is where I first saw it so egregious.
But that is why people who are trying to make money seek to make things more complex. Let’s talk for a second about why you might overcomplicate things. The first, most pervasive reason is because you are afraid of failure. Particularly if you are someone for whom things generally come easy. When that is your experience, it can be incredibly demoralizing to run into something that doesn’t come naturally.
Languages are something that come naturally to an extremely small subset of the human population. Since that is the case, when you are unable to master a new language after a few months it is imperative for you to remember how normal that is. For most people it takes years, for many it takes decades. In fact, you will always be able to improve your linguistic skills.
If failure is not something you fear, then there is one other reason why you may be overcomplicating things. For some reason that I cannot explain, humans have an incredible power to stop doing things because those things were working too well. Perhaps it is the need to innovate or the desire to find a new path, but sometimes the old paths are there for a reason.
While it is certainly possible that you find a secret method no one has ever tried before, it is far more likely that doing what is proven to work will save you time and energy. Is it exciting to write every night? Not particularly. Is it one of the most effective tools in your arsenal? Without a doubt. Next time you feel the urge to innovate, try to step back and do what you know works instead.
Taking “think” out of the equation
Knowing what works for you and turning those things into a system will set you apart from the average language learner. Most people spend far more time thinking than they spend acting. Your set up should not take more time than your study session. If you find that you are spending more time planning than acting, it may be time to take a look at your process.
Personally, I have found that the more systematic things are, the more likely they are to get done. From dishes to laundry to studying, if I have a system in place the chance of accomplishing the task skyrockets. At first it is uncomfortable. Especially if you are someone who loves spontaneity as I do. However, the results speak for themselves and have been more than enough to persuade me to continue through the boredom.
Of course, that is not to say systems will work indefinitely. As you improve, one of the things you are going to have to do is give your systems space to evolve. After all, listening to a few songs is amazing at first, but if you can understand all of the words, you may want to step it up a bit. 10 sentences go down in 10 minutes? Next time try for 30.
Conclusion
Keeping things simple is far easier said than done. Aside from working against everything everyone on the internet is saying, you are also working against your own brain. If you didn’t find yourself thinking, “there has to be a better way” from time to time, I wouldn’t believe that you are actually trying all that hard in the first place.
Just because something is natural, however, does not mean it is the best way forward. You have the internet at your finger tips. Someone, somewhere, is saying exactly what you need to hear in exactly the way you need to hear it. Perhaps they have already said it and you have but to listen. It is difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So get out there, K.I.S.S, and become great. I am rooting for you.
Requests
If you have anything you would like covered you can reach out to me on X, Instagram, or at odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com.
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