Liquid Courage

A placebo or a miracle effect?

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! One of the things many people notice when they are learning a second language is that at times it is seemingly easier to speak when under the influence. There is a funny joke about Germans in there somewhere as they all speak English rather proficiently, but only after a beer or two will they do so willingly. Whatever the reason, there is something to be said for so many people having the same experience and it is worth thinking about as a language learner.

Are there ways to recreate this feeling without needing some sort of substance? I’ll tell you what I think, but give me your opinions in the comment box at the end of this article!

Inhibition of fear

Fear is a potent inhibitor that can cause even the most proficient linguists to stop themselves from speaking. Much of speaking comes down to confidence and building confidence will help you overcome your fear. At one point or another you will realize that mistakes are not really that bad and they are inevitable. Everyone makes them and trying to be perfect makes you the weird one. The way many people first realize this is with alcohol.

There is an interesting phenomenon in Germany where all of the people there speak English very proficiently, but they refuse to speak to native English speakers, at first. Once they have a beer or two in them, the English begins to flow. This is not a characteristic that is unique to them, though. Most people will realize they speak better under the influence than they do sober. But is that really true?

I would argue that it is more of a feeling than reality. What I mean by that is, senses are inhibited by inebriation, but so is fear. That is why alcohol is also known as liquid courage. You might talk to that person you normally wouldn’t, you might get up and sing karaoke, you might even go up on stage and dance to a live band after being invited. All things you would never have done if you had been sober.

Eventually, however, you will realize that anything you can do confidently while under the influence, you can do better and just as confidently while sober. The main difference is you have to build confidence over time through repetition when you don’t have the liquid courage. At the same time, all you really have to do to build your confidence is by doing progressively more difficult things over time.

As it stands, there is no crystal ball where you can peer into the future and see where you will be in 3, 6, or 12 months. A few beers or a glass of wine might just show you how far you can be with your foreign language, though. Unfortunately, most people will enjoy the ability when drinking and never put the work in to be able to enjoy the same ability without drinking. But you, anon, are not most people!

You understand that just because you think you can sing when drunk does not mean that you can. Of course you know that just because that fence doesn’t look so tall when you are drunk does not mean you should jump over it. Without a doubt you know that just because you think you took some amazing pictures last night that when you look at them in the morning you are going to cringe a little bit. So you know that, just because you speak confidently in your target language after a few drinks does not mean you spoke perfectly.

Perhaps it is actually okay to not be perfect when speaking. That is the mental hurdle you now must overcome. You are not alone in your fear of speaking, of making mistakes, or of offending people through miscommunications. What you may not know is that most people would rather you risk offending them, making mistakes, and miscommunicating than remaining silent. In fact, even trying will probably boost your confidence as the person you are trying to speak with likely will commend your efforts, if not your skills outright.

Carrying over extra confidence

As I mentioned above, building your confidence takes time, so start building it into your daily routine immediately. Start speaking every day, mimic the words you hear and the voices you listen to, try to translate your thoughts into your target language as much as possible. It all comes down to stacking wins and if you need a step by step guide on how you can start stacking your own wins, check out this article:

Momentum is a powerful force when working to build confidence and if it is spurred by a night out drinking with friends and speaking your target language then so be it, but do not let go of that motivation. Over time it will fade and that is when discipline will become more important than motivation. Every time you succeed at a task you will become more confident, so set your tasks up to be conducive to your success.

Aside from the normal methods, there is something I like to call delusional confidence. For me it comes from spending over a decade in sales, but anyone can learn it and master it. The primary objective to remember that, no matter how badly you demolish your target language, you are the only one who is going to remember. Once you realize that everyone in the world has just as much going on in their life as you have going on in yours, the fear of speaking is easily dissipated. For more on mastering delusional confidence, check out this article:

Conclusion

It can be tempting to give alcohol more credit than it deserves once you experience fluid conversations for the first time. At the end of the day, you either had the skill to hold the conversation or you didn’t. If the alcohol stopped you from being afraid, great, but with or without it you had the skills to hold the conversation and you need to remember that. You don’t get magical skills all of a sudden, you just realize (or forget) that mistakes are not important.

Now all that’s left is to transfer that knowledge to your sober mind which is easier said than done. Start stacking your wins today and build them up. You can accomplish incredible things in 90 days and even more over the course of a year. Start writing immediately so you can look pack from the top and see how far you’ve come. It takes time, but so does building anything worthwhile. Don’t rely on a placebo, you can do this yourself.

As we discuss often around here, creating is vital in second language acquisition. Speaking and practicing with written language will help you in accelerating and enhancing your language learning process, so start having conversations as early on as possible. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go do some difficult things and become great.

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