Planting trees
Feeling like a failure
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! I hope you’ll excuse the gardening metaphor, but it is one of the best ways I can depict this feeling for you. Since knowledge is not something that can just be internalized in its entirety, it often requires planting various seeds and watering them so they grow. Where you water and focus most is where you will see the most growth.
Spinning your wheels
When building a garden, planning is important. As it is when it comes to planning your language acquisition path. However, I have noticed that a significant number of people spend more time planning than they do working. This isn’t just a language acquisition problem, either. The issue is that this planning can feel like productivity.
Months later, when it becomes clear that progress is not coming, this feeling of productivity will turn rapidly to frustration and possibly even resentment. This is what happens often in schools. Endless preparation to finally start taking language acquisition seriously only to be tested on articles and noun adjective accords. This begets even further problems.
After experiencing stagnation like this it can be easy to start waiting for permission. Not because you as an adult think you need permission to act on your free will, though maybe you do, but because you want to know you won’t be wasting your time again. Breaking out of this habit will change your life, and using your language acquisition to do it is a great way to practice.
Getting out of a rut
The optimization culture running rampant on social media is something that has been both beneficial and harmful. On one hand it is helpful to find things that work and seeing what others are doing can spur countless ideas that you can add into your life and daily language learning routine. At the same time, there is always a sense of “could it be better” in the back of the mind.
After all, why put your everything into something that isn’t the best path forward? This question is extremely damaging. Finding someone you trust and who has provided proven results is one way to get around this, but there is a far more simple method as well. That is, pick one thing you enjoy and do it for 21 days straight.
The primary problem with optimization culture is it reinforces shiny object syndrome. Yes, there may be a “better” method than the one you have chosen. But that does not mean your chosen method won’t work. In fact, the best method for language acquisition is the one that you are willing to do every day for months on end. Nothing else really matters beyond that.
By tracking your results over the course of months or years, you prevent yourself from falling into a trap that catches many an avid language learner. That is, you will avoid feeling the plateau, at least to an extent. Though we all have to deal with it, when you have a paper history that you can look at it is far easier to overcome that feeling than when you are trying to remember all the things you’ve accomplished off the top of your head.
The best time to garden
Another thing you can do when you are feeling those stagnation phases is start planting trees. What do I mean by that? Well, one good example is starting to track if you have neglected to thus far. As that tree grows, so too will the physical proof of your abilities and progress. Choosing to be intentional now, rather than waiting for tomorrow to come (it never does) will ensure you are able to bask in your garden the next time your frustration overwhelms you.
What does that mean for you? That means choosing to be intentional in your daily thoughts and activities. It means choosing Spanish music for your commute instead of your habitual playlist. It means watching TV in French instead of English. And it means taking time out of your day to reflect on and write about how you feel, in your target language.
These may seem small, but enough small actions will snowball into and unstoppable force that will render any doubt about your future bilingualism moot. Perhaps more importantly, though, doing these things day in and day out is the perfect way to keep your reason for starting at the forefront. Motivation is great, but when it fails you need to be disciplined. Planting trees now and watering them will instill in you an unmatched discipline.
Conclusion
One of the things I recently heard from comedian Jimmy Carr, of all people, has really stuck with me. He said, “things will last as long as they take to build”. While he was talking in regards to business and media, how tiktoks will quickly fade and that type of fame is fleeting at best, it is worth taking into consideration in a larger context. Planting trees you may never get to see through to adulthood is worthwhile, but only if you understand that they will outlive you.
That is why you should not only be tending to your garden, but helping your children in cultivating their own, too. You may never get to see the height to which the great oak grows, but those who come after you will; and they will know it exists because you had the foresight to plant the seeds when you had the opportunity. It will be difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So get out, plant some trees, and become great. I am rooting for you.
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