Live the language, don't study it

A success story

I would like to tell you about a French student at the Calgary Language Nerds. She began taking lessons late last year and has an intermediate level. Her goal was to be more comfortable in terms of speaking and understanding. French used to just feel so hard and she wanted to stop second-guessing herself.

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How is she doing?

Good news: this student has achieved her goal. Hooray! More specifically, by her own account she is able to speak freely and feel comfortable in her skin. She expresses herself automatically and understands native speakers easily.

Let’s take a look at how she did it.

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The data

Here’s how she spent her 63.25 hours of study time.

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The unlock

So what allowed this student to finally feel fluent? I asked her this and, it was all about baking French into her daily life. She doesn’t study French. Instead, she lives the language for a portion of every day.

Notice how much time she spent on listening. It’s a habit now; she consumes content for native speakers regularly. Furthermore, she spent a lot of time on time on conversing with a native speaker.

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Studying is NOT the answer

I needed this reminder myself. I think back to when I was learning French, Spanish, and Mandarin. In each case, the language was embedded into my life. I tried to make friends, I consumed native content, and I saved up money to travel. Sure, I took classes and I did study as well…

But my primary focus was about living the language, not studying it.

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The Emotional Definition of Fluency

In recent blog posts, I’ve been discussing a concept I call The Emotional Definition of Fluency. Usually people describe fluency goals in descriptive terms. They may describe their level by saying, I’m a beginner or even I think I have about a B1 level.

Unless you plan to take an exam, the descriptive definition of fluency is not what matters most. What matters is your answer to this question: what would it take so that you, in your own eyes, feel like you’ve reached your desired level of fluency?

It’s more emotional than logical.

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Embrace emotion

Remember that this student’s goal was to feel more comfortable and confident. She wanted to stop second-guessing herself and just relax; allow the language to flow out of her naturally. She leaned into that and motivated herself to bring her dream to reality. So inspiring!

You can do the same. You can replace struggle and stress with flow. I believe in you and am 100% in your corner.

Cheering you on,

Azren
Calgary Language Nerds owner
https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com