The Right Mentality For Learning Foreign Languages

Before we talk about learning foreign languages, here's a fact of life for you.

People rarely do what they "should" do, e.g. should lose weight, should finish a project... but they almost always do what they "must".

You see... We ALL get what we MUST have.

And the fact is, when most people tell others "I must...", they don't actually mean it.

Are you one of them? I hope not.

I could tell you the dictionary definitions of the words "should" and "must" but you don't really need those right?

The word "should" refers to the "right" thing to do; the word "must", however, allows no compromises... In other words, it's a prerequisite or an obligation.

People do what they really consider "must"s, while they may or may not "try their best" to work on their "should"s.

Is mastering a new foreign language is a "must" or a "should" for you?

A MUST.

Keep telling that to yourself.

Driven individuals are people who leave themselves no choice except for reaching their goals. They would not settle for anything less than what they can do.

And the rest people just HOPE for the best.

If you were one of those who HOPE things to happen, I'd like you to stop "wanting" to achieve the language goal that you have set for yourself. And I'd like you to stop saying things to yourself like "I'd very much like to achieve my language goal", "It would be good if I can achieve my language goal" or "I'd rather achieve my language goals".

Take a moment to imagine the following scenarios:

- I smile to you and say, "I'd be happy for you if you can actually achieve your language goal."

- I say to you encouragingly, "If you achieve your goal, I'll give you a nice little reward."

- I point a gun to your head and say, "You don't have a choice. I'll kill you if you don't achieve you language goal."

Don't take that as a joke

Let your imagination run wild. Imagine that really happened. Which scenario would more likely drive you to take action?

The third one, without a doubt.

Now repeat the following:

"I must achieve my language goal. It is not a hope. It is not a wish It is a must, because I have no choice."

Repeat it out loud. I am serious. Say it out loud, not just in your mind!

I want you to feel it. To really feel it. Take a break after reading this paragraph and visualize yourself talking in complete fluency the foreign language you want to speak. Notice the look on the person(s) you are talking to. Notice your own posture, breathing pattern. Notice the look on your face and every little detail around you. Do it now.

You have to eliminate any possibility of failure that is lurking in your mind. You don't need to be a Star Wars fan to remember that famous line Jedi master Yoda mentioned.

No, not "May the force be with you." The other one.

"Do. Or do not. There is no try."

For a small green guy, he sure knew what he was talking about. He was not giving Luke Skywalker an option of failure.

Once you have decided to learn a new language, learn it; master it. Don't go into it when in your conscious there is this remote possibility of you failing and not learning anything. If you already think that you could fail, you might as well not go ahead.

Do not even consider failure as an option when learning foreign languages. Don't even think about it. The only end result that you should achieve is mastering the language... and nothing else.