How to Actually Enjoy Language Learning (from someone who used to hate it)

I'm going to share something personal with you  right now I used to hate language learning every  

time I opened a textbook or try to memorize  vocabulary it felt like torture but the good  

news is it doesn't have to feel that way forever  somewhere along the way I figured out how to  

actually enjoy the process and that's why today I  want to share some of the things that changed my  

approach to language learning so the first thing  I want to talk to you guys about today is I think  

it's time to stop trying to learn everything  perfectly you don't need Flawless grammar from  

day one yes you can be Advanced and still make  mistakes and it doesn't automatically deny the  

fact that you're Advanced speak messy it's a lot  more fun and you'll learn faster this way you know  

every time I talk to native speakers I don't want  to be feeling this pressure to constantly check  

myself check my grammar check my vocab everything  if I actually behave this way I feel like there's  

no flow to the conversation it feels robotic it  feels like I'm passing an exam but real life is  

not a perfect exam where you ask absolutely have  to get an A+ and be a good student I actually  

talked about the super interesting phenomenon  of perfectionism on my self-improvement YouTube  

channel because I recently read a book where the  author said that perfectionism is self-sabotaging  

behavior because we cannot be perfect in our  daily habits in our relationships in our work  

in learning a foreign language you cannot be  perfect you cannot never make grammar mistakes  

even if you consider yourself fluent or a Advanced  so stop trying to be perfect all the time to say  

everything correctly all the time be messy allow  yourself to be messy shake your body it's fine  

you're learning a new language you're trying  to become a part of a new culture you're not  

proving anything to anyone the next thing that  helped me fall in love with language learning  

is making it all about the things that I love  I hated English when I was a kid because we  

were using a lot of boring materials boring  topics grammar that was just not something  

that a kid is generally interested in but now  I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions  

when it comes to my materials when it comes to  how I want to memorize vocabulary and how I want  

to learn grammar so if you generally love cooking  just start watching cooking videos in your target  

language the thing is once you start associating  a new language with the things that you love doing  

in your everyday life you're also going to start  loving this new language because you're going to  

build a positive Association I love cooking  I'm watching cooking videos in English I love  

English because if you use materials that you  hate the association is going to be negative I  

hate this boring grammar textbook I hate English  if you love football for example you can obviously  

watch football matches but to make it a little bit  more personal you can even follow football players  

on Instagram on Tik Tok and see what their daily  life is like if they're sharing a lot of Instagram  

stories or Instagram reals this way language  becomes something bigger than just the textbook  

you start associating it with all of these amazing  people that you look up to you understand that  

these people speak this language and if you want  to understand your favorite football players you  

absolutely need to learn this language now if  you really want to make language learning about  

the things that you love one of the best ways  is to connect with people who actually speak  

this language and that's where today's sponsor  I talking makes a huge difference you guys know  

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limited to the first 50 users so please don't  wait moving on to the third thing that helped  

enjoy language learning and not feel like it's a  chore like not having this feeling that I actually  

hate it and that is using language as a tool not  just homework I know that we're all used to having  

a teacher going to classes but the thing is you  need to learn this language you need to learn how  

to use it in real life so stop treating language  learning as homework it's not your homework it's  

a part of your life you can DM someone who speaks  your target language or while watching YouTube  

in your target language you can leave a comment  and say something practice your writing making  

the language a part of your social life is so  freaking important meeting people making friends  

understanding that you are the only person who  is responsible for your language learning and  

who actually needs to learn this language so what  is stopping you maybe your laziness the next point  

is going to be especially useful to those of you  guys who hate reading or for those of you who hate  

doing something that a lot of people think is  conventional like just something that has to be  

done for example learning grammar or reading in  a foreign language you know a lot of people say  

that reading in a foreign language is useful but  what if you hate reading so I'm going to say Don't  

Force books if you hate reading you know I'm not  going to judge you I'm not going to say that oh  

my God reading is so good for you you're missing  out I know there are people who are so busy they  

have a family they have little kids or they just  hate reading that they know they're not going to  

read anything they're not going to read anything  in their native language and they're definitely  

not going to read anything in the foreign language  so I think understanding that not everyone enjoys  

the same things is so crucial I have a friend  for example who doesn't really read much but  

she always always always listens to audio books  when I read like one book a month she's going to  

listen to like five a month and she's actually  remembering a lot of the information from those  

books because her life is really busy she has  a baby she has a lot of responsibilities and  

sitting down with a book is just not a part of  her lifestyle so find what works for you make  

a tailor to you to your needs and don't feel  bad when somebody on the internet says that  

you have to do this you have to do that and you're  realizing that that is just not possible for you  

including obviously the things that I tell you  too because my goal here on this YouTube channel  

is to give you a lot of different resources a  lot of different approaches and you do you you  

take what you need from my videos and you make  it good work for you and finally one last thing  

that really helped me fall in love with language  learning after hating it for so long was watching  

terrible TV shows yep I'm being serious so I put  them into this terrible category because a lot of  

people usually consider them cheesy you know those  TV shows tend to have a lot of drama you know a  

lot of things that might be like funny not funny  type of way like some people are going to like  

this humor other people are not going to like this  humor but the reason why those terrible TV shows  

and reality TV shows help me so much is because  they often have really authentic conversations  

and really easy to understand language they really  hooked me on all the drama and the dialogue was so  

simple for learning the shows that I'm referring  to here is 90day fiance it's a reality TV show  

it's honestly not that great but it's so great for  learning English another cheesy TV show on Netflix  

is Emily and in Paris I know a lot of you will  say that it's unrealistic people don't actually  

live this way in Paris obviously we understand  that but I think it's great for learning English  

again the dialogue is simple a lot of slay a  lot of modern vocabulary actually the words that  

you will need in your daily conversations and so  that's why right now especially at the beginning  

stages of language learning I try not to watch any  critically acclaimed movies you know movies that a  

lot of people think are amazing amazing and great  because they often tend to have very complicated  

dialogue people they whisper or talk too quietly  or have a very difficult accent to understand and  

that is honestly not what I need when I'm just  starting to learn the language so I think it's  

going to be it for this video I Really HED you  liked it if you did don't forget to give it a  

thumbs up and subscribe to my YouTube channel if  you want to try out I talk you can use my link in  

a description and my discount code Veronica 2024  I know that a lot of you guys are constantly on  

the lookout for great free tools to stay fluent  to improve your language skills and if you are  

I'm sure you're going to love this video right  here just click right here and keep on watching

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