Reward in language learning
- Nick Nantais NEWN
- Feb 7, 2021
- 4 min read
Hi guys welcome back to a new episode of Speaking Canadian with me Nick. Today, I want to talk about something that I think is often overlooked in language learning and that is
rewarding yourself. In today’s episode I want to talk a bit about why you should reward
yourself in language learning, what that even means and how you can do it. So first thing is
first, I want you to think of at least three little things that you like doing everyday that are
already part of your daily routine. Take some time and really think about the moments in
your day in which you experience a moment of happiness or contentment. Let’s use me as
an example, I love coffee. I drink it every morning after I take a shower and I genuinely look
forward to sitting down and enjoying my morning coffee. You could say that it is part of my
routine meaning that I make it everyday without even thinking about it. Now you may be
asking yourself, well yes I do love coffee but what does this have to do with learning English.
Well I’ll tell you. If you are new to language learning, what I challenge you to do is to set
yourself a very easily attainable goal to achieve before you drink your morning coffee or tea.
For example, tell yourself or better write down in your notebook the night before “ today, I’m
going to listen to a 10 minute podcast and take note of any new expressions”. The next
morning, when you wake up and after you do your morning routine and it is time to make
your morning beverage to get the day going, remind yourself that after you do your ten
minutes of English, you will have a coffee. By instilling this discipline in your language
learning habits early on, you are setting yourself up for success. Of course I know that many
of you have already surpassed that initial stage in your learning to be able to understand
these podcasts which has required consistency, resilience and discipline. As we say in
English, hats off to you for making it this far. The good thing about the example that I gave
you is that it is realistic as everyone can find ten minutes in their day especially if you are
willing to get up a little earlier. Something to keep in mind as well is that everyone has
different circumstances, obligations and responsibilities and this is why it is wasted energy to
be constantly comparing your progress to others. I say it not to assert some kind of
superiority, because I’m here to learn with you guys. I say it because I’ve been there. I think
it is in human nature to be in constant competition with one another so don’t get discouraged
or let these thoughts consume you or you won’t have any time or energy left to reach your
goals. Okay let’s back to what we were talking about. I’m going to talk about what I’ve done
for other languages in the past and what I have been doing recently to learn Japanese. I
have determined that the three little things I look for to and that I consider a reward are: my
morning coffee like I already told you, music I love listening to music while I skateboard, and
the third thing is talking to either my friends online or talking with my family. A lot of you
might think it’s funny that I consider talking to my family as a reward because I know not
everyone gets along with their family but not to brag or anything my family and I get along
pretty well (usually :)). So these are my three things and I have many others like working out,
walking, reading etc. but three is the bare minimum. Now I want to give you a little outline of
the context of my life so you understand that I am in a very particular situation, a sort of
limbo if you will that most people aren’t in so bare with me meaning be patient I’ll get to how
this ties into language learning. Currently, I don’t work besides an occasionally English
lesson here and there. I recently quit my job as I’m going to university in about a month from
now. So right now you could say I’m in between jobs or rather I’m in a transition period
where I have a lot of free time. Being someone who loves learning languages and has been
doing so for the last four years or so at least in terms of consistent learning everyday. It has
been about four years that language learning has been a part of my routine let’s say. So at
this stage, languages are such an integral part of my life that I don’t ask myself every
morning “Am I going to learn French today? Am I going to learn Spanish today?”. No in fact it
would be out of the norm to not do languages rather than to do them. It is actually harder for
me not to learn, it requires a longer thought process to say no I’m not using any other
languages today.
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