hey guys in this video i'm going to show you a very specific mindset that will radically speed up your language learning the number one thing that stops people from learning languages is fear and i don't mean that in a rhetorical way i literally mean if you're too afraid of speaking you will not learn that language and hey i get it interacting with other human beings in a language you're not totally familiar with can be terrifying i regularly make a fool of myself while speaking other languages and it's humiliating but i don't let it stop me
from practicing you'll be surprised how much your language learning can improve with just a few mental tricks every language learner is familiar with this attitude oh no i can't remember that word what if i mess up what if i say something offensive do i have a funny accent what if they laugh at me i know i'll just say the bare minimum so i can get by without showing how bad i speak wrong your objective should not be to speak perfectly all the time but rather to speak as much as possible knowing full well you're gonna
make every mistake in the book now your natural reaction will be to shrink back and avoid showing your vulnerability you might use one word sentences because you can't remember the grammar rules or you mumble your words to cover up your bad pronunciation or maybe you nod your head and smile even though you have no idea what someone just said to you we've all done it but as long as we're too afraid to practice we're not learning anything and the irony is that speaking your target language doesn't have to be scary at all all we really
need is a gentle push out of the silent box we've been living in and you'll see how easy it is to spread your wings and speak so instead of trying to fool the world into thinking you speak better than you do try this mental trick you have to flip that timid attitude on its head and deliberately go into conversations with the intent to show how poorly you speak that's gonna be uncomfortable and i know that sounds crazy but i want you to think right now about a specific moment in the near future where you'll have
the opportunity to hold a conversation in your target language with someone now you need to prepare yourself before you go into that conversation you gotta get yourself all psyched up and say this i am a language learner that means i do not speak perfectly i make mistakes i stumble over my words that is how i speak and every time i speak i get better therefore my mistakes are not shameful they are a badge of honor to me i am proud of my mistakes because they mark me as one of the brave souls bold enough to
learn a language no apologies if this is your mindset you will make a very different impression on the world think about it if you have an interaction with a native speaker and you're able to avoid making mistakes by not speaking have you actually convinced anyone that you're a competent language learner no you ain't fooling no one it's better to go into that conversation guns blazing with the full knowledge you're making every mistake there is but with an attitude of confidence that can't be ignored male portuguese pessimo [Music] you can't learn a language with your mouth
shut but what do you do if you're an introvert well there are ways to ease yourself in little by little if you're not quite ready to jump straight into this daring language practice method right away one of the best things you can do is find a conversation partner on reddit or on a facebook group or by downloading the free apps hellotalk or tandem these apps are designed to get you using your target language with real people right away now if you're already the kind of person who doesn't sweat making mistakes in front of others your
work is cut out for you just go to town having lots of conversations in your target language and making tons of mistakes you will learn so quickly that way if you're not quite on that level yet you can work your way up from text messages to voice messages to video calls and every step of the way you'll probably realize that speaking another language isn't as terrifying as you thought if you have to get the awkwardness out of the way at the very beginning and say just so you know i'm a beginner i make a crap
ton of mistakes and i'm okay with that then you switch to speaking their language and you never apologize for a mistake again another great way to break out of the silent box is the 30-day record yourself challenge the idea of the challenge is that you record a very short video of yourself speaking your target language every day for a month and i do mean short like one minute or less per day and there's a series of schedules that you can follow so you don't need to think up a topic for your video every day then
you upload the video to instagram twitter hellotalk or wherever you have bilingual friends and use the hashtag 30dryc so that other language learners can find you and give you gentle feedback one minute a day isn't much but it's enough to break the ice and get you out of the silent box you've been hiding in if you want to keep learning about what you should do in order to finally learn that language be sure to check out this video below so give that a watch and then go into the world and learn that language
