Why do you want to learn English?
How many of you were taught foreign languages at school but don’t speak those languages? Most people that I talk to don’t seem to have learnt more than a few phrases - despite often having been “taught” a language for 5 years or more!
Why?
Perhaps it could be blamed on the teaching method, or the huge class sizes…but I reckon the biggest reason why kids fail to learn languages well at school is because they lack motivation.
When you’re at school, you’re simply told what to learn – no one cares whether you want to or not – and teachers rarely encourage students to think about why learning something could be useful, interesting or, God forbid, fun! It’s all just about passing the exam.
The lack of individualisation, teaching for particular aptitudes and encouraging students to discover what they’re good at and passionate about is a problem in all subjects in most countries’ education systems.
I can’t solve this particular problem – but luckily, we’re not in school anymore! We can make more decisions about what we learn, how we learn and what’s interesting for us. Hopefully, this will keep our motivation high!
So, let me ask you: Why do you want to learn English?
There’s no right or wrong answer for this but it’s important to know and to keep asking yourself during your English-learning journey. It’s also a crucial question because maybe you don’t really want to learn English at all!
Despite many people claiming that you can become fluent in any language in 3 months, the reality is, that reaching a high level in any language requires time and commitment – which you won’t be able to give if you don’t have really clear reasons for doing it!
Here are some questions that you can ask yourself to try to establish why you want to learn English.
1) What do I want to use English for? Work, socialising, travelling, studying, watching movies, playing video games…?
Understanding what you want to do with your English will not only help you stay motivated, but also to focus on things that are useful to you. If your main focus is meeting people when you travel, you’ll need to practice introducing yourself and asking people about themselves more than you’ll need to know how to write a work email!
2) Who do I want to speak to? Colleagues, strangers in a bar or café, family, friends or a partner?
Imagining having conversations with these people will help you keep going and, again, to focus on the specific things you need.
3) Who am I trying to impress? This question, I have to credit to teacher and author Benjamin Lawson – it’s a really good one! Extrinsic motivations often have a bad reputation – particularly those that involve other people’s approval. However, impressing someone with your English can be a really strong motivator, particularly at the beginning of your journey, so keep this one in mind!
Your reasons will probably change over time as your life and language level changes, so it’s useful to ask yourself these questions every 6 months or so – especially if you’re starting to feel frustrated.
I’ll write more about how to stay motivated and finding your own learning method in another post, but I hope this one has been useful and will help you move in the right direction.