#2 – Do What You Like to Do

Hi, this is Steve Kaufmann again talking about the Seven Secrets to Successful Language Learning.

You'll remember the first secret was to spend the time, every day if possible, and for a long enough period of time to achieve your goals. The second secret, in my opinion, is to do what you like doing. This is very important. If you don't enjoy studying the language you won't put in the time, so it's important that you do the things that you like doing.

Now, I can tell you what I like doing, but I can't tell you that you should do what I like doing because you may not like doing them.

What I like doing, what I think is extremely effective, is listening and reading. I think that when you are listening and reading you're relying entirely on your imagination to convert all these words into meaning. To me, that is a more intense learning environment than say watching videos, but there are other people who like to watch videos and who will watch videos over and over again.

I can't do that, so it's not something that I should do because I don't like doing it.

Similarly, someone who doesn't like listening or reading, to my mind, they're missing out on something. They'd probably feel the same with me about not watching videos, but they should then do what they like to do.I see advice, I should

I'll continue a little bit on the listening and reading and my strategy there.

When I start out with a language I will listen quite often to short bits of content until I understand 50, 60, 70%, then I'll move on to the next item. So I listen quite often to beginner content. I always want to read whatever I listen to and I want to listen to whatever I read. Certainly in the beginning period that's what I like doing. The other thing is I listen to things that I like. I listen to content where I like the voice, I listen to things that I'm interested in. So I very much like to do what I like to do and that keeps me going.

I know there are some people who like to speak right away.

I don't like doing that, so I don't do it. There are some people who like to write, who like to answer questions. I hate answering questions, drills, find the verb, redo this sentence, comprehension questions about what I have listened to or read. Some people like to translate. I know Luca, who is an excellent polyglot, likes to translate what he has just listened to into his own language. I don't like doing that.

I think to be a successful language learner you have to enjoy the process, you have to put in the time, so you have to decide what it is you like doing.

Do you like listening and reading? Do you like watching videos? Do you like just going out and hanging out with people, if that opportunity is available to you? As I said, personally, I don't like doing a lot of speaking until I have enough of the language, enough words, enough familiarity with the language, but others do.

So it is important to do what you like to do, that's going to be a major condition for success because if you like doing it then all of a sudden it's the process of language learning that becomes its own reward.

As one LingQ member said when I met him in Osaka, Japan, “In language learning there is no finish line. It's the process itself that is the reward, if we do what we like to do.”

So that's my second secret.

In language learning do what you like to do, but continue doing it.