How far have you come in your study of a foreign language? Where did you start? What abilities did you have the first day? What abilities in the foreign language did you have in the first week? What abilities do you have in the foreign language do you have now? Many learners of foreign languages neglect to note their progress in the foreign language. They trip themselves up in their futile quest for perfection by comparing their current level of fluency to a level of perfection unattainable even among native speakers of that language, rather than comparing themselves to where they started and how much progress theyve made in the language. This mistake can sabotage your success in a foreign language! If you want to master a foreign language and become a brilliant speaker of that language, it is essential that you note the progress that you have made in order to support your future progress for these three reasons: 1. If you dont note the progress that you are making as you are making it, it is easy to belittle your accomplishments and forget that youve done anything special or extraordinary. If you dont realize how much your fruit your efforts are bearing, you might stop watering the tree. 2. If you know where you were when you started, and you know where you are now, you can feel good about what you have accomplished. If you feel good about something you are more likely to continue doing it. This is a major factor in keeping yourself motivated to do the things you know you need to do in order to reach your goals in a foreign language, especially at those times when you might prefer to do something else. 3. When you examine the path you have taken to get where you are, you can notice what techniques and approaches are working well for you and giving you the great results that you want, and you can notice the techniques or strategies that are giving you less than fabulous results, and you can adjust to continuously refine your ability to master a new language. Having a goal of wanting to be the very best you can in a foreign language is great and I applaud you for your commitment. In order to reach your goal, be sure that you take note of and celebrate your progress over the vast distance youve come. Heres to Your Success! Teresa Bolen Copyright 2006 by Teresa Bolen. All rights reserved. |
