Summary

The author's inability to commit to one language for an extended period has unexpectedly made them an excellent language learner.

Abstract

The author shares their experience with language learning and how their inability to commit to one language for a long time has actually made them an excellent language learner. Despite constantly switching between languages such as Mandarin, Persian, Polish, French, Esperanto, Slovene, Dutch, and Italian, the author was able to learn enough Slovene to communicate effectively during a trip to Slovenia. The author emphasizes that learning multiple languages, even if not to fluency, makes learning the next language much easier. They explain that language learning is not just about memorizing words but understanding grammar, knowing what methods work best for remembering vocabulary, and being familiar with the language's structure. The author acknowledges their problem with indecision but highlights the benefits of learning multiple languages in a short period.

Bullet points

The author frequently switches between learning different languages, including Mandarin, Persian, Polish, French, Esperanto, Slovene, Dutch, and Italian.
The author learned enough Slovene to communicate effectively during a trip to Slovenia, despite only learning the language one day before leaving.
Learning multiple languages, even if not to fluency, makes learning the next language much easier.
Language learning is not just about memorizing words but understanding grammar, knowing what methods work best for remembering vocabulary, and being familiar with the language's structure.
The author acknowledges their problem with indecision but highlights the benefits of learning multiple languages in a short period.

Why Being Bad at Commitment Made Me Good at Learning Languages

I never stick with any of my ‘projects’ longer than a few weeks at a stretch. This toxic trait made me an excellent language learner.

My girlfriend every time I change my mind about which language I’m learning today (colourised). Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

My girlfriend makes fun of me for it.

“Hey, I’m gonna learn Slovene! How exciting will that be??” I’ll exclaim after a long silence, both sitting around working on our laptops.

She raises her eyebrows.

“Aaaaaaaaare you now?”

She’s heard it before: Mandarin, Persian, Polish, French, Esperanto. She knows my process: I get incredibly excited about a language, learn it intensely for a few days, weeks, maybe months… and then I get distracted by my next project.

I regularly will flit from Esperanto to Slovene, Slovene to Polish, Polish to Dutch, Dutch to Italian, and Italian back to Esperanto. A language learner should, it is thought, rather stick with one or maybe two at a time and keep learning — hacking away at the thickets of the language barrier — day in, day out, for months or years.

Only then can you get properly natively fluent — and fluent I certainly am not.

It’s like trying to run a marathon on a treadmill — except every two miles, I’ll hop off and start again on another treadmill. I cannot keep my focus — and it’s not just with languages, either. All of my ‘projects’ or ‘great ideas’ last for a few weeks before being replaced with some new, more exciting stroke of genius (or so I like to think).

The truth is, however, this pathological indecisiveness has actually made me excellent at learning languages — and I’m not saying that just to blow my own trumpet. (Not entirely, anyway.)

I recently went to Slovenia. Beforehand, I learned enough of the language to:

Tell off young boys at the beach for taking jellyfish out the water and ripping them apart — (almost) entirely in Slovene (“No! They’re animals. Back in the sea. Stop!”)
Figure out how to order custom vegan dishes at the restaurant with waiters or waitresses who didn’t understand what vegan meant (imagine the classic “So, uhh… can you eat seafood?”, but in Slovene.)
Interpret for my girlfriend getting a COVID test before coming back to the UK, as she didn’t know Slovene and the staff at the testing centre didn’t know much English. That was fun.

That’s pretty functional Slovene, if I do say so myself — despite the fact that my Slovene is still objectively terrible. As in, I know a tiny fraction of the language, and most of the details of grammar still escape me. I freely admit that my Slovene is bad enough that I would be severely crippled if operating purely in the language for any significant length of time.

So why do I say my indecisiveness has helped?

Because I learned that Slovene just one day before I left.

The #1 way to learn a language better is to have learned other languages before. Whether you get fluent or not, the mere fact of having studied a language — better, many languages — means that the next language is just oh so much easier.

You see, there is a technique to language learning. It isn’t just rote memorisation of words.

It’s an intelligent approach to which parts of the language are important if you only have a limited amount of time.

It’s knowing what methods work best for you to remember vocabulary — are you a visual learner? Do you learn by doing? Do physical or digital flashcards work better for you?

It’s knowing how grammar works, and what to expect of it: are there grammatical cases? Genders? The dual (as well as singular and plural)? And what the hell is a subjunctive, anyway?

You will also likely have studied a similar language before, even if just for a short while if you’re an indecisive linguist like me. I had spent a few months on Serbian and Croatian a number of years ago, so Slovene to me was merely revisiting those roots.

Yes, I have a problem with indecision. I flip-flop far too often to get to fluency in any one language by myself because I won’t stick at it for more than a couple of weeks or months (if I’m lucky) before moving onto the next one. I am the sort of person that needs to live somewhere to get fluent in the language — something which has never yet been an option for me, but which could all change from 2022 (that’s another story, and perhaps one I’ll tell soon).

As the old adage goes, every cloud has a silver lining, and my chronic inability to pick just one language has helped me figure out exactly how to make the most of learning a new language in a short period of time.

If language learning is a 500ft face of sheer rock, I have climbed the bottom 50 feet so often I could do it with my eyes closed. I can only hope that one day I’ll make it to the top.

If you are interested in picking up a new language in the best way possible, make sure to register your interest in my upcoming e-book, The Traveller’s Guide to Learning Any Language in a Day. Early sign-ups to help grow the brand would be huuuuuuugely appreciated!