What a great time we’ve all had during these past few weeks! So much fun, so many hopes and plans for the next year.
Now, that we’ve turned the symbolic new page of 2014, the excitement has subsided a little, and soon we will be back to our everyday lives. Lives which are packed full with routines, minor worries and things to do every day.
The big question is: Will you do something about your hopes and plans this year, or will they just remain good intentions?
Whether you’re planning to learn a new language (which is, of course, our favourite topic), or learn how to code, or work out at a gym to be more fit, it all comes down to staying motivated in pursuing your goal.
And in fact, training your body and training your mind have much more in common than you could imagine.
So we’ve decided to put together a list of tips (by the way, many of them inspired by fitness coaches) that you can apply to achieve greater results in mastering a foreign language (or languages).
Tip #1. Set a clear goal
When thinking about your goals try employing the SMART concept. According to this concept, a goal has to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Then the task of achieving it becomes so much easier.
If you are not sure which language goals to define for yourself, start by reading our recent blog post where we explain how many words a person actually needs to know to use a language successfully.
You should keep in mind that for most of us smaller steps leading to a large goal work best of all. Here you can read more about how to follow your progress with Mikko.
Tip #2. Track your achievements on a regular basis
Tracking your progress is vital to success. When you are able to see that you are moving forward, you feel good about yourself and motivated to do even more and try even harder. When you are stuck, becoming aware of this and analyzing the reasons is the very first step to overcoming the challenges you are facing and getting ahead.
Developing WordDive service, we pay a lot of attention to providing you with opportunities to track your progress. Thus, for instance, in Settings you can order weekly reports on your progress that will be delivered automatically to your email every Monday morning.
Tip #3. Use peer support along the way
Consider sharing your achievements with friends, family, colleagues or other students. Just to make it clear, it is not about boasting. It is about getting emotional support from people you know and respect. It often serves as an additional powerful factor motivating you to proceed.
WordDive enables you to post your achievements to social networks immediately after you complete an exercise. You can also send progress reports automatically (you just need to indicate the emails of your addressees in the Settings).
Tip #4. Stay curious
We believe that a foreign language as such is not a goal. A language is a means to discovering and understanding other people, countries with their culture and history. And this is a fascinating goal!
This is why we encourage you to put your newly acquired language skills into practice as often as possible. With the spread of the Internet you have multiple options to practice your skills online (often for free). Take YouTube with tons of videos uploaded daily, TED Talks platform with brilliant speakers, e-books, films and music available in any languages…The list is endless. Just decide which topics interest you most and explore them in the language you are learning.
Tip #5. Reward yourself
As the famous saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Learning a language is at times a challenging task, we know that. So reward yourself on your progress. You deserve that. The type of reward is totally up to you. It can be almost anything: from a visit to your favourite restaurant to a trip to your dream destination. However, we believe that anticipation of a reward which is directly related to your language learning efforts will make the learning process even more fun.
And finally, we wish you a very happy and successful New Year and hope to see you often at WordDive in the coming 12 months!
A mighty mix of language learning professionals, engineers, designers, user interface developers, gamers and psychologists.
1 Comment
Happy New year and may it be a year of the best! I believe in this motivation-think and who doesn’t like people who inspire. I got a travelguide, though in swedish, but I hope and try to give some inspiration to backpackers who trying to learn English with amazing Australian accent. Cya!