10 Useful learning tips
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1. Set goals that fits YOU
“I want to speak like an Israeli", "in one month I'll be fluent", "I know someone that spoke fluently after a year…"
Those goals are nice, but you need to be realistic about your own pace, not others'.
If you set an unrealisic goal to begin with it will only discourage you. Be honest with your abilities and set goals that will help you with your own progress. In the long run, that’s the only thing that will work.
2. Allow yourself to make mistakes
make mistakes. Enjoy your mistakes. I never met a student, even the most brilliant one, that doesn’t have mistakes with letters, words and tenses. It is the only way to learn. Just like learning how to ride a bicycle, you lose balance and you might fall, but at some point it becomes natural. Trust your brain that it will be the same here, and allow yourself to lose balance.
In addition, when you fight the “failures”, there’s no way to progress as your energy goes to holding perfection instead of for learning.
3. Focus on your OWN progress
There are always faster, smarter people, the ones that are 'natural', or 'quick'. You never know how long this person is studying, or if they have Israeli background. You never know how many hours they dedicate to learning, and their life circumstances (maybe they work less, maybe you have kids but they are single and generally free. You NEVER know). Because you can not know, there is NO WAY for you to fairly compare yourself to ANYONE ELSE. You can only compare yourself to your previous self. So just focus on your own goal, and what you can do to get closer to it.
4. What's important is what there IS
Whatever you don't know yet…you just don't know yet. You want it all now of course, but there are no shortcuts.
What you CAN do is appreciating what you DO know so far. When you started, you could barely understand any word. Now you can understand 20% or 50% of a sentence. It doesn’t make complete sense yet and you still need to guess a lot (and not always correctly) but it makes more sense than before, right? When you focus on what you know, the part that is always worried about what you can’t and that maybe you could never… is slowly relaxing and letting a more confident you to lead the way.
5.What's important is what there IS
Whatever you don't know yet…you just don't know yet. You want it all now of course, but there are no shortcuts.
What you CAN do is appreciating what you DO know so far. When you started, you could barely understand any word. Now you can understand 20% or 50% of a sentence. It doesn’t make complete sense yet and you still need to guess a lot (and not always correctly) but it makes more sense than before, right? When you focus on what you know, the part that is always worried about what you can’t and that maybe you could never… is slowly relaxing and letting a more confident you to lead the way.
6. Every connection to the language creates a progress
Even 10 minutes a day helps you progress. Watching YouTube or Netflix, listening to a podcast or a song, talking to a seller or a friend, or even to yourself in the street (or at home) - everything you do helps creating stronger language bonds in your brain and the full picture of the language keeps building up and expanding, even if you can't notice. If you will make a habit of spending a little time every day with the language, in the long run you will see amazing progress. Find your own little agreement with the language and most importantly, choose something you can commit to.
7.Focus on TODAY
TODAY is the only day you can control. I think it is important to have a vision like “I want to be able to speak about everything in two years”, but if you won’t do anything about it NOW, this vision will only frustrate you. Remember that everyday you know more than the day before, and TODAY is the time to learn a little more. Practically, after setting a goal, you don’t even need to think about what you will or will not know tomorrow (or in any future time). Just make sure that you are happy with what you did today. And trust it to pile up to bigger knowledge through time.
8. Letting go when needed
Knowing when something is just too much is not less important than making an active progress. If today you are tired, you have a lot going on in your life, if today is just not your day, don’t push yourself to learn. Don’t blame yourself for not being productive. Resting and charging up is needed and taking breaks is essential, and moreover, creating a positive learning environment, in which you can fully be yourself, include the downs and give yourself space to rest is crucial for any process. Overall, If you push yourself too much when you just can’t, it will create a feeling of frustration and you will loose motivation. So sometimes safe and slow is better than quick and shaky.
9.Combine learning with things you like to do
If you know that you enjoy things when you do it with someone, find a learning partner. If you like spending time in coffee shops, take a Hebrew book with you and order your favorite cake to go with it. If you like yoga, watch yoga videos in Hebrew. If you need a “higher guidance” (like a teacher), find a teacher you trust. Combine learning with things you already like doing!
However, if your teacher, your friend, anyone makes you feel stupid and worthless, quit that partnership. It is actually true for everything in life but focusing on language learning, if it motivates you – keep it. If it takes you down, nicely say goodbye.
10. Enjoy the way!
No matter how much time or money you spend, whatever you don’t like – won’t last. So… enjoy the way. Choose the right methods for you, create a positive environment – an inner environment (with appreciating your way so far) and an outer environment (with the right people for you). Commit to learning a bit every day or every week, but don’t push yourself over the edge, or get angry at yourself if you haven’t learnt today/this week or anytime. Because if you don’t enjoy it it won’t last – and the overtime commitment and exposure to the language is the most important!
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