Hi guys, welcome back to a new episode of Speaking Canadian with Nick.
Today I want to talk about something that I think is often overlooked, meaning neglected in language learning, and that is rewarding yourself.
In today's episode I want to talk a bit about why you should reward yourself in language learning, what that even means and how you can do it.
So first things first.
I want you to think of at least three things that you like doing on a daily basis that are already part of your daily routine.
Please take a seat relax, take some time, kick back and really think about the moments in your day in which you experience a moment of temporary happiness, let's call it or contentment.
Let's use me as an example because I'm the best of examples.
I love coffee.
I drink coffee habitually every day, every morning after I take a shower, and I genuinely look forward to sitting down and enjoying every sip of my morning coffee.
You could say that it's already part of my routine, right?
It's not something that I think about in the morning.
Am I going to have my coffee today?
That is a tough question.
Maybe I'll text five friends and see You know what they tell me, if I should have my morning coffee or not.
No, no, none of that.
It is already a part of my routine, my friends.
It's already something that I do without even blinking an eye.
Now you may be asking yourself well, you know Nick, I do love coffee, but what does this have to do with language learning?
Or what does this have to do with learning English in particular?
Maybe you're not interested in other languages.
I don't know.
You know, tell me, leave me a comment and tell me what are your hobbies, what are your interests, what are you passionate about?
But let me tell you this if you are new to language learning, what I challenge you to do is to set yourself a very easily attainable goal to achieve.
Before before is the challenge.
You drink your morning coffee or tea.
You may be asking yourself Nick, what are you talking about?
Like, how am I supposed to function before I get caffeine in my system?
And that I can understand, my friends.
That's why this example is a little bit questionable, because we could be talking about and discussing addiction, and not necessarily a routine.
But I mean, I think the two go hand in hand, meaning I think that they go together.
For example, tell yourself or, even better, write down in your notebook the day before Today I'm going to listen to a 10 minute podcast, for example, and take note of any new expressions.
The next morning, when you wake up and after you do your little morning routine whether it be washing your face, having a shower, getting dressed you know the essentials to put yourself together.
And it's time to make your morning beverage of choice to get the day going meaning to.
You know, start the day, remind yourself that after you do your 10 minutes of English, you'll have your coffee right.
So this is the challenge to associate, you know, a difficult activity.
You know, sometimes it can be difficult to learn English or a different language, but you know, at the end of it, only 10 minutes later, you will have a coffee.
You know, I think that that's a pretty good reward system.
If you ask me, I love my coffee, as I said.
So, As a coffee fan, as a coffee fanatic, I can definitely speak for this kind of reward system.
By instilling this discipline in your language learning habits early on meaning in the beginning of your language learning journey you're setting yourself up for success.
So you're preparing yourself for success.
Of course, I know that many of you have already surpassed that initial stage in your learning to be able to understand these podcasts, which is fantastic, which means that your habits have already required consistency, resilience and discipline, which are all very fundamental pillars of the language learning process.
It's something that all of us need, and all of us need to find a balance with.
As we say in English, you know, hats off to you, hats off to you.
So that means congratulations.
It can be, it's a synonym essentially.
So you can say hats off, you know, simply hats off means congratulations.
So I want to say hats off to you for making it this far.
Good thing about the example that i gave you though, is that it's realistic, as everyone can find you know 10 minutes in their day, even if you're a very busy person.
You have work for eight hours a day, you have children to come home to, you have a wife to take care of and that kind of thing that i totally understand.
A wife or husband, you know gender neutral all the way.
Whatever it may be that is keeping you busy.
Usually, you can find 10 minutes your day to do so, so that is what I challenge you to do, and especially if you're willing to get up a little bit earlier and kind of start a new routine in terms of when you're getting up and when you're starting the day something to keep in mind.
As well as that, everyone has different circumstances, obligations and responsibilities, and this is why it's it's wasted energy to be constantly comparing your progress to others to I say it not to assert some kind of teacher-like pedagogical superiority, because I'm here to learn with you guys.
I am making this podcast to teach you something.
I'm here to teach you English.
I'm here to answer any questions you may have.
I'm here to take you from a pre-intermediate level to an upper intermediate level, so that you can understand your favorite content, have authentic conversations with native speakers and non-native speakers.
You know, use English all over the place.
But at the end of the day, you know, I'm just a student.
I'm a university student.
I don't have a degree in anything.
I'm not an expert in anything.
So you know, take what I say with a grain of salt, meaning take it and really think about it, really ponder on it, before you accept it to be.
You know a fact.
Because again, I'm not an expert, but I say it because I've been there.
I think it's human nature to be in constant competition with one another.
So don't get discouraged or let these thoughts consume you.
Or you won't have any time or energy left to reach your goals simply.
So it takes a lot of energy to learn a language, to do anything in life.
So put your energy into the things that are really worth it.
Anyways, let's get back to what we were talking about.
I love to go off on a tangent.
It's one of my favorite activities. apart from making podcasts.
So I'm going to talk about what I've done for other languages in the past and what I've been doing recently to learn Japanese.
Nihongo is how you say it in Japanese.
I have determined that three little things that I look forward to and that I consider a reward in my day-to-day life are my morning coffee, like I already told you about, because I'm a fanatic.
Like I've mentioned, and I will mention time and time again, I'd really like to make a podcast, actually talking about this very special kind of coffee that I tried the other day.
It's actually one of the most expensive coffees in the world, and it comes from Indonesia.
It's called Kopi Luwak, but I'll get into that in a different podcast because I don't want to get into it just now.
We're on a good track here, so I don't want to mess up the rhythms.
But the second thing that I'm also passionate about and that I consider a reward, or at least that I like and appreciate in my day-to-day life, is music.
I love listening to music while I skateboard, while I'm doing things around the house, while I'm doing any kind of form of exercise.
I love music.
It really motivates me.
I love walking and listening to music, whatever it may be.
Music is a big part of my day-to-day life.
In different languages as well, like I'll listen to music, like foreign music and stuff like that, but I also do love music in English, which maybe again, I will make another episode about, because I think that a lot of people could benefit from the huge range of amazing music in the English language.
So, you know, that's always a great motivator as well.
And the third thing is talking to either my friends online or, you know, there's not a lot of people in my neighborhood that I talk with on a regular basis, but especially online.
Nowadays, during COVID and everything, I've been talking to my friends mostly online.
Again an interesting topic how being social has changed, like sociability has changed over time, and how people communicate with each other.
I think would be a really good episode.
So let me know if that would interest you.
But actually yeah, talking to my family.
A lot of you might think it's funny that I consider talking to my family as a reward, because I know that not everyone gets along with their family.
But not to brag or anything, my family and I get along pretty well, you know, usually yeah.
So these are my three things and I have a lot of other ones like working out, reading and a lot of them I like to put together, I like to conglomerate them into, you know, a power activity like I like to read.
And while I'm reading,
You know, I'll be like stretching my legs and stuff like that.
And while I'm walking, I'll be listening to podcasts, learning languages.
While I'm working out, I'll be listening to music in different languages, stuff like that.
I really like to mix activities.
It really stimulates my brain and keeps me motivated.
But anyway, these are my three things.
Now I want to give you a little outline of the context of my life so that you understand that I'm in a very particular situation, a sort of limbo, if you will.
That most people aren't in.
So bear with me, meaning be patient and you'll get to know how this ties into my language learning.
So currently I don't work besides an occasional English lesson here and there.
I recently quit my job as I'm going to university in about a month from now.
So right now you could say that I'm in between jobs, or rather I'm in a transition period where I have a lot of free time.
Being someone who loves learning languages and has been doing so for the last four years or so, more or less.
Yeah, it's been about four years now.
At least in terms of consistent learning every day.
Like when I was younger, I was a lot more frivolous with my study habits.
And I would kind of study in a more spontaneous way.
And yeah, anyways, my methods have changed rather drastically over the last four years.
Consistency is key, my friends.
It's what I've learned.
One takeaway from language learning in general is that you have to be consistent.
But anyway yeah, it's been about four years that language learning has been a part of my routine.
Let's say,
So at this stage, languages are such an integral part of my life that I don't even ask myself every morning Am I going to learn French today?
I wonder if I should learn Spanish today.
I mean, I don't think Juan will be mad at me if I don't learn any Spanish so I can speak with him.
Should I do it?
Should I not?
It's a big question in the beginning.
It's hard to... you know, convince yourself that that's what you're going to be doing.
And you know, without no questions asked, like a lot of people love to include, myself included, love to procrastinate, love to overthink things.
When you make it a habit, when you make it a routine, you don't even think about it anymore.
And in fact, it's just so it just becomes such a natural part of your life, right?
So in fact, it would be out of the norm to not do languages rather than to do them.
Because it's been so long that I've been doing it.
So It's actually harder for me not to learn.
It requires a longer thought process to say, no, I'm not using any languages today.
So now that you understand my situation a little bit better, my routine won't seem as ridiculous as many people looking in who assume that they and I have the same obligations and the same amount of free time.
Because I know that a lot of people are a lot busier than me in terms of work and other obligations, and you know life in general.
Now let's talk a little bit about what I want to achieve and what timeframe, before I tell you how much time I spend learning Japanese on a daily basis and what I do, without going into too much detail, because I would like to save how I learn languages for another episode, maybe even a few different episodes.
In four years from now, once I finish my bachelor's degree, my plan for the moment is to do a TEFL or TEFL internship in Japan.
I really want to go to Japan where they'll set me up with a placement as well as training and theory and etc.
Like that kind of thing.
After finishing that program and getting my placement meaning getting a teaching position in Japan, I want to stay there for at least a year.
You know, a one-year contract, a teaching contract in japan, typically lasts one year, but it can it can vary depending on the employer.
After which, i will reevaluate and determine whether i want to stay, whether i want to come home or maybe teach in a different school or country.
So why am i learning japanese?
Well, because i want to live and work in japan for at least a year, you know.
So that's a big motivation for me.
I love going to a country and being able to speak the language you know.
As soon as i arrive, as soon as my plane lands on the runway and I get off and I just breathe the Japanese air and I am just ready to fully immerse myself in that culture and speak with those people and stuff like that.
For me that's really motivating, and I've always wanted to do that for any country that I've ever been to.
And that again I'll talk about in many different other episodes, because I know that travel interests a lot of people that like learning languages or want to learn English because it's so international.
Next question.
So what level of fluency do I want to achieve within roughly a four-year time frame?
I figure, if I'm living in Japan, I want to have at least an N3 to N2 level which sounds really confusing which equates to approximately a B1 B2 level in the European language level equivalency.
So know, it's all confusing, but you can look this up and i can leave a link in the description if it makes things easier so you can understand, kind of what that level means.
But it's basically like an intermediate level in japanese.
I want to be able to have conversations, you know, even if they're basic conversations, you know, talk with japanese people in the street.
You know, have all my needs covered in terms of communication so i'll be able to go to stores, you know, handle small problems, talk about my daily life, ask people about their passions, what they're interested in, get to know them a little bit, but maybe not necessarily to a very high academic level, which would be more along the lines of N1 and N2, from my understanding, which are a little bit higher.
So I want to know more about, let's just say, I want to know more than just konnichiwa y arigato.
So konnichiwa is hello and arigato is thank you, but not necessarily to have native-like fluency, which I don't think is necessary in my case.
Okay, now that you have all that background knowledge, you understand what I want to achieve, why and within what time frame.
It's now time to tell you how much time that I spend learning Japanese daily, so that I reach my goal by that time.
So I've determined, at least for this month, in which I have a lot more free time before school starts.
I'm able to study Japanese for two hours a day.
I know that sounds weird.
Like a lot.
And that's why I wanted to explain all of what I mentioned previously.
But what I want to do is what I do to study usually is that I'll study in 20 minute increments, sometimes 30 minutes.
So I'll do like four 30 minute sessions or six 20 minute sessions.
Both of them I find quite efficient for me.
The 20 minute sessions are a little bit more stimulating because, as long as I'm well prepared, it's a very well spent 20 minutes.
But after each session, I reward myself, which kind of equates back to what this episode is about.
So I reward myself with one of the three things among others that I talked about earlier.
And I make a list every night, or rather, I edit a pre-existing list and modify the activities that I want to work on the next day.
And if you think about it, keeping in mind that that, in fact, on most days, at least in the last month, I've had entire days free, which I know is, you know, a blessing,
And most people don't get that.
And I'm very fortunate for that.
You know, six 20 minute sessions isn't that ridiculous for my current lifestyle.
And I know that there are a lot of study rats out there.
You know that I'm gonna stay up all night, man.
I'm gonna study until like six in the morning.
For me, that doesn't work.
I would rather do a little bit less.
Do it well really.
You know focus dial in meaning to focus while I'm studying, and not just, you know cram everything or just study too intensively.
For me, that doesn't work.
For me, two hours is what I encourage you to do is to test things.
Find what works for you and your schedule, but don't Tell yourself that it's impossible just because you work or you have kids or you have to take them to soccer practice four times a week.
As human beings, we're adaptable.
We're products of generations of people that refuse to let life get in the way from pursuing what needed to be done to achieve a desired outcome.
Here's a quote from one of my favorite books, The Daily Stoic.
Don't forget though, that you come from a long, unbroken line of ancestors who survived unimaginable adversary, difficulty and struggle.
It's in their genes and their blood that run through your body right now.
Without them, you wouldn't be here.
Work hard, take breaks, and most of all, reward yourself when you do something worth celebrating.
You'll be constantly hungry for productivity that will continually fuel your progress.
And with time, learning and bettering yourself will be your intrinsic motivation.
That's all for today, my friends.
I hope you liked it.
As always, go give me a follow on Instagram if you would like more podcast-related updates. at some point i'll have a website up and running on which i will post all of these episodes transcriptions at least the ones that are available for the time being but here i am on spotify i hope that isn't too inconvenient for the moment at least um but yeah feel free to shoot me an email at speaking canadian at hotmail.com if you have any questions feedback or suggestions for future topics also there's a partial transcription available in the description of this episode for those of you that are interested and then maybe didn't understand all of what was said in this episode.
And if you'd like the full transcription, there's also a link to my PayPal account where you'll be able to give me a donation.
And with any donation of over just 2 Canadian.
I will personally send you the transcription of this episode.
Thank you so much for listening and take it easy.
Bye bye.
