Listen to yourself. You are doing good.

Now that we all have been challenged to create new ways to interact, work, exercise and stay sane, I find myself teaching all of my classes online in order to stay in contact with my students and reach as many people as possible. Besides all the benefits and shortcomings of teaching online, something happened this week during an online class that really struck me and inspired me to create this new entry on my blog. 

“I didn’t like listening to myself”

One of the great benefits of teaching online is that we can record our lessons and see them afterwards. It is a great tool to have when you feel like reviewing or have questions about homework. When I asked a student today if she had had time to watch the video of the previous class, she answered that she had started watching it but she hated listening to herself so she quit watching it.

It is funny because I actually like listening to her when she speaks and I never once felt that her speech was unpleasant at all. That response took me completely by surprise, though at the same time, I could understand how she was feeling. 

Accept and love yourself no matter what you are doing.

This brings me back to a life lesson that I keep on stumbling upon in all areas of my life. That is self- love and acceptance. I hear it in my yoga lessons, I read it in my books and I listen to it in the youtube videos I watch every morning. I try to apply it in everything I do. And there it is again, present even in my Spanish lessons. Love yourself, do not judge yourself and accept where you are now.

My heart went out for my student who felt rejection at herself while trying to learn a language, trying to challenge herself and be better. So I told her something that I would like to share with all.

Whatever state in our language process we are in (or any life process), is the best state we can be in. It is the best of us showing itself, growing, making mistakes, trying, failing, trying again, succeeding, improving. And because of that, we should embrace every word we say. We should love ourselves and give ourselves a nice pat in the back for every time we show up in class, for every time we do our homework, for every time we get the courage to speak up in class. It doesn’t matter if is correct or not.  We tried. We did our best. And we deserve all the respect we have in us.

Whatever time it takes yo to learn, that is the perfect time.

It is hard to see yourself in the process of learning. We would all love to just do everything right from the beginning, progress very quickly and be extremely proficient in no time. But that is not real. Not many people can do that. Some do, but most of us, myself included, belong to the vast majority who learn a language slowly, and sometimes, not as successfully as we would like. But that is who we are. Whatever time it takes us to learn, that is the perfect time. However many times we need to repeat, re-read, re-write and ask again, that is the perfect amount of times.

What if we change the way you see our language learning?

So, I encourage you to look at your language learning differently. Look at it as a journey in which you improve, discover yourself and enjoy yourself in every step of the way. A journey in which listening to yourself makes you feel proud and challenged, not frustrated. A journey that, at the end of it, you will be glad you took and you would want everyone you know to take it. That is how I would like language learning (or any skill learning) to feel like for all.