Learn Languages Easily. Methods of self-regulation for successful learning

Those were the cases when everything was all right with the motivation, and that is exactly what helped to cross the boundaries.

However, it is quite possible to achieve success even when your motivation is not that highly emotional. There are also cases like that!

Obstacles mean nothing

When a person is truly gifted, obstacles connected with learning a foreign language may seem insignificant absolutely.

If we try to describe the characteristics of the “lucky ones,” then we should mention their intelligence, willpower, outgoings, and the ability to connect with their interlocutor. No doubt, it is wonderful when a person possesses such qualities. Think about the universal genius of Leonardo, for example!

It is very seldom that one has all these qualities. It is much more often that someone has the willpower, and another person is brighter, yet another person is more emotional. However, there is no such person, who would be deprived of any of these qualities. All of us are gifted. We just have these talents in different proportions[5 - There is a whole school dedicated to the research of the correlation between one’s looks and abilities. This matter has been of interest for centuries. There are famous works of the ancient physiognomists and of modern psychiatrists. The key figures in this line of investigation are E. Kretschmer and W. Sheldon.].

Fig. 2. The self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci: deep-set eyes is a sign of a sagacious mind; a fleshy tip of the nose and full cheeks mean rich emotionality and breadth of the soul; bushy eyebrows, a nose with a hump, a developed lower part of the face mean a remarkable will.

I single out the three types of people who I call “square and shaggy,” “round and bald,” and “triangular and with a receding hairline’[6 - I describe the given typology in greater detail in the following article: Ермошин А. Ф. К вопросу о психопатии и одарённости. // Психотерапия. – 2006. – №5.].

Fig. 3. The constitutional genetic types: “square” (strong-willed), “rounded” (emotional) and “triangular” (intellectual). To the left there is an image of a hypersthenic, squat structure of the body that gives the character expansiveness, to the right there is an image of the hyposthenic, “elongated” structure of the body, which gives the character delicacy, pliability

Each of these types has its own set of abilities.

Inherited qualities: pros and cons

“Triangular, with a receding line’ do not see the process of learning as labour. They like studying as much as other people enjoy jogging. These people have distinct looks: deep-set eyes, a prominent nose, and a spare frame (schizoid constitution according to Kretschmer’s terminology[7 - Ernst Kretschmer (1988 – 1964) is a prominent German psychiatrist and psychotherapist, the author of the book called “Physique and Character” (1921).]). For this type of people, thinking means pleasure, and a learning process is perceived as a kind of sports, as a chance to exercise their brain. They greedily gobble new information.

A pencil and a shoe

People of this kind can easily find hidden connections between events. They are always the first to answer the question: “what have a pencil and a shoe got in common?” Their answer will be: “Both leave a mark.” A pronounced ability to establish associations helps them memorize things that might seem impossible for others.

We have to mention though that the extreme degree of these qualities may cause communicative difficulties: such people are often very reserved, unwilling to establish contact with other people; they can even seem autistic. Such students can easily read and understand, but they find it very difficult to speak in public because of the social anxiety.

There is the second kind of students. They are highly disciplined people who never ask themselves if learning a language should be pleasant. They usually have a strong chin, pronounced eyebrows, and an overall athletic figure (“square and shaggy’ as we refer to them, or as psychiatrists call them “epileptoid’). These strong-willed people are characterized by their can-do attitude towards the task.

Military interpreter

This is how military people often treat the task they are given: “If you cannot do it, we will teach you; if you don’t want to, we will make you to. If it is round, roll it; if it’s square-shaped, drag it. If you don’t have super-abilities, you will get there, but by studying hard!” I have met quite a lot of military interpreters, and all of them are very professional!

Their assertin, an immense willpower, and focus on the goal are the qualities that lead these people to success. At the same time, their ‘laconic nature’ may also become a problem. It sometimes happens that these people experience certain difficulties with speaking, as eloquence is not their strongest point.

On the contrary, there are very talkative people; they may seem rather pushy when it comes to communication: in other words, it is impossible to get a word in edgeways when talking to them. These people usually have plump cheeks, a small round nose, and they are prone to be overweight. Women have soft hair, and men are bald (‘round and bald’ according to our terminology, or a cycloid type, according to Kretschmer). They are always ready to communicate, no matter what the topic is. For them, speaking the language is one of the primary needs.

Cycloids can easily establish contact with a native speaker, though it does not mean they have no weaknesses: they tend to lack consistency and depth in learning grammar.

There are sensitive people who are able to perceive the finest nuances of speech and of human relations. They look delicate as they have a long, narrow face, a long neck, and a thin bone structure (“thin and resonant;’ an asthenic kind). Unfortunately, this kind of people is characterized by shyness and bashfulness. They feel lost when in the company of other people as if their frequency is weaker than the powerful signal of other transmitters. These people have to go a long way to develop confidence and bravery in communication with other people.

We have several methods to help you make up for the qualities that each of the described types lacks, but we will discuss them later. As you may have already noticed, each quality can complicate the process and facilitate it at the same time. The schizoid’s ability to assimilate semiotic systems; the epileptoid’s stubbornness in getting to their goal; the cycloid’s openness to communication, and the asthenic’s delicate way of perception – each of these qualities can become a tool to achieve success, and they have to work for you!

Further, we will return to the topic of personality types in the chapter titled “Who should I practice with?”

Learning under pressure

Even if you are lucky, and you possess all those qualities mentioned above, if you are intelligent, strong-willed, big-hearted and delicate at the same time, you still can sometimes feel like a learning process turns into an ordeal.

How do you learn the language?

I conducted a survey on the site www.psychocatalysis.ru in 2010—2011: “If you are in the process of learning a foreign language, how do you organize it?” The first variant sounded the following way: “For me, learning a new foreign language is an easy and pleasant process because it makes me feel that I am getting closer to making my dream come true.” The second variant was like this: “I have a business-like approach to learning the language because I understand that I need it.” Here is the third variant: “I am learning the language under pressure simply because I have to do it.” I suppose you have already found your approach among these answers. Here is what statistics say on this matter: 37.8% of respondents said that they were learning under pressure because of the circumstances. Fortunately, there were also people who were enjoying the learning process and found it easy. There were about 31.6% of people, who answered this way; 30.6% of respondents said that they had a business-like approach to this process because they understood the necessity.

Ninety-eight (98) people took part in the given survey. The percentage of the “students under pressure’ was fluctuating from 37.8%, which we have mentioned earlier, to 42.3%; 37.8% continued learning the language although they had little wish to do so! Why shouldn’t they begin enjoying the process and learn the language with as much interest as 62.2% do? Creating positive motivation will be one of our first tasks here. Then we will add some methods to make the process of knowledge acquisition easier, and we will get started. However, for now, we have to return to the reasons why we experience complications in the process of learning.

First unpleasant emotions

At the first stage of getting to know a foreign language, it seems very ‘uncomfortable’ up to the point of seeming ‘idiotic.” One should make a certain effort to overcome this aversion. This feeling often becomes the topic for stand-up comedians.

Because of this, I lost all the interest

During one of my seminars in Riga in 2010, one participant (her name was Olga) told us that during her first steps in learning German, she saw a quote from Mark Twain statement: “Life is too short to learn German.” (He compared German words to rails because they are so extraordinarily long: “Some German words are so long that they have a perspective.” This quote turned out to be so shocking for Olga that she immediately lost any interest towards the German language. Even years later, Twain’s words still had so much power over Olga, it stuck like a pin in her head, and it prevented her from making progress quickly. During the session of self-regulation based on the method of psychocatalysis, Olga “removed’ this pin and absorbed the light of a much calmer and natural attitude towards this language. She realized its importance and its beauty despite the words of Mark Twain. Moreover, Mark Twain himself learnt German though he was always making jokes about it.

Recycling our first impression and setting ourselves free from some idle and harmful speculations is one of the stages of our work.

Tensions and complexes acquired in the early stages of learning

A bit of knowledge, but a lot of tension — this is a law of mental life. Our body has the following logic: “I don’t know what to do, but I hope that this energy outbreak will do the trick.” It is purely a reflex reaction. However, this energetic outburst will hardly compensate for the lack of experience! As a result, the student is sweating for no apparent reason. The only result it leads to is wasting energy, tiredness, and burnout. By the end of the class or some episode of interaction in a foreign language, beginners often say that they feel exhausted absolutely. Only the toughest can survive this challenge, and the majority tries to do everything they can to avoid the repetition of such unpleasant experience.

Even the subsequent increase of linguistic competence and constant practice do not set you totally free from this ‘primordial’ tension. This tendency occurs not only when learning a foreign language, but in any other sphere where one is supposed to improve their skills, like in sports.

Setting oneself free from the old blocks, calls for a specific effort. The case I am going to adduce further might play the role of the introduction to the following practice.

A young tennis player

Jane is a wonderful young tennis player. She is ten years old, and she has been playing tennis for five years. During the training, she shows a great game, but something happens to her during competitions. She gets upset because of mistakes and easily gives up in a peak situation.

I asked her if she had the information on how to win in tennis and where this knowledge was in her body.

“It looks like some light in my head,” answers Jane

“Where is the sensation that blocks your skills during the competition?”

“It’s in my chest. It’s stone the size of a fist.”

What can this “stone’ be? Most likely, this is fear, which appeared when Jane was only learning to play.

Anyway, she was now an experienced player!

Jane eagerly agreed, that the knowledge she had accumulated over these years of training, should be given more space so that it could spread over her body, and she had to let that “stone’ melt. She observed these two processes. Her knowledge spread, and the stone turned into streams of warmth that filled the body too: first, her hands, and then the rest of the body. A spot left by the stone quickly disappeared as well.

Then I asked her: “Could it be that there was some moment during the training when you got scared and felt lost?”

“Yes, there was such an episode.

“Where are the sensations connected with this experience?”