15 Truths Language Learning has Taught Me About Life

Language is the fabric of every culture.

You can learn about a culture without learning the language but you can’t experience and know a culture until you have assimilated its unique tones, nuanced meanings, and intriguing idioms deep with-in your mind.

Learning a new language is like waking slowly from a mid-day nap while others are conversing nearby. At first everything is mushy, your mind runs tiring circles searching for meaning in a slushy mess of syllables and sound.

Then it happens, out of the burble one word echoes clear, then a second and a third. Still it’s not enough to makes sense of the garbled jungle, you just want to go back to sleep.

Lethargy presses but just as the dull fog of slumber moves in you catch your first sentence.

You’re waking into a full conversation, one that’s been going on all the time you were sleeping.

That’s what the process of learning Russian has been like for me, only it takes longer to wake up, I’m still groggy at times!

It’s the process of waking into a new reality, to a world that’s existed all the time just beyond your conscience reach.

It’s a reality that you grow into.

It’s a reality that reshapes your monolithic worldview and fuses it with foreign feelings and adopted ideas.

Language learning is learning in its rawest form, it’s relearning how to think, after all, it is in language that we process ideas even in our own head.

It is a difficult and rewarding process, it is a process that has taught me much about life. So let me share with you what I’ve learned along the way.

15 Truths Language Learning Has Taught Me About Life

1. Those who do best are those who do.

Books and courses are helpful but ultimately we are designed to learn language by doing language. Listen, carefully to the conversations around you, engage as much as possible and you will progress far quicker than someone who is always waiting for the perfect moment.

Such is life, it’s those who actually get out there and put action behind their words who are far more likely to succeed in just about anything. I’ll take an ounce of action over a ton of intentions any day!

2. Never wait for perfection but always strive for it.

Often one of the biggest reasons people don’t engage in a new language is because they feel like they’re not quite ready. I’ve never really been ready for anything.

I probably wasn’t “ready” when I got married at 19.

We never felt “ready” to have kids.

Every time I get up to preach, especially in Russian, I feel like I’m not “ready.”

If I waited for perfection I’d still be home with my parents and not 6,000 miles away serving the Lord in a foreign country.

3. Communication goes way beyond the words we use.

Language is vital when it comes to communication and relationships, but it’s not everything. Some of the most important aspects of life are communicated on a level that supersedes language.

I’m talking about attitudes and sentiments like, kindness, gratefulness, comfort, and love.

These are often communicated through our actions and our general demeanor. Even when you don’t speak the language you can often pick up on these aspects as you interact with people.

4. Just being there is 90% of the game at times.

Unfortunately language learning doesn’t just happen by osmosis. That being said, there’s a lot that your mind is doing that you might not be aware of when you are simply spending time with other language speakers.

I’ve found a similar truth in much of life. If you show up you’re more likely to get something done. It’s those who make it a regular practice of showing up that tend to be more successful.

5. Never compare yourself to others.

Nothing can kill your attitude and your learning ability like comparing yourself with others. It happens all the time.

“Wow, that guy has been here just 6 months and listen to how well he can speak the language!”

 

6. Learn from your mistakes.

Mistakes must be made in language learning but they also must be noted and corrected. The only dangerous mistakes we make are those that we continually make without stopping for correction.

You will make mistakes in life and when you do you must stop, identify the problem and the solution and then correct it.

A mistake repeated embeds it’s self further into our lives and will be that much harder to remove.

 

7. Ask for help because you’ll need it.

It’s humbling to know that you speak like kindergartener or maybe worse! Just as you can’t learn a new language without the aid of others, so you can’t do life completely on your own.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

 

8. The courage to make mistakes separates the men from the boys.

Every time you open your mouth you’re risking making a mistake in front of others. It’s a risk you must take if you want to progress.

The courage to make those mistakes will allow you to take risk necessary for eventual success.

 

9. All of life is preparation.

When you live in a culture that speaks the language you’re learning then all life becomes a classroom. Riding a bus, going to the store, chatting with neighbors, these all prepare me to speak better.

So in life, we can either use all our experiences as preparation for what God is calling us or mindlessly go about life wondering why God doesn’t use us in a greater way.

 

10. When you stop stretching yourself you stop improving.

Usually it’s the first few months of language learning that will produce the greatest improvements. It’s at that time when you feel the most pressure to learn because you understand very little of what’s going on around you.

Once you get to a point where you understand 90% of everything your progress and can easily plateau. Why, because you’re no longer being stretched. It’s at that point you must seek to stretch yourself by intentionally exposing yourself to increasingly difficult things.

Life is the same, comfort does not produce growth. Your faith is unlikely to grow as long as you remain in the warm glow of all that is familiar and secure.

 

11. Be patient.

You’re not going to learn the language in a hurry. It will take a couple of months before you can have decent conversations, a couple of years before you can really feel comfortable and a lifetime to produce real fluency.

Patience will get you far in just about every sphere of life and it will produce lasting results.

 

12. Whenever you assume that you can’t, you’re right.

Those who say things like “I could never say that.” probably won’t ever say that.

Don’t assume that God can’t enable you to learn the language, don’t assume that His power is too small help you do something big for Him.

 

13. You never arrive.

You’re never going to know every word, you’re never going to perfectly be able to communicate all your thoughts and that’s ok, because once you think you’ve arrived you’ve just killed your chances for progress.

You’re not done, there’s more you can learn, you can go farther as long as you know that you haven’t yet arrived.

 

14. No one gets anything without putting in the work.

Some of the hardest work I’ve ever done was in my early days of languages learning, I’d come out of 3 hours of Russian class feeling like my brain just went 12 rounds with Russian verbs of motion.

All the hard work paid off!

So with life, if we want decent results we have to be willing to put the hard work in. We probably won’t see the results immediately but as long as you’re investing in the right thing you can be sure there will be a return.

 

15. Understanding and being understood is one of the greatest gifts.

The greatest lesson and gift language learning has given me is that of understanding and being understood. This is really another way of saying “relationships.”

Language is not only the fabric of culture, it is also the fiber of our relationships. The Russian languages has gifted me with many wonderful relationships. Those relationships have changed me in ways that I’m sure I do not yet know.

To learn a language and to speak it with someone you love engenders compassion and a heart level understanding like nothing else. It is a form of incarnational living. Hearing the world for the first time through someone else’s ears you gain a deeper sympathy and you strengthen the relational ties.

What did learning a language teach you?