Shooting From the Hip in Language Learning

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In many action or adventure movies, there is at least one scene where one character or the other unloads on his enemies – wide stance, shooting from the hip, bullets spraying in every direction, totally destroying anything that’s in his way. Then, just as he turns around and starts to walk away, he get taken down by the kid that was taking cover behind the car in the parking lot or some other obstacle.

Now, let’s apply this to language learning – bullets (of learning, of course) still fly every which way, but what about the guy in the corner that you completely missed? Or the gentleman who still has enough power to shoot back and stop you right in your tracks?

Do you want these barriers in your language learning?

Do you want to totally miss learning a grammar rule, or think you mastered your pronunciation only to find that you can’t be understood?

That’s exactly what will happen when you shoot from the hip in language learning. You’ll hit a little of everything, but not enough to truly make a difference. You’ll hit around your target, rather than aiming dead center and showing your target language who’s boss.

And you may just be stopped dead in your tracks by the one thing that you neglected to study.

Ready, Aim, and Fire!

To truly succeed in learning your target language, you need to have your goal in your sights and slowly, and methodically, press the trigger.

Having your goal in mind at all times, and working towards achieving that goal – preferably with the end in mind – is really the key to learning a language. If you work with the end in mind, chose tasks and mini-goals based off of that, and continue working towards your goal and completing the tasks you set for yourself, you will succeed.

So, what are you going to do?

Are you going to learn by shooting from the hip, or are you going to take the time to aim before firing?

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http://mariamcisse.com/ Mariam

Hey there,

Since I decided to improve my English (German is my first language) I think I need a plan on how to do this. So shooting from the hip is going to be canceled. I'm quite new to learning a language the right way, but got my head around speaking three more languages besides German of course.

I think I'll be around here more often now, because I need to master this issue in order to be confident in speaking and writing so I can take my blog to the next level.
http://www.babystepstofluency.com/ Fiona Verschoor

Good for you, Mariam. Let me know if I can help out in any way.
Hotsw4p

i started out typing this message by describing my woes and hard times i have had in trying to find my concrete goal for studying Japanese… but in doing so, may have uncovered a proper way to think about it.

You see, I started learning Japanese not with any specific goal in mind as to why, but more just as an exercise i thought would be fun and interesting and as an alternative to more wasteful amusements. In a nutshell, “because it is fun and i am interested in it”. The entire time i have been studying (almost a year now) i have taken it pretty seriously, enjoyed myself immensely, and have not regretted my choice.

Yet reading many long-time learner's blogs, i have frequently heard these cries of “you need a concrete goal”, and while i have always heeded the warning and understood the logic behind it, i struggled to find mine.

After reading your article, and thinking again on the subject, i realized that one way for me to connect with this idea of a “concrete goal” is to extend my current hobbies, convictions, and other personality-related things INTO the japanese culture, and just continue to basically try to “be myself” except in Japanese! For me, this means learning about skateboarding, programming, music, web development, art, personal development, and essentially all of the things that i “concern myself with” on a day-to-day basis as an English speaker.

I feel like this would be a good way to represent my idea of a “goal”, since i don't have anything more concrete to latch on to, like “becoming a japanese writer” or “breaking into japanese sportscasting”. Instead, i just project my personality into japanese, and work towards representing that personality more accurately and eloquently in the japanese language

in your experiences with language learning, do you feel like i am fooling myself by thinking this type of goal is concrete enough to allow me solid focus in my learning?

just thought i'd share my thoughts after reading your article. thanks for writing!
Anonymous

i started out typing this message by describing my woes and hard times i have had in trying to find my concrete goal for studying Japanese… but in doing so, may have uncovered a proper way to think about it.

You see, I started learning Japanese not with any specific goal in mind as to why, but more just as an exercise i thought would be fun and interesting and as an alternative to more wasteful amusements. In a nutshell, “because it is fun and i am interested in it”. The entire time i have been studying (almost a year now) i have taken it pretty seriously, enjoyed myself immensely, and have not regretted my choice.

Yet reading many long-time learner’s blogs, i have frequently heard these cries of “you need a concrete goal”, and while i have always heeded the warning and understood the logic behind it, i struggled to find mine.

After reading your article, and thinking again on the subject, i realized that one way for me to connect with this idea of a “concrete goal” is to extend my current hobbies, convictions, and other personality-related things INTO the japanese culture, and just continue to basically try to “be myself” except in Japanese! For me, this means learning about skateboarding, programming, music, web development, art, personal development, and essentially all of the things that i “concern myself with” on a day-to-day basis as an English speaker.

I feel like this would be a good way to represent my idea of a “goal”, since i don’t have anything more concrete to latch on to, like “becoming a japanese writer” or “breaking into japanese sportscasting”. Instead, i just project my personality into japanese, and work towards representing that personality more accurately and eloquently in the japanese language

in your experiences with language learning, do you feel like i am fooling myself by thinking this type of goal is concrete enough to allow me solid focus in my learning?

just thought i’d share my thoughts after reading your article. thanks for writing!