Plan systematic interruptions to learn a foreign language

How often have you complained of being interrupted while you were learning something? While learning a foreign language, for example.

Typically, we perceive interruptions as working against us.

What if we could turn it around and transform interruptions into our most potent tool for learning a foreign language?

I will give you three practical ideas how to systematically plan for productive interruptions.

Let us first look at what the problems with interruptions are.

The popular and scientific wisdom goes like this. You are engaged in a meaningful activity. After an interruption (like answering a phone call or text message), you may need up to 30 minutes to return to your full level of productivity.

Why? Because part of your (limited) mental energy is directed towards processing the interruption. Especially if it was negative information.

Only imagine: You just checked the news for few seconds and you saw your most hated politician, political party or even country do or say something which upsets you. My bet is: Your brain will process this information in some way or other during the entire day. You will have flashbacks and small outbursts of anger or anxiety.

The first insight is: If we plan interruptions that make us engage with the foreign language we are currently learning, our brain will continue processing this information at some level.

If you systematically for, say, 20 interruptions in that foreign language, even if they last only for few seconds, your brain will be busy for hours processing the information.

What can you do?

1.    Analyze your typical daily interruptions. What kind of interruptions do you encounter? Phone call, text messages, social media feeds, news, people physically entering your space.

2.    Make a statistic of how often you are interrupted in each category.

3.    Think about which interruptions you could “engineer” systematically in a foreign language.

Practical ideas:

1.    Create new social media accounts (for example on Youtube) and subscribe only to other people or channels that produce content in your foreign language. Imagine it is Spanish. At the same time, use feed blockers for the social media accounts in your native language. If you check your feed habitually, you will be forced to process content in Spanish. And also if it is only the headlines or titles!

2.    Imagine you forgot your native language: Turn on an automatic translation tool and read all your normal professional and private messages in Spanish.

3.    Send yourself emails or text messages in Spanish. Imagine you want to learn every week 50 new words. Have Chat GPT generate 100 sentences with those words. Use free software to send yourself emails, or do this from your regular account, and schedule 5 random emails a day containing a chunk of those 100 sentences.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Start today and let interruptions work for you.

--

Want to get rid of insecurity and bad feelings regarding the foreign language(s) you have already started to learn? Want to learn a new language, without going through various levels of standard courses? You feel you are making no progress?

Go to Amazon and grab a copy of my classic book ”The GO Method – breaking barriers to language learning”.

https://www.amazon.com/GO-Method-Breaking-barriers-language/dp/1973118688/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZLMGYKR6PDY3&keywords=Gerhard+Ohrband&qid=1694099394&sprefix=gerhard+ohrband+%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-1

Get the first two chapters for free by subscribing to Gerhard's weekly newsletter, with advice and resources on selling in foreign languages. Just click here.

--

Do you feel a bit insecure when doing business internationally, maybe even in a foreign language?

Profit from new strategies, insights and techniques that will make you use foreign languages more successfully in international business communication.

Get rid of fear of mistakes and blocks during trade shows, presentation and sales calls.

Gerhard Ohrband is a communication consultant, psychologist and author of 9 books from Hamburg/Germany. He speaks 11 languages fluently and assists individuals and companies in doing business in foreign languages.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Egotistic vs. altruistic speaking in foreign languages

What is an egotistic speaker in foreign languages? An egotistic speaker does care only about one thing. How does he or she look like while speaking in a foreign language? Very often, if we are frightened of speaking in front of other people, if might very well be that we are unconcerned about the other people, about the valuable information we can to give to them. We are more concerned with their potential criticism of us. This mentality or mindset might lead to different strategies in different people, also depending on their language skills. If they are beginners, they tend to focus on memorizing catchy phrases and entire dialogues. Or they are excessively concerned with having the perfect pronunciation. They demonstratively show off the great BBC accent they have. If they are advanced speakers, they bombard you with a never-ending stream of words. If you are a native speaker, they want you to tell them how great they learned your language. They ask less questions and the...
Read more

Should I practice only after I feel sure about my language skills?

How our schooling fosters bad communication behavior The question whether I should practice only after feeling sure about my language skills reflects the effect of having been at school for years. And at school, we have also learned many unhealthy and unproductive attitudes and communication patterns. Let me explain. In most school systems, your main goal is to get good grades. And, even in so-called reformed schools, you are still expecting a positive evaluation from your teacher – if not in grades, then in favorable words. During basically all classes, except physical education, your grades depend, to a considerable extent, on how you communicate with your teacher. You need to impress the teacher with a flawless, quick and intellectual manner of speaking. This happens also when you are speaking with other students in class; you are still thinking about what the teacher is thinking about your role in the group discussion. The logical consequence is that before opening your mouth you a...
Read more

How to stop wasting time while learning a foreign language

Almost everybody complains of not having enough time to learn a foreign language “properly”. This has the following effects on many: ·         They stop learning altogether, or postpone it for the indefinite future, for the moment “when I will have enough time”. This moment almost certainly never comes. This is an example of “black and white” thinking. I either learn a language “properly”, with lots of time at my disposal, or it is not worth trying at all. ·         They get very busy in certain periods during the year. They enroll for intensive courses. For some weeks, they try to keep up a learning routine of several hours a day. After that, for a long time, they do almost nothing. ·         They self-sabotage themselves by programming themselves with self-fulfilling prophecies: “Due to the fact that I am not investing enough time, it is impossible that I will ever get good r...
Read more