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Motivation, repetition and can-do attitude

We could start and end the discussion about the necessary aspects of progress by saying that without the three above mentioned you will not get much better at anything, language learning being no exception. We want to go deeper than that and explain a little what might stand behind your success or failure in mastering other than your mother tongue.

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Knowledge of a foreign language is supposedly something which broadens your cultural and social perspectives. Moreover, all of us probably experienced a moment when we heard a talk or read a piece of text not in our mother tongue. At that moment we needed to understand and we decided enough is enough and started to learn. We searched for the perfect way to grasp the basics and even spent some money on a language course, but some of us never succeeded and must have started again and again. So how should we learn a foreign language?

You are more than welcome to use our OLS platform and start your learning journey here.

To learn a foreign language is not easy for most of us and we may need to follow proven patterns or experimental modern methods to get there. As any experienced language enthusiast confirms, it will not work without several things in any case.

1.     Motivation - one of the most important aspects of success is motivation. We need to have a reason why we sacrifice our time and resources. It could be moving to another country, taking part in the Erasmus+ programme, studying abroad on your own, searching for friends in different country. All that counts and helps us to push forward.

2.     Plan - as with any other project which you take up, your learning journey should have a plan. It
can be as simple as a promise to oneself that you will learn certain amount of words by a specific point in time. It can be several milestones that you cross on your way to become a speaker on a level you desire. Yes, set objectives and follow up on them. It does not matter much if you put your plan in writing or have one just in your head, but it is recommended to have one.

3.     Repetition - it is not stressed enough that repetition makes masters. Without your own effort and regular exercise of the newly acquired knowledge, your brain will simply disregard it after a while if you do not remind it again and again.

4.     Can-do attitude - we should all understand that everyone has a different predispositions to
      learn something new, but one thing is true, you already learnt one language, your mother tongue. So we need to bear this in mind when learning a new language. We can do it. Simply think of all the obstacles you needed to get over in your first language and then apply this to learning a new one. It is definitely not easy, but take small steps and hold on.

5.     Last but not least, we should try to have fun when learning anything at all. It is very important to find a way which suits us and which we enjoy. There is no point of trying something hard without putting a little enjoyment in the process.

For some it is easier, for some it is hard, but remembering all the things we said above, we should be able to learn something new. We would like to help you on this journey so please use our free resources and see our forum on learning Czech or other languages.