How to Unleash Your Mind Power 5 Ways to Learn Any Language with a Growth Mindset

How to Unleash Your Mind Power 5 Ways to Learn Any Language with a Growth Mindset You can learn any language.There, I said it.How can I make such a bold claim, without knowing you personally?Because I know you have thoughts.And by using  your thoughts to  develop a growth mindset, you can absolutely  learn a foreign  language.Yes, even  if youve never learned a language before  or if you think your  memory isnt the sharpest.And for those of you who have been learning languages steadily for some time now, if this is the first youve heard of a growth mindset, prepare to be amazed.Ive taken the five main elements of a growth mindset and applied them to language learning, sharing  specific actions you can take today for incredible results. Are you ready to redesign  your mind? What Is a Growth Mindset?You might not have seen the name  Carol Dweck before now, but this world-renowned Stanford University psychology professor is  a bit of a celebrity  in the field of motivation. She has spent decades studying  why people succeed, and that research  is  what led to her r evolutionary discovery of mindsetsâ€"which  well be using to succeed in learning a language.In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,  Dweck explains that there are two contrasting mindsets people may have: fixed and growth. While this isnt a black-and-white situationâ€"you probably fall somewhere on a scale between the two, depending on the situationâ€"were going to look at them individually to better understand each.People with a fixed mindset are concerned with judgement, afraid of failure and cannot self-correct. They generally stick to what theyre good at so that others will view them as successful, and they think intelligence is somewhat fixed.People with a growth mindset see value in improving and learning, love challenges, self-correct and believe in effort. Theyre not afraid to make mistakes while trying something new, as they know thats simply whats necessary when you learn by doing. They agree you can significantly change how intelligent you are, at any point in time.Not only will a growth mindset help you learn new skills and overcome setbacks in any area of your life, but its also the key to learning a foreign language, as youll see in the five tips below.How to Unleash Your Mind Power: 5 Ways to Learn Any Language with a Growth Mindset1. Change Your Inner DialogueDepending on where you currently fall on the fixed/growth mindset scale, acquiring a growth mindset can be a big change, and will require development. Youll literally need to change the way you think, and I have some action items below which will help you do this.But bear with me here, because this step is vital  to learning a foreign language. Dweck writes in her book:The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.Its equally true that  the view  you adopt for  yourself profoundly affects how well you learn a language. So, how should you  think of yourself  with a growth mindset? First, no more I cant ~ or Im so bad at ~ statements. While it is i mportant to be able to identify your weaknesses (as well see in #5), the language you use to  pinpoint these matters.Then, we need to eliminate fear of failure, and furthermore, the idea of failure altogether. Especially in todays society with pristine profiles, photos, websites and online portfolios plastered all over the Internet, many of us have this false idea that anything less than perfect is failure.What you usually dont see online is the behind the scenesâ€"the grit, effort (and mistakes!) it took to get there. Being imperfect is not failure; its perfectly natural. And when you begin learning a new language, theres a ton you wont know. Thats because youve just started learning!When theres a lot you dont know, youre going to make mistakes, youre going to feel unsure and youre going to have questions. This is how you acquire new knowledge and abilities.People with a growth mindset understand to their core that qualities can be cultivated; youre not born with it. By putting in continual effort and following the four tips to come, you can learn a foreign language. Take your focus away from success/failure, and place it on the learning.Heres an example of how you might change your thoughts:Fixed mindset: Im so bad at Chinese; people never understand me and I can never remember the words for what I want to say!Growth mindset: Today people had some trouble understanding me, so Im going to work on my pronunciation with my language partner. It may be hard for me to remember words right now, but I will study with FluentU to improve over time.I highly recommend reading Mindset to help you develop this type of thinking, but here are three actions you can do which will also set you on the growth mindset path.Actions to change your inner thoughts:Create inspirational quotes: Find some relevant quotes in English (such as any of  these, these or these) and translate them into your target language. If youre not a beginner, go ahead and search for the quotes directly in your target language, skipping the translation process. Write them out by  hand on notecards and post them up in your room. Put one on the bathroom mirror and read it aloud every morning and night, and bring a few more quotes (or copies) to work. Change your phone and computer backgrounds to one of these quotes. Read it again and again, and youll actually begin to change your thinking.Identify worry/fears: To help overcome any fears of failure or leaving your comfort zone (#2), I recommend using Dale Carnegies method to overcome worry from his lovely book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. For any  situation that makes you uneasy, ask yourself, Whats the worst that could possibly happen? Mentally picture the worst that might happen,  and write it down. Then, accept the worst (pretend thats what has happened), and try to improve on it.Stop comparing: You can gain awesome motivation and tips from polyglot stars, but dont let yourself into the comparing trap (i.e., Ill never be li ke him, But she went to an immersion high school!, etc.) Be on the lookout for comparingâ€"especially when browsing social media or interacting with fellow language learners in your class or at language exchanges. You need to catch yourself in the act, and then change your internal dialogue. The next time you come across someone with a higher skill level in your target language, rather than compare, ask them for advice! Remember, they were once at your exact level.2. Push Outside of Your Comfort ZoneAnother big characteristic of people with a growth mindset is that they push beyond their comfort zone. Pushing beyond this zone will feel, well, uncomfortable!â€"but its necessary to gain new skills, like  speaking a foreign language.If you want something to become easy and familiar, you have to do it over and over; you cant avoid it. Our natural hesitancy, however, is to stick to the comfortable. To remind me to watch out for this tendency, I have a quote up in my room that says:Choose growth over comfort.Any time Im hesitant to make a phone call in French, for example, those four words remind me that being uncomfortable or nervous for the duration of a quick phone call will only help me become more at ease in the long run. The more I do it, the less of a big deal it will seem.If youre just starting out learning a language, youll soon become comfortable with the present tense, or some  basic words when speaking and writing. Its a lot easier to say I went than to learn and use a more accurate description such as I fled, I drove, I set off, I moseyed on over, etc. Our third action item below will help you get past this very language comfort.Another phrase to remember is Start before youre ready.So many people unfortunately take away their own opportunities to learn by thinking they arent ready. Im not good enough for a conversation partner, I couldnt understand a movie or I cant order from an all-Chinese menu are all thoughts that will prevent you from improving.Ag ain, its doing the actions that will make you ready, or rather, allow you to progress. The sooner you jump in and leave your comfort zone, the sooner that zone will expand to where youve gone.Dont forget that you can also push outside of your comfort zone when it comes to learning  methods. Maybe youve been sticking to homework assigned in your language class, or to one favorite language learning app, for example. Expand your learning tools and give some new methods a try.Actions to push your comfort zone:Go to a language exchange:  Go to a language exchange or have a video call with a native speaker before youre ready. If youve never done this before, now is the time. If youre nervous, know that all of the other language learners were once in your exact shoes; they had to start somewhere. Prepare a quick intro and a few questions ahead of time, so that you have somewhere to start. Remind yourself throughout that its all a learning experience.Make calls on G+:  Every two weeks, load up $5  on Google Hangouts,  call a business/hotel/restaurant/university somewhere in the world where your target language is spoken and ask them some basic questions. Even if its your first month of language learning, you can do this!  The distance and triviality of the call should make you much calmer and relaxed.  Make several calls during a single session, and feel free to  choose a target topic/phrases each week to focus  the calls.Eliminate five:  Choose five foreign words that you use most frequently (i.e., good, bad, go, etc.). For the next week, youre not allowed to say or write these words. Instead, look up synonyms before the week begins, and carry them around with you. You could do a week of adjectives, another week of five verbs, etc. If you arent using your target  language that frequently, feel free to extend the ban to several weeks or a monthâ€"though we recommend increasing your frequency too!Block  sites: Use a free site blocker (like this Chrome extension) to blo ck your regular news site and delete any news apps you might have in your native language from your devices. Replace it with a news site in your target language by adding it to your browsers favorites bar and downloading any apps. For the next three weeks, every time you want to check the news, use the site in your target language.Have a weekly hour of attack: Keep a running list of the hardest/scariest/most confusing topics for you right now. If you were an  English learner, for example, topics might include if clauses,  who vs. whom, take vs. bring or  how to ask questions.  Spend one hour each week investigating these topics in-depth. (Feel free to break this into two half-hour sessions, by the way.) Start with the first topic  on your list  and look up various explanations of the concept (blog posts, websites, workbooks, etc.). Ask a tutor or teacher for help if its still unclear after referencing a variety of sources.Then, look for usage examples in various media (podcasts, sho ws, FluentU clips, magazines, etc.). Finally, bring together all youve learned into an ultimate resource on the topic. I make a rough draft on printing paper as I collect information, and then neatly write the final page of notes in a notebook used just for this purpose. You might end up spending several weeks (aka several hours) on a single concept. The goal is to know the topic so well that you could teach someone else, and your final page of notes will be a great tool for reference and review.While Ive personally only used this technique with tricky grammatical topics (after all, those are often the scary topics we want to avoid), you can certainly adapt it for  themes  as well. You might explore  broad themes like  home and  weather, or more specific topics like a current event, ordering food at a restaurant or writing an email.3. Pursue Your CuriositiesPeople with a growth mindset plunge in wholeheartedly, because they have a genuine desire to know more. Perhaps the language it self is a huge curiosity for you, but more likely you can pair another interest with your target language to authentically get pulled in.Julia Childs account of learning to cook French cuisine in her delightful book My Life in France is absolutely  fascinating. At the age of 37, upon moving overseas to Paris for her husbands job, she became so curious about and interested in French cuisine that it ended up shaping the rest of her life.It was speaking with the vendors at the local markets and with chefs at restaurants that helped her French to progress. She wanted to know more about the foods and their preparation, so she needed the language to find answers. Here are two  quotes from the book that show just how strong Julias passion was for French cuisine:One of the things I loved about French cooking was the way that basic themes could be made in a seemingly infinite number of variations I wanted to try them all, and I did. I learned how to do things professionally, like how to fix properly a piece of fish in thirteen different ways, or how to use the specialized vocabulary of the kitchenâ€"petits dés are vegetables diced quite finely; a  douille  is the tin nozzle of a pastry pan that lets you squeeze a cake decoration as the icing blurps out.When I wasnt at school, I was experimenting at home, and became a bit of a Mad Scientist. I did hours of research on mayonnaise, for instance, and although no one else seemed to care about it, I thought it was utterly fascinating.Julia admits  that she made so much mayonnaise during that phase of experimentation  that she and her husband could hardly stand to eat it anymore, so she actually started dumping batches down the toilet! What a shame, writes Julia, But in this way I had finally discovered a foolproof recipe, which was glory!  Clearly Julia was propelled forward by the desire to know more about French cuisine.Some interests may align strongly with a languages culture, but definitely dont limit yourself to cooki ng in French, dancing tango  in Spanish or doing taekwondo in Korean, for example.Actions to pursue your curiosities:Use Google or Wikipedia to look up curiosities: Often, when I have a small curiosity to learn about something, Ill do a quick search on Google or Wikipedia to learn a bit about it. Im assuming you probably do the same. So for one week each month, do every single Google and Wikipedia search in your target language. For that week, you could change your Google location to a country where your target language is spoken (heres how to do that). Or, you can change your home page to the Google domain of a country that speaks your target language (e.g., www.google.co.jp is Japans Google domain).  Heres a list of Google domains. On Wikipedia, the language settings are on the left-side panel.Start a passion project: Start a focused project exploring something youre excited about. This is something youd do in your free time purely out of interest and pleasure. Today, the term pas sion project is often equated with a small side business, but generating income is not what were aiming to do here. For a quick non-language-related example, Sarah Coyne  loves national parks, sending snail mail and painting, so she began a personal project called Post for the Parksâ€"which uniquely combines all three interests.Here are some  ideas for your project: writing a childrens book in your target language, interviewing immigrants (or natives of another countryâ€"dont forget you can do Skype interviews too!) about a topic of your choice, making a calendar in your target language tracking an event (political, historical, current, science, etc.) or composing a song with lyrics in your  target language. For more ideas, consider tweaking one of these school project ideas to involve  your target language and interests.4. Take On Challenges That Will Stretch YouA  fourth quality of people with a growth mindset is that they wont shy away from a hearty challenge. In this instance, I m using the word challenge to signify an undertaking that should be quite difficultâ€"think 48 Hour Film Project,  Tough Mudder  or The Big Moment  (Anyone else remember that 90s TV show?).So ideally there should be a hard deadline, a shorter timeline (from two days to three months), and it should feel like a sprint. Its not something you could do all the time, such as Study 10 minutes every day this month. Rather, this is on top of your regular language practice time.Make sure your challenge lines up with your learning objectives. For example, if youre learning German in order to read  original works of German philosophers, a speaking challenge clearly wont be the best way for you to  get there.Once youve chosen your challenge and start date, begin telling  all of your friends and family about it. This will help hold you accountable. You might even find someone who wants to do the challenge with you, which would be excellent for accountability! Share your progress throughout the ch allenge so you dont lose steam.Like the passion project, your challenges could take on many shapes and sizes (and should be interesting to you), but here are a few ideas to get you started.Possible  challenges to take on:1000 Words Challenge:  If youre a total beginner, try the 1000 Words Challenge, created by  Vocab Express in association with  Oxford University Press. You get a free account with a simple registration (email, username, password), which lasts the duration of the 1000 Words campaign. The current languages offered in this particular platform are French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese and Arabic. Vocab Express has organized the 1000 words by category, and it  teaches you the vocab through various learn modes and tracks how much youve learned. Youll have to give yourself your own deadline, though. How about three months?Add1Challenge:  The Add1Challenge  was designed specifically for language learners. The goal is to hold a 15-minute conversation with a native speaker in 90 daysâ€"even if youre starting  from zero. The challenge is for serious participants only, as you must pay 97 USD to join the community. Whats more, if you dont submit a required video by the deadline, for example, youll be removed from the Facebook groupâ€"no refund. But if youre all in, the support from the community and structure of this challenge can produce incredible results.Ignite presentation:  Igniteâ€"whose tagline is Enlighten us, but make it quickâ€"is a type of presentation where you have 20 slides, which automatically change every 15 seconds. That means you have 5 minutes to give the presentation. For a language challenge,  prepare and give an Ignite presentation in your  target language about something important to you. Due to the automatic advancement of the slides,  youll have to  practice to get your timing rightâ€"so those repetitions will be great for getting comfortable in  your target language. Choose a specific deadline thats honest ly challenging for you. Olivia Mitchell, who prepared her first Ignite presentation  in 3 hours,  shares her tips for speedy preparation here.5. Examine Yourself and Self-correctThe final major  quality of people with a growth mindset is that they regularly examine themselves and confront the truthâ€"good or badâ€"to self-correct.  If you dont know whats not working, how can you fix it?We said earlier that you should  eliminate negative language from your internal dialogue (i.e., I cant ~), but positive, talent-based praise is also a slippery slope. If you  repeatedly tell yourself Im so good at vocabulary, a fixed mindset would  want to prove that statement true, which makes it hard to admit when something needs attention. (A better praise, by the way, would be one that praises effortâ€"not abilityâ€"such as,  Im working so hard to learn this  vocabulary. Gold star for me!)Since people with a growth mindset know its effort that produces results, and arent afraid to be seen as faili ng,  they more accurately assess their progress, strengths and weaknesses. Regularly assessing your language-learning progress from day one will allow you to spend your study time more efficiently, working on what actually needs the most attention. This, in turn, will drastically speed you closer to your goals.Keep in mind that youll want to measure both your language skills and  your language-learning methods. Maybe youve been listening to podcasts for Japanese learners every day  on your way to work, but youre often distracted by the traffic and havent held on to a single phrase that was taught. Taking the time to stop and reflect on your methods will allow you to realize something needs to changeâ€"perhaps you should  listen to Japanese music on the way to work instead, and listen to the podcast in the evening with a transcript in front of you, for example.Actions to examine yourself and self-correct:Set specific goals: In order to examine your progress, the first step is to know where youre headed. Sit down for 15 minutes and write down your language goals.  Use this guide to set effective language-learning goals, and you can download a  free goal planning sheet here  made specifically for language learners by  Lindsay Does Languages. The worksheet is great because in addition to your goals, it has you pinpoint exactly how youll measure your progress. You might end up inventing  some sorts of  tests  so  that you can track hard numbers/documentation, to see change over time. (I record a video of myself speaking unscripted in French for about 5 minutes each month as one of my ways to measure progress, for example.)Have monthly check-ins:  Check in at least monthly. Block off 15 minutes at the end of each month by writing it in your planner or scheduling it on a calendar app. A good time to do this scheduling is right once youve finished your goal setting; go ahead and pencil them  in for the next 6 to 12 months. When you sit down, look at what youve tracked over the previous month. Ask yourself basic questions: What went well? What didnt go well?  Are my methods  effective?  Celebrate your progress  and make a plan of attack that adjusts your methods and hones in  on your weakest skills.  Keep a color calendar:  Last spring, I used four different colored highlighters to track how much time I was spending on the  four skillsâ€"speaking, reading, writing and listeningâ€"in my paper planner. When I went to a language exchange, I colored in that time slot with the color for speaking. When I watched a movie in French, I colored in listening. At the end of each week I would  look back and easily see how  I had  spent my time, and plan for the next week accordingly. I tracked all four skills because I wanted to learn all four, and I used paper because I prefer it, but you might want to track something else or use a slightly different system. Note that time doesnt necessarily equal progress in that skill, but this is  a nice basic way to get you started  self-examining.Ask for feedback:  Tell  your private tutor/classroom teacher/language exchange partner that youd like to know the top three areas where you need the most work. Give them some notice so that your teacher/tutor/partner can pay attention during the next couple of class periods/sessions to give you accurate feedback. This  will help you fix mistakes much quicker because theyll be clearly identified for you!By developing these five qualities of a growth mindset, you can nurture thoughts that will not only help you learn any languageâ€"but change your entire life.Rebecca Thering is a writer, editor and English teacher who has lived abroad in Spain, South Korea and France. Valuing education and things that aren’t things, she inspires and helps others by blogging  about her experiences abroad, cultural insights and self-improvement pursuits at Rebe With a Clause.