NB - If learning multiple languages or multiple arbitrary skills is not one of your interests or learning about learning is not one of your focus areas, feel free to skip this entire post. I'm only sending it to you because I like you and I feel that you deserve to have this post.
When I say wannabe polyglots I am specifically referring to people who enjoy language learning as a hobby this doesn't imply that they're proficient, have attained proficiency, or will ever attain proficiency. This is just about people who enjoy learning languages for the sake of learning them and that they tend to experience some common fears which, in my opinion, people generally experience when they are trying to tackle something new. This isn’t well researched or anything, just off the top of my head from some conversations I’ve seen occur frequently over the years -
Shiny language/method syndrome - ooh I really want this now but I’m in the middle of that - that is too difficult. Result - do neither particularly well.
What if Language X affects Language Y to the detriment of Y? I love both of them equally!
Well, is it really going to be affected?
If it is, how so? Will your accent change? Will you mix up vocabulary? Tackle them individually!
What’s wrong with accent changing or mixing up words?
I’m going to forget things - Forgetting is a beautiful art worth getting more skilled at. Forget and remember. Forget again. There is no harm in forgetting. In fact, spaced repetition is about strategic forgetting. Much like woo self help philosophy, if it is really important, it’ll come back.
(This was a fun Astral Codex Ten Post about it btw)
A lot of learning challenges arise purely from a general sense of anxiety or fear about either learning itself, previous experience learning new things or fear of the difficulty of the new thing. Overcoming this fear and anxiety or at least learning (hah) to manage these is a necessary but not sufficient condition to pick up a new skill. Depending on the skill, especially related to the body/movement/flexibility space it is absolutely critical. Speaking and remembering are both physical acts. If trauma lives in the body, so can other things. Relaxation is contingent on making the mind/body connection flow smoothly. So first, relax.
Relax about what the other person thinks, about what you expect from yourself. Start where you are. Do what you can!
I’m going to be turning on paid subscriptions. Apart from the obvious money aspect, I’m hoping to get better at writing as well as write more. I’m hoping some pressure will help. I also plan on writing more content over on productmanagement.substack.com (which is actually my day job) if that’s more your job. Or both! (one re-imbursed from your company and the other cuz you like me! ) Initially I will release all posts to all subscribers till I get better at it, figure out what people actually want.