6 tips to Manage Stress when learning a New Language

How to control the stress or anxiety generated by learning languages? This type of discomfort is so common that a term has even appeared in English to refer to it: foreign language anxiety.

In an increasingly globalized world and with a highly digitized economy, learning new languages ​​has become one of the key aspects of professional and personal development. That is why, although some see this activity as a hobby with which to fill a good part of their free time, in the In most cases there is a series of pressures that generate the need to learn English, German, French, Mandarin, etc.

This doesn't have to be bad; The society in which we live will always be exposing us to challenges and situations that require us to work for months or even years, even if they barely bring us advantages in the hard stage. initial project of this kind of project (anyone will notice that having spent 15 hours studying English is barely enough to exchange a couple of words in everyday conversations in another country).

Now, not everything is a matter of having a good memory to "accumulate" vocabulary or having an innate talent for the pronunciation of exotic words; Knowing how to manage the stress of learning a new language is essential to progress efficiently and not give up without having even reached an intermediate conversational level. In this article you will find several tips to achieve it.

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How to manage stress when learning a new language?

When studying languages ​​that are relatively different from Spanish, such as Korean, Russian or Japanese, it can happen that you feel overwhelmed by the feeling of not understanding anything and barely making progress from one day to the next, even if you have started a learning plan intensive. This is one of the most frustrating experiences faced by a large part of those who need to at least understand a new language and have set a date limit to reach a certain level of fluency, but it can appear even in those who have simply set out to learn vocabulary without any hurry.

These situations, if they are not managed properly, cause us as students to internalize self-sabotage dynamics. that limit our progress and can even make us, after several months of effort, throw in the towel, interrupting language studies and forgetting what they have learned in a short time due to not continuing to "reinforce" it through practice.

Therefore, it is very important that you put these tips into practice to manage stress when learning a new language.

1. Make sure your syllabus is adapted to your level

When learning languages, it is important to know where to start; Trying to "solve" the puzzle of a language that we do not master without detecting its fundamental parts to get started is like running into a wall. That's why, The best thing is that you first test your level to find out what type of lessons correspond to you.

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2. Avoid looking at the index over and over again

There are people who, when proposing to learn a language in a certain amount of time, tend to review over and over again the index of the syllabus that remains to be studied. This, far from being an action that helps to make informed decisions about how to manage the available study time, is actually a pattern of problematic behavior linked to checking what is feared, something that in practice only contributes to keeping the level of fear very high. stress.

It is clear that To set a learning goal, it is necessary to make an initial estimate of everything that needs to be studied and how many study sessions can it be divided into; However, once this initial phase has passed, it is not necessary to look again at the global level of everything that we have not yet studied. What you have to do is pay attention to completing the study times as planned, that is, focus on the lesson at hand. that we are dedicating our efforts to it in the present and not letting time pass without finishing it as we had proposed. If you fall into the trap of constantly looking at the long list of chapters, textbook units, or lessons you haven't yet addressed, what you'll actually be doing is trying to calm yourself down (checking if it's shorter than you remembered) without to get it.

3. Do not do intensive study sessions

If you notice that learning languages ​​tends to cause you anxiety problems, it is best to make it easy for yourself and not subject yourself to very long study sessions. The best way to maintain emotional balance and consolidate in your memory what you are learning is keep study sessions short and very frequent, instead of few and very long. For example, the ideal is that you can dedicate between a quarter of an hour and 45 minutes each day, except for one or two days off a week. This learning strategy also combines very well with one of the most effective memorization techniques: spaced repetition.

4. Focus on practice, not on passing an exam

In the case that you are studying a language through a formal education program, such as a school subject or a language academy, it may be that you have an extra element that causes you anxiety: the need to take an exam and pass a grade minimal.

However, although it may seem counterintuitive, the best way to prevent stress from overflowing is to forget that you are going to do a job. exam and instead focus your attention on practicing from the syllabi you have been given, or even going a little further there. Because? Because if you obsess over passing, you are actually dividing your efforts by tackling two missions at once: learning a new language, on the one hand, and deciphering the logic that will follow the test you are going to go through, on the other.

Instead of worrying about detecting norms and generalities in the formulation of questions and exercises in your textbook, you should spot them in the language you are trying learn; In this way you will feel much more confident and you will have more flexibility when practicing what you are going to do. studying using it in your day to day to describe the actions you are doing, to hold imaginary conversations in english etc

5. Sleep well

Sleeping enough hours is essential both to memorize well and to have the ability to concentrate and pay attention to what you are trying to learn. Something as simple as sleeping five hours instead of seven will have a very significant impact on how you perform the next day., even if it is difficult for you to notice it beyond the feeling of tiredness and discomfort. Actually, you will be much less efficient when studying, and the feeling that everything "is falling apart" will increase, causing your stress levels to skyrocket.

6. Make your experience fun

As far as possible, it is important that you gamify the experience of learning a new language, and not see it simply as an obligation (imposed by society or by yourself). To do this, create a simple system of self-rewards and incentives in the short, medium and long term. In this way, you will be better able to channel your energy towards the desire to learn, and not towards the fear of not being up to the task.