Why Can’t I Learn English?
If you ask yourself the question “Why can’t I learn English?” often, this article is just perfect for you. Learning English is a long process and sometimes you feel like your skills are not improving at all. This is perfectly natural and it shouldn’t discourage you from continuing your learning adventure. It’s really worth it, we promise! Here are some things to keep in mind when you feel like you can’t learn English:
1. You’ve Reached an English Learning Plateau
In the beginning of your English learning journey, you progress very fast. You can see the effects of your hard work instantly and that keeps you motivated. One day, however, you realise that your English is good enough to understand and say a lot of things… but even though you keep learning, you can’t really see that you’re getting any better.
The good news is that your problem has a name: you’ve hit a learning plateau or the intermediate plateau. How to overcome it?
– keep learning new vocabulary and consciously use it during conversations
– be aware of your mistakes, write them down and try to avoid them next time. If you fail, repeat the process until you manage
– practise with native speakers and ask them to correct you
2. Make Learning English a Habit
Perhaps you focus so much on the fact that you “can’t learn English” that you forget to actually practise your skills. Learning a foreign language should become your everyday habit. If you’ve already planned to attend a General English course in summer, that’s great but it’s not enough. Even before you go, you should work on your skills daily.
Start off by relying on your native language less and less. Buy a monolingual dictionary and switch on the English subtitles when watching movies and British TV series to improve your pronunciation. In that manner you will create mini language-immersion experiences for yourself, without even leaving your country.
3. Why Is Learning English Important to You?
Learning a language is a rewarding but long journey. This is why, to keep yourself motivated, you have to remember why you’re doing it. Write down the reasons why speaking English is important to you and how language fluency will improve your life. Be as specific as you can and review the list every time you feel your motivation is dropping.
Work on your negative mental habits too. If you promised yourself to do 30 minutes of English 5 times a week but you’re feeling lazy, remind yourself that you’re accountable to yourself. Do you really want your dreams to come true? If you do, you have to work hard to achieve them.
4. Making Mistakes Is Part of the Process
It’s easy to say “I just can’t learn English” but much more difficult to deal with the discomfort of making mistakes. The only way to improve is by learning from your errors. Attending an Intensive English course in an English-speaking country is one of the best ways to force yourself to get comfortable with imperfection.
Remember that you’re doing a brave thing by trying to learn a language and reward yourself for small successes along the way. You can choose to treat yourself or just praise yourself mentally.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
The biggest problem with people’s fear to make mistakes is that it prevents them from looking for opportunities to practise the language in everyday situations.
You should start to speak the language as soon as you’ve started learning it. You can use singular words, if you don’t know how to make sentences yet. The longer you wait with practising, the more of an issue it becomes. If you’re a parent, consider sending your child to a language camp. Check out our post on how to choose an English language summer school for some tips.
If you’re the one who’s learning English, look for opportunities to speak the language. Join an English speaking forum, get a language partner or practise with a friend who’s also learning it. There are countless possibilities!
Next time when you’re tempted to tell yourself that you “can’t learn English” try to remember the points raised in this article. An even better solution is choosing a study abroad experience for yourself, where you will be forced to practise English 24/7. Such an immersive approach will definitely help you to level up your skills and teach you to believe in yourself.
Are you ready to choose your programme to learn English abroad? Explore the LAL website and decide what would work best for you.
