Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here, and
today I'm going to talk to you about Atomic Habits and language learning. If you enjoy these
videos, please subscribe. Click on the bell for notifications,
and if you follow me on a podcast service, leave a comment. I do appreciate it. So Atomic Habits is a book
that I recently bought. I bought it for a variety of reasons. I bought one copy each
for my two grandsons. The girls got other books. Uh, I have a brother who is in,
uh, eastern Canada and he has been bedridden and he has to gradually
train himself to get outta bed and start using his muscles more. It's a long road, so I bought him
an audiobook version and I bought myself an audiobook version,
and I've been listening to it. And here's what I think is,
is very valuable in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. By the way, I will leave a link to a
summary of the book, which the author himself has put up on the internet. And there are also, if you Google, you'll
find lots of references to this book. In essence, what the author demonstrates
and illustrates is the fact that if you wanna achieve something, it's
not enough just to think in terms of the goal: I want to be rich or, uh,
you know, my brother might be saying, I want to be walking again soon, or
for language learning, I want to be fluent in such and such a language. What matters much more than your sort
of long-term goal, your ambition, what matters more is what you do every day. And he uses a number of examples
early in the book to illustrate how very small actions if repeated, have
tremendous effect over the long haul. Uh, he mentions, for example, that he
himself was in an accident where he was hit by a baseball bat in a game
and it damaged his eye, his nose, uh, maybe even his cognitive functions. And by dint of working at it very,
very persistently, over two years, he fully regained his ability to
play baseball and has done very well. Uh, he mentions an example of
the British uh, cycling team, which had never done well. And then they decided to apply
the principle of 1% improvement on all the things that they did from
diet, to training, to equipment to where they slept and, and, and
where they studied and you name it. And the net result was a significant 30
odd percent improvement, or at least, uh, they started winning championships
and the, the Tour de France and so forth. Uh, he also gives the example of an
airplane in which leaving, say the, uh, an airport on the east coast heading
towards the west coast of the United States, if it's even a few degrees
off its flight plan, by the time it reaches its destination, it'll be
hundreds of miles off its destination. So there's this tremendous
cumulative effect of small actions. What this means is, if you want
to get somewhere, it's not just about where you want to get it's,
it's what you are doing every day. To what extent are you taking
advantage of the time that you have? To what extent do you have habits
that are gonna help you move in the direction that you want to get to? And, um, you know, I've certainly felt
this when it comes to language learning. Uh, at LingQ for example, we don't measure
what you have achieved in the language because that's to some extent subjective. We measure your level of activity. If you get active, if you spend time
with the language, you will improve. If you are active and if you have
positive habits, you will work towards whatever goal you want to achieve. And the other thing, by the way,
about Atomic Habits is, uh, it's sort of a new year's resolution time. So a lot of people would like to, uh, you
know, get more fit or learn a language or, uh, you know, uh, improve their
eating habits or whatever it might be. So it's very timely to, to have
a book that gives you some ideas on how to develop better habits. So, and he talks about then focusing on
your habits, actions, repeated actions that you can do, but regularly that
will improve you more than some very ambitious goal or nebulous motivation. And he has this sort of pattern
when it comes to habits. He says to develop a new habit,
and I'm going from memory, I may not remember it all, but you need
to have something that triggers, triggers the desire to do something. So the trigger, uh, and then
that's followed up by the craving. So maybe you suddenly feel your stomach
and there's a kind of a, a roll of fat there, the result of eating too much
food over Christmas, that's a trigger. You then have a craving. I want to go and work out. Uh, then that whatever has... you have, you are now craving to do
it has to be sort of easy for you. It has to be something
you can actually do. So you can actually go to the gym. Uh, and then there has to be a sense
of satisfaction once you've done it. Uh, each time you go to the gym, you feel
good about yourself, and that is in itself enough satisfaction to keep you going so
that you have this sort of cue or trigger followed by, uh, some kind of something
about it that's appealing or attractive. It's not enough to be triggered. You have to wanna do it. Uh, and then you have the response,
what do you actually do about it? And then you have the reward. If all of that falls into place, you
will gradually develop that as a habit. He says a number of things that are
very interesting in the book, and I really recommend getting the book. He also says, you know, start
off by doing something easy. He talks about a two minute activity. Uh, so again, uh, I have said
this before in one of my videos. Uh, you know, when you're going
through a new text, don't worry about all of the words that you can't
remember or, or don't understand, or that you don't understand all. Go through it once half understanding. Go through it again. Go through it again. As long as you have an activity
which is pleasant and where you have a sense of achievement, uh,
don't have to bite off too much. And sometimes if you'll just start in
any activity that will lead you to maybe something else or lead you to continue. But the important thing is to get started. He also talks in his book about this um,
I can't remember what term he used, but you can be engaged in these activities and
not see any results for the longest time, and then there is sort of a tipping point. There can come a tipping point where
all of a sudden the cumulative effect of these improvements or of these
actions or this habit is going to show it itself in terms of, you know, all of
a sudden pushing you towards your goal. I'm not sure that I agree
with that all the time. I think there's a, a
gradual cumulative effect. It's just that we don't
feel that improvement. Uh, and I've often said, you
know, when it comes to language learning, trust your brain. If you are putting in the time, if
you are listening, if you are reading even small amounts, that is gradually
improving you, the brain is getting a better handle on the language. I'm not sure that when it comes
to language learning, there's this sudden moment when we sort of
all of a sudden jump to fluency. I think it's a constant continuous
effort, but every little bit we do, and I think this is an important point
in the book, um, you know, if it's only five minutes, do five minutes. If it's 10 minutes, do the 10 minutes. Don't let a day go by without
doing something, because over time the cumulative effect of
small actions is very large. And that's another reason why at
LingQ we have these, uh, we have these LingQ, at least these uh,
streaks that you can maintain. So there's some motivation
having set a goal. He also talks about the importance
of measuring your activity. So if you set yourself a goal, I'm
gonna read so many words, or save so many words, or listen to so many hours. Then, and then we have the sort of
composite measure, which is the coins, and if you commit yourself to a certain level
of activity, then you'll wanna maintain that level of, of activity every day. And it's better to have a lower
level of activity and maintain that rather than sort of shooting
your bolt, uh, one day and then not doing anything for two, three days. Uh, again, it's, it's all about these,
you know, taking advantage of the time you have during the day, uh, to, um,
commit yourself to positive, uh, habit. That cumulative cumulatively
are going to, you know, impel you towards your, uh, objective. He talks about layers of ac... of, of habits, and in particular
he focuses on the importance of your identity habits. Uh, he uses the example of someone
who says they wanna quit smoking or wants to quit smoking, and someone
says to them, have another cigarette. One person says, I'm trying to quit. The other person says, I'm not a smoker. So that's a much more positive
habit to have in terms of your, uh, you know, identity of who you are. So if you're learning a language, you
don't say, I'm trying to learn a language. I am a language learner. I am a person who learns to speak other
languages to a high degree of proficiency. I am a language learner. To have that habit built around your
identity of, of who you are is going to make you more positive, more confident,
uh, and keep you on track, I think, uh, better than just saying, well, I'm
kind of trying to learn this language. Um, so there are, I'm just touching
on some of the points in the book. Um, I think it's a valuable book. Uh, I don't do it justice in,
in the sort of things that I'm able to remember about the book. Uh, but when we come to language
learning, we not only need to train ourselves in the habit of
doing a little something every day. Even it's a small, even if it's a small
amount, we need to train ourselves in the habit of, of recognizing that
every little bit we do, listening, reading, speaking, writing is
moving us towards our objective. Even if we're not conscious of the
fact that we are improving, we are. And the cumulative effect of small
actions is very large, both in terms of language and in terms of other things
in life as he explains in the book. So we need to develop those, uh,
learning habits, but we also need to train our brains in new language habits. And, uh, so we sort of, uh, as
language learners, we have sort of two aspects of, of habits that would
need, we need to develop our learning habits, our attitudinal habits, our
uh, self-identity as language, as language learners, those habits. But at the same time, we're helping our
brain develop new language habits so that patterns in the new language vocabulary,
in the new language structures, in the new language pronunciation, the
new, new language, all of which are different from our native language
or other languages that we speak. We need to train our
brain in these new habits. And just as with other, the cumulative
effect of small actions is very large, and we just have to believe that if we
persist, if we maintain our activity, the brain will develop the language
habits that are necessary in order to become comfortable in a new language. So there you have it, atomic habits
as applied to language learning. I have talked about habits before as
it applies to language learning, so I'll leave you with a couple of videos. Thank you for listening. Bye for now.
