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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 57 of the Listening Time Podcast. I want to thank all of my Listening Time members, super members, and family members. Thank you for supporting this podcast and helping me do what I do. I'm

Remember that if you need help with your listening, if you're able to understand me pretty well in this podcast, but you can't understand native speakers when they're speaking at normal speed, then my membership is perfect for you. This membership will help you understand what

why certain sounds are difficult for you, why it's hard to understand native speakers when they speak at normal speed,

With this membership, you get my specialized listening training. So you get my seminars where you learn different sound patterns. You learn how to identify the correct sounds with those little words and those hard phrases that cause people a lot of trouble.

And of course, if you become a Listening Time family member, you receive my advanced podcast episodes. These advanced episodes are the perfect tool to help take your listening comprehension to the next level. They will help you understand native speakers because in each advanced episode, I speak at

normal speed. I speak fast, so you have the opportunity to train your ears, train your listening so that you can understand real English. Because of course, in this podcast, I speak a little bit slow and I speak more clearly than native speakers normally speak. I

So, of course, this isn't how English sounds when people speak very fast in a normal way. However, if you become a Listening Time family member, you have access to my advanced episodes, and so you get that training that you need.

to understand real English spoken fast at normal speed. If you want to become a member, click on the link in the episode description below this episode. The link is patreon.com slash listening time and you can sign up there today.

Alright, so in today's episode, we're going to talk about mindset in language learning. So we're going to talk about having the right mindset and we're going to talk about how your mindset can affect your ability to become fluent and to improve when you're learning a language.

This should be a very useful topic for all of you. So I'm sure that you'll learn some important tips and you'll get a better idea of what type of mindset you should try to have when learning English.

Remember that you have access to the transcript for this episode. That's also in the episode description below this episode. So go down and click on that link if you need the transcript. All right, let's get started. Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time.

Okay, so let's talk about the importance of your mindset when learning a language. So first of all, what does the word mindset mean? This just refers to the way that you think about something, your overall idea, your perspective, your view of something.

So your mindset in language learning is how your brain is approaching language learning, right? The way that it's thinking about it, the ideas and the attitudes that it has. Okay, so we're going to talk about three ways that your mindset can influence and have an effect on your language learning.

So here's the first way that your mindset can impact your language learning. So if you want to have a lot of control and you want to have a perfect understanding of the language that you're learning, this can actually hurt you in your language learning journey.

I know this sounds a little strange to some of you. You might think that the goal with learning English is to understand exactly how the language works and have complete control over the language. But in my opinion, this is not the right mindset to have.

I know that in school, we learn that it's important to analyze all the details of English or whatever language we're learning. And you learn a lot of grammar in school. You dissect sentences and do things like that.

In English, when we say the word "dissect", we're saying that you take something apart and view the smaller parts inside of the whole thing. So if you dissect a sentence in English,

This just means that you examine all the details, every word of that sentence. So some of you can remember doing that in high school or middle school or whenever. I remember doing that when I studied Spanish in high school. And teachers, they try to get you to understand how often

the little details work within the language and they make you think that you need to know all of this in order to become fluent. You need to have complete mastery over this aspect of language learning. In English, when we say that you have mastery, it means that you have complete knowledge in some field.

So teachers often expect you to have mastery in this domain, in studying the grammar of a language that you're learning. And that just simply doesn't lead to fluency. And it also hurts you in terms of your overall language learning. And I'll explain why.

Language learning is not the same as learning other subjects like math or physics or things like that.

Language is not a system that we can dissect and learn all the details of and then put the puzzle pieces together. That's not how language works. If you want to become fluent in a language, you have to be able to accept that you don't understand everything. There

There are some structures, phrases, words, sentences, etc. that make no logical sense. You just say them because they're correct. And if you're really trying to analyze every sentence that you're saying, you're not going to speak fluently. Okay? So the right mindset to have is to trust your intuition, okay?

What is your intuition? Your intuition is that feeling that you have inside of you that tells you that something is right or something is wrong, even if you don't know exactly why. You don't have all the data, you don't have all the facts, but you just feel like something is right or wrong or good or bad.

This thing that tells you that is your intuition. So in language learning, your intuition is very important. Like I said, you need to be able to trust that a sentence is correct because you've heard a native speaker say it before, right? If you feel like you need to analyze that sentence and understand why it's correct, then

This won't necessarily make you better at saying that structure or that sentence, right? It might actually make it harder for you to do that because you're not going to understand exactly why it's correct and you're going to doubt whether or not it's correct.

When in reality, you just need to trust your intuition and say the sentence that sounds correct because you've heard native speakers say that sentence. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that analysis isn't important.

In English, when we say the phrase "don't get me wrong", we're saying "don't misunderstand what I'm saying". Okay, so hear me out. I'm not saying that analysis isn't important at all.

I'm an analytical guy. I love analyzing things and I love analyzing language, to be honest. However, this is more of a supplementary tool to help you feel more comfortable speaking a foreign language.

Something that is supplementary means that it's something on the side that helps you, but it's not the main thing. It's not the principal thing. So using analysis and learning the grammar and all the details of the structure of a language is

This can be supplementary, but it shouldn't be the main thing you focus on. Okay? In my experience as a teacher, I've taught many, many students, thousands of students probably,

In my experience, the best language learners are often the people that are the least analytical, the people that aren't really concerned about having complete control and mastery over the details of English.

They just kind of trust their intuition and say what they've heard many times and repeat those same phrases and they speak fluently. And on the other hand, many of the people that I've taught that have trouble with English, that have a lot of problems with this language, oftentimes these people are very analytical

and they're very analytical in the way that they're approaching their English study and they want to have complete control over the language and its details and this hurts their language learning process. So to summarize this first point, it's important to be more intuitive and a little less analytical when it comes to learning a language.

don't expect to have full control. Okay? The next way that your mindset can affect your language learning is that it can make it easier or harder to learn the correct pronunciation and to reduce your accent. Okay? So, some people have the mindset that doesn't allow them to improve their overall accent and pronunciation.

they feel embarrassed to pronounce words in the correct way, for example, even though they know that the way that they're saying the word doesn't sound the same way as when a native speaker says that word.

the person refuses to say that word in the correct way because it doesn't feel normal for them and it feels embarrassing for them. And this type of mindset can cause language learners to ignore the real sounds of a language. They just never really hear how words and phrases are really pronounced.

And they're just not open to hearing this real sound, this real information that is coming to them. They're closed off to this.

In English, when we say that you're closed off to something, it means that you're not open to this. You refuse to accept it. And so many English learners are closed off to the real sounds of English. They just can't accept words.

the correct pronunciation of many words, and the reduced speech that happens. So many times when people join my membership and they watch my listening practice seminars for the first time, they're completely blown away. In English, when we say that you're blown away, it means that you're completely surprised by something.

So many times people are completely blown away when they watch my listening practice seminars for the first time because it's like the first time that they've ever really heard these real sounds that I teach. And maybe their mindset before was a little more closed off and their ears just didn't hear these real sounds and they just...

never really accepted how many English words really sound. And when they first opened themselves up to the possibility, the opportunity of learning the real sounds of English,

It's really surprising for them. It seems to them like this is the first time that they're really hearing the sounds of English in the right way. And so it helps them to change their mindset when it comes to this.

And a lot of people, when they're learning English, they don't want to pronounce words in the correct way because they think that their family or friends will make fun of them. And I've talked to students like this who are learning pronunciation and improving their pronunciation. And when they say words with the correct pronunciation in English, they

Other people from their country make fun of them, their friends make fun of them, because this isn't the way that people from their country say this word in English, right? It sounds like this person is trying to be a native speaker and sound like an American or whatever. And people might make fun of that if they don't speak English well.

And so that can also affect your mindset. So the goal when it comes to pronunciation should be to try to act and sound like a native speaker. Don't worry about anything else. Don't worry about all of these external factors. Just worry about trying to sound like a native speaker. Okay, try to imagine yourself as an

an American, for example. Imagine that you live that life and you're in the U.S. and you want to talk like other Americans and it will help you reduce your accent and this will really help you improve your pronunciation. So that's my second point.

Lastly, one other way that your mindset can influence your language learning is with motivation. So this is perhaps the most important one. I think that in my time as a language teacher, in my time talking to hundreds or thousands of students from all over the world,

I think that the most important factor when it comes to how well a person learns English is their motivation. Even if they have all of the other tools, even if they have the perfect conditions and the perfect environment, if they're lacking motivation, they're not going to become fluent.

In English, when we say that you lack something, this just means that you don't have this. So if you're lacking motivation, if you don't have motivation, you're not going to become fluent. This is the most important factor when it comes to language learning. Okay, so why are you learning a language? Why are you learning English?

you want to answer this question for yourself and you want to have a convincing answer. In English, when we say that something is convincing, this just means that it is powerful. It is something that makes you believe something else. So if I say his answer was very convincing or his explanation was very convincing or

I'm just saying that he had a very powerful answer that made me believe what he was saying. So your answer to this question should be convincing. You should really feel and understand why you're learning English, right? What is the point of learning this language?

You need to have a really good reason for this. OK, obviously, some people are just learning English for fun and that's great. And that can also be a very good reason if it's a really fun hobby for you.

But for many other people, this isn't enough. It's not enough to just want to understand American movies or listen to American music. They need more motivation than this to actually learn the language.

And so think of your ultimate goal. Think of what you really want to do in life with your English. If you have some plans or goals beyond just having fun with English, then focus on those goals. Focus on the end result.

Imagine yourself as a fluent English speaker in a couple of years from now or whenever and imagine the life that you're going to have. Imagine the opportunities that you're going to have or just imagine speaking this language in a comfortable way with native English speakers and being able to express yourself.

and use that as motivation. So if you're not motivated, if you don't have a good convincing reason to learn English, then

then this is not the mindset that's going to allow you to become fluent in English. Okay, you need motivation. Like I said before, this is the most important factor. So I can't stress enough how important motivation is when it comes to language learning. You want to find this motivation and you want to feel as motivated as possible.

So this is the third way that your mindset can influence your ability to become fluent in English. So in summary, having the right mindset makes all the difference. In English, when we say that something makes all the difference, we're saying that that thing is really important and it makes a big difference in terms of achieving your goal or not.

So having the right mindset makes all the difference when you're learning English. Okay, so you want to work on this and really understand these three points that I mentioned and make sure that you have the right mindset so that you can become fluent and confident in your English. All right, let's stop there for today.

Remember that if you need help understanding native speakers, if you need help understanding the real sounds of English and you want to be able to be comfortable in a room with native speakers and you want to understand what they're saying,

then make sure to become a Listening Time member, super member, or family member so that you can receive my specialized training where I help you understand real English and I help you identify the real sounds of English.

And if you become a Listening Time family member, you have access to my advanced podcast episodes. If you can already understand most of what I'm saying on these podcast episodes, but you can't understand native speakers, then you'll definitely want to become a Listening Time family member so that you can receive these advanced episodes and get that training with an advanced podcast.

Okay, so click on the link in the episode description below this episode. That's patreon.com slash listening time to sign up to become a family member today. And remember that you have the transcript available for this episode. That's also in the episode description below this episode. All right. Well, thank you for listening. And I'll talk to you on the next episode of listening time.

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