English Listening - Humility in Language Learning
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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 195 of the Listening Time Podcast.

I hope you're all doing excellent. I hope that you're having fun with your English learning and that this podcast plays an important role in your English learning journey. I hope that it has really helped you out and helped you gain more confidence with your listening. And in today's episode, I want to talk about humility in language learning.

So I think I already did an advanced episode on humility, if I'm not mistaken. That was kind of recent. But in this episode, I want to talk about humility specifically in relation to language learning. First of all, what is humility? This just means...

Freedom from pride or arrogance. Okay, so when someone is humble, that means they are not prideful or arrogant enough

they have a modest view of themselves, right? So this is humility and we're going to talk about why this is important in language learning and why it's hard to learn a language without humility. I'm sure this will be relevant

to all of you because you're all language learners and I'm sure you'll enjoy this topic. And for those of you that want to train your pronunciation with me, if you want to speak and sound more like a native speaker,

I highly recommend that you check out my pronunciation seminars. You can do that by becoming a Listening Time super member or any of the higher tiers of my membership. And you already know by now that you can also get my advanced podcast episodes in which I speak fast.

if you become a Listening Time family member. So the link to sign up for those is down below in the description below this episode. And you can also check out my U.S. Conversations podcast in which I talk to different people from around the country. We talk all about the different states and regions and geography,

and culture of the different places where these people are from. It's a lot of fun. It's really educational and it's great practice for your listening.

because you get to hear conversations between native speakers. And I also provide the transcript for each episode with the definitions of key words and phrases that we use. So you'll definitely want to check that out. I've recorded some interesting conversations recently. So go down and click on the link below to sign up for that. All right, let's get started.

Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time!

Okay, let's talk about humility in language learning, being humble when you learn a language. Again, being humble means that you are free from pride or arrogance. So the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the importance of humility when learning a language is that

When you learn a language, you need to be willing to be like a young child, really. By the way, when we say that you are willing to do something, that means that you accept something.

that you have to do this. You are okay with this. So you need to be willing to be like a young child who is learning to speak their first language, like my son, for example, my three-year-old son. So this takes a lot of humility for an adult because everything

If you're already an adult or if you're a teenager, for example, you probably don't want to feel like a baby. You don't want to feel like a toddler who's just learning to speak.

The word toddler refers to the stage after you're a baby, like you're just starting to walk and say your first words. That's a toddler. So no one wants to feel like a toddler when they're a full-grown adult. They're a teenager, right? So

This takes humility because when you learn a new language, you are kind of like a baby in that way. You can't communicate. You have to learn from the people that actually speak that language and you can't express yourself like an adult can express themselves in their native language. And some people

do not have the humility to do this. Some people are just not willing to be in that position. So they will never learn a language. They don't want to have that feeling of being like a young child learning to speak. So that's okay if

A person just never wants to learn a language. That's their choice, obviously. But if someone actually wants to learn a language, but they can't be humble enough to

to be like a young child, then they simply won't be able to learn that language well. That's just something you need to accept, right? I remember being in a conversation with a few other people. This was a couple years ago. And

This person was talking about language learning and he was asking me and this other girl some questions because she was also an English teacher. And we were talking about teaching children and teaching adults. And I remember he said something to this effect. By the way, when we say that someone says something to this effect,

It means that this is more or less what he said. I don't remember the exact words, but this is the idea behind what he was saying. So he said something to this effect.

You can't teach an adult the way that you teach a child a language. You can't teach someone who has a PhD or a master's degree the ABCs of English and treat them like a little kid. That's ridiculous. And I agree with this somewhat. I definitely agree that you would have...

different approach when teaching an adult

and teaching a child, of course, you're not going to teach them the same way. And that probably goes for most things, even if you're teaching them something else, right? You have to treat a child a little bit differently, of course. So, of course, I agree somewhat with what he said. However, what I took exception to was

When you take exception to something, that means that you disagree with this and you say, no, I do not accept that. So what I took exception to was...

the sentiment, the feeling behind what he was saying, because there was a feeling of pride, like, huh, if I have a PhD, I'm not going to let you teach me like a little child. I'm an adult. I'm an educated person. Don't try to teach me the ABCs. That's a prideful,

Right. That's a prideful attitude to say I'm too educated and mature to be like a child when I'm learning. That is an attitude, in my opinion, that will not get you far when you're learning something.

Not just language learning. When you're learning a lot of things, I think that a prideful attitude can be a detriment, meaning it can stop you from performing well, from learning well.

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So,

remember that conversation well and that's a conversation I thought of when I was thinking about this topic because I think a lot of people have this thought like how can someone who is an adult and highly educated humble themselves and be like a child and learn the ABCs like you would teach a child but

if you are learning a language, you kind of have to be like a young child. Of course, you're not going to act exactly like a baby or whatever, but you get my idea. You have to start from that starting point, like the starting point that a child starts from. So, that's the first thing I thought of when I was thinking about this topic. Another one

way in which you could say that it takes humility to learn a language is you need to be willing to

to make mistakes and get corrected. This is something that can be a challenge for a lot of people, especially adults. Young children don't really care that much about having their grammar corrected. Trust me, I see this with my son, I see it with other kids.

They don't really care when you correct them. Sometimes they just disregard your correction. But adults can get pretty sensitive when they get corrected. It hurts their pride when you have to stop them and tell them that they said something wrong. That's not a good feeling for most people. So it takes humility to

to be vulnerable like that. Because when you are speaking another language and making mistakes, you're putting yourself in a vulnerable position. The other person can hear all of your errors. They can hear your accent, your pronunciation mistakes. They hear all your gaffes. Uh,

A gaffe is just another way of saying your mistake, something you do incorrectly. So they hear all your gaffes, your errors, the strange structures that you use, the grammar mistakes. They hear everything. So...

you are in a vulnerable position because you're opening yourself up like that and you're opening yourself up to correction, right? And it puts you in an inferior position. You, uh, are the one that, uh,

will get corrected by the other person because they speak better than you or they're a native speaker. So in that way, you are in an inferior position. I'm not saying that you're an inferior person. I'm saying that your position in that conversation is inferior.

When I talked about being shy in a recent episode, I talked about the fact that I'm not shy when I talk to foreigners in English especially because I am in a position where I speak English.

the language better than them so it makes me less vulnerable in that way and it makes me like the person that has the superior position in terms of the language

Not because I'm a superior person, but because of the language. And that makes me less shy in those situations. The other person who's talking to me is often more...

more shy in those situations because they're speaking a language that they don't speak as well and I do speak it well and so they feel that difference there right so of course you

Putting yourself in that inferior position, being vulnerable and getting corrected by the other person, that takes humility. And like I mentioned before, it can hurt people's pride when you correct them. That's why native speakers normally won't correct you.

Even if you ask them to correct you, they usually won't unless they're a teacher, of course. That's one of the reasons why I think it's really helpful to have conversation classes with a native speaker because

There's an agreement there that the person can actually give you corrections without hurting your feelings or whatever. Whereas when you just talk to people out in the real world, they will rarely correct you. Like I mentioned this recently in a YouTube video, I think it was.

My wife has been in the U.S. for about two years. She has a lot of friends who are native English speakers. And I asked her, have any of them ever corrected you when you have made a mistake? And she said, nope, never. Not one time in two years. So native speakers, yes.

know that it doesn't feel good for you to get corrected. So they usually won't do this, but you should be willing to get corrected.

And you should be willing to make embarrassing mistakes. I know that this is one of the worst feelings ever in terms of language learning, but it's going to happen sometimes. You're going to say things that sound completely ridiculous by accident because it's an embarrassing mistake. Here's a common one. A lot of people...

when they're learning English, confuse words like napkin and kidnap. And those are two words you probably don't want to confuse with each other. So that's an example of a mistake that is very easy to make, but can lead to

very embarrassing situations if you accidentally use the wrong word there. And you have to be willing to be in those situations. If not, you're not going to be able to talk freely and confidently because you're going to

Always be guarded against possible mistakes and that won't allow you to grow and develop well as a speaker. So you have to be humble enough to accept those embarrassing mistakes that you will inevitably make. All right.

Another way in which you need to be humble when it comes to language learning is you need to accept that there will always be more to learn. This can be hard for adults. We want to learn something and say, okay, I learned it. Done. What's my next task? That's how a lot of us operate. But when it comes to learning a language, unfortunately,

Or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, there is always more to learn. In a way, this is cool because learning is cool.

for me at least, it's awesome to learn new words. Even as an English speaker, I like learning new English words. I like discovering the meaning of older words that aren't used as much anymore. I think that's a good thing. And

If you're learning English right now, which all of you are, just know that you will continue learning your whole life in the sense that there will always be more things to learn. Like I said, there are many words that I don't know in English and I learn them. So if I'm a native speaker and

and there are plenty of words that I don't even know, then, of course, you can expect to spend your whole life encountering new words in English.

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And you have to be humble enough to accept that and not want to know it all and have everything down. By the way, when we say that you have something down, that means that you know it. You have that in your knowledge. So you're never going to just know everything in English and

and have it all down and never need to learn something new after you reach this certain level. No, you will probably always make mistakes

Even if they are just minor mistakes that happen once in a while, you'll probably always make some mistakes, learn new words, encounter new idioms. That's just the nature of language learning and you need to be willing to accept that.

Otherwise, it will be very frustrating for you because the new words and structures and phrases and mistakes won't just suddenly stop forever. That's just not how things work. So you need to be willing to accept that. And this happens a lot just when you are starting to feel more confident with your level and

You'll have a situation that lowers your estimation of your level. This happens to me quite frequently and it doesn't feel good. It hurts your ego. It's not a pleasant feeling when you're starting to gain more confidence and then you have a conversation and it's like,

I feel like I just went in reverse and took two steps backwards. I hate that feeling. But that happens sometimes when you're learning a language and you need to be willing to humble yourself and accept that and not have your ego hurt and just stop after that. Right?

right you're gonna have situations that lower your own estimation of your level that's something that's gonna happen and so those are some of the ways that I thought of in which humility is necessary when it comes to language learning I also just wanted to talk briefly about a

Being able to respect the rules and the sounds of the language that you're learning, even when they seem illogical, strange, or funny to you. This is kind of something that requires humility as well because people can...

sometimes get a little prideful about their own native language and think that their language makes sense and the rules make sense, the sounds are normal, and they have this view of their own language as being superior to other languages or more logical. It just makes sense.

And then when they start to learn another language,

They complain about the fact that it's illogical, it's strange, these rules are bizarre, why do you need to do this or say that, or these sounds are really funny. People can have that view when they are learning another language because of the way they think

about their own language. They just view their own language as normal and then the other languages are strange or don't make sense or have dumb rules or whatever. And that's something that can prevent people from learning a language as well. I think this also takes humility to say, my language is just weird

one of the languages here on this planet. And it's not intrinsically superior to all the other languages. It's just the language I know. So

I view it as normal. But really, if I were born speaking a different language, I would think that way about that language. So I think this takes some humility. And I can think of examples in my life where I've had interactions with other language learners and it was pretty clear that they...

were not able to humble themselves in this way. And especially when it comes to sounds of the language. Some people just won't make certain sounds in the language that they're learning because they feel like it sounds funny or it sounds ridiculous. And one sound I can think of

in a certain language that feels silly to many non-native speakers of that language is like the nasal sound in Portuguese. If you're Brazilian, you probably know what I'm talking about. There are nasal sounds where you have to allow the air to come through your nose when you're making a vowel sound.

And this is something that feels really silly to a lot of Portuguese learners, and they don't want to make this sound. They refuse to do this at the beginning because it sounds and feels so strange to them. And I think that's an example of not being humble enough to say, okay, let's

I don't care how people view me. I'm just going to make this sound because that's how it's supposed to be made and just accept that. Some people simply can't humble themselves to think like that and just accept the strange sound.

I say strange because it's strange to them, but that sound isn't strange to other people. I'm just using that word to talk about people's perception of these foreign sounds. Or not just sounds, but people might complain about an element of

in the language that they're learning and say that that element shouldn't be there. It just doesn't make sense or it's illogical. The rule is better in their native language. And that is an attitude that some people can take because of their own frustration with the difficult rules in other languages. And

I think that we just need to humbly accept these differences and humbly accept the differences in rules and sounds and the grammar, all of that. And if we can do that and have some humility in that way, I think it will help us learn faster, be more open to different things

things in the language that we're learning. It will help us not be so guarded and not have a mindset that prevents us from advancing in that language. So I hope that everything I said makes sense to you. I hope that I'm not the only one who feels like this.

And I hope you enjoyed this episode and that it was good practice for your listening. And again, if you want to practice your pronunciation, if you want to get better at making those funny sounds that we have in English, those strange sounds, then of course, check out my pronunciation seminars. Become a Listening Time super member or any of the higher tiers and you'll get my specialized pronunciation training. I

I'm sure that it will be helpful for you. And of course, you can get my advanced podcast episodes by becoming a listening time family member. So the link to sign up for those is down below. And the link is down below for my U.S. Conversations podcast as well. It's a really fun podcast and it will help you be able to understand when more than one person is talking.

That's a skill that you'll need to develop. So practice that with me. Use that podcast to help you train that skill. Okay? So those links are down below. I hope you go down and check those out. And thank you so much for listening to this episode. And I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.

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