James Hutchinson

The way in which you think about yourself, your identity, what you're good at, bad at, shapes your daily habits and the amount of effort and motivation you have to do certain things.

This doesn't just apply to language learning but it applies to any skill or anything you do. If you see yourself as being good at that thing or as being capable of learning that thing, you'll naturally put more effort into it.

It is like if you identify or see yourself as a marathon runner, you will naturally practise more, do more long-distance runs, and that will be part of your identity, which helps shape your habits on a weekly basis.

Many people, especially when it comes to language learning, had a bad experience at school or in the past and think of themselves as not capable of learning a different language. However everybody is capable because you were able to learn your native language.

This is an extract from my book and it leans on the book Atomic Habits. It's about the psychology of language learning so it applies to any language.

Here's the link: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW#averageCustomerRevi…

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1 day ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

Here's an extract from my book, which dives into why you should acknowledge any bad experiences you've had in the past with learning a language but then don't let it hold you back today.

Everyone will have had a bad experience in the past when it came to trying to learn a different language, and especially at a young age.

That can destroy your confidence and make you feel like you're bad at learning language.

However if you acknowledge that you might be scared to learn a language now because of a bad experience you have had in the past, you can accept that, let it go, and understand that any future attempt at learning a language is a clean slate.

Your ability in the past does not define your ability now or in the future.

Here's the link to my book: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW

3 days ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

This principle with language learning goes against everything you've learnt in education.

We are taught from a young age that making mistakes is bad and that we should aim to get 100% in every test or piece of work that we do.

However you'll know from doing sports or learning a new skill that when we start we are bad at something and it takes many repetitions of doing things badly before we get anywhere near being good.

So this is a big reason as to why people struggle to learn a language because they have it instilled into their mindset that making mistakes is bad and that you should always be perfect when you speak a different language.

This is not true and you have to be used to making mistakes in order to progress with your language ability.

Practise makes perfect but in order to allow yourself to practise you have to be okay with making mistakes.

I go into more detail about this and the psychology behind it in my book so that you can overcome your fears and be more comfortable with this logic.

Here's the link: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW

5 days ago | [YT] | 1

James Hutchinson

There are so many resources available to learn language, such as videos, apps, and books etc, so why isn't every fluent in multiple languages?

13 years ago I started my language learning journey. I wrote this book to condense everything I know about the psychology behind how we learn languages best, into one place.

I've called it this title "No Bullsh*t Language Learning" because it literally skips the waffle, down to 110 pages, designed to be practical and to use for any language. The target market is people who feel like they don't have time to learn another language.

Just for today, the 7th of August, it's free to download as an e-book.

Here's the link: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW.

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

Often when people try practising the language they're learning in a public place or on holiday with native speakers, the environment isn't right for them.

They can be in a noisy place or the native speaker they're talking to might be too busy.

When that happens after they try to speak, often they're ignored, misunderstood, and feel like they are unable to speak that language.

It's important to understand that you should be in the correct environment or an environment designed to make you feel as comfortable as possible and give you the best chance of having a nice clear conversation with the other person.

This is the framework that I came up with in my book to ensure that when you practise another language, you set yourself up for success and reduce the chance of making mistakes or not being understood by the other person.

Here's the link: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

I have an unpopular belief, after 13 years of learning Spanish and Italian, that when you are practising a different language, you should not be corrected mid-sentence or during a conversation. It should be afterwards instead.

It's because when you're in a conversation with a native speaker or whatever you're using, 100% of your mental energy is used to understand what's being said to you and then think of a reply back.

If, in the same moment, you are being told that you said something incorrectly and here is a better way of saying it, you're then stopping your flow of conversation.

You have to think about the mistake that you made and then it reduces your confidence a little bit because you have been told that you are wrong.

Instead, wait until after the conversation or after the current topic that you're talking about and then let the other person or whatever tool you're using tell you what mistakes you made.

At this point you're not in the conversation and you have more mental capacity to think and understand what you could do better.

This is one of the methods that I have built into the language conversation platform that I've created (called Voco). After each conversation session you will see your transcript of what you and your language partner said and you can see corrections as to what you said wrong and how to say it more naturally/correctly.

This screenshot shows a recent conversation that I had after a trip to Italy, where I'm maintaining my Italian level. Grammar isn't my favourite thing so most of the corrections are grammatical. It just gives you an idea of the kind of feedback that you'll get after every session.

Here's the platform if you want to give it a go for free for 30 mins: www.speakwithvoco.com/?ref=yt-community

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

If you want to learn a language but you find that you're an incredibly busy person, one of the best approaches is to integrate language learning into your lifestyle on a continual basis. Rather than just thinking about language learning as one goal, it should be a continuous process.

In my book No Bullshit Language Learning, I dive into how you can do this without changing your lifestyle.

It means that you don't have to keep putting off learning a language and you can get started from day one.

Here's the link anyway: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

How many of these blockers can you relate to?

In my book, I highlight each blocker that stops people reaching their language goal.

I then give advice based on my 13 years of language learning experience as to how to get past each one.

Here's the link: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX3DLKHW

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

James Hutchinson

In this video I cover how to actually immerse yourself in a language when you don't know much of it or can't understand it:

https://youtu.be/NYnvUz8XUTQ?is=Z2VWo...

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

James Hutchinson

Imagine you're sat in a restaurant, catching up with a friend. You're deep in conversation and you're focused on what your friend has to say.

Then a member of staff comes across and asks you what you want to drink. You have to pause a conversation, answer the question, and when you return to the conversation, you forget what you were talking about.

The conversation then takes a step back and you lose that moment when you and your friend were talking about something important. It might take a few minutes to get back to where you were again.

My point is every time you're interrupted in a conversation, whether it's in your native language or a target language, it stops your flow.

Now a common approach with language learning is that a language teacher or the person you are practising with, when in conversation, stops you and corrects you while you are saying something.

This might sound productive, however you'll always find that you'll have forgotten what you were saying. You will lose your line of thought and it will take you more effort to remember what you were talking about.

Instead, the solution is to wait until after the conversation has finished and then be told a list of your errors or potential better ways of saying things.

This also means that you regain your confidence because if you're talking with a native speaker and they tell you that you said something wrong, that will knock your confidence in the moment.

If you want to reach a conversational level in your target language, I've created a free email course:
conversations.jameshutchinsonlanguages.com/

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0