I’ve often heard — and even said — that to learn a language, you have to get outside your comfort zone. But looking back at the book I wrote in 2003, I realized my approach has always been the opposite: we don’t leave our comfort zone, we move it with us, like a snail carrying its shell. Comfort is why I choose familiar content, build passive vocabulary before speaking, and use whatever assists make writing easier. The goal is to become comfortable in more and more difficult situations, not to suffer through them. Do you learn better when you’re comfortable, or do you need a bit of pressure?
Considering the relatively low amount of jump cuts used in this video, it was quiet comfortable to watch.
As you keep telling people to accept imperfections, you may gonna try following your own advice and do a one take video. THAT would be comfortable. ![]()
Regarding the video’s content, I think there are different aspects of language learning that can increase or decrease the amount of comfort you feel while learning. Using material designed for your language level is comforting as it doesn’t challenge you too much, but especially at a beginning stage it can be super boring. And as you correctly mentioned, interest in the material increases the comfort, too. But also having content consisting of a series of main clauses only can be super uncomfortable, as it is like listening to a kindergarden kid.
John has a house.
The house is big.
It has a lot of rooms.
They are nicely looking.
…
Super uncomfortable to read, imho. I rather use material that is challenging to read but features interesting content and sentence structures that somehow resembles how adult people actually use the language and what the grammar is capable of.
When it comes to writing, I use google translator if I try to write something that is a bit above my level. But I use it the other way round. I write the text in the target language and let google translate it into my mother tongue German. This way I can check whether what I am writing is what I am actually trying to express. If an algorithm can understand me, a human can most likely, too. Thus far, using this method has worked quiet well for commenting below youtube videos, for example.
In regards to accepting imperfections I have the impression that there are quiet some users that heavely grab onto the statistics aspect of lingq as well as how they create lingqs or what number they assign to words. In hindsight I am under the impression that the usefulness of lingq as a language learning tool has improved significantly once I started letting go of these. I never cared for the streak to begin with, but paid some attention to the levels assigned to words, the creation of lingqs or whether I leave a word without a definition (paging moving words to known, anyone). I don’t care about these thinks that much, anymore. I just try to establish a workflow that keeps me progressing as fast as possible.
Overall, the amount of satisfaction and the feeling of achievement is stronger the more challenging the path was. So there can be some comfort in moving out of ones comfort zone. To quote a line from a book I read yesterday:
부단히 노력하고, 간절히 바라고, 결국 실패하는 일이 잘 없었다. 뭐든 쉬웠고, 그래서 뭐 하나 굉장하지 않았다.
I rarely failed at things I strove for and earnestly desired. Everything came easily, and for that very reason, nothing was truly extraordinary.from: 네가 있는 요일 - 박소영 (Park Soyoung)
I agree. You made some very good points. I too ignore LingQ statistics, and streaks. I found they hindered progress. Indeed some well known polyglots even recommend language learning breaks of a day or two.
I ice skate, at a modest level, and research has shown that the best ice skaters move out of their comfort zone, and practice moves that are above their level more often than lesser skaters. They also fall more. I think this equates to advice from Mr Kaufmann and others that mistakes are a normal part of learning a language. Of course you need to practice easier stuff too. As Obsttorte says, it’s good to try and say things, then check them with AI or a real human e.g. your partner or a servant ;).