The title of this entry is a tad absurd. I’ve been writing about all things language and development for years now. I’ve taught and discussed my methods countless times and yet if people were to guess a basketball likely wouldn’t come into it, but then again that’s probably why there may be some curiosity towards this. However, do trust that there is a tentative link here, and in some of my lower moments and plateaus, something as simple as this little party trick was enough to bring me out of my slump and create a new and varied method of learning.
I’ve said a number of times before that language learning and mental health are intrinsically linked. This isn’t to say that all language learners have severe depression, or anything of that sort, and there are many people out there who have a jolly outlook on their language journeys. As I’ve transparently stated before, I fit into the former category, frequently doubting my progress, fighting not to compare my level to others and having a constant frustration that I’m not where I’d like to be, even for all of my efforts and invested time. As such it can be easy to allow certain negative thoughts to creep in. “Maybe I’m just not built for language learning.”, “Perhaps I should have picked another language, or another hobby.”, “I just can’t make any progress.”. I intrinsically disagree with all of these statements and yet my nagging brain proceeds to revisit them on a regular basis and so I always look for ways to overcome this.
This journey started with a few late evening trawls through a subsect of YouTube that I would deem “The motivational compilations binge”. In all honesty I don’t know how common this behaviour is but I would often find myself reviewing the opinions of other language learners (Often to the deficit of my own confidence.) and how they challenged these mentalities. The solution in my case however wasn’t actually language related at all. For a long time I’ve been watching an incredibly diligent and strong willed YouTuber call Mike Boyd. Mike sets his sights on learning a variety of interesting skills as quickly as possible, reviewing methods and tracking his progress across hours and days. The skills themselves are mostly quite accessible to the general public and as such he is an advocate for showing that essentially anything is possible if you keep at it and maintain it. For me, what I needed in my time of self doubt was a bit of reassurance that I wasn’t useless and I was capable of learning a measurable skill. While languages are technically still measurable it is significantly harder to find an accurate and regular base line for this. And so, I bought myself a basketball and started from scratch to learn how to spin the ball on my finger.
In the early stages it was all about slow and frustrating progress that was entirely aimed at the ball itself. It was almost like a ready distraction from my language woes, at least for a time. The difference came when I actually got quite good at it. Instead of a few seconds of wobbles and then chasing the ball around the room, I could get 20, 30 seconds and found a small semblance of satisfaction and peace. It was then made even better by introducing some language into it. One of my common methods of study is to have a game on the TV and alternate between reading through new vocab and doing something else like writing, tidying up or staring into space while I mulled it around in my head. Now, I could come across new words and take a minute or more of what was now a mindless but focused task to keep my hands busy while my brain made new connections. I would now sit in front of the TV with a notebook and a basketball, and more importantly I would look forward to finding new words I didn’t know.
The important things here is not to find a hobby that you can integrate your language learning in to (Although, if you can that’s all the better.), the focus here was to prove to myself that just because it’s difficult to notice progress across a large task like becoming fluent, that doesn’t mean I’m not good at learning or improving. It also adds some motivation in the fact that perseverance does genuinely provide results. An added perk is the fact that variety and novelty is healthy for the human mind. If you are facing a problem (Language related or otherwise) and you continue to rush headlong at it, you may find that the only result is burn-out. Trying something new isn’t only fun and engaging, it’s also quite healthy in many cases. This doesn’t mean you all have to go out and buy basketballs either. This was my particular choice as I’d always wanted to do it (And a friend had recently challenged himself to do the same) but there’s a lot of other things you could choose. Knitting, juggling, running, yoga, even a few of the other skills shown in Mike Boyd’s videos (Definitely recommend watching them all!). The absolute worst thing that can come out of it after all is potentially having a new party trick to show you friends at the end of the day.
As always, my journey may or may not match all of yours but I’m always eager to hear your thoughts, offer support where needed and keep you going on a path that brings you progress and happiness. Keep up the good work and enjoy your journey.
頑張って皆さん！
Games & Kanji 