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Are you REALLY bad at languages?


Cover of the book "Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn" by Barbara Oakley PhD, Beth Rogowsky EdD, and Terrence J Sejnowski PhD. Next to it is text saying "I wrote this post based on everything I’ve learned over the years as well as based on this book in particular. Check out some quotes."

People often feel like learning takes more time and effort from them than from others. The truth is that “being good” at languages takes a lot of time and effort from everyone.


🧠 Your brain just doesn’t work in a way that would allow you to learn English fast and with minimal effort. Here’s why.


You need to manage to move the newly learnt information into your long-term memory since if you keep it in your short-term memory, it will soon slip.


🐙 Your short-term memory is like an octopus tossing balls. On average, the octopus can only deal with about 4 balls (aka pieces of information at a time).

An illustration of two octopuses juggling balls. The octopus on the left is happily juggling four balls, while the octopus on the right looks distressed as it tries to juggle more balls, with some falling out of its grasp. Below the image is the text: "Most people can hold a maximum of about four pieces of information in working memory at once. But if they get distracted or they try to keep too many balls in mind at once, the thoughts can all fall out!"


So the only way for you to not forget something is to make sure it finds its way to the "storage" area in your brain aka your long-term memory. For that to happen, you need the neurons in your brain to connect and strengthen. Doing that requires a lot of repeated exposure to the material and varied practice.


A series of four images depicting the process of learning and linking neural connections. The first two images show neurons beginning to connect as a student is introduced to a new concept and practices the material. The third image illustrates the solidification of these connections into long-term memory as the student engages more actively with the concept. The fourth image shows how continued practice in new ways helps the neurons connect with other neurons that underpin related concepts.

⚽ ⚾ 🏈 Working (=short-term) memory varies. If yours can only deal with, for example, 3 pieces of information at a time, it will indeed make learning a little harder. But that alone won’t make you bad at learning.

An illustration shows three octopuses juggling various sports balls, including basketballs, footballs, volleyballs, tennis balls, and a beach ball. The octopuses symbolize the concept of managing multiple tasks or pieces of information simultaneously, representing the capacity of working memory.

Another time-consuming peculiarity of working on your English is that you want to learn using both your declarative system (e.g. learning through teacher’s instructions, reading the rules, etc.) as well as your procedural system (aka applying what you’ve learnt though different practice exercises, speaking, etc.).


⏱When you learn through your declarative system, it’s easier to learn the information, but it takes longer to start comfortably using it. On the other hand, with the procedural system you face more desirable difficulty aka it feels more difficult to learn, but you can start using the new material sooner.


In learning English you need to use both of these systems to get the best result.

An image showing a seesaw diagram with "Declarative" on the left side and "Procedural" on the right side, both leading to "Long-term memory" at the top. The text below reads: "You can think of declarative and procedural learning as being like a seesaw. When one system is being used to learn, the other system is on standby. But ultimately, information learned with both systems forms the most powerful, flexible learning." The source at the bottom is: Oakley, B., Rogowsky, B., & Sejnowski, T. J. (2021). Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn. TarcherPerigee.

Source: Oakley, B., Rogowsky, B., & Sejnowski, T. J. (2021). Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn. TarcherPerigee.


Even with the best teacher and the most effective and efficient methods that takes a lot of time — it’s plain and simple.


Most people that say that they’re not good with languages have never done what it takes to learn either because they don’t know how to or it’s never been a high enough priority, or both.


Teacher Tina from SpeakEnglish2day.com

Tina is a professional English Teacher with a Cambridge education and 10+ years of teaching English to adults in-person and online.


She wants you and English learners like you to develop a solid understanding of what you need to do to start speaking better English faster (and not fall for English-in-a-month scams).

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