Should You Worry About Mistakes In Your New Language?

When you are learning a new language you are going to get worried about messing up, but really you should not care about this.

I know it’s hard not to care, but it’s totally normal to make mistakes and is actually expected. I will go through some of the reasons why it is something you should not worry about and why they might actually be beneficial.

If you are learning a language, just embrace the fact that you will mess up, it’s really not the end of the world and is just one more step to you getting closer to being good at the language.

Mistakes Are Inevitable

It doesn’t matter what you try and do, mistakes are inevitable, you cannot avoid them.

You are learning a language, which basically means you are in the process of going from not knowing a single thing to being able to master it. This is difficult with any skill, but especially languages, as they are huge and very complex.

During the process you are going to get muddled up, forget something, or just encounter something that you have not come across before.

This means you will mess up, and that’s okay. Learning anything involves mistakes. Most learning is trial and error and mistakes are very much a part of this.

Perfection Is Impossible

You also need to remember that you cannot master a language completely. Just look at your own language, you don’t know everything. There are probably thousands of words you have never even heard of before, let alone understand and that’s okay.

Also think about how many mistakes you make in your own language. How many times have you used the wrong word or spelt something wrong. (I’ve made countless mistakes on my first draft of this article and I’m a native English speaker)

It’s totally normal to make mistakes but for some reason we don’t care about it in our own language, even though we are supposed to be completely fluent, so why do we get so worked up about making a mistake in a language we have only been studying for a short period of time!

I think we all need to calm down and accept that it’s okay to make mistakes.

Don’t Let Your Anxiety Get To You

One of the biggest problems with learning a language is the anxiety that comes with mistakes. We are terrified of messing up and you can see this most clearly when we want to speak.

A lot of us are so worried about making mistakes when speaking, that we shy away from it all together.

This is easily going to be the biggest thing that prevents you from making progress. Doing nothing is the single worst things you can do. You cannot make progress if you put no work in. Allowing your fear and anxiety to prevent you from practicing your language skills is the biggest mistake you can make.

You need to face your fears and overcome the anxiety. Mistakes will happen and you have to accept that and just start practicing your language. This is the only way you are going to get better.

Kids Don’t Worry

If you look at young kids, they don’t care about mistakes when they speak and you can see they make great progress in the language as they grow.

Of course they probably have no idea they are making mistakes, and in a way ignorance is bliss here, but the fact they carry on regardless of how bad they are is exactly why they are able to make progress.

If you want to make rapid progress like a kid, you need to act like a kid and make mistakes. They are not worried about the accuracy, they just trying to communicate. They worry about this first then slowly work on the accuracy over time.

Mistakes Are Harmless

The main reason why we worry about mistakes is because we are scared that we will look stupid. Well… so what?

What actually happens if you make a mistake?

Do you actually look stupid, or does no one really care and life carries on? Nothing actually bad happens when you make a mistake. No one dies, you aren’t sent to jail, you don’t lose your job …nothing happens.

I know I’m being dramatic, but I’m trying to show you that mistakes are nothing to be scared of. Only two things can happen. The person you are speaking to doesn’t even notice, in which case, why are you worrying, everything carries on as normal.

Or, they notice and they correct you. Now you know you made a mistake and you know what was wrong. This is actually helpful. You have been given help! This is a good thing.

Neither of these situations are anything to worry about. Mistakes are annoying, but they are also harmless.

Make as many as you want, nothing bad is ever going to happen.

Mistakes Help Us Learn

Mistakes are never fun, but let’s be honest, the best lessons are always the hardest.

If you mess something up, you will learn so much more from this than getting it right. This is true for anything in life and I don’t really know why this is the way, but it is.

I guess the pain of looking stupid really sticks with you and the next time you will do anything to avoid making the same mistake again.

This means you kind of have to see your mistakes as beneficial, yes they suck, but next time you will be more careful and hopefully not repeat the error. Mistakes actually help us learn, in their own special way.  

Mistakes Means Your Brain Is Still Processing Information

If you are making mistakes, it just means that the information you have been learning has not been fully processed by your brain.

Maybe the concept hasn’t quite clicked, or you have not got yourself fully comfortable with whatever it is you are learning.

This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just like I said before, you are going from zero to mastering something, and right now you are somewhere in the middle.

You just need to keep studying the topic and eventually you will get comfortable with it and you will stop making mistakes. Just keep going, you will get there.

Natives Can Still Understand You

We are terrified about making mistakes as we think no one will understand us, but just stop and think about all the people you have spoken to who are non-natives. Think about all the people speaking with really broken English, or just generally very poor pronunciation and maybe with a strong accent.

How many of them have you looked at and been totally lost. Well maybe initially, but if you keep listening, you will quickly catch on to what they are saying.

You can understand just fine, regardless of how bad it is. You can clearly see the mistakes, but also can clearly see what was meant to be said.

So basically, if we flip this around, natives in the language you are learning will understand you too.

You may know very little and feel very lost …but they know a lot, and can work out your broken, awful grammar and poorly pronounced attempts at speaking …so don’t worry, just try your best and they will see past the mistakes.  

Mistakes Show You Are Pushing Yourself

While we all hate making mistakes they actually show us something very important …that we are pushing ourselves.

If you get everything perfect, you are either a genius (which is sadly unlikely) or you are not pushing hard enough in the language.

To make progress you need to be outside of your comfort zone. This is exactly where you are going to be making mistakes, as you do not know this area well enough yet.

The fact you are making mistakes shows you are leaving your comfort zone. However, you need to get the balance right. If you push too hard, you will get very lost and your whole life will be a mistake.

You need to just step outside your comfortable, so that you struggle, but not with everything. This is where you can really excel in the language, this is the sweet spot.

Conclusion

As you can now see, mistakes are fine. They are something that you cannot avoid and should actually embrace. They really are not worth worrying about.

A person making mistakes is going to make a lot more progress than someone who is avoiding them. If you feel like you are getting worried about them, just try and push that feeling to the side and keep on pushing forward. You will quickly overcome the fear or mistakes when you realise they are harmless. 

You can read more about – Common Mistakes You Will Make When Writing In A New Language