99% of German Learners FAIL to Reach Fluency: These 6 quotes can save you from their fate.
The one thing that keeps 99% of German learners from ever reaching fluency is consistency.
Not your own innate language learning ability. Not how difficult the language is to learn. Not how many minutes per day you spend learning.
Nothing else matters, if you aren’t consistent in your language learning.
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Consistency is what transforms the average into excellence. Consistency is more important than perfection. Consistency always triumphs intensity. – Tony Robbins
I don’t mean you have to learn German every day for three hours.
I don’t mean that you have to even learn German every day, although that would be ideal.
I simply mean that you set a schedule and you stick to it.
Make a plan. When will you study? How long? How many days of the week? Make the schedule consistent.
- Mondays – 7 pm in the library for 1 hour.
- Tuesdays – 8:30 pm in my living room for 1 hour.
- Wednesdays – I am super busy and can’t find time to study. Take the day off.
- Thursday – Wake up early and study for 45 minutes minimum before I get in the shower.
- Friday – 9 pm just before bed, spend 1 hour reading in German.
- Saturday – 1 pm when the kids are in bed for their afternoon nap, spend 1 hour learning German.
- Sunday – This day is for family and is a day of rest. No German lesson today.
Do it again and again. Consistency makes the rain drops to create holes in the rock. Whatever is difficult can be done easily with regular attendance, attention and action. – Israelmore Ayivor
To me, consistency implies perseverance.
Something came up. You can’t study during your normal time. What do you do? Do you just let it slide this week? What happens if something else comes up next week? Do you skip again?
How many times do you have to skip a study session before your routine is skipping and not being consistent?
Obviously life sometimes throws you some curveballs. There may be a Saturday at 1 pm that doesn’t work for your afternoon German learning session. So what do you do?
Don’t simply skip your study session. Reschedule it.
I can’t study today at 1 pm, so I’ll do it in the morning instead.
I didn’t know it wasn’t going to work out until after the time was already gone. I’ll make it up this evening. I won’t have time all day today. I’ll make time for it on Wednesday, when I usually don’t study German.
Don’t lie to yourself. Don’t make excuses. Don’t let your obstacles stop you.
Keep moving forward.
We are what we repeatedly do… therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit. – Will Durrant
Ever wonder why Duolingo has a streak counter?
It isn’t enough to study German “whenever you have time”. It must be a conscious effort to build language learning into a habit.
How long does it take to make a habit feel automatic?
The common myth is that you can form a habit in 21 days or 30 days. Research has actually shown that it takes on average, 66 days for a habit to become automatic.
In that same research, it took some participants 254 days to make a habit automatic!
The real solution is to make a conscious effort to build language learning into a habit. Continue to make it a conscious effort long after it feels like it is no longer a conscious effort.
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice. – Octavia Butler
To be fair, Octavia Butler was talking about how to write great stories and novels in this quote, but if you switch out “stories” for “language skills”, this quote is perfect for what I’m trying to say.
Inspiration will not always work.
Sometimes you just have to push through and keep up the habit.
You are sick. You have a headache. You spent all day at a theme park with a group of kids 10 years younger than you riding every roller coaster in the park on an endless loop from the time the park opened until the security guard kicked you out and your feet were aching from the 47000 steps you took.
I don’t care. Learn German anyway.
Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals. – E. James Rohn
Consistency will be the propellant that pushes you beyond mediocrity and into fluency.
You need four skills in order to be considered fluent in German: reading, listening, writing and speaking.
Stick to the basics for your lessons. Practice one or two of these skills in every lesson. Don’t try to do all four every day. Spread it out.
Make sure you practice in a variety of ways to make sure your language skills are prepared for whatever may come your way.
Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come. – Dwayne, the Rock, Johnson
I would modify this quote to be:
Fluency isn’t always about greatness. It’s not a matter of skill or intelligence. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to fluency. Do the work and fluency will come.
Get started on the right foot!
If you want to make sure that you are getting started with your German learning journey on the right foot, you need a guide.
You can download my Goal Setting Template PDF PLUS my Resources for German Learners PDF absolutely free by filling out the form below.
Get your FREE PDF full of resources for German learners today! Simply fill out your info below and Herr Antrim will send it right over!
In addition to the goal setting PDF you will get a copy of my German Learning Resources Guide, which includes recommendations for everything you need to perfect your German skills.
From books and movies to websites and apps, this guide will help you find the right tool for the right job when it comes to learning German.
Become a REAL Deutschlerner!
If you want to be consistent in your German learning, you should check out my Deutschlerner Club.
This club has lessons laid out for you in a logical manner from laying the groundwork of the German language through your first conversation and beyond.
Currently I have my A1 and A2 courses available through the Deutschlerner Club and my B1 course is being built every week.
You can try some sample lessons to see if this is the right course for you. Check it out and I’ll see you over there. Tschüss.
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