Transcription
How our brain hinders us from learning languages and how to remove these barriers.
I studied at Harvard about brain function, and we explored two parts of it: the frontal cortex, which we usually refer to as the brain and intelligence, and the amygdala, which is its emotional part that primarily does not control us.
The difference is that the frontal cortex is very young. It appeared relatively recently in historical terms, of course, and therefore it is much weaker than the amygdala because the amygdala has been with us since the formation of what we consider the head.
If we could turn off the amygdala while learning languages, we would do it so quickly, efficiently, and effectively that it would only take a few months. We wouldn’t quit our studies; we wouldn’t feel fear, shame, or discomfort. We wouldn’t worry about our accent, and so on. We wouldn’t need motivation, and there would be no doubts about the approaches we use.
Here, I will explain how exactly the amygdala interferes and how to overcome this during language learning. The amygdala always wins over the frontal cortex. This is not only true for languages, but the amygdala is significantly older. Our emotions are stronger than the frontal cortex, the intellectual part. This is an absolute rule.
Therefore, if you experience stress or fear, if you worry about speaking correctly, if you think that making a mistake is terrible, you won’t be able to speak freely, no matter how much you understand that it’s normal to make mistakes and not speak perfectly. Your accent will simply not allow you to speak freely because it creates a direct conflict and confrontation.
For the frontal cortex to function properly, it must convince the emotional part that it’s okay. Here, it makes no sense to be afraid; you can relax.
How to trick the emotional part of the brain, the amygdala, during language learning? The emotional part of our brain is at the developmental level of a five-year-old child. It’s not that hard to trick a five-year-old if you understand that they are a five-year-old.
To convince our emotional part, for example, not to be afraid or ashamed, we need to show it a significant number of confirmations that it’s normal. For instance, a common fear among people is their accent. We might think that an accent is scary, bad, or shows some kind of foolishness.
To counter this, we need to find ten examples where a person speaks with a strong accent and is perceived positively, normally, or even coolly. They might be told, “You have a beautiful accent,” or “You have a rather sexy accent,” or any other positive remark.
When we watch five to ten such videos, we convince that part of ourselves. If your five-year-old child is convinced that cats scratch them, they need to play with five cats that don’t scratch them. Your task is to find those five cats, so to speak. Yes, five videos, five examples where a person is treated excellently, even with an accent, and they are understood and interacted with.
Here’s what I do to ensure that the emotional part of my brain, the amygdala, doesn’t hinder my language learning. First, I find a constant number of unreasonable confirmations that learning languages is cool. People react wonderfully to this.
For example, before I started learning Serbian, I watched how Russian-speaking people interacted with Serbs in Serbian, albeit not perfectly. The Serbs reacted wonderfully. They were encouraging, flirty, and did all sorts of things when they saw that a person knew even a few words in Serbian.
This gives me freedom. I understand that if I start speaking Serbian, even minimally, I will be treated the same way, and this helps me a lot and speeds up my learning.
Second, when I realize that I stumble in my speech, lose words, or forget something, I observe how people react. Most people in the world react calmly. They wait for you to remember or give you a chance to use a translator.
Almost no one starts to panic, except for English teachers or other language instructors. Knowing how this works, I sometimes ask, “Does my forgetting words somehow harm you? Do you think I’m stupid?” When people respond like this, my amygdala relaxes so much that it stops putting obstacles in my way, which I’ve felt my whole life.
How discipline helps trick the amygdala for language learning.
The amygdala, once again, is like a five-year-old child. It is very focused and cannot think about ten things at once, as the frontal cortex can. Therefore, I focus during exercises and habits on how we speak, not just on whether we are speaking.
For example, I stand in front of a mirror and start talking. I focus on the fact that I am speaking, that I am just speaking. It doesn’t matter how or what; I can even force myself to speak incorrectly just to focus on the fact that I am able to speak.
I understand that it is scared, for example, that I don’t speak perfectly in Russian. I might speak at a very high level in Russian, while in English or Serbian, I am at a lower level. I focus on whether I am speaking or not. If I am speaking, that’s great.
I focus on everything being wonderful, and I encourage myself. When the amygdala focuses on something tangible, like speaking or not speaking, it understands that if I speak, that’s good. In this case, it relaxes again and allows us to maximize our language learning experience.
Perfectionism significantly hinders this process. Perfectionism shifts the focus from yes or no to perfect or imperfect. In this case, the amygdala will tear you apart, and there will be no chance of learning languages.
The role of dopamine in language learning and how the amygdala affects it.
The amygdala has a hard time processing parallel emotions. It struggles to feel fear and joy at the same time. Therefore, if we focus on simply completing a task, like speaking something in English, it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, right or wrong—just speaking.
If I accomplish this task, my body starts to release dopamine because I set a goal and achieved it. I feel joy; this is basic behavior. However, if I add perfectionism and look for perfect or imperfect, then dopamine will only be released when it’s perfect.
If I change my criteria to simply speaking for at least ten seconds today, then dopamine starts to be released. If I do this every day—ten seconds today, fifteen tomorrow, twenty the day after, and so on—then dopamine will be released every day.
If this happens day after day, the amygdala will get used to the fact that this activity is associated with dopamine production. This is why you feel so uncomfortable and lose motivation in English classes.
Every time you speak, you hear, “This is wrong, this is a mistake, this is a flaw,” and so on. You feel, understand, and sense discomfort instead of dopamine. You create a connection that speaking English is unpleasant for you, and you don’t want to do it.
In my case, I use dopamine. When I speak English, I feel good, and I want to do it. This way, dopamine fosters in me the habit and desire to speak the language, and the amygdala gives me all the rights to learn the language quickly, efficiently, and without stress.
In my Telegram, I share specific approaches on how to learn a language faster, so feel free to join!