Forced to function: Learning a language as if your life depended on it
The most successful language learners are those who are forced to function—or who force themselves to function—in a foreign language environment.
Being forced to function is not your usual immersion. We all know this one person who’s been living in country X for decades, fully “immersed” in language Y, married to a native speaker of Y, the kids going to a local school, studying in language Y, and yet! They, themselves, don’t speak 2 words of it. Clearly, immersion is not the answer.
So what determines the outcomes?
When you’re forced to function in a foreign language environment, some core aspects of your life depend on your good command of the language in question. When you’re simply immersed in it—they don’t.
In the first case, proficiency in your target language is a necessity. In the second, it’s simply a wish, a nice-to-have.
Pick a random expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Nothing in his environment truly compels him to use Thai. He works online, and all his client communications are in English—his freelance job doesn’t depend on him speaking Thai. An online job allows him to work from home or out of a coworking space hosting 10 other expats per square meter—so his workplace social life takes place within an English-speaking bubble. His social and dating life doesn’t depend on Thai either—Chiang Mai is famous for its large expat community. And, frankly, most locals probably speak some English anyway and will automatically accommodate a farang. And he could have all the desire in the world to learn Thai. But the crucial piece of information here is that he doesn’t have to.
The stakes are low. The progress—if any—will likely be slow. Because given a choice, people choose the path of least resistance. Our brains are wired that way. Speaking and thinking in a foreign language is hard. It’s hard even if you’re intermediate/advanced—a level where you should actually be comfortable enough with the language in question to use it in most situations. But if your environment doesn’t actually compel you to use it, any interaction in (or with) this language must be self-inflicted, self-initiated, and self-sustained.
In other words, you will have to consciously and deliberately override your linguistic defaults (using English) every time you have a language choice to make:
conversation: you could talk to this person in English (and it will be effortless)—or you could talk to them in your target language (and it will be more effortful for both parties + you probably won’t express yourself as clearly and eloquently as you normally would + there may be some misunderstanding);
reading: you could read this book in English (and you’ll finish it quickly while taking the most of it)—or you could read it in your target language (which will probably take twice as much time and won’t be nearly as enjoyable + you might misunderstand a few things);
search: you could Google this question in English (and you’ll quickly find the information you’re looking for)—or you could go ahead and sift through the search results in your target language (good luck with that!)
…
You know that consistently choosing option #2 will massively improve your proficiency in your target language in a very short time. The problem is that, in the heat of the moment, people have a tendency to prioritize short-term gratification and lose sight of larger long-term rewards. It’s called the present bias. And while choosing to use your target language may be more aligned with your long-term goal of achieving fluency, it often stands in direct conflict with the demands of the moment. When you’re heading to talk to your bilingual colleague, often all you want is to quickly and efficiently discuss the matter at hand. So, the old habits take over and you unconsciously—and rightly so—choose English as the most efficient tool to solve this problem. When you’re flipping through your Netflix homepage, torn between a movie in English and one in your target language, a part of you just wants to relax and enjoy a good show—not to strain your hemispheres with “oh my God, what are they saying?”.
Don’t get me wrong—you can override the default response. But expecting yourself to do so consistently—including when you’re tired, or under time-pressure, or when the stakes are high—is a fallacy. That’s a lot of reliance on self-control. We often underestimate the amount of self-control required to consistently follow through with our goals—especially in the environment where you’re swimming against the stream.
When your personal language defaults match the language defaults of your environment, you have to counter two forces: your own habits and the expectations in your environment. You can “cave” and use English with your bilingual colleague in an English-speaking country, and no one will even blink, because English is the default setting. If, however, people around you expect you to speak your target language (because now it’s their linguistic default)—and you literally can’t get things done efficiently without a proper command of this language—your environment, even if seemingly antagonistic in the moment, actually works in your favor long-term (*).
(*) People have the power to purposefully design their environment in accordance with their goals. There are people like Scott Young who’ll deliberately engineer for themselves a non-English-speaking environment and force themselves to function therein—for the sake of achieving proficiency in a foreign language in record time. And there are people who’ll immigrate to another country and choose to remain in their native language bubble—choosing to live in a neighborhood full of compatriots, choosing to surround themselves with fellow immigrant friends, choosing to find a job via these circles—a job that doesn’t require a command of the official language—and choosing to speak their own language in their daily life. This, too, is a valid life design choice—and a virtual guarantee that they will never learn the language of their host country.
Want to learn a language fast?
Leave yourself no choice. Design a scenario where your life—social or professional—actually depends on you speaking your target language well. The reality is that learning a language “just because” is actually much harder than learning it because you have to.
If you want to learn another language fast, language learning shouldn’t be an isolated goal. Your desire to learn a foreign language should be intimately connected to your other aspirations in life.
So don’t just learn French—learn French in order to do Z. When just go do Z and your French will follow.
Written by Alina Kuimova | 11/10/2024