Let’s face it. 让我们面对这个事实 Learning a new language for the first time is confusing. 第一次学外语很让人头疼。 We often don’t know how to get started, nor do we have the time to commit to learning! This leads us to waste our energy, money, and most importantly, time. 我们往往不知怎样开始，我们也没有时间可以花在学习上！这使得我们浪费了精力、金钱，以及最重要的——时间。 That stops today. We’re going to show you the 5 most deadly mistakes all language learners make?—?and how you can avoid them. 不过这一切都会在今天画上句号。我们会告诉你所有语言学习者都会犯的5个最致命的错误——以及怎样避免它们。 1. Not knowing your “why” 1.不知道“为什么” Understanding your “why” is where it all has to start. As Simon Sinek explains in his book, 一切都得从知道“为什么”开始。西蒙·斯涅克在他的书里说道： Start with Why that the reason why you’re doing something is far more important than the how or what. 从“为什么”开始。你做某事的原因比你如何做这件事以及这件事是什么都重要。
This is because whenever we take on a new task or project, there’s always going to be an obstacle or struggle that we’ll need to overcome. Those who give up early on are the ones that haven’t clarified what their “why” is. 这是因为，只要我们开始做一项新的任务或是项目，总会有障碍或者困难拦在前面要我们去解决。那些早早放弃的人就是那些不知道他们自己为什么要做这件事的人。 Let’s come back to language learning. Whatever your target language is?—?Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, etc.?—?what’s your “why?” 让我们回到语言学习上。不管你要学的是什么语言——西班牙语、意大利语、普通话等等。——你为什么要学它？ Here are some questions we recommend you ask, as explained in our free language learning course: 以下是几个建议你回答的问题，在我们的免费语言课程上也提到过： What you will achieve? 你会有什么成就？ Who will you be able to connect with? 你将能和谁联系在一起？ Who will you become as a person? 你将成为谁？ The next time you’re facing difficulty or losing motivation, just come back to these reasons, and you’ll get right back on track. 以后你遇到困难或者没有动力时，就想想这些原因，你就又能走上正轨了。 2. No clear end goal 2.没有清晰的目标 “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” “设立目标是把不可见的事物变成可见事物的第一步。” —?Tony Robbins ——托尼·罗宾斯 It doesn’t matter if we have the fastest car in the world. If we don’t know where we’re going, we’ll just end up wasting precious energy, money, and time going nowhere. 我们不需要有世界上最快的车。如果我们不知道自己要去哪里，我们就只会浪费我们宝贵的精力、金钱和时间，而且哪里都去不了。 All of us have a desire that we want to fulfill; we just have to clarify what that is, and make it the driver to our success. 我们所有人都有想要实现的愿望；我们只要明确这个渴望是什么，然后把它变成我们成功的动力。 There are 5 key components to setting goals. Your goal has to be: 设立目标有五大要素。你的目标必须： a. Visually specific?—?Get as visually clear as possible about what your end-result would look like, to the point where you can close your eyes and imagine it. a.视觉上要清晰——让你的目标视觉上越清晰越好，直到你闭上眼就能想象它。 b. Slightly out of reach?—?There is a fine balance to picking a goal that’s way out of reach, to one that is within reach. This mini-goal should be something you can visually imagine, but a goal that you would need to push yourself to accomplish. b.不在触手可及的范围中——在选择遥不可及的目标和选择可以触及的目标之间有一个精妙的平衡点。这个小目标必须是你可以想象得出的，但是你需要努力督促自己才能实现。 c. Measurable?—?What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get improved. The easiest way to do this is to put a number on it. This could be number of words memorized, the length of conversation you can have with a native speaker, etc. c.可以测量——不可测量的东西，也不能提高。测量的最简单办法就是把目标量化。比如说记下的单词数，或者是能和以该语言为母语的人谈话时间的长短，等等。 d. Goal oriented?—?Focus on the results, not how much time you spent getting there. For example, instead of measuring how many hours you studied every week, only measure what measurable result you achieved. d.以目标为导向——专注于结果，而不是你花的时间。比如说，不要计算你每周学习了多长时间，而要统计你达成了什么可以测量的结果。 Remember, it doesn’t matter how much effort you put in, unless you get the results from the effort 记住，你花的精力并不重要，除非这些花出去的精力给了你结果。 e. Deadline specific?—?As Parkinson’s Law states, the time we spend completing a task will depend on the time we allocate to the task. This means that if we give ourselves 30 days to complete a report that should only take 30 minutes, that’s exactly how long we’ll take to complete it. e.截止日期要具体——帕金森定律是这么说的：我们完成一项任务的的时间是我们分配给这项任务的时间所决定的。这意味着如果我们分配给一项报告30天，而完成这项报告只需要30分钟，那这项报告就真的需要30天才能完成。 Whatever goal you set, make sure you have a deadline to accomplish it. 不管你设定了什么目标，你都要给它设定一个完成期限。 Let me share 3 examples of goals that are bad, good, and great, so you can get an understanding of how your goal compares. 让我来和你分享3个目标的例子，这些例子依次是坏的、好的、极佳的，这样有了比较，你就知道你的目标究竟怎样了。 Bad goal: I want to become fluent in Spanish so I can travel to Spain by next year. 坏目标：我想把西班牙语说流利，这样明年我就能去西班牙旅行了。 Good goal: I want to become conversation fluent in Spanish so I can travel to Spain by next summer. 好目标：我想要说流利的西班牙语会话，这样明年夏天我就能去西班牙旅行了。 Great goal: I will have a 15-minute conversation in Spanish with a native Spanish person over coffee in a cafe in Madrid on July 2016. 极佳目标：2016年7月我将会在咖啡店喝咖啡时和西班牙当地人进行一个15分钟的西班牙语对话。 Do you notice the difference? 你注意到不同了吗？ Compared to the first two goals, the great goal is written as if it’s already accomplished (I want vs I will), and includes all the components of the goal-setting formula including deadline, measurability, visually specific, and results oriented. 和前两个目标比起来，那个极佳的目标写的就像已经实现了一样（“我想”vs“我将”），而且它包含了所有设定目标的要素，其中有截止日期、可测量性、视觉上具体以及以结果为导向。 3. No schedule 3.没有计划 The most successful people and top-performers in their industry focus on the process, not just the deadline. Optimal performance is less important than the daily practice of taking action, no matter how hard it is or how tired you are. 某个领域最成功的人和表现最好的人不仅仅注意截止日期，也专注于过程。最理想的表现不如每日行动重要，不管行动多么难，你是多么的累。 If you want to write a book, this could mean waking up each morning in order to write 500 words, no matter how bad the first draft is. 如果你想要写一本书，这可能意味着每天早上你要早早地起来写上500个词，不管初稿是多么的糟糕。 If you want to double your business sales, this could mean spending every week with your team reviewing your sales numbers, and executing a new growth experiment. 如果你想要让你的商业销量翻倍，这可能意味着每周你都要和你的团队检验你的销售数据，然后实行新的增收计划。 If you want to lose 10 pounds, this could mean running 30 minutes every morning. 如果你想减掉10磅，这可能意味你每天早上要跑30分钟。 For many of us, learning a new language is not the #1 priority in our lives. It’s our family time, careers, or other side projects we may be working on. 对我们很多人来说，学一门新的语言不是生活中的首要任务。重要的是和家人在一起的时间、事业或者其它副业。 This is why scheduling your learning time is even more important than scheduling your work time. 这就是为什么安排你的学习时间比安排你的工作时间更重要。
Here are some practical steps we recommend to schedule your learning time: 下面是我们对你安排学习时间的可行步骤的一些建议： Pick your language learning activity?—?this could be memorizing 30 of the most common words on your own or working with a private language coach at Rype. 选择你的语言学习项目——可以是自己或者和Rype上的私人语言教练记30个单词。 Figure out your free times?—?when are the vacant times during the day? 找出你的空余时间——你一天中哪些时段是闲着的？ If you’re a morning person, it could be before work. It could be during lunch break, or even in the evening (the most popular time for Rypers). 如果你早上精神好，你就可以选择上班之前的时间。也可以是午休时间，甚至是晚间（Rype使用者最喜欢这个时间段）。 Add in 15–30 minute buffer time?—?schedules never go according to plan. This is why we want to make sure we add some buffer times, so if we happened to wake up later than usual, or get held from traffic on the way back from home, we can still use the buffer time to stay on track. 加入15—30分钟的缓冲时间，事实情况往往是不跟着安排走的。这就是我们要加入缓冲时间的原因，所以如果我们起来比往常晚了，或者回家路上堵车了，缓冲时间就能使我们留在正轨上。 Set reminders?—?because we probably have a dozen things we need to remember during our days, setting notification reminders goes a long way. 设置提醒——因为可能有很多事需要我们记住，设置提醒就对我们大有帮助了。 This could be done through any digital calendar software you use (i.e. Google, Outlook, etc), and you can even receive them on your phone. 这可以通过你使用的各种电子日历软件实现（比如：Google，Outlook等等），你甚至可以在你的手机上接到提醒。 4. Being an information sucker 4.不加区分地吸入信息 We’ve all been there. We spend hours attending a conference or reading a book. The excitement overwhelms us and our body is filled with motivation ready to master anything! 我们都犯过这错误。我们花好几个小时开会或者是读一本书。这种激情笼罩着我们，我们的身体充满了掌握任何一样知识的动力！ How often do we actually master it? 然而我们是否经常能掌握知识呢？ Research from NTL Institute has shown that people learn: 美国国家训练学院的研究表明，当人们： 5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from a lecture. 参加大课时，它们只掌握了5%的知识。 10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading. 阅读时，只掌握了10%的知识。 20% of what they learn from audio-visual. 通过视听系统学习时，只掌握了20%的知识。 30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration 看到示范时，只掌握了30%的知识。 50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion. 当参加小组讨论时，只掌握了50%的知识。 75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned. 当他们动手实践时，能掌握75%的知识。 90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately. 当他们教某人这项知识或是立即使用这项知识时，能掌握90%的知识。 The key to learning a language is to learn by doing! This means actually going out there and practicing your skills with other people (preferably native speakers). If you don’t have anyone in your inner circle, then work with a language coach online! 学习语言的关键在于要用它！这意味着真正地走出去然后和别人切磋自己的技巧（最好适合母语使用者）。如果你的小圈子里没有可以帮你的人，那就找网上的语言教练陪练。 5. Doing everything yourself 5.单打独斗 Ever heard the saying, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together?” 听说过这句话吗？“如果你想跑得快，一个人跑。如果你想走得远，大家一起走。” According to best-selling author, Seth Godin: 畅销书作家赛斯·高汀说： Five Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World (In Anything) （在任意一件事情上）你可能不能成为世界一流的5个原因 1. You run out of time (and quit) 1.没时间了（然后放弃） 2. You run out of money (and quit) 2.没钱了（然后放弃） 3. You get scared (and quit) 3.害怕了（然后放弃） 4. You’re not serious about it (and quit) 4.不认真（然后放弃） 5. You lose interest (and quit) 4.没兴趣了（然后放弃) It’s easy to resort to going at it alone, this is how we’ve lived most of our lives. 要单打独斗很简单，这也是大部分时候我们的生活方式。 But if you observe the best performers and the fastest learners, they have someone who works with them, whether it’s a mentor, advisor, or coach. 但是如果你观察表现最佳者和学得最快的人，它们会有一些战友，可能是导师、顾问或者是教练。 In almost any aspect of our lives, we have a coach that we work with, whether it’s a fitness trainer, financial advisor, business mentor, or sports coach. This is the best kept secret amongst the best performers and the fastest learners in the world. 几乎在我们生活的每一个领域，我们都有教练，比如健身教练、金融顾问、商业导师、或是体育教练。这就是表现最佳者和学得最快的人的终极秘密。
Language learning is no different. 语言也一样。 If you’ve truly discovered your why, and have a clear goal that you’ve set for yourself. It’s time to get outside help, to guide you through each step of the way, keep you accountable, and accelerate your learning speed. 如果你真的知道你为什么要学，有一个清晰的目标，那现在就是你寻求外界帮助的时候了，外界帮助能领你走好每一步，让你对自己负责，提高你的学习速度。 With so many solutions out there at the tip of your finger?—? from craigslist, Rype, conversation exchanges, or even Meetups?—?there is no excuse. 你手头有很多可以依靠的资源——他们来自craigslist，Rype，conversation exchanges，甚至是Meetups——不要找借口了。 Anyone can learn a new language, no matter how old you are, how busy you are, and even if you’ve tried before. It’s finding the right strategy that works for you, and avoiding the most deadly mistakes that language learners make. 任何人都可以学外语，不管你多大，你多忙，哪怕你以前试过没成功。对你而言寻找正确的策略，避免语言学习中最致命的错误才是最重要的。 |
|
|
