LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Inner Circle S1 #77

How to Get Back on Track After Language
Learning Failure

CONTENTS

Intro
Body
Outro

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INTRO
Chigusa: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Chigusa, and I'll be your host. My co-host
today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante!

Peter: Hi, everyone! Peter here.

Chigusa: In this Inner Circle, we're talking about...

Peter: How to Get Back on Track After Language Learning Failure

Chigusa: And today, you will learn...

Peter: 1) Peter’s Approach to Restarting Hebrew

Chigusa: and 2) How You Can Get Back on Track with Easier Goals & Routines

Peter: All so you can master your target language and reach your goals!

BODY
Chigusa: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle.

Peter: Last time, you learned how to deal with failure...

Chigusa: ...why it happens, and Peter, the reason for that topic was…?

Peter: I failed my April goal, Chigusa. I didn't work on it all.

Chigusa: Yeah, because of the ongoing pandemic. It's a very timely topic...

Peter. And again, it’s a great example of how … life can get in the way of your goals sometimes.

Chigusa: Sometimes, it's out of your control...

Peter: ...And sometimes, you fail because you took on something you couldn't realistically do…

Chigusa: But the one thing you can control… is how you react to a failure.

Peter: Exactly. And how to get back on track. So, last time, I didn't set a goal, Chigusa. In fact, I didn't get
much language time in at all.

Chigusa: What about for the month of May?

Peter: Unfortunately, nothing either.

Chigusa: What about next month? Are you ready to get back to Hebrew?

Peter: Chigusa, now, I'm ready, and so the topic of today's Inner Circle is...

Chigusa: How to Get Back on Track After Language Learning Failure

Peter: And let's jump into part one.

Chigusa: Part 1) Peter’s Approach to Restarting Hebrew

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Peter: So, how do you get back on track for language learning after failing...

Chigusa: Peter, what would you do? You promised 5 minutes of Hebrew conversation for April. You
missed that goal.

Peter; Well, the golden rule is, you never set the same goal again. You scale down.

Chigusa: Why? If it's a goal you really want to hit… Why not try again?

Peter: Well, a few reasons. First, whether you fail because you didn't put in enough work, or it was
outside of your control…. in either case, the goal was too much for you to handle.

Chigusa: Right.

Peter: So, if it was too much last time, Chigusa, what do you think will happen this time?

Chigusa: It'll still be too hard this time.

Peter: Exactly. It makes more sense to aim for an easier goal.

Chigusa: So, if you're not going to do 5 minutes…?

Peter: I'm going to aim for 3 minutes. As it's been a few months now, I am out of practice. And it might
be hard to hit 5 minutes even if I wanted to.

Chigusa: Yeah, you're out of practice.

Peter: Exactly, Chigusa. Second, it's important to reach a goal. You got to give yourself a chance to
succeed.

Chigusa: Right, if you go failing left and right, that's not good for confidence.

Peter: It's not good for overall progress either.

Chigusa: Yeah, usually when you notice yourself improving...or understanding words in a conversation,
then you want to improve even more.

Peter: But if you're failing left and right...

Chigusa: ...you may lose confidence and motivation.

Peter: Exactly. Between failing the 5-minute goal again or… say, reaching a 3-minute goal; I'd go for the 3-
minute goal. In either case, it’s going to be really hard to hit the 5 minutes. At least in one of these cases,
you hit A goal. I get my confidence back. I'm back on track. And I can hit 5 minutes a little further down
the road..

Chigusa: So, just for the record, your goal for next month is... 3 minutes?

Peter: Exactly. Also, my yearly goal tend to be 30 minutes of conversation. And, I’m going to lower that to
20 minutes.

Chigusa; Ah, that's smart. You're thinking ahead.

Peter: I'm adjusting expectations. This is a key component to reaching a goal. Normally, I'd be at 10
minutes at this time of year, but you know….

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Chigusa: Yeah, hitting 30 by December may not be realistic. Okay, goals aside... how will you be actually
learning Hebrew?

Peter: So before the pandemic, I was learning with audio lessons on my commute, flashcards at lunch, I
had an online class, and I was listening to Alexa in the evening.

Chigusa: That's a lot!

Peter: It was! But I won’t be doing all of that again. In fact, I haven’t been to the classes in a while..

Chigusa: I think if you did, you'd overwhelm yourself.

Peter: Exactly. The easiest thing for me is to dive back into HebrewPod101 lessons. They're easy to do. I
just press play and listen. Normally, I'd listen while I commute two or three times a week. But since we're
working from home, I’ll be listening in the morning.

Chigusa: Any specific plans for the audio lessons?

Peter: I’ll listen and shadow the conversation as much as possible. Later on in the day, I'll read the lesson
notes. I notice it helps to learn the same information in different ways.

Chigusa: So listening in the morning….

Peter: ….And reading it in the afternoon. And it should help with trickier things like remembering specific
words and grammar. You can also try and write out the dialogue and example sentences for grammar
rules a bit later.

Chigusa: Why not do it all in one sitting? Like, set aside 30 minutes and do it all: Like, Listen, then read,
then write.

Peter: You can. But it works a bit like spaced repetition learning. If you give yourself some time to relax
and forget, reviewing what you learned sticks for longer… rather than doing it all in one shot.

Chigusa: I see. Kind of like how teachers recommend you study a bit for several days rather than
cramming the night before.

Peter: Exactly. So, I'll keep my routine light and do that. This is pretty much what I did back in March,
minus online classes, and using my Premium Plus teacher. Just HebrewPod101 lessons. I'll focus on the
basic conversations, so I can hit my 3-minute mark.

Chigusa: What about for our listeners?

Peter: So, let's jump into the next part.

Chigusa: Part 2) How to Get Back on Track with Easier Goals & Routines

Peter: Listeners, the golden rule to getting back on track after failing a goal is…

Chigusa: Never set the same goal again.

Peter: And you do that for a few reasons.

Chigusa: One: if you failed it before, there's a good chance that the goal is too much for you.

Peter: At which point, you'll want an easier goal.

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Chigusa: Two: You need to give yourself a chance to succeed.

Peter: And if that requires setting a super-easy goal that you will achieve\…

Chigusa: ...then so be it. Do that.

Peter: It’ll be better for your motivation than failing multiple times in a row.

Chigusa: It'll get you back in motion with language learning.

Peter: So, for example, aim for the last goal that you've reached. Try it again.

Chigusa: Once you've set a smaller goal…

Peter: Think back to that last goal you hit…

Chigusa: ...what was your learning routine back then?

Peter: And repeat that process. If it worked back then….

Chigusa: ... there's a good chance, it’ll work this time.

Peter: You've stuck with the routine before, so you'll be able to do it again.

Chigusa: If you don't have a successful routine in place, then check out our February 2020 Inner Circle
episode.

Peter: ...you'll learn how to create routines...

Chigusa: ...by piggybacking off of your existing daily routines.

Peter: In other words, instead of creating a new routine…

Chigusa: ….that you may have trouble sticking with…

Peter: You work with what you already have: your existing routines. So, if you already spend 10 minutes
on chores in the morning….

Chigusa: ...you can play a lesson and learn a bit of language then.

Peter: Or, if you take a walk in the evening, you can play a lesson then.

Chigusa: Once you have a routine, let's talk about learning material.

Peter: The easiest way to restart learning…

Chigusa: ...is with our audio and video lessons.

Peter: All you have to do is hit play and follow along.

Chigusa: And even better, you can multitask.

Peter: For example, as we mentioned, you can be doing chores and listening in.

Chigusa: We recommend multitasking because it's a lot easier to listen, and do what you usually do…

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Peter: … as opposed to buying a textbook, setting aside time, sitting down and trying to go through
it...when you're not used to learning a language.

Chigusa: Now, if you can sit down and focus on a book, you should…

Peter: ...but in the context of getting back into a language learning routine…

Chigusa: ...or trying to learn for the first time, it's better to multitask and not overwhelm yourself.

Peter: Finally, the easiest possible thing you can do is, take advantage of our word of the day lessons.

Chigusa: These are daily emails that teach you one new word a day.

Peter: And the goal of these emails is to get you used to learning, and create a simple routine.

Chigusa: If you can stick with spending 1 quick minute learning a new word…

Peter: Then, you can grow to stick with almost any other routine.

Chigusa: Alright, Peter, so earlier you promised us 3 minutes for next month.

Peter: Yes, but I'm taking a step back and going for an easier goal.

Chigusa: Sounds good. Deadline?

Peter: June 30th.

Chigusa: And listeners, let us know what your small, measurable monthly goal is.

Peter: Email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com, and stay tuned for the next Inner
Circle.

OUTRO
Chigusa: Well, that's going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson!

Peter: Bye, everyone!

Chigusa: Thanks for listening!

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