Roller Coaster Ride - Language Learning

I realized today that's how I would describe learning a foreign language - a roller coaster ride.  I'm in the process of learning my 3rd foreign language - Croatian.  French was my 2nd, and the roller coaster ride was the same in France.  It was challenging, and during those challenging times I thought I wasn't going to make it over the hump; I felt like giving up, I thought the assignments were too hard, but then I slowly climbed and kept climbing, and then I would turn a corner and make a huge leap in progress.  Often I wouldn't realize it until after an event, like spending all night with our French friends and actually conversing in French for 5-6 hours straight.  Later, I would think, "Was that me?" 

And now I'm in Croatia and in some ways having gone through that process with learning French and living in France has greatly helped me learn my 3rd language.  However, it does also pose problems, like often in public when I'm conversing, I know exactly how I would say something in French, but don't yet have the words in Croatian.  This is frustrating.   

I currently dread going to my Croatian class every day because I skipped a level, and while grammar is my strength, vocabulary and speaking are not.  I'm with students who have lived here for 3-5 years, some married to or dating Croatians, and some have Croatian relatives.  I'm so afraid I'm going to go into class one day and not understand anything or be able to communicate at all, thus the dreaded uphill climb of the roller coaster ride.  BUT then, after I leave class, I realize I understood almost everything and actually conversed, even though it wasn't perfect. 

So one of my problems is...perfection.  Yeah, I'm sure my mom is reading this saying, uh yeah, you're a perfectionist and you put way too much pressure on yourself.  So, my new goal is to be fearless:  fearless to try, fearless to speak, fearless to ask questions. (these are really hard things to do for perfectionists)

This morning over breakfast I was sharing with my guys my jealousy (o.k. that's apparently another problem of mine) of how two Russian girls in my class, who are either engaged to or dating a Croatian man, converse in Croatian with such ease: 

"Not fair!" I was telling them.  "Not only do they already have a declension (the case endings for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns that change according to the function they play in the sentence) structure in their language, but they practice Croatian all day long!" 

But, in all fairness, I was just being a baby.  And then JJ said, "Mom you're doing great!  You just need to listen to it more, and it will come!"  

And he's right!!!  Here are 5 quick tips for people learning foreign languages (wherever you are).  If you're like me and struggling with being a baby or a perfectionist, hopefully these will help:

1.  Spend time with and in the language.  I interpret this as "put the time in" and "be fully immersed as much as possible".  This means being intentional about things like: listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases.

2.  Listen and read every day.  They recommend at least 1 hour of this every day. 

3.  Build up your vocabulary.  Learn verbs, notice words and how they come together as phrases. 

4.  Take ownership and responsibility for learning.  Don't wait for someone else to show you the language or tell you what to do. 

5.  Relax and Enjoy yourself!  Basically loosen up and realize learning a language takes time and in the meantime don't obsess about being perfect or waiting to speak until you're perfect.  The good news is that soon our brains will start making sense of it all!

Yeah, one day (hopefully soon) I'll get over this hump, and realize that learning language is a series of humps.  I need to rejoice in the humps I've made it over and know that I'll make it over this one too. 

And one day, like in France, I probably won't even realize it until I look back and say, "Was that me?"