Before You Even Start

The reason I am so interested in the initial stages of learning is because that is before you have had any wins. There is a discrepancy between what people say they want to do, and what they do. Getting started seems to be the hardest part. I don't think confusion/hard work/learning ever disappears, but for the most part you are unsure of whether it is worth the effort because you aren't sure if you are capable or if you are just going to be wasting effort. Rather do nothing than try and figure out you can't do it. At least then you can think you might be able to do something rather than 'proving' you can't. 

Often there are tricks to make things easier, but the tricks require laying groundwork that seems just as intimidating. My approach to trying to learn more languages is to try learn some of these tricks via Fluent Forever. This is requiring learning IPA and watching and re watching the many helpful (but still initially challenging) videos Gabe Wyner has put together. Sal Khan of the Khan Academy started out by putting tutorials on YouTube for his cousins. They said they actually preferred these to him giving them lessons. Videos have a guilt free pause button and zero impatience. When someone is teaching you, you feel like you are wasting their time admitting you are lost. The same happens in business meetings. Perhaps there should be a little button in front of people to slide to their degree of 'lostness'. Or pre-recorded 'tutorials'. 

The truth is the initial stages of learning are very slow, and you feel rather incompetent. You haven't had the wins yet for it to feel fun. Perhaps that is why we learn better when there is external motivation. For languages, that is often a romantic interest. For Gabe Wyner, it was his love of opera. For me, I have made unsustained romantic stabs, but my primary motivator is that I feel cut off from most of the world by only speaking English. To really get to know someone and to understand other cultures, I think you need to speak their mother tongue. The world is full of flavour - I want to taste more.