Is it easy to learn a new skill on your own?

 

Have you ever tried to learn a new skill on your own? You've probably tried it. And you were thinking it could be hard and difficult, weren't you? When I started thinking about whether to learn a new language or not, I had all those thoughts that drove me crazy. Let me tell you that thinking in such way just made me feel unable to do so. So, I stopped thinking about it. It's also important to have a purpose and motivation to start learning. My purpose was to learn a language completely different to mine. And my motivation was the following thought "You will watch your beloved Thai series without subtitles in English". If you haven't established your purpose, I suggest you to do it! Then, we can start with our adventure.  

First, stop thinking you cannot do anything! Thinking in this way will only lead you to stop yourself doing new things. Tell yourself you can do whatever you want. I say so because that happened to me. At first, I was telling myself "You won't learn that language because it is really hard to learn, just keep learning English, no more". Then, I realized that if I do not try it, how will I know if it was difficult or impossible? Then, I started my challenge. I enrolled myself in a Thai class. Every Saturday I had classes from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. It was really hard to wake very early on a Saturday, your day off from everything. Anyways, I continued my challenge. 

Second, you must be disciplined to be successful in your learning, otherwise, you won't success. Once you have started learning something, keep learning it. I suggest you to be constant in what you are learning, it could be to play the guitar, to draw, to sing, etc. As you know, here in Ecuador you won't find anyone who speaks Thai. So, to learn a new language, you must have exposure to it. So, I had to do many things just to have that needed exposure. The methodology of my Thai class was the Flipped Classroom. For those who don't know what Flipped Classroom is, it is a methodology in which students are asked to work by themselves outside the classroom, often online; where if they have any doubt about the topic, they can ask their teacher for a better explanation. That means, every Saturday I had the chance to ask my teacher for any clarification about the class or the material. For me, watching Thai series and listening to Thai music was really helpful to learn better.

Finally, keep in mind the purpose and motivation of why you are doing it. It really worked for me. Once I learned the 32 vowels and 44 consonants, I started producing sentences just to understand how the language works. Again, I was encouraging myself to learn the sounds and tones just to understand my Thai series without subtitles. And I did it! I learned basic Thai. It wasn't easy, it was really hard. If I compare English with Thai, I will definitely say that learning English is easier than learning Thai. I won't lie to you, when I started learning English, I had to establish my purpose of learning it, and my motivation as well. Everything can be achieved, just be perseverant, disciplined, and positive. Don't stop yourself from doing something without having tried it. ขอบคุณค่ะ 🙏!