Being bad at English is the first step to being a confident, professional English speaker.
Several recent studies and books have focused on the science of skill acquisition. (๐๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ โ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค ๐ต๐ข๐ด๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ) As it turns out, we are born with few natural talents and skills. Excellence is borne not of any innate ability but practice. In other words, you can be good at whatever you want.
If itโs possible for anyone to acquire any skill, why donโt more people do it? Why donโt they improve or get good at things theyโve always wanted, like cooking, sports, or playing the piano?
The first answer, of course, is that itโs difficult, much harder than people realize, and requires incredible discipline. It just takes time and effort, which most people donโt have or arenโt willing to give.
Ed Sheeran shares this concept and demonstrates that not all artists are born with natural talent by playing an early recording of himself when he was younger trying to sing:
https://youtu.be/flkjMuaKYQU
โ๐๐ฐ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฐโฆ โ๐ฐ๐ฉ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐โ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆโฆ ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ, ๐ฏ๐ฐ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐บ, ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต. ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ฆ.โ - Ed Sheeran
So, if you're bad at golf or snowboarding โ and you know you are โ take a chance and let go of your fear of embarrassment. Itโs possible to acquire and hone skills to perfection (or nearโperfection) through practice and dedication.
Kobe Bryant can also teach us about how he improved his basketball skills. After each game, he would call people and ask for feedback on how his game went. He'd try to understand what he did wrong and what he could do to improve the next game.
"You can also learn a lot by asking yourself questions, watching others or reading a book. The benefit of asking questions is that it will encourage you to think about what you can do to improve and what makes others so good at what they do." - Kobe Bryant.
In this interview, Kobe Bryant offers vital advice on a growth mindset and his systematic approach to improving his game.
I genuinely appreciate his words when he tells us how we must take embarrassment less personally in the extended scheme of our ultimate final goal. Here's what he said:
"You gotta get over yourself. It's not about you, man. Like, OK. You feel embarrassed. You're not that important, like, get over yourself. You're worried about how people may perceive you and, like, you're walking around, and it's embarrassing because you shot five air balls. Get over yourself. (Instead,) Ask yourself, 'why did those air balls happen?'" - Kobe Bryant
You can watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/VSceuiPBpxY
The bottom line is you mustn't be embarrassed about how bad your English may be. Instead, consider that you must be first ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต something to improve and become ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต it.
If you are an independent learner, please download my Guide to Self-Study and ensure you're doing *active* learning activities to help you grow.
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