Get out of your comfort zone

We often hear life begins outside of our comfort zone. However, much of current Western civilization is geared toward making us stay in our comfort zones or safe spaces. As American Tyler Cowen shows in his latest book, “The complacent class”,  Americans are less mobile and flexible than ever.  Germans, too, are well known for risk-avoidance and for preferring to stay their whole life with one morning newspaper, one company and one cozy house - with a carefully mowed lawn.

We feel threatened when we are obliged to leave our comfort zone: forced to change our profession, to move to another city, to listen to new ideas, or to live with people from other cultures.

In language learning, our comfort zone may be:

• ·         Clinging to a certain accent, intonation or speed while speaking in a foreign language;
•        Preferring visual over audio material;
•       Avoiding unstructured tasks of producing our own sentences, and sticking to multiple-choice grammar exercises;
•        Avoiding difficult audio material, while clinging to Youtube videos for beginners;
•        Refusing to move on to more difficult grammar;
•        Avoiding situations where we might be forced to speak to foreigners.

Successful foreign language speakers take “risks” all the time. So, let’s emulate them and orient ourselves upwards.

Tip 1: Schedule one activity per week that takes you out of your comfort zone.

Tip 2: Choose one language learning technique that makes you feel “uncomfortable”.

Gerhard

Check out our book “The GO Method” on Amazon.