Prioritás 101

Prioritás 101

Ebben a cikkben arról írok, hogy mit jelent a ‘prioritás’ valamint, hogy miért fontos a nylevtanulás mellett elkölezednünk ahhoz, hogy sikerrel járjunk.

 
 

 
 

Amikor valamit igazán fontossá válik az életedben, nem hozol fel kifogásokat többé arra, hogy miért nem teszel semmit érte. Bárki vagy bármi prioritást élvez, az olyan fontossá válik, hogy minden más fölé helyeződik az életünkben.

 

Manapság mindenki nagyon el van foglalva. Az elfoglaltság egy életforma lett. Ettől függetlenül mindig vannak dolgok, amelyek fontosabbak valami másnál. Van akinél az edzés, torna, reggeli futás élvez előnyt minden mással szemben, van akinek a gyereke az első, és van, akinek az olvasás vagy további tudás vagy ismeret megszerzése áll az első helyen.

 

Mások a prioritásaink. Viszont mindenkinek áll valami a fontossági listája élén. Amint elkezdjük megfigyelni, hogy melyek azok a dolgok, amelyekre mindig találunk időt, könnyedén megláthatjuk, hogy mik a prioritásaink az életben.

 

Nekem úgy tűnik, hogy egy idegen nyelv megtanulását kevesen helyezik a prioritási listájuk elejére. Talán kényszerből kerül oda ideig óráig, de aztán ismét hátra csúszik. Bavallom, én is gyakran így vagyok ezzel, ha nem hajt a Tatár, akkor hanyagolom a nyelvek tanulását.

 

Viszont, ha szükségem van a nyelvre valamilyen oknál fogva, akkor minden erőmmel azon vagyok, hogy minél előbb elsajátítsam azt. Tudom, hogy idő és energia befektetést igényel és így a prioritási listám elejére kerül a tanulás illetve mindaz, ami szükséges ahhoz, hogy a tanulmányaim sikerrel járjanak!

 

Mint már írtam korábban, ahhoz hogy elkötelezettek tudjunk maradni az elhatározásunkhoz és hogy a nyelvtanulás ténylegesen a fontos dolgok listáján maradjon nap mind nap, erős motivációs húzóerőre van szükségünk!

 

Fontos leülnünk önmagunkkal és végig gondolnunk, hogy miért és mennyire fontos – ha egyáltalán fontos – elsajátítanunk az adott nyelvet és hogy milyen mennyiségű energia befeketetésre vagyunk hajlandóak ahhoz, hogy a célunkat elérjük. Majd nap mind nap számot kell adnunk önmagunknak arról, hogy mit tettünk azért, hogy sikerrel járjunk.

 

Az az ember, aki éveket tölt azzal, hogy egy nyelvet megtanuljon valójában nem akarja bírni a nyelvet. Ez az ember a ‘jó lenne ha’ kategóriában evickél éveken át. Itt csak időtöltésként szerepel időnként a nyelvtanulási próbálkozások sora, amelyek többsége szinte semmi eredménnyel nem jár.

 

Az ebben a karegóriában lévők cserben hagyják önmagunkat minden alkalommal, amikor újra belefognak a nyelvtanulásba, mert már a kezdetekkor sem rendelkeznek egy letisztázott céllal, ami mellett elköteleződhetnének. Ezt hivják angolul ‘setting yourself up for failure!’, ami kb. annyit tesz, hogy eleve kudarcra ítélted magad.

 

Az angol nyelvű cikk végén van egy coaching teszt, amelyet ha megcsinálsz meglátod, hogy hol rejlenek a tényleges prioritásaid.

 

Emitt a cikk, CLICK

Remélem, hogy a teszt segítségével magasabb prioritási szintre tudod emelni a nyelvtanulást az életedben. 🙂 Hajrá!

 

Ha szeretnél velem angolul ‘megtanulni’ itt tudsz velem kapcsolatba lépni.

 

Létezni a nyelven belül

Létezni a nyelven belül

Ebben a blogban azt vitatom, hogy mi a különbség ‘beszélni egy nyelven’ és ‘beszélni egy nyelvben‘.

 

 
 

Szeretnék néhány tipped adni arra, hogy hogyan beszélj gördülékenyen angolul, vagy bármely idegen nyelven. A ‘gördülékenység’ valójában, szerintem, a nyelven való jártasságból adódik. Nem a linvisztikai ismeretekre gondolok itt leginkább, hanem az ‘elsajátításra’ és az ‘magunkévá-tevésre’. 🙂

 

Gyakran kérdezik tőlem, hogy miért mondtam valamit így vagy úgy. A válaszom mindig ugyan az, azért, mert azon túl, hogy gramatikailag vagy lingvisztikailag helyes a mondat ‘a magaménak is érzem’. Úgy érzem, hogy pontosan ez a kifejezés fejezi ki azt, amit mondani szeretnék. Biztosan lehetne másképpen is mondani, de számomra ez a legmegfelelőbb, mert ez a kifejezés fejezi ki legpontosabban, azt, amit mondani akarok.

 

Ameddig nem gondolkodsz a tanult nyelven, olyan szavakat használsz, amelyek megközelítöleg fedik azt, amit mondani szeretnél. Amikor tanulmányaim során ezen a szinten jártam, mindig azt mondogattam, hogy ‘tudod mire gondolok?‘ Ez azért volt, mert éreztem, hogy nem pontosan azt mondom, amit mondani szeretnék és reméltem, hogy akikhez beszélek olvasnak a gondolataimban. 🙂

 

A mai napig rengeteg időt töltök azzal, hogy szinonímákat bújok, hogy minél precízebben tudjam megfogalmazni azt, amit mondani akarok, valamint, azért, hogy pontosan azt a kifejezést használjam, amely nem csupán átadja amit mondani akarok, de a személyiségemről is ad információt.

A legtöbb ember úgy tanul egy idegen nyelvet, mintha az valami rajta kívü álló egység lenne. Elválasztjuk önmagunkat a nyelvtől, amit tanulunk és próbáljuk kívülről kín-keservek árán meghódítani azt.

 

Pont fordítva kellene hogy legyen! Az lenne a cél, hogy magunkra találjunk a nyelven belül, hogy felfedezzük a nyelvet és új otthont teremtsünk benne önmagunk számára. Miközben azt tanuljuk, hogy a nyelv ‘hogyan gondolkodik’, rátalálunk azokra a szófordulatokra, amelyek pontosan leírják azt akik vagyunk, ahogyan gondolkodunk és amit mondani akarunk. Így alakul ki az, hogy annyi ember vagy, ahány nyelven beszélsz.

 

Mindaddig, amig a nyelvet egy rajtunk kívül álló idegen egységként kezeljük azáltal, hogy nem merjük beleengedni magunkat a nyelv mélyebb rétegeibe, nem fogunk tudni gördülékenyen beszélni a tanult nyelven.

 

Ha szeretnél velem angolul ‘megtanulni’ itt tudsz velem kapcsolatba lépni.

 

 

Priority

Priority

In this blog post I emphasize the importance of prioritizing.

 


Making something a priority means that you don’t make excuses. You go for it full on with commitment. Yes, life is busy. Most of us are busy. We have a lot to do. You can still have priorities. We all do. We may not chose them consciously but when we start observing our behaviour it becomes obvious what our priorities are.

 

Making studying a language a priority is difficult if you do not have a strong enough motivation to make it a priority.  Before we can place learning a new language higher on our priority list we need to sit down and figure our why we want to learn the language and what we want to use it for. We must find a strong enough motivator that will hold us countable, daily.

 

It seems to me that most people do not even have a priority list. They just go with the ‘ flow’ . They often give into the pulls of the world and whatever has the stronger pull, they just make that a priority. When we do not prioritize the ‘items’ of our life, we let ourselves down.

 

We maybe motivated to learn a new language because we want to move aboard or a holiday is coming up abroad, or there is a promotion in the pipeline and we still not find the time to practise. This is when we allow ourselves to be distracted by somethin or someone. This is when we say YES to things that we should be saying NO to.

 

Maybe it is time to notice these moments of choice where we make someone else’s priorities more important!

 

Here is a coaching task on ‘checking your priorities’! Have fun with it!

 

Your Priorities in Life

List of Priorities

Make a list of everything that is most important to you in life.

DRAW a circle and slice it up like a cake. Look at this chart below and find different areas of life where you may have priorities. List at least one priority for each slice. See examples below.

SOURCE

For example:

  • particular relationships such as partner, family or friends
  • having stimulating or rewarding work
  • being well respected
  • making the most of your creative talents
  • living in a home where you feel comfortable
  • being in good health
  • physical fitness
  • partaking in sports
  • spiritual wellbeing
  • being a respected member of a particular group or community
  • independence
  • having time to relax
  • taking on challenges
  • speaking a foreign language fluently
Now do your best to order these in order of importance with the most important first. 

 

Now, limit the list to the top five priorities for you. You can change the list but it is best to just take out the first five on your present list. Go through them again and CHECK if they are truly your priorities or someone else’s. If they are not really yours, do the task again until the first 5 priority is truly yours. When you found them, can you  somehow commit to achieving them with a timeline?

 

Once you have got your list in order of importance, spend a few minutes reflecting on how the current way that you spend your time matches (or doesn’t match as the case may be) the order of your priorities. In the light of your reflection on your priorities are you happy with how you are now living or is there anything you would like to adjust in your typical daily or weekly schedule to allow you to focus more time and energy on your priorities? If there is, then make a commitment – even if only a small one – as to how you will adjust your use of time in the desired way.

 

Making Decisions

If you have decisions to make and are not sure what option to choose, you can use the list you have created as a benchmark to help you decide what you want to do. This does not mean that in every situation you will choose an option that reflects the number 1 priority on your list, merely that in making your choices you will at least be aware of the different competing priorities that may inform the choices you make and you can make a decision based on how you would like to balance the priorities or follow one rather than another.

SOURCE

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

 

 

Átkelni a hídon

Átkelni a hídon

Ebben a blog-ban arról a hídról írok, amelyen minden idegen nyelven tanulónak át kell kelnie ahhoz, hogy egyszer ténylegen ‘bírja’ a nyelvet.

 
 

Kolombusz Kristóf valami olyasmit mondott egyszer, hogy nem lehet átkelni az óceánon mindaddig, amíg nincs bátorságunk ahhoz, hogy szemelől veszítsük a partot!

 

És tényleg, az ismeretlent átszelő hídon átkelni kihívásokkal teli és az idegen nyelveket tanulók többsége át sem kel rajta. Ezt a hidat én a ‘bizonytalanság hídjának’ nevezem. Azok az idegen nyelven tanulók, akik sikertelenek, nem merik elhangyni anyanyelvük adta biztonság érzetüket.

 

A nyelvtanulási folyamat során mindenkinek át kell kellnie a hídon, amely az anyanyelv és az elsajátítani kívánt nyelv között húzódik. El kell tudunk hagyni az anyanyelünk adta biztonság érzetét valami ismeretlenért cserébe. Bár kihívássokkal teli ez az átkelés, fontos tudnunk, hogy minden lépéssel ismertebbé válik az új hely, ahová igyekszünk. Bíznunk kell önmagunkban és a folyamatban valamint tudnunk kell, hogy sikerrel fogunk járni.

 

Amint haladunk át a hídon, az otthon elkezd a távolba tűnni, és ahogy elkezdjük érezni a távolságot, a komfort zonánkon kivül találjuk magunkat.

 

Ha tényleg jól akarsz beszélni egy idegen nyelven, mondhatni, tudnod kell elengedni az anyanyelvedet és átköltözni az új nyelvbe. Amint átkeltél a hídon, már nem gondolkozol a anyanyelveden, hanem berendezkedtél kényelvesen az ‘új nyelveben’. Nem is vagy már ugyan az az ember, aki elkindult ezen az úton, mert az tanult nyelv gondolkodás módja átformálta gondolkodásmódodat is.

 

Amint az új nyelven gondolkozol, átjutottál a hídon, átkeltél, az ismeretlen folyóján.

 

Mostantól átjárásod van, bármikor jöhetsz, mehetsz kedvedre. Teljesen elsajátítottad a cél nyelvet.

 

Ha szeretnél velem angolul ‘megtanulni’ itt tudsz velem kapcsolatba lépni.

 

 

Inside the language

Inside the language

In this blogpost I discuss the difference between speaking a language vs speaking ‘inside a language’.

 

 

In this post, I share some tips on becoming fluent in a foreign language. I will also attempt to share my thoughts on the difference between speaking and understanding a language from a linguistic and literary point of view or speaking a language from ‘inside out’.

 

Sometimes people ask me “why did you say it ‘like that'”? Well, it is because ‘it feels right’. I can explain the linguistic reason behind my choice of words and phrases but what is more important is that I chose my words because I want to express, as precisely as possible, what I mean.

 

When you don’t speak a language fluently, you chose words that are ‘approximate’. I have been there. I kept on saying ‘you know what I mean?’. It was because I felt that the phrases and words I was using somehow did not convey exactly what I meant. I was hoping that the other person was a mind-reader. 🙂

 

Still, today, I spend considerable amount of time searching for synonyms.  It is because I want to find the ‘very words’ that convey the meaning, I want to say.

 

Most people study a language and learn to speak from ‘the outside to the inside’. It means that they separate themselves from the target language as if it were a foreign entity, looking at it from the outside, something they need to conquer.

 

Actually, it is the other way around. During the language learning process we need to find ourselves inside the foreign language and make it our new home. As we are learning ‘how the language thinks’, we start finding how we can express who we are and what we want through ‘this way of thinking’. This is why the saying goes “you are as many people as many languages you speak” – we think differently in a foreign language

 

Until we keep the target language ‘foreign’ or separate from us, we cannot speak it fluently.

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

 

Tips on how to speak fluently

Tips on how to speak fluently

In this blog post I share some tips on how to ‘think’ in a foreign language

 
 

 
 

I found this article that talks about 7 science-based methods to thinking in a foreign language. The article looked interesting so I read it.

 

Well, I agree with some of the suggestions, but I may not agree so much with others.

 

Here are the tips. You can read about them in detail at the Source

 

1. Focus on Fluency, Not Accuracy

2. Visualize

4. If It Does Not Work, Translate Your Thoughts

5. Write in a Journal

6. Read as Often as You Can

7. Describe Your Environment

 

1. As a teacher, in general, I don’t agree with the first tip.  I agree that we need to focus on fluency, meaning that we should take any opportunity to listen to living language and ‘repeat’ it until it ‘sticks’. But ignoring accuracy is a mistake, I think. I have met many people in the UK who learnt the language by ‘picking it up’. They made a lot of grammatical mistakes because they never checked out what they had heard or never studied the language formally at all. They speak a language that sounds great – or not – but that is full of mistakes. It also gives the impression that the speaker is uneducated or even illiterate.

 

2. I think it is a great idea. As you have probably heard, the brain cannot differentiate between ‘real’ or physical experiences and the images and feelings you generate by visualizing them. Spend some time visualizing that you already speak the language you are learning and what you are using it for. Go for the feelings rather than the images! Imagine doing things in and with the new language that you truly enjoy!

 

3. This is what the article say: ” Some experts say that, in order to learn a language, you need to think ONLY in that language. This is certainly not something you can achieve at the beginning phases of your language learning, but you should eventually start aiming toward such ‘direct thinking’.

 

When you translate everything you think, you may get stuck in between words, or lose the idea along the way. But, when you think directly in the target language, you can easily detect the gaps in your knowledge and wake those dormant vocabulary phrases and words you do not use when actually speaking the language.”

 

I call ‘direct thinking’ ‘thinking ‘inside’ a foreign language. Speaking ‘inside the language’ means to me that you not only speak by thinking in the language but you understand the culture, the history, and ‘the way of thinking ‘*of that nation whose language you speak. *Obviously, people do not think the same way, but in my observation, different nations and regions tend to show similarities in the way they use their language and express themselves. There is this great video on the topic. CLICK

 

I believe that  until you ‘move inside the language’, you don’t speak  the language fluently. How can you do that? I am going to discuss in detail it in another post.

 

5. Well, I don’t like writing when learning another language. I often find that learners can read and write in the target language well but not able to say one correct and meaningful sentence. I would rather suggest to record your diary in the target language. Then listen to the recording and see what you could have said differently and if you can, rerecord it. You can train yourself to think in the target language by making your ‘learning’ practical and personal.

 

6. I think that reading a book in a foreign language is quite hard. It took me a long time to be able to read a book in a way that I could enjoy it. To be able to understand someone else’s train of thoughts and enjoy the story and the messages require high command of the language. So, reading is important; it is a great way to gain a wide passive vocabulary. However, to me, listening is more useful.

 

7. It think it is a good idea to find something to ‘think about’. Also, this tip reminds me of a type of Mindfulness exercise, called something like being mindful of your environment. Read more about Mindfulness here, click.  Mindfulness can help you calm down, refocus and release tension or anxiety. Here are a few VIDEOs to introduce you to Mindfulness. 

 

DESCRIBE WHAT YOU ARE OBSERVING

*

MINDFUL GROUNDING TECHNIQUE

*

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

 

Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse

Your Brain Has Tricked You Into Thinking Everything Is Worse

In this blogpost I share an article that discusses how the brain tricks us into believing that things are worse than they actually are.

 

 

By Adam Mastroianni
Dr. Mastroianni is an experimental psychologist and the author of the science blog Experimental History.
(extracts)

 

But I believe there’s a bug — a set of cognitive biases — in people’s brains that causes them to perceive a fall from grace even when it hasn’t happened. I and my colleague Daniel Gilbert at Harvard have found evidence for that bug, …

… found that, overwhelmingly, people believe that humans are less kind, honest, ethical and moral today than they were in the past. People have believed in this moral decline at least since pollsters …

Respondents of all sorts — young and old, liberal and conservative, white and Black — consistently agreed: The golden age of human kindness is long gone.


We also found strong evidence that people are wrong about this decline.

 

When asked to rate the current state of morality in the United States, for example, people gave almost identical answers between 2002 and 2020, but they also reported a decline in morality every year.

Other researchers’ data have even shown moral improvement. Social scientists have been measuring cooperation rates between strangers in lab-based economic games for decades, and a recent meta-analysis found — contrary to the authors’ expectations — that cooperation has increased 8 percentage points over the last 61 years.

 


Two well-established psychological phenomena could combine to produce this illusion of moral decline. First, there’s biased exposure: People predominantly encounter and pay attention to negative information about others — mischief and misdeeds make the news and dominate our conversations.

 

Second, there’s biased memory: The negativity of negative information fades faster than the positivity of positive information. Getting dumped, for instance, hurts in the moment, but as you rationalize, reframe and distance yourself from the memory, the sting fades. The memory of meeting your current spouse, on the other hand, probably still makes you smile.

 

Read the article CLICK HERE

 

This article  reminded me of our crazy judgements and harsh criticism of ourselves. Our brain often sees our efforts and accomplishments miniscule. It seems that our judgment is tainted by the negative clouds and assumptions saying that what we are doing is not enough or not good enough.

 

It is essential that we take the time to appreciate our efforts and reward our achievement. It is also important that we notice when our mind plays tricks on us and robs us from our accomplishments.

 

Watch out! Grab the little scoundrel and squash it by showering yourself with compliments and a pat on the shoulder. 🙂

 

Crossing the bridge

Crossing the bridge

In this blogpost I talk about the importance of mastering the courage to cross the bridge of uncertainty.

 
 

“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus

 
 

 

Crossing the bridge over the river of the unknown is challenging, saying the least. Most people who study a foreign language never cross this bridge. I call it the bridge of uncertainty. These students never manage to leave their mother-tongue behind. They keep on translating ‘into’ the new language from the original language.

 

During the language learning process we all cross a bridge from our mother-tongue over to the other language. We must leave the safety of a known territory for the unknown one. While crossing the bridge we become more and more familiar with the new land, it is part of the process. We must have faith and confidence in ourselves that whatever it takes we will arrive to the other side.

 

As we are crossing the bridge, the ‘homeland’ moves into the background, we start feeling a distance now, and so we find ourselves outside of our comfort zone.

 

Leaving our original language behind means exactly the way it sound: if you want to speak a foreign language, you must leave your original language behind completely. By crossing the bridge, you no longer think in your original language, neither are you the same person who started this journey.

 

When you start thinking in the new language without translating from your original language, you have arrived. You have crossed the bridge of uncertainty.

 

From now on, you can cross the bridge back and forth any time you like without being outside of your comfort zone. You have acquired a new language completely.

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

Egy inspiráló történet

Egy inspiráló történet

Csak egy mondatot ragadtam ki a történetből, amelyről úgy éreztem, hogy illetszkedik az én témáihoz, de a teljes cikket ajánlom elolvasásra!

 

” Intenzíven olaszul tanulok. Nem vagyok egy kifejezett nyelvtehetség, de motivációm ezúttal van … “

 

 

Klikkelj a képre a cikkhez.

 

The missing link

The missing link

This blogpost I write about why EduCoaching is important for me by telling a very personal story.

 
 

 
 

When I was a teenager, I was very lost. During elementary school – until the age of 14 – my grades were quite OK. I managed my studies quite well. Though my relationship with one of my teachers, the class master, was rocky, I was still considered to be one of the best students in my year. I was also one of the lead singers in the choir and played in the national youth orchestra.

 

When I was eight, after my grandfather, my main caretaker, died, I found myself in a whole. Members of my family had been used to my grandpa taking care of me so, suddenly, they did not know who should pick up the slack and provide for me. My mum was busy with a three-year-old. My grandma’s hands were full with a mentally challenged daughter and her newborn. My father was at work most of the time. So, I became a latchkey kid.

 

Luckily, I lived in a tightknit community so some of the neighbours took care of me here and there. Because children used to stay in elementary school for eight years, most of the teachers in that school knew me quite well. My home life was troubled, but in school I was still OK. I also liked studying and I liked being successful at the different things I was involved in.

 

Everything changed when I started secondary school. I was in constant sock. I did not understand a word of the subjects I was studying. I did not understand the kids in my class. There were 44 of us, most of whom came from different  parts of the city, some from more affluent areas, and everyone seemed to have a ‘sponsor’ in school.  It was an ‘elite class’ who were allowed to study foreign languages behind the iron-curtain because we were trained to be managers of foreign affairs.

 

Suddenly, I was not a good student any more. Each semester, I was failing 4 or 5 subjects because I did not understand the subject matters. I was artsy, I liked drawing, reading books, and playing music. In this school the main subjects were economics, foreign trade and languages. Teachers kept on telling me that I was a failure and I did not have anyone at home to discuss my struggles at school, either.

 

In that mayhem, I lost my sense of who I was, I lost in touch with the successes I had achieved, and with my ability overcome challenges. I played music for years, so I understood hard work, overcoming difficulties and succeeding over adversities. Somehow, during these four years of high-school, I simply was not able to access my abilities to achieve and do well any more. I was slowly sliding into a pit-hole of misery, self-doubt, and low self-esteem.

 

Looking back now, I can see that I desperately needed a coach. I wish, I had had someone to talk to, someone who had the tools to help me find myself again, someone who could see my struggles. I wish I had been able to confide in someone and told them how lost I felt in the jungle of these difficult subjects.

 

I needed some help not because I was not a good and capable a student, or because I was lazy, or I did not care, but because I did not know how to handle this new situation and I needed tools so I could conquer my challenges.

 

Later, at university, when I was studying to become a teacher, I was  constantly looking for a solution that would provide students the support  they need to overcome similar challenges. At first, I thought psychology would be the answer. Then, I looked into methodology. About ten years after university, I finally found the key. It is called coaching in educations or Educational Coaching, EduCoaching in short.

 

Read more about Coaching in Education, here, CLICK