Just like alpha males and females enjoy a higher position in the social stratum, you will enjoy a higher position in the language stratum when you become an Alpha Language Learner.
Here’s how you achieve the position:
- Pursue active studying habits (“a thirst for knowledge”)
- Avoid study apathy!
- Make and adhere to your Language Attack Plan
- Don’t rely on a traditional teacher!
- Create a language immersion environment
- Don’t wait to study until you’re in the classroom!
Make the first move
Foreign language is not going to seek you out – You’ve got to go out and get it for yourself. Don’t sit passively by waiting to be magically swept away by your target language, ’cause it’s never going to happen.
You need to create opportunities to expose yourself to the language. The alpha males and females in society make the decisions, and as an Alpha Language Learner it’s up to you to make the first move.
Make a plan and attack head on
What I call a “Language Attack Plan” consists of a few layers of planning. First, you’ve got to plan out your “macro” steps of progress. This is a time line for setting your long-term goals. Keep your goals realistic, but make them as aggressive as possible.
After you have your macro-time-line, you’ve got to make a series of micro-time-lines that you focus on daily. These are short-term goals you make for yourself as needed. They can be any number of intervals, from 30 minutes to weekly goals. With short-term goals you should be chipping away steadily at your long-term goals.
Don’t rely on a teacher to plan out your curriculum. I won’t really get into my theory on the teacher’s role in this article, but if you’re the kind of learner who absolutely must have a teacher-figure then I suggest you relegate their position to a supporting role and not a commanding one. That’s what an Alpha Language Learner does.
Make the language come to you
Unless you can afford the chance to move to a country where your target language is spoken daily, you won’t have the luxury of having the language seek you out. Your best option (and it’s a really good one) is to create a language immersion environment.
Buy foreign-language CDs, DVDs, Books, and Comics. Browse foreign-language websites and news. Throw away your pretentious, artsy posters in English and replace them with pretentious, artsy posters in your target language. Make it your goal to recreate a foreign country in your own home.
Alpha males and females are trend setters; they are the life of the party; they are the first ones to take action. That’s the role you need to take as a language learner. Ignore the status quo and forge your own path for others to follow. Be an Alpha Language Learner.
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