Talk to Yourself
Who’s the crazy one?
Every day we experience thousands of thoughts. Unless we’re meditating, or asleep, our minds are constantly working and throwing out random ideas, worries, and memories.
Did you ever see that guy in the city who walks around talking to himself? Every city has one. Well, maybe he’s not so crazy after all. You see, I’ve got a proposal for you. Suppose he’s just learning a language, and bouncing ideas around out loud.
Look who’s talking
If you read and listened to the last three blog posts you’ll know I like to write dialogues, as dialogues are the foundation of language and communication. So, you know how I said our minds are constantly working, right? Why not take advantage of that?
It’s scary to learn a new language. We’ve all felt that rushing fear in the throat that chokes us when all we want to do is reply to a simple question. Half the battle is preparation and practice, the other half in confidence.
So, what I’m proposing is that you start to take advantage of the little voice in your head and have dialogues with yourself. Get creative. It doesn’t have to stop at dialogues.
Narrate your life
A cheap trick is to narrate the things you are doing. I do this all the time. Actually, you’d probably think I was a bit crazy if you put a microphone in my apartment because I’m always talking to myself and singing what I’m doing:
“Where are my keys? I’d better find them because I need to leave now. Oh, there they are. That was good. Now I can go and buy some toilet paper.”
It seems silly, right? And it is a little silly, but it’s fun and it gets you into the habit of talking. You’ll make mistakes, but there won’t be anyone around to correct you. You don’t need to be scared about anything. You can just have fun and let the words flow. See if you can correct yourself, but the idea is to get into a flow. Let the language start to produce itself.
Talking cats and dogs
Another good trick is to talk to your pet. If you have a cat or a dog, use them as your language partner. Again, they won’t judge you. They may look at you with a confused look on their face, or run away and hide somewhere, but the point is that it will feel like you have someone to talk to without the fear of being judged for making mistakes.
This is great practice. You can learn so much just by talking to yourself, narrating your life, or just generally creating stories in your head.
So, next time you’re walking to the supermarket, or taking the dog for a walk, if you hear that little voice in your head starting to tell you the usual worries and doubts of everyday life, why not hijack that voice and see what you can create?
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