Would you like to speak much better Dutch, but do you think that you are a lazy person as well? Then there is good news for you! Being lazy can help you to speak more Dutch and to learn a lot faster!
Every time when I give my free workshop Finding Dutch Flow, I ask my audience: why don’t you speak fantastic Dutch yet? One of the most popular answers is this: I guess that I am too lazy
If you hear this explanation for the first time, it seems that it makes a lot of sense. We have all been brought up with the idea that success is all about working hard, so therefore it is logical to believe that if you don’t work hard, you do not ‘deserve’ to speak Dutch. Isn’t it what many teachers tell you? You must do your homework and study, study study… Only then you’ll experience positive results. It seems logical, but…. luckily this isn’t necessarily true…. Certainly for speaking a new language, exactly the opposite could also be true. Not laziness stands in the way of most people, but just the opposite. Working too much!
That is why it is a good idea to see laziness in a different light. Believe it or not, there are many positive aspects of being lazy. First of all, when you are lazy then you’ll immediately notice that finally you have some time to enjoy the good moments of life.
Here is another thing: although hard work, could help you to achieve your goal a lot faster, if you do things that are not really important then of course, you are wasting your time! So here is the good news: if you are lazy, it might be easier for you to recognize that you are wasting your time.
People that like to see themselves as hard working in many cases keep working, even if the results are quite low. Many people simply believe that hard work alone will do the trick, but unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not the case!
How do you know that you are practically wasting your time? The first indication is that you are memorizing most of the things by heart. The second indication is that you make it to hard for yourself if you want to create sentences. Certainly when you are translating from your language to Dutch all the time, you’ll quickly discover that speaking Dutch is really exhausting.
So… can you just sit back and relax while doing absolutely nothing? Could you be learning Dutch in your sleep? Unfortunately there is always some work that you need to do. But… if you focus on what I love to call the core skills then you mainly focus on those skills that really matter.
Yes, there is always some work involved, but…. if you work smart instead of working just hard, then you’ll save loads of time that you can use for other things 🙂
The first important thing that you need to do is to learn how to open up. The secret is that you become far more receptive. If you just look and listen around you, while noticing that many things around you make perfect sense, then before you know it, you’ll start to pick up new Dutch words like crazy. The secret key is that you start to understand a certain system. A first thought that can help you is to realize that Dutch is the closest language to English and that in a way it is also a kind of German light.
Have you ever wondered why some people find it easy to pick up a new language fast? You must have seen them and who knows? You might even be jealous of them, because when they talk it seems that somehow they are in a kind of a flow.
Here is a secret that they use… People that pick up new languages fast, have a certain mindset. First of all, they are very curious and they really love to discover new things. The second thing is that these people somehow see a logical structure and that they quickly accept new things, even if it is different from their language. The third quality that they have is that they take many opportunities to practice and that they love making mistakes.
If you learn by doing then this already means that you’ll have to study a lot less! When you make mistakes then immediately new learning takes place. But instead of feeling stupid about it, now it feels great, because you learned something new and that makes you a lot faster!
Here are some other thoughts that may help:
The more relaxed you are, the easier it is to learn
The more relaxed you are, the easier it is to connect with other people
If you feel relaxed, then chances are high that you feel better in general 🙂
Finally an interesting question for you: what could you see as some of the advantages of being lazy?
