Chapter 2 — Be a Language Warrior!
Hello, Language Warriors!
What a strange thing to call someone, right? Why do I call you that? What is a Language Warrior? Are we killing languages?
Am I attacking people wildly on the streets with nouns and verbs?
No… What I mean is, learning a language is a battle. It’s a fight. A fight against what, you ask?
Learning a language means fighting your FEAR…
If you’re not confident, if shyness freezes you up, you won’t be able to speak well… or maybe you won’t speak at all.
So, the first thing you must accept is that learning a language is a tough fight… and you have to be a Language Warrior.
Being a warrior means you’re not allowed to be shy.
If you were in the military, and the general told you to fight, could you say, “Uh… Gee, general… I think I’m too shy to fight today”?
No… you can’t.
And if you’re a performer—or anyone who deals with people—you know you can’t let shyness take over.
You might be shy, sure… but you can’t let shyness run the show. You have to find ways to push through it, to relax, and to speak with confidence.
I’m a drummer, and I’ll never forget my first paid “gig.”
I was 15 when one of my teachers hired me to play snare drum for their church fundraiser. My entire job? Play a drum roll and crash cymbal whenever someone got an award. The stuff dreams are made of, right? Woohoo!!! ROCK AND ROLL!!!
Well… not so much.
I made $50, but I was so nervous I was shaking. My heart was pounding like it wanted to quit. But… I did it. I pushed through the fear. And here’s what I learned… every time after that, it got a little easier.
That’s how it works. In the beginning, everything feels awkward and uncomfortable. But the more you practice, the more power you gain over your fear. To become comfortable… you must first be uncomfortable.
Every master you’ve ever seen was once a scared beginner. They all had to fight through fear. This is why I say: BE A LANGUAGE WARRIOR.
Shyness has no place here. You either learn to put it in a box… or you kill it.
Did you know that 40% of native English speakers are afraid to speak? Forty percent! Why? Well… it’s not because of their vocabulary, or their pronunciation, or their grammar. Those are the things YOU worry about.
What you have in common with them is fear.
Some people are simply terrified of speaking in public. There’s even a name for it—glossophobia. But why are we so afraid?
We act like we’re standing in front of a pack of lions… as if one wrong word means, “That’s it. We’re dinner.”
When I think about fear, I remember being a kid, learning how to swim.
It’s the same everywhere—everyone is afraid at first. We all stand on the edge of the pool, dipping our toes in, stalling, crying… too scared to jump.
And then what usually happens?
Somebody pushes you in.
Your mom, your dad, your big brother, your big sister… or your uncle. (Not your aunt—she’s cool. She wouldn’t do that.)
Why do they do this “terrible” thing to us innocent kids? Because they know the truth—our fear isn’t real. The danger is in our heads.
(Disclaimer: I, Mark Samson, am not recommending pushing children into water. But hey… back in my day, they pushed you in, haha.)
Here’s the lesson: you have to reassess your fears.
Saying the wrong word, using incorrect grammar… none of it is as catastrophic as you think. Even if you say the “worst thing” in the “worst way,” it’s still probably not that bad. Most people won’t even notice. Most people hate grammar as much as you do!
Just remember… it’s normal to be afraid of lions and tigers… it’s normal to be afraid of bears… it’s even normal to be afraid of sharks… but is it normal to be afraid of speaking?
The worst thing that will probably happen if you say the wrong word is that you feel embarrassed. And no one likes to feel embarrassed, that’s true. But… if you want to be great at something, there is a cost you must pay… and that payment is this: TO BE GREAT, YOU MUST BE WILLING TO BE EMBARRASSED!
Everyone you’ve ever met who is great at something had to be embarrassed many, many times to reach that point.
The cost of the ticket to greatness is… EMBARRASSMENT.
Fear and embarrassment are like two sleeping dragons guarding the gates of language learning. Some people, with enough courage, eventually slay their dragons and lose their fear of speaking. Others may never kill them… and that’s okay.
You don’t always have to fight. Sometimes the path forward is to walk by the dragons bravely, without waking them.
Move forward, step by step, even if your fear and embarrassment are still there, deep down inside you.
The point is… you can still pass through those gates. You can still speak. You just must MOVE PAST your fear and embarrassment.
So now that you know what you’re up against—the sleeping dragons of fear and embarrassment, —the next question is: why?
Why are you learning this language in the first place?
What’s your purpose?
Because anyone can climb a mountain, but everyone will climb that mountain better if they have a good reason.
Let’s talk about that in my next chapter…