Is It Hard to Learn a Language?

Yes.

And no.

There have been many moments I’ve wanted to throw in the towel and walk away. Sometimes I still do.

But there are far fewer of these times than there are times I love what I do. I keep going and learning. I keep going. . . somewhere.

It’s hard. I won’t lie.

It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life - learning a second language. It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.

Why do you want to know how difficult is it to learn another language?

I invite you to think hard about this. But not too long. That’s long enough.

Now I want you know something more important than anything else you know about language learning:

You are capable of achieving fluency even if it’s the most difficult thing you ever do.

And that is exactly why you must do it.

You must learn.

You must study.

You must persevere.

And you will see.

The difficult will become easy because that is what happens.

You will learn, and you will revise, and you will learn some more.

That which you struggle through takes its place in your past so that you may focus on what lies ahead.

Fluency, sure, but much more than that.

There is so much more that awaits.

It waits those who thrive on accomplishing difficult tasks, those who have pushed through all the challenges over all the years only to realize there’s more.

They realize they can stop at any moment because they have reached their intended destination, but yet they continue out of pure addiction to knowledge.

And so they continue, and difficult becomes easy, and long becomes short, and they continue because they have arrived at fluency - and they wish to remain there.