Don’t compare yourself to other language learners (do this instead)

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  comparison comparison can be a powerful motivator in language learning but it can also be a source of discouragement.

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  According to social comparison theory, first developed in 1954 by psychologist,

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  I think it's Leon Festinger,

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  about 10% of our thoughts have to do with comparing ourselves to others.

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  And this can be a source of inspiration, motivation,

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  but for some people it's a source of discouragement, frustration, depression.

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  How does comparison help us in language learning?

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  That's what I want to talk about today,

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  and I think it can be an important source of that all-important... motivation.

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  But I think it's important to do the comparison right.

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  I don't think we should compare ourselves to others.

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  I try to compare myself to the sort of ideal of the language, the essence of the language,

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  if we think in terms of, you know,

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  platonic essence of something, of which everything else is a slightly imperfect copy.

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  So even the native speakers, all native speakers don't speak the same way.

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  There are differences in pronunciation, in accuracy, in use of the language, and so forth.

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  And the language learner is somewhere on that scale of, call it, distortions of that essence.

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  We can never achieve the essence.

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  But I like to compare myself to an ideal that I have in my mind of how I would like to speak the language.

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  And it's tied up with all of the associations that I have with that language,

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