When you’re learning a language and you don’t have a teacher or tutor and you’re attempting this solo, how do you know if you’re making any progress?

Well, I’ve been asking myself that question for the past 12 months and change, and still don’t have an answer. You can do all the exercises in the book and retest yourself with index cards from morning till night but how do you know, really?

I’ve always questioned and been skeptical of the progress I’ve made after making this commitment to learn. But I know what it comes down to…

What’s your criteria dude?

That’s right, it’s all about your OWN criteria. You’ve got it, and so do I. It’s what we use for many of the decisions we make in life and they are influenced by many factors, but can you name them? It’s easy for me:

• Speak better, communicate what you’d like to say and be understood while doing so. Do it with the most common subjects.
• Understand what is being said to me and keep up with the speed that a Polish native speaks at, respond appropriately.

That’s it, damn it. So….Where am I at?

Like I said, I haven’t been sure since the beginning but…..TODAY was my Polish conversation practice lesson and somehow, by some damn miracle I managed to speak for my whole 30min without scrambling like an imbecile looking for words and it was on cyber privacy and security! BONKERS! Literally unreal that I managed it. But there you have it, a sign that maybe all this effort hasn’t been for nothing. I evoked the power of a proverb I taught and posted about a while back when the pandemic first started ‘When the going gets tough the tough get going‘. And this was just one of those instances. And I’m glad it came to be that way, a sign that I haven’t forgotten my own lessons to my clients 🙂

What does this mean?

Keep going, and going and going. Never be satisfied, never accept mediocrity.

Roger that, I’m off!

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