Have you ever forgotten something you had just reviewed and then been upset? I suggest that you change that emotion and feel great when you make a mistake. I know this sounds strange, but you should feel great about making mistakes because mistakes and forgetting things are an essential part of learning a language! That’s right, I said essential! If you don’t take the time to make mistakes, you won’t learn.
Now you are probably thinking that there are people who never make those mistakes, and of course you are right. There’s even a name for them: in the American language, we call them losers! A “loser” is someone who never accomplishes much.
People who never make mistakes because they never try are the only people who never make mistakes. You, on the other hand, are going to accomplish a lot, and you will also make a lot of mistakes. Everyone who has ever learned a foreign language made a lot of mistakes in the process of learning. Mistakes are essential.
So the next time you forget something or make a mistake, say to yourself, “That’s great!” Don’t waste much time on it, and go on to the next item.
Even though it’s contrary to what I was told for so long — “if you are shown how to do a thing how could you get it wrong?” — this advice is very true and useful.
We are humans, not machines. And, as humans, our nature will make us try to go beyond what we know. We will make mistakes. Unavoidably. I remember hilarious/embarrassing mistakes that taught me more than I would have expected from such an apparently simple faux pas.