Late bloomer in a world of glorified prodigies

Late bloomers are underestimated. Wikipedia describes a late bloomer as a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual.

I often see articles about successful people who have achieved their success very early in life. You know what I mean – lists like 30 under 30 that make many of us feel like we failed in life. And living in Silicon Valley where people are glorified for dropping out of Stanford, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and starting their own companies at the age of 19 is not the best confidence booster. For a self-described late bloomer like me, it feels overwhelming at times.

Learning English

When it comes to English, for example, I hear stories from non-native speakers who have achieved a great level of fluency. Most of them say that they have always loved English and started learning it when they were very young. But this wasn’t my case. I didn’t speak English until I was 25 years old. In fact, I was the worst student in high school and didn’t think much about my future. I wish I could go back and change that, but everything happens for a reason.

When I came to the US, I signed up for ESL classes and my journey with English began. Learning English in America was a totally different experience than studying in my native Bulgaria. Here, I was encouraged to speak and was not punished for making mistakes. I realized that I am good at learning foreign languages, a fact that would have never occurred to me had I not left my country. 

In his book Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement, Rich Karlgaard argues that success can come at any age and early blooming is not necessary for being successful later on. 

When it comes to learning English, I still hear many people beating themselves up for either not having started earlier or for not having learned enough despite studying for years. But those who’ve learned English as children are not necessarily the best speakers or writers. It’s never too late to master a foreign language.

Challenges with sound differentiation

There are, of course, challenges associated with language acquisition as an adult. After a certain age (usually past puberty), it becomes harder to hear and differentiate between certain sounds. Depending on your native language, you might face different pronunciation challenges in English. For example, if your native language has only five vowels – a, e, i, o, u – you might tend to pronounce words like bad and bed in the same way. Or, if in your language there is no difference between the first consonants in the words chopping and shopping, people might look startled when you tell them that you like chopping. While recognizing such differences comes easy to children, adults need to work a little harder in order to be clear and eliminate confusion.

Five tips for people who started learning English as adults

If you started to learn English as an adult, here are five tips for you based on my own experience:

1. Don’t compare your English to anyone else’s

Nothing will eat at your soul more than comparison. The truth is that you will always find someone who is better than you for different reasons. Maybe they have more time or they’ve started learning English a long time ago. Or maybe they have a knack for languages, but you are better at math (or anything else). It doesn’t matter. Everyone is unique and comparing yourself to others is pointless. The best thing to do is to put your entire energy on YOU. Do the work and the rest will follow. 

2. Don’t get frustrated when you can’t understand a grammar rule right off the bat

Depending on your native language, you might find some grammatical structures harder to grasp right away. Don’t get discouraged. Instead of thinking in terms of grammatical terms such as Conditional 1, Conditional 2 etc., just ask yourself what you actually want to say. Then ask someone who understands grammar to help you construct the sentence and try to remember the structure so you can just change the words if you need to use it in the future. I know that in many situations it’s not that easy, but you probably just need some more time and practice. Know that it’s ok to get frustrated sometimes. Just try not to dwell on that feeling too much. Keeping a positive attitude always helps when you are learning new things. 

3. Don’t be afraid to speak even when you know that you make mistakes

In other words, accept the fear and choose to speak despite being afraid. It will get easier, I promise. I tell you this out of experience. Even when I started college in the US, I was guilty of falling into the trap of thinking that I wasn’t ready to speak. I remember being the only person who never said anything in one of my classes. I’ve worked a lot on my mindset since then and now I LOVE English – grammar, pronunciation, everything about it – and I LOVE helping others to learn it as well and feel great when they speak it.

4. Check for the correct pronunciation

The first step towards correct pronunciation is awareness. Find out if you can hear the difference between the sounds that are challenging to you and then see if you pronounce them correctly. You can either ask someone whom you trust (a coach or a friend, for example) or record yourself saying a few words with the sound you are practicing and then listen to the recording. Identify what sounds you could modify in order to be more clear and work on them. The most important sounds are the ones, which if you mispronounce, would give you a different word.

For example, if you say: “I have to work on my bowels” (instead of “vowels”), then you need to work on the differentiating b and v. If you say: “I have to bark here” (instead of “park”), then make sure to work on distinguishing between the consonants b and p. If you don’t know where to start, you can Google what pronunciation challenges speakers from your native language might face when they learn English and start from there. Being able to pronounce sounds correctly will give you confidence and make you a better communicator.

5. Set achievable goals

I’ve heard this advice many times before and, to be completely honest, it used to irritate me. I wanted to respond, “don’t tell me what I can achieve or not.” But now I understand that the mistake many people make (I’m totally guilty of this) is wanting too much too soon. Learning another language takes time and a lot of effort, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you still get stuck when you speak English. An achievable goal, for example, is to be able to speak on a certain topic using certain vocabulary for three minutes without making too many pauses. Of course, it can be longer or shorter depending on your current level. The point is to challenge yourself enough, but not too much so that you feel improvement and not frustration. And, last but not least, remember to celebrate every single step of your journey to fluency. 

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What is your experience with English? When did you start learning it? What do you still find hard? Let me know in the comments.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Speaking club, where you will meet incredible people from all over the world who come to practice their speaking skills. A language is meant to be spoken. There is a reason why the other word for “language” is “tongue.” 

 

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