25. What To Do When You Hit A Plateau In English?

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar and this is episode number 25. And today we're going to talk about what to do when you hit a plateau in English. Hey. Hey. Welcome again. Thank you for being here. I hope your day is going really well, and if it doesn't, then I hope it starts going really well. As of this moment, you might have listened to the intro and said to yourself, hadar, what are you talking about? What the heck is a plateau? And how does that relate to me? And even if you don't know what this word means, I have no doubt that you've experienced once in your life a plateau. A plateau is something physical and metaphorical. So if we go to the physical and I go to Wikipedia, then it says in geology and physical geography, a plateau, also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain that is raised significantly above the surrounding area, often with one or more sides, with deep hills, which means basically you climb up a mountain and then everything's flat, you don't need to climb anymore. That's a plateau. But the metaphorical explanation of a plateau is a state in which you feel that there is no more change and no more progress after a time of activity or progress. So that means that you've achieved a lot of results and you really progressed and maybe your improvement was kind of fast and noticeable and then there is no change whatsoever, you hit a plateau. Often people talk about it when it comes to dieting. You go on a diet and then you lose a lot, a lot of weight and then you are stuck, you stay stuck, right? You don't see any more change, you don't lose any more weight, you don't gain any weight, but you're just stuck in a place that you are still not yet comfortable with. So the same goes for English, because a lot of people experience a plateau when learning English. So if you've ever invested your time into learning English, or improving your pronunciation, or improving your listening skills, your grammar, anything related to English, all, all of the above, then you might have started, felt the difference, felt the progression, you've improved, you've seen results, and then it stopped and you felt stuck. And that might have derailed you and caused you to stop practicing or working on your English. And especially if English is not spoken in your country, then that meant that you stopped speaking English completely because your practice was the only time you actually involved yourself in any English speaking activity. So now that you know what plateau is, let's talk about the five things that will get you the heck out of it. The first thing I'm going to talk about is motivation. I talk a lot about motivation and the need to know your why, why you're learning English, why you have been practicing to begin with. So usually when we get started, we are very motivated. We have a good reason why we need to improve. Maybe a deadline, maybe aspiration, maybe we need to travel, maybe we have a job interview. So we start practicing and then time passes and that deadline passes as well and it is no longer urgent. And you don't have this external motivation, right? Like you don't have something that you need to work towards. And the internal motivation is not clear anymore. And when you don't feel that internal push, then your work is not going to be effective. So you will be doing the work, but you won't see the results because it's kind of like you're marking it. I don't know if that makes sense. Like this word. We use it when in acting. For example, if we do a rehearsal, but it's a technical rehearsal, just to set the lights or to set up the lights or just to see the entrances and exits of all the actors. So you're not going on stage and full on acting it, but you're marking it, right? When I was in school, I played Lady Macbeth and there is this one really intense scene where Lady Macbeth comes onto stage after convincing her husband to murder the king. And she goes crazy and she imagines like there is blood all over her hands and she's trying to wash it off. And there is this really famous scene where she goes out, damn spot out, I say. And I had to do it in a Scottish accent, mind you. And I had to prepare to get all worked up for this scene for like 10 or 20 minutes before. And it would be so demanding. And when we did all the technical rehearsals, then I went on stage, but I marked it right. Like, I didn't full on do the scene with like the crying and the yelling, but I would just, you know, say the words. That's called marking. And that's what I mean by marking your practice. You're like, okay, I need to practice. And then you take like a script and read it out loud, but you'll be thinking about a hundred other things. Or maybe you'll watch a YouTube video and you'll zone out and, you know, so that means like you're practicing, but you're not really practicing, to be honest, between you and me. So that will result in A plateau, because nothing is really changing, right? Like you're not doing something effective. We'll talk about that in the other points. But to have that internal motivation is essential because you'll have that hunger to constantly see change and to challenge yourself. So when you feel that you're not improving anymore, you need to go back to the drawing table and sit with yourself and list all the reasons why you need your English to not be an obstacle, why you need your English to be a part of you. Why English needs to be just something that you do, not something that you fight, right? So you need to write all those things. I want to live in a different country. I want to sound funny in English. I want to communicate with my friends without judging myself. I want to open a business. I want to make videos. I want to get a better position, right? Like, all of those reasons. I want to speak in public. I want to give a TED Talk. All of those reasons, you have to list them. And to feel those tingles in your stomach that will be like, I need to do this. I have to do this. I am so excited about it. And then going back into it, you'll bring back the passion, make English great again, right? So it's not just a task. So motivation is the first thing. Second thing, if you are motivated and you're passionate about it and you know exactly why you're doing this, you have an internal deadline and an external deadline, but still you don't feel the improvement, then you need to check if what you are doing is effective. Here is the thing, and I recently tweeted about it, too. A lot of people practice a lot, and they do a lot of stuff that are easy for them. Okay? So they read and do imitation exercises, and they speak with friends about things that they feel comfortable speaking about, and they do a lot of it. So they feel that they are moving forward, but at the same time, they're not really moving forward. They're, like, investing a lot of energy, but they are stuck in the same place. It's called to be stuck on the hamster wheel. You know those hamsters that they run on a small wheel, and they're, like, taking out all their energy on that stupid wheel and they stay in place. So that's the experience where you're like, you spend your time, your valuable time practicing, but you're stuck in the same place now. Why is that? Because doing more of that easy stuff will not get your results. If you want transformation, and if you want change, you got to do more of the hard stuff. More of the challenging stuff, more of the stuff that you avoid, that you don't want to do, that requires a lot of brain power, a lot of focus, a lot of concentration and there are a lot of distractions out there. And you rather not invest that full on energy into your practice because that's your fun part of the day. But you can practice the easy stuff for an hour or you can practice the hard stuff for 10 minutes. And you'll get more results in those 10 minutes then an hour of easy practice. Because easy practice just keeps you in the same place. I'm not saying that it's not okay and it's not good and if you see the progress, that's great. But remember we're talking about when you hit a plateau. That means that you're still working but you're not seeing any progress. And then you need to stop doing the easy stuff and start doing the challenging stuff. And also make sure, especially when it comes to pronunciation, that you don't practice the mistakes. And you need to develop an external ear. And sometimes it's just about recording yourself and listening to it and making sure that you are doing things differently than what's comfortable, that what comes out naturally, the organic way in which you pronounce things. Because if it feels easy, then you might be just repeating your mistakes. Because transformation is painful, physically painful. So if you're transitioning from one pronunciation to another, then it's not going to feel right. It's not. And when it doesn't feel right, then you're on the right track, if that makes sense. If it feels it's okay, I can do it. Especially if it's a sound that is that doesn't exist in your native language. If it's too easy, then you might just be repeating your mistakes. And this is always something that you need to be conscious of. Okay. And not just when it comes to pronunciation, but also when it comes to grammar. Let's say you want to work on your grammar in not in writing because that's easy, but in speaking. So you want to record yourself. But when you feel that everything comes out really easily, then either the topic of the conversation is a no brainer for you because it doesn't require you to stop and retrieve the words that are relevant for this conversation. If everything comes out easily for you, if you pick up the words easily, then this is not a challenging conversation topic. You can do better. You can find something that will get you stuck. Because getting stuck is a golden opportunity to learn and to improve. Remember that it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't indicate that your English is not good enough. It's a golden opportunity to improve. So, so you want to put yourself in a situation where you get stuck, especially in your practice. Because if you don't get stuck, then your practice is too easy. What you're talking about is too simple. And if you want to practice grammar, then if you don't stop and say, wait, should I say it like this or like that, then either your grammar is perfect, which is great, good for you, or you are unaware of the mistakes that you're doing and then you need to listen to it and look for the challenges or the mistakes and then to say it again with this awareness of those specific challenges. So you're very focused when you're speaking about what you're trying to improve and what you're trying to change. The third thing that might get you out of the plateau is do something completely different. That means that if you are used to just watching YouTube videos and doing some written exercises, then do something crazy like give a public talk to all your friends or do a stand up bit in English, even if it's just you in front of the mirror, right? Do something that is very different from what you're doing now. If all you're doing is just speaking and practicing with other people, then maybe write an article in English. Do something slightly different that will improve you in different areas. If you've only focused on grammar, then start working on pronunciation. If accent training was your thing, then maybe stop doing that and start working on your listening skills or on your grammar, right? Like do something completely, completely different. It relates to what we talked about before, like to change things up. But in this case I'm saying what you've been doing all this time, just stop doing and do something completely different. Take a creative writing class in English. Go to a theater improv group in English. I'm sure you can find something in your town. Become a tour guide and start guiding tourists around your city. You can just think about something. And that leads me to the next thing. Do something that scares you. When you do something that scares you, that's when you break walls. You know that. But I guess you need me to say that to you so you would actually start taking action. And this is why I'm saying this to you. Do something that scares you. Whatever that is. It could be just having a conversation with someone for some people. For others it would be to give a talk in front of 5,000 people. Whatever that is. You know what that thing is for you do it, because at least you'd feel more accomplished and it would push you to do things that are out of your comfort zone more and more. And when you are out of your comfort zone, that's your growth zone. And when you're in a plateau, that has become your comfort zone, right? So at the beginning, you're at the bottom and you started improving and started climbing up that mountain, and then you were walking out of your comfort zone. But then when you hit a plateau, that's basically your extended comfort zone. Because even though you have climbed up that initial comfort zone, you have extended it. And now the plateau is your new comfort zone. So you need to extend that as well. And to get out of it, to climb up again. And it will require you to do something that scares you. Okay? Now, as you are listening to this, I want you to send me a dm, I'm Hadar Accentsway, and tell me what is that one thing that scares you? And promise me you'd do it, okay, So I can hold you accountable. Not accountable, accountable. Accountable. Accountable. I use it a lot, by the way, to hold someone accountable, responsible for what they're saying. So that means that if you say something to me, you're going to be held responsible to what it is that you're saying. So if you promise that you're going to do something that scares you, I'm going to be the one in the background, even though I might not be actively doing it, but, you know, I'd be like, I'm expecting you to do that. That's me holding you accountable, or accountable without the T. Next up, change your teacher. I mean, it's not fair to say, but sometimes if you study English with someone, sometimes you start studying with someone that you love and you see a lot of results and great progress, and then you hit a plan plateau. And I'm kind of sad to say it, but I've seen it with my students as well, where I had to tell them, listen, you got to do something different. You've got to move on. You've got to go to another teacher. You got to stop learning pronunciation and start working on this, this, and that. Because at some point, you kind of exhaust all your options with one human being. This is why we have a variety of teachers. I can tell you from my own perspective that when I run my business, I learn from different mentors and coaches. I don't think that it's because one is not good enough. They're all remarkable, amazing. I buy their courses, I attend their Workshops, I learn so much from them. But the reason why I go to different people is because at some point I feel that I have come to a certain limit with one of them. And then another person might tell me something that sheds so much light as to what I need to do. So I need to open myself up to different teachers. So I want you to know that you have a choice. And if you feel that you are in a plateau and you don't see any more, you don't see the change that you're expecting to see, it's okay to change. Okay? Change a teacher, change a group. If you don't learn with a teacher, if you don't study with a teacher, maybe you might want to start studying with a teacher. Maybe you want to start learning only with YouTube videos. Maybe you want to take an online course. And by the way, Accent Makeover is open for enrollment in just a little bit. If you're interested in an online program that works and you haven't taken my courses yet. So you can join the list, the accentsoi.com join more information in the description. Just a side note, just letting you know anyway. But if you feel that this has not been enough, then change. Okay? Don't feel like I see a lot of people that are just feeling uncomfortable leaving their teachers. And you know, I know, but you need to do what's best for you. And there are a lot of great teachers out there online that you can find in your local area. Maybe conversation groups you can find in your local area. So you should pay attention and try out different things. And if you feel all of a sudden that you get a new perspective on something, then grab it, okay, and change and maybe come back after. Because teachers can give you a lot of value, but they're limited, okay? Like even me, when I teach my students, I don't have everything that they need. I can't offer them everything that they need. I have recently created a workshop in my local school in Tel Aviv called the Fluency Masterclass program. And in this program, I collected a bunch of different teachers to create this holistic, complete program. Because I know that I can teach everything at the level that they need. And also sometimes hearing different voices is good because you get comfortable with teachers, you feel safe again. Then at some point it feels like it's just you and yourself. It's not like you are with another person. And then it's still hard for you to go out there and speak to people. So if that's the case, right, like you're. You've improved with your one on one teacher and then you don't feel like it's a challenge anymore, then you need to go to another teacher, get comfortable with them or to a group because groups are fantastic. You to improve your fluency in English in general. I'm a huge supporter of groups. Okay. And the last thing, and it might be a little counterintuitive, but stay with me, is to take a break. Sometimes you work so hard that you don't allow the things to sink in. Now wait a minute. Don't hear this and say to yourself, thank God, I'll just stop practicing. Oh good, that will help my printed pronunciation and fluency and English. No, I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that sometimes you need the time to allow things to sink in. So if you are a hard worker and you invest a lot of time into your English and into your practice, then maybe taking a break is your next step. Allowing things to sink in. Everything is still working in the back of your mind subconsciously, so it's not really not doing any work. And do things that inspire you. Maybe read a book instead of that like 10, 15, 22 hour chunk during your day where you practice. Okay? So use that time to do something else not related to English, maybe in English, but not related to learning and improving English and see if there is a change and the break shouldn't be too long, like two weeks, three weeks, even a month. And then come back or with more energy and motivation. In the meantime, think about why you're doing what you're doing, etc. Etc. But if you're the type of person who does not practice enough, then this one is not for you. Don't take a break from the break that you've already taken. Okay? And if that's you, you know I'm talking to you. Okay? So that's it. These are my five tips on how to get out of a plateau and start again your progress. And if you have any more tips, then I invite you to come on over to my Instagram account. I'm gonna post there a question about how to get out of a plateau. And I'd love for you to join the conversation and share with me your tips. You can also do it on my website, theinfluencypodcast.com this is episode number 24. Okay, that's it. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you like this podcast, please rate and review it on itunes. And if you have friends who are also interested in improving their English and their confidence and stepping into the fluent mindset. Then share with them the podcast as well. Thank you so, so much. I will see you in the next episode. And don't forget to join the wait list for Accent Makeover. It's theaccentsway.com join if you want to be a part of the next round of Accent Makeover. I am definitely going to be there and it's going to be a lot of fun. Have a beautiful, beautiful week and I'll catch you next time in the next episode. Bye.