Make French Joyful
The Transformative Power of Joy in your Language Learning Journey
Why is it that every time we want to learn or accomplish something, we pursue effectiveness rather than joy?
Whether we seek more knowledge, skills, power or money, we seem to be conditioned to believe that the most fruitful projects can only be achieved through stern discipline, rigorous schedules and a focus on what’s “necessary and safe” rather than what’s “joyful and sustainable”.
Of course, this approach is born out of societal expectations, but it keeps leading us down a path that drains the fun out of the learning process and can ultimately create a sense of boredom, if not worse: burnout. (Read next : The Things you Do that Will Lead you to Burnout)
In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of “duty and discipline” in language learning, and most importantly the powerful choice you have when you decide to make your French learning journey nothing but JOYFUL.
The Guilt of Pleasure
When we start our language learning journey burdened by the weight of obligation, we inadvertently sacrifice the joy that should be inherent in the exploration of a new language. This predisposition to focus on what is traditionally considered effective roots itself in societal norms, shaping our mindset to prioritize efficiency over enjoyment.
Let’s travel back in time.
You’re a kid that goes to school. It’s Sunday afternoon and you’ve been playing and watching cartoons all day. All of a sudden, your parent reminds you: “Tomorrow is Monday! Back to school! Have you finished your homework?”
Instant anxiety. Have I finished my homework? What if I didn’t do it right? Is there a test we have that I’ve forgotten about? What will the teacher think? Worse! What will my friends think? They’ll think I’m stupid and make fun of me. Oh no, I don’t want to go.
And just like that, your Sunday was ruined. Even if you had done everything right, you wouldn’t be able to focus on “fun” anymore without the nagging feeling that you should have worked more instead of enjoying your weekend.
From the moment we are little kids going to school, we learn that the things we do are classified between obligation and pleasure, duty and fun.
Of course, duty is the righteous path : when we obey to first fulfill our obligations and answer the demands of the adults around us, we are good kids, we’re safe, we receive praise. On the other hand, fun and pleasure are seen as “the cherry on the cake”, something we only get to do if and when we’ve ticked all the items on the to-do list.
This isn’t really the fault of our parents or even our teachers. In a way, they did their job to help us adapt and integrate into our society… The issue is that at the heart of this society of ours, productivity is valued over pleasure. Growth over contentment. Doing over being.
This is why all of us are conditioned to believe that pleasure is a distraction, and that if we really want to be successful at something, we must be disciplined and focus only on productive and effective tasks.
Ironically, this completely inhibits our ability to embrace joy in the process of learning. A joyless approach makes language learning a much less sustainable journey and leads many learners to quit, or to feel terrible about themselves throughout their learning process.
Reframing Effectiveness & Pleasure
Truth is, effectiveness in language learning (and in life) is not synonymous with joyless rigor.
In fact, making learning fun can significantly enhance your ability to retain information. Studies have shown for quite a while now that when we derive pleasure from the learning process, we engage more deeply and we make the experience more memorable and effective in the long run.
And let’s not forget another important aspect: when you’re having fun doing something, you naturally want to do more of it. So including pleasure and joy in your learning process instantly makes it more sustainable, as it equips you with the grit you need to overcome challenges. It unlocks your creativity, it fosters your curiosity, and creates a positive emotional connection to the language and the learning experience.
I studied in Belgium, and languages were a big part of the curriculum starting age 6. This is because despite being a small country, Belgium has 3 languages and not only bilingualism (French + Flemish Dutch) is considered normal, it’s an obligation especially if you live and work in Brussels.
Yet, what is the language that everyone was eager to learn? English. Because English was the language of everything we were interested in : music, movies, series, travelling, comics, video-games etc. That’s why many kids (myself included) started learning English even before the school program was offering it, and we became quite good at it, sometimes even becoming language experts… just by having fun.
There was no need to convince us that we should listen to more music and study the lyrics, we wanted to! And so we kept learning and improving.
What I’m trying to show you is that despite what we have been led to believe, joy is not an extraneous element but a central pillar in language learning. And it’s high time we changed the way we consider “studying”.
How to Infuse Joy into Language Learning
Because productivity, discipline, rigor and boring repetitive exercices were the norm for so long, you may find it difficult to know exactly how you could infuse joy into your language learning journey. This is one of those situations in life when you know that something is true, yet your conditionings are stronger and will lead you into automatically repeat past habitual patterns if you don’t have a strategy to change them.
That’s why my first tip for infusing joy into language learning is that you must make it a conscious choice.
1. Consciously Choose Joy
You agree with the principles shared in this article? Great for you, but without a conscious effort, you’ll steer back into your habitual patters of prioritizing pseudo effectiveness over joyful learning experiences.
This is because deep down, your brain and body have registered that this was the safest choice that will keep you out of trouble. Even if it hasn’t been pleasant, even if it has led you to self-loathing sometimes, the traditional approach has kept you thinking that you were doing “the right thing.”
On top of that, change requires effort and courage because our brain always sees it as a risk. That’s why it’s so difficult to challenge beliefs, systems, traditions, dynamics at the global level or even at the familial level, regardless of the fact that they’re hurtful and toxic for everyone involved.
So if you are convinced that pleasure and joy don’t interfere with success in language learning (or any kind of learning for that matter), my suggestion is to write a permission slip to yourself.
My Beloved Self. It is safe for you to enjoy yourself. You will reach your goals even if you take the joyful and pleasurable path. In fact the joyful and pleasurable path is a guarantee of your success. It’s safe to break the rules and follow your joy. It’s safe to do what feels good.
2. Knowing What Makes you Feel Good
When I help clients ditch the guilt of pleasure and joy so they can lean into their playfulness, one of the first obstacle is usually very simple: they don’t know what that means for them.
For so long your mind has been focusing on the “shoulds”(=the things one must do in order to reach results), that it has forgotten how to have fun, especially when it comes to language learning.
That’s why so often we can see people saying that language learning is fun, but they are still repeating the same traditional learning activities we used to do in school, only with colored pencils.
I mean, I love colored pencils, but if we want to break rules, we’re gonna have to be a bit more daring and creative than that.
One tip that usually does the trick is the following: instead of thinking about what makes you feel good, what is pleasurable for you, what is fun, ask your body! Feel into it, experiment with different things that maybe have nothing to do with language learning and connect to your body, feeling the sensations of pleasure. Then, turn the activity into a language learning experience.
For instance, recently, my husband and I started ordering food from Hello Fresh. If you don’t know them, they’re a company that provides ready-made ingredients with step-by-step recipes. We started sharing evenings cooking together and tasting new savors, and we both realized that we quite enjoy cooking and experimenting new food!
So why not discover new recipes in the languages we’re learning? It could be on a website, or on a cooking channel, in a simple book of recipes, or even a food podcast. Instead of studying the words and expressions, I’m going to go straight ahead and use the language in context with the help of a dictionary when needed.
I know I enjoy it. It’s fun. I’m eager to learn. It’s a full experience.
Now your turn: what are the activities you love that could be language learning experiences?
3. Exposure and Self-Expression
When taking the joyful path of learning and success, keep in mind to aim for a certain balance.
Not necessarily between duty and pleasure. In fact, why don’t we ditch duty altogether, really? But rather between language exposure and language use for self-expression.
This is a trap that I see too many learners fall into once they start infusing joy in their French. They’ll think, ok, so I can follow the easy path and just listen to music and watch movies, read some texts, and I’m good to go.
These exposure activities are essential, but they are not enough.
You still have to create opportunities for you use the language in meaningful ways so you can express yourself, otherwise you will never activate all the passive knowledge you’ve gathered.
This doesn’t mean that it has to be boring or daunting: again follow the joy. Write poems, sing songs that you memorize, write a journal in French (Read Next : The Journal in French Club), join a book club where the members share their thoughts and feelings, etc.
The possibilities are numerous, but you have to make it a priority otherwise your efforts won’t be as fruitful.
4. Connecting with your Playfulness
Once you start considering language learning as your playfield, your progress becomes pretty much inevitable. Little by little, you get to ditch all the layers of guilt, shame, not-enoughness that were imposed onto you years after years.
Little by little, you start trusting yourself more and you allow yourself to play. It’s a bit like liberating your inner child and reconnecting with her freedom and carelessness.
A wonderful exercise is to create a space for you to connect to the little child you once were. Either you do this through visualisation, or journaling, or mind-mapping, drawing - place an intention to connect with her and to come through to play with you. What are the games that she liked to play? What were the colors, the songs, the textures that she liked? What dreams did she have? What if you invited all these elements in your study of French?
5. A Treasure Chest of Language Pleasures
Hopefully, you now have a clearer idea of how you can be more playful and invite more joy in your language learning journey.
Perhaps you’ve already thought of a few activities you’d like to explore in French or in the other languages you’re learning.
To stay on this lane, I suggest you don’t make any of them an obligation. It’s not because journaling, drawing, dancing and cooking are all good viable options that you must do them every day or every week.
Instead, why not create a list of these activities? A list that you can continue building as you keep on exploring yourself and reconnecting with your playfulness. Let’s call it “The Treasure Chest of Language Pleasures”. During your dedicated time for language study, open the chest and pick a pleasure.
That way, it always feels like a little gift to yourself, and you give yourself permission to have variety in your routines.
Talking about treasure chest, if you’re a pre-intermediate to intermediate French learner, I’ve got something magical in store for you this winter…
Introducing Le Calendrier de l'Avent
This winter, I have something special in store that aligns perfectly with your commitment to joy in language learning – Le Calendrier de l'Avent.
It’s a unique and enchanting experience that promises to infuse your French learning journey with daily doses of joy. A celebration of French language, culture, and the magic of mindfulness during the most wonderful time of the year.
It will very soon be available, so keep your eyes peeled!
Last words
Joy is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.
It transforms the difficulty into delight, and that’s true whether we’re talking about languages or about anything else.
Specifically for languages though, remember that joy not only makes the process of learning more effective, it also makes it deeply fulfilling.
I hope reading this today will help you rekindle your love for joyful learning and celebrate the beauty of language acquisition, with playfulness and love.