Surely not, you may think!
I’m not so sure, so let me explain:
I love walking. For the last ten or so years I have been walking as much as possible. I try to do 10,000 steps a day (don’t always achieve that) and at weekends we go for long walks. Twice I have managed to walk a marathon, the whole 26miles!
But I cannot run! I tried a few months ago and I couldn’t even run 1 minute 🙁
I tried several times and then gave up – I’m no good at running!
But it annoyed me. Surely, if I can walk I can run?
So I tried again, this time with some help.
I downloaded the podcasts from C25K and started a training programme. At first I only managed to jog for 1 minute at a time but gradually I managed more.
Today was the first time in my life that I managed to jog 25 minutes in one go, and I am extremely proud 😉
I’m still slow and if any serious runners overtake me they probably smile when they see me, but I don’t care, I have done it. There are bound to be setbacks but I intend to carry on ….
So, where are the similarities?
Just like my walking, you have been speaking English (or whatever your mother tongue is) pretty much all your life and you’re good at it! But maybe you also always wanted to learn a foreign language, so you start to learn German …. but you find it hard … so you give up. You’re obviously not meant to learn a language!
But it annoys you! Surely if you can speak your own language you can speak a foreign language?
So you try to learn German again, this time with lessons. At first you only manage to give your name in German, but gradually you can say more. One day you manage a whole conversation in German, and you’re extremely proud. Everything is still slow going and you’re nowhere near fluent, but you don’t care! You will continue until you can hold a better conversation or whatever you final goal is, because you know that you can do it!
What do you think, are there similarities between jogging and learning German?
