Posted by learnitalianfortravel  |  February 8, 2019

I have this quote by Samuel Beckett on a card hanging on a mirror in my house: "Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better." The message from Beckett is to not get overwhelmed or bogged down by mistakes or failure, but to keep continually trying.  One of the best attitudes that you can have when learning anything new is a growth mindset which involves making mistakes and the acceptance that they are actually good.  When we try to be perfect, we inevitably will fail, because human beings are imperfect, and we're all constantly doing imperfect things.  The effort geared towards trying to do something that's unattainable, simply causes you stress-especially in the beginning stages of anything new.  I'm a native English speaker, yet I still make mistakes when I speak or write English.  I make mistakes sometimes speaking and writing Italian too, even though I've been an Italian teacher for 18 years. IT'S OK!  Learning a language can be intimidating because the words are literally foreign rolling off of your tongue.  There are rules that your'e unfamiliar with, and exceptions to rules that you don't know yet.  Italian has some difficult pronunciations, and perhaps you can't do the rolling of the R thing yet, or make that GL sound from the back of your throat.  And IT'S OK! The more that you keep studying and trying (and making mistakes), the better that you will become.  So, speak to people, go to Italy and engage.  Fail better!