If you’re serious about starting a language, or about moving up a level, it helps to have clearly defined goals. And regular readers of the blog might remember that I like to distinguish between vision goals and path goals. A vision goal is your ultimate aim in the language. Your path goals are the shorter-term staging posts along the way to that personal “promised land”.
That distinction helps. But it’s not the full picture. Because if you’re aiming for anything beyond a very limited goal, it’s going to take years, not months. And life gets in the way. Work. Family. Energy levels. Unexpected events (good or bad).
Even if you hit a series of path goals, there will be stretches—sometimes long ones—where you’re simply not up for the next push.
Given that reality, I’ve found another idea helpful: the infinite game.
The term comes from James P. Carse, in his book Finite and Infinite Games. Simon Sinek ran with it in his more recent volume, The Infinite Game. A finite game is played to win. It has a clear endpoint. Think of a football match, a chess game, an election or an exam. There are defined players, fixed rules, and—eventually—a result. Most of our path goals in language learning look like this. You prepare for an exam You finish a course. You aim to read a book by Easter. Clear objective. Clear end.
An infinite game is different. There’s no final win and no ultimate endpoint. You’re not playing to finish. You’re playing to stay in the game.
That’s it.
I feel this most strongly in my advanced languages. After more than thirty years with Welsh, German, French, and Russian, I’m not really chasing a “vision goal” anymore. I stay engaged. I improve when I can. And I keep enjoying my connection with the culture, people, and places tied to those languages. They’ve simply become part of my life. In contrast, with Basque, I’m still very much in the middle of the climb. And with Japanese, that intermediate plateau is only just coming into view.
But here’s the point!
Even at beginner or intermediate level, this shift in perspective can help. Of course, vision and path goals can still be very useful indeed. But, if you treat language learning only as a series of finite games. Yyou’ll constantly feel behind, off track, or not quite “there”.
If you also see it as an infinite game, you can help yourself to continue: to dip in and out; to have quieter periods without assuming you’ve failed; and, to keep going, long enough for your language to become part of your life.
So here’s a simple question for you:
What is one small way you can stay “in the game” this week?
I’m not talking about a big push here. Just something you’ll actually do.
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Enhancing the rhythm of your language learning year
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How to keep learning a language when life’s turned upside down
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