What is language coaching? Who is a language coach?
There can be a number of answers. Let’s see what I have to say.
Answer 1.
Language coaching is a type of coaching, a subdivision of life coaching. Then the question is what coaching in itself is, right? And this is a long story. Probably, this answer is not the best.
Answer 2.
Imagine you need to go from point A to point B, and it happens that you have to go through a forest. You are standing on the edge of the forest, peeping into it and weighing your options. You have very little idea of how forests are crossed; you have heard sorties about it; you have seen movies (but how plausible are things in the movies, come on). You can ask advice from friends of friends who did “the same” in a different country 10 years ago, or follow “advice” from the ads that keep tracking you since the moment you told a friend you were probably going to go through a forest. Wouldn’t it be wise to find a guide? A person who has been to this forest and several other forests, who studied forestry at a university, who knows all the paths and shortcuts and, basically, has answers to all questions. Probably, it would.
So, this forest is a language learning journey and this guide is a language coach.
What do language coaches do?
They help you to get clear on your aims and options, as well as to discover what keeps you going and what your real motives are. Language coaches never TELL you to do stuff; they HELP you make your own decisions. They accompany you on your journey. Do guides help you walk? Well, they do not - and can not - physically move your legs or keep shouting at you to move them, but they ask the right questions to allow you to find a path that is just right for you here and now.
Other analogies that come to mind:
a travel agency for those who do not feel like checking every hotel and matching them with the flights
a navigator (software or a real person) for those who do not wish to waste their mental energy on building the route and choosing where to turn at every crossroads
A navigator is a very good parallel. Can you turn left instead of right because you feel so at the moment? Of course. The navigator will not judge you but will build another route from the point you found yourself at. Can you stop by a nice little café you saw while driving past? Sure! And even more than that, you should do it! This is the beauty of travel, the right way to truly enjoy the process, find the real motivation, and form a closer bond with the journey you are on.
In short, if you are not sure how to proceed with your language learning or what you need to do to actually feel happy about your progress, a language coach is the guy you need.
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