Has your language level plateaued? And are you frustrated?

Taking one step forward and two steps back when trying to leave the plateau is like my current knitting project.

I’m quite good at knitting, with my stitches usually uniformly even.

I’m not good at knitting curved shapes, so my sweaters have straight fronts and backs, straight sleeves and square necklines.

Yup, my strategy is to avoid knitting anything shaped.

Recently, I’ve been knitting a special scarf as a birthday present for a friend. Should be sweet, but it’s driving me up the wall.

There were 7 false starts. I keep making mistakes in the pattern and dropping stitches. I’ve had to unpick rows again and yet again. The yarn is finnicky, it’s constantly splitting, and when will that jolly ball of wool ever end?

It feels like this knitting is jinxed.

And it reminds me of being stuck on the plateau when learning a language.

That place where your professional English is good enough to do what you need to do, although sometimes you notice that you can’t find the right way to express exactly what you mean.

Hmm.

But you can communicate ok, so why make the effort of getting better?

Because wouldn’t it be cool to quickly find the precise word you’re looking for?

Aren’t you tempted by being able to write a concise email in no time?

How about finally doing that presentation you’ve been putting off?

All this is doable using the snowball strategy – short and simple exercises done most days.

Ready to give it a go?

And if you’d like support in getting your professional English unstuck, I can help you.

BTW when I finally finish this scarf, I’m going to try knitting something with curves.

Get a free taste of how we can work together to get your professional English unstuck when you sign up for email alerts.

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