Learning to Take Risks

So far in this book you have studied the following topics:

• Your own learning styles and preferences
• Motivating yourself and setting your own goals
• How you can build self-confidence
• How to lower your anxiety

You have also learned to have some conversations in English and to read and write a little better in English. You are ready to learn to be a successful risk taker. Taking risks means you try to say things in English even if you might make a mistake. It's one of the most important strategies you can use. Let's look at why it's so important.

Language Ego

When you were growing up, you gradually began to understand yourself better. As an adult, you know what you like to do and what you don't like to do, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and what makes you spedal. This self that you have come to know well and to feel proud of is called your ego.

When you were about a year old, you began to speak your native language. Ever since then, you have been telling people what you know, what you think, and how you feel in your language. You have learned to understand yourself in your own language. Other people see you through your native language. This close connection between language and ego is called language ego: the way language helps you to understand and express yourself.

H. Douglas Brown, Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to Learning English (White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, 2002.) Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education. Addiitonol Resources 172