Different people tackle the language learning problem with different approaches. Some people favor rote memorization, some go to the route of immersion and binge watch every TV show on Netflix with or without subtitles, some believe in the power of capitalism and pay others to teach them.

After struggling with English learning myself for years, I come to accept the impossibility of acchieving a native level of fluency. Allow me to explain.

The word “run” probably runs(pun intended) top among the first 100 words an ESL student encounters. A naive student puts the word along with the definition in the little notebook (maybe with a chinese definition such as 跑) and call it a day, thinking he/she has mastered another vocabulary: one down, 9999 to go.

One soon realizes that being naive is the first obstacle toward achieving native (pardon the pun), when one witnesses all kinds of confusing usages of “run”:

  1. Lucy ran her fingers through her hair.

  2. The rumor ran through the neighborhood.

  3. The water is running.

  4. The street run down to the port.

  5. He ran a wire.

  6. Inflation is running at 2 percent.

  7. He runs his own business.

  8. The car runs on fuel.

  9. This show ran for 5 days.

  10. Trump ran for president.

  11. They run drugs for the cartels.

  12. Investors had a good run for their money.

  13. He made a run for it.

…

A word as common as “run” can have vastly different meaning when used in different contexts. How can I claim to have “masterred” this word? If I can’t even use a single word as freely as a native speaker, how is it possible to really achieve a native level across wide range of vocabularies?

The sheer amount of time one needs to dedicate to mastering a foreign language, makes learning a new language such a humbling experience. Maybe it is futile to think reaching native fluency is an achievable task.

But a better mindset would be to embrace this defeat. As humbling as the process is, it is as well as a rewarding one: No matter how old you are, being 18 or 80, you have to cheat your brain to think like a baby who has no preconceived ideas of things around you, to forget your mother tongue so you don’t have the baggage of “run=跑” in your head, to train your mouth and muscle to be able to generate a new set of vowels and consonants… it’s almost like being born again.

And in the end, probably only through all those daily grind and mechanical transformations, can you feel a new drop of blood “runs” in your veins.