Reflections on language learning

I was reflecting on how to best practice languages and I came to realize that to really boost our ability to speak we must not only focus on it. When we just speak the language to practice it and with the only objective of improving it, we are fully concerned with speaking clearly and correctly and therefore we are constantly afraid of making mistakes. In this case we are treating the language as a goal, as something to merely achieve.

Whereas, when we use the language as a mean, for instance when we are playing cards or football or when we are just expressing an opinion on a theme we really care about we are concentrated on the performing the action itself and not on grammar or lexical nuances. As a result, we may find ourselves speaking better if we are not careful of how we are speaking but of why.

What I'm getting at, is that, paradoxically, a language lover has to temporarily give up his love for languages to best speak them and to improve them.