Miyamoto Musashi was one of the greatest samurai in Japan. His success can be attributed to his life philosophy of discipline and fearlessness. Weeks before his death, he wrote 21 precepts for his favorite pupil. The 21 rules are pearls of wisdom any man can learn from. One must study them and meditate upon these words if they wish to become a master of their craft in the modern age. For language learners, this means pursuing the Way of the Polyglot.

1. Accept everything just the way it is.

There will always be change. Change cannot be stopped, but it’s how you deal with it that will determine your success.

The world as we know will always need people fluent in multiple languages. Because language is always evolving and there are always nuances that are difficult to express. Fluency in a foreign language is much more than directly translating everything from English.

Even though machine translation is becoming more powerful, it will never be a substitute for hard work and creativity.

If you’re getting high quality input, you’re becoming more intelligent. You’re recognizing that the target language is much different from English especially at an advanced level. But if you get too complacent and waste your skills doing nothing, you will go backwards. Memory will always decay against the flow of time.

If there is always change you must accept everything as it is.

Most people can’t tolerate change. They plateau too early and believe their lofty positions are permanent. They perform mental gymnastics to convince themselves they are great. But Musashi didn’t fight change and let his ego pull him around. He trained every day in his craft knowing that skill can decay, knowing that his rivals are also improving. He was one of the best because he not only found solutions that worked for him but also continued to search for more answers.

No matter how skilled a polyglot seems on video, he is constantly fighting against the current of change. You can’t see it because video is a tiny slice of life that makes your fleeting moments permanent. If you accept everything as it is, you know there’s more work to be done and you will never stop improving.

2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.

Pleasure is instant gratification, a feel good trap that you will get addicted to. Many polyglots fall for the curse of validation, constantly chasing praise from others and getting drunk off it. They forget to improve because everyone else is telling them how good they are, even if they aren’t that skilled.

But discipline is hard because it does not feel good in the moment, unless you are in a state of flow. It actually requires constant dedication. I’m not saying you should live a one dimensional life, that is also another trap that you should also avoid. Life can be enjoyable but you can’t simply chase empty pleasure.

When you are near the end of your life, you realized you could have accomplished more if you hadn’t taken the safe path and stayed in your bubble with the same thought patterns. Instead of chasing pleasure, focus on discipline and small victories. The satisfaction you get from the small gains will be worthwhile in the long run.

3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.

Motivation gets you started but discipline keeps you on the journey. A farmer who wants to produce enough food can’t sit back and only work on the good days. He must spend the entire day outside even in harsh weather.

You can learn languages every day without having to endure harsh weather. But there are many distractions that will interfere with your path and many negative feelings that want you to give up your learning and do something unrelated. If studying is too boring add some variation but make sure you are always in constant contact with the language every day even if it’s a few minutes.

4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.

There are many people who are also trying to become skilled language learners. You are not the only one who is struggling. Even if you get good, you are not any more special than everyone else. But many polyglots think of themselves as superior for being able to dabble in multiple languages. It’s very obvious in the way they talk about their own personal journey. They ramble on about their own lives as if their journey was unique and they are one of the rare few who succeeded. Except it’s boring and insignificant to the world.

If you want to sharpen your language skills you must spend time every day improving yourself by 1%. Don’t focus on your ego. It either tells you that you are superior to everyone else or it talks down on you and tells you that you’ll never reach fluency. Many people struggle and eventually reach fluency. Your journey isn’t that unique until you reach an advanced level. Learn from the best and apply it to your own craft.

5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.

Many people want to become a polyglot so they can go to social events and impress people by switching between multiple languages. They focus too much on desire, always coming up with long lists of language and using quick hacks to reach fluency. They want the rewards without the hard work except they don’t understand that the journey is the best part of language learning.

Instead of desire, focus on improving yourself in one language at a time. Reaching a high level in one language takes a lot of dedication and it is not as trivial as the internet polyglots make it seem.

6. Do not regret what you have done.

Your past is what makes you into the person you are today. You might not have had the chance to grow up bilingual or multilingual. The few who grew up in multilingual households and take it for granted aren’t going to get stronger because they don’t know how to suffer.

Even if you used lots of inefficient methods or wasted time away from language learning, you still have the chance to learn from your mistakes and reflect to improve for tomorrow. Infants spend years trying to learn a language. While they don’t learn as efficiently, they learn in a way that allows them to approach native level fluency without fossilization.

Many people regret not working on pronunciation. While I believe you should really focus on pronunciation from day one, you might not have found this advice until now. If you started to notice too late, you might not be able to get a perfect accent but you can get extremely close enough if you make the effort. A foreign accent might not get you as much approval but you should be proud of yourself if you can communicate clearly enough. Forgive yourself, don’t give up everything because of one small mistake. You don’t want to burn down a library because there was a typo in one of the books.

7. Never be jealous.

Everyone has a different background. Don’t be jealous of the polyglot who’s getting more validation than you. They could be taking shortcuts on their speaking just to make you feel jealous. They don’t know much more than you do.

People are more complex than they appear, often projecting an ideal image that hides the truth. You should only compare your current self to your past self. As long as you are working hard every day making progress on your language learning, you shouldn’t feel any shame or doubt.

Become 1% better every day.

8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.

On your language learning journey, you will meet many people and even find love. But you could also spend too much time trying to win their approval and fear that they will leave you.

The ancient stoics often believed that you can’t control other people’s perception of you but you can work hard to live a virtuous life. Even if other people abandon you and you have no one to practice with you, it’s not over. Your response to the situation can make or break you. Instead of feeling sad by a separation, you can still exude confidence and seek new challenges. You can change your routine and improve to a new level. You might even meet better people that accept you for who you are.

9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others.

Never complain about your situation.

Many language learners complain that they don’t have enough time, they started too late, they don’t live in the country, or there’s not enough practice opportunities. There’s many excuses. Unless they picked a very obscure language spoken by a few hundred people on a remote island, they should have enough resources and input material to last a lifetime.

Complaining about others is a waste of time. Even if they have more advantages than you, it doesn’t help you in any way to complain. To improve in a language you need to learn at least one new thing. Complaining is focused on something temporary that will go away if you find a solution.

Musashi understood that negativity is toxic. If you get bad practice from interacting with native speakers, don’t complain and say no one is giving you a chance. Focus on getting more input and never put your happiness or language learning into someone else’s control.

To improve, you must first be content with yourself. If someone else is doing better than you, you should feel happy for them.

10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.

Love and lust are irrational. But many people learn languages to find romantic relationships. Some even hope that having a significant other will help them improve.

If you want to pursue relationships, I won’t stop you. But often you can easily stagnate by being in the comfort of a relationship. You think you’re good enough and don’t realize how far behind you are. Your language skill can deteriorate when you start mixing languages and forget how to speak normally. People can fall out of love and leave at any time.

But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t love something. Musashi loved being a samurai. For you, it means love the journey. The path will always be there for you and treat you better than anyone else could. Put all the love you had for someone into the path and it will reward you.

11. In all things have no preferences.

Preference is a trap that limits your experience and prevents you from adapting to change. This is apparent with many internet polyglots who always stick to the same methods when learning a foreign language. Learn a few canned phrases and practice with as many native speakers. Their conversations are always the same. “You speak very well. Where did you learn the language? How long have you been studying? I wish I was as talented.”

Attachments are terrible weaknesses. A common example is relying on fun apps such as Duolingo. Many people are attached to Duolingo thinking that they can’t learn a new language without it. But people have been learning languages well before Duolingo or all those new apps existed. These apps aren’t always the best way for every language. Just because it was good for Spanish doesn’t mean it will be good for Russian.

Different languages call for different methods. If the language is similar to your native language such as French, you can jump straight into native materials. If the language is very different such as Korean, you should stick to structured materials.

Never stay too long in your comfort zone. Always venture out to expand your range of output and don’t have the same boring conversations with native speakers. This is why many polyglots and language learner videos are uninteresting to watch. Many vlogs in Japan are about the same thing: “The trains are always on time. Everyone is polite.” Be adaptive like Dogen who can make videos on many different topics while maintaining a sense of humor.

Musashi always wandered across Japan fighting challenging enemies. He didn’t care about victory as much as he cared about transcending into a higher level. This mindset will get your farther than most.

12. Be indifferent to where you live.

No matter where you live, you can always succeed in your journey. The internet allows us nearly unlimited access to native media and speakers. Those who want to become skilled in their target language will always find a way.

Even if you don’t like where you live, you must always make the best out of your situation. Live in the present because that’s all that you will ever have.

This doesn’t mean that you should always stay in one place. You can always buy a plane ticket to another destination but fluency isn’t going to come quicker simply because you switched places. If you put in all your effort while living remotely, living in the target country can multiply your efforts. But if you make no effort you will never get far in the language. Many expats spend 10 years living in a foreign country and can’t speak the local language because they didn’t even try hard enough or used the worst methods.

13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.

A skilled language learner shouldn’t be fat. Many people look down on fat shaming but this blog has always been about harsh truths. If you criticize a fat polyglot, they will always perform mental gymnastics and redefine fluency. They will call you a hater and think you must be jealous.

Discipline should extend to all areas of your life. Food was meant to be fuel to help your mind grow. If you’re focusing too much on good food, you become lethargic which will impact your learning. If you want to improve your progress, focus on getting a solid diet. If you lack the discipline to take care of your health, it is unlikely that you will make significant progress on language learning.

14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.

Don’t let any possessions hold you back.

If you want to become skilled at another language, you must remove distractions from your native language. You can revisit those possessions when you are fluent in your target language. You might even realize that you like your new self more.

You’re changing because if you don’t you will fall behind. You must seek new material for input if you want to leave your comfort zone. If you are intermediate you shouldn’t be maintaining your gold Duolingo tree. It’s holding you back by giving you a false sense of security.

15. Do not act following customary beliefs.

Customary beliefs means doing the same thing as everything else and expecting to be unique. Don’t just learn all the Romance and Germanic languages and make the same videos and write the same blogs as everyone else. Don’t learn Chinese Japanese and Korean just to show everyone how smart you are because it appears exotic. I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn the popular languages but do it because you have a genuine interest in those cultures or people and want to learn more about them through the language.

It will take time to form your own beliefs because you are used to following everyone else. Most people will die trying to live someone else’s dream.

16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.

Weapons for a samurai is like input material for language learners.

To improve you must find comprehensible input but it’s too easy to get attached to your comfort zone. If you are reading something that is too easy you must seek something that is beyond your level. You might think you are the best at your language because other foreigners are struggling with simpler texts but you are not as skilled as you think until you get to classics or anything that even natives find challenging.

When the time comes, you need to throw away your learner materials and venture out into the unknown.

17. Do not fear death.

The great polyglots understood that time is finite. They spent most of their waking hours trying to learn as much as they could because they only had one shot at life.

Everyone has the potential to be great but only if they can avoid meaningless vices. Musashi never feared death even though he was constantly fighting other samurai. You are living in a safe environment now but this is why many people are lazy and refuse to acknowledge harsh truths. They hold on to meaningless pleasure and put too much value in it.

18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.

Don’t wait until retirement to pursue your dreams. You are better off pursuing your dreams when you are young. You are only working because you need the money but there’s always better alternatives that don’t require you to sacrifice your youth for someone else.

One harsh truth is that you should start earlier.

When you are young, you have a lot of free time to learn languages to a high level (at least C1 on the CEFR scale). As you get older, your chance of reaching a high level in multiple languages decreases. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do this in your 30s and 40s, but why make things harder for yourself?

Older people didn’t have the internet when they were younger but for young people today there is no excuse to repeat the mistakes of the older generation.

Experiences and memories are the only thing that will matter. You aren’t learning languages and treating them like trophies to be stored away. You are here because you want to learn the languages to explore new places, meet new people and read new books.

19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.

This blog has always been about taking responsibility for yourself. When you reach a flow state and maintain momentum, you will progress farther each day. Flow is when you are too busy immersed in language learning to realize so many hours have passed. No one should be forcing you to study. It needs to be internal motivation.

Momentum is like compound interest. Starting earlier means you can gain more experience which will help you accomplish many other tasks. Don’t define yourself by a label. You might think you are a god because you know a few exotic languages but let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.

You are responsible for your own success. You must always do what you think is right even if it is hard. Live your life to the highest standards. Never give up and retreat because fear covered your eyes.

You won’t be able to forgive yourself if you throw away your honor. Many people have thrown away their honor by chasing empty validation from other people and taking shortcuts that fundamentally damaged their output. It was only later when they realized that their ability was a mirage and they would never truly understand the language or the people. It is much harder to get your honor back after throwing it away too easily.

21. Never stray from the Way.

When you decide to follow the Way of the Polyglot, you need to spend the rest of your life walking this path. With so many opportunities, you can learn many languages and reach a decent level in all of them if you are willing to dedicate your time. You also will have to spend the rest of your life maintaining the languages if you want to keep them sharp. But for every successful polyglot there are many who failed and gave up too early. As long as you enjoy the path you will never want to stray from the way.

Conclusion

I don’t expect you to agree with all of these principles but many of them can be useful for language learning and daily living. Always improve by 1% and aim for the top.