rdearman wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote:rdearman wrote:perfection is the enemy of the good.
I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as that. Whether perfection gets in the way of achieving one’s language learning goal(s) or not depends on how much time (and patience) you have to devote to your language learning endeavour(s), how quickly you want to get there, how you prefer to study and how you would like to sound.
What is the chance of being perfect in your own native language? Even with a huge advantage perfection isn't a realistic goal. I agree you should strive to be the best, but not strive for perfection.
Depends on the individual. I personally see no harm in while learning something, attempting to learn it as best you can, by perfecting it as you go. In the end I’m not likely to be near-native even after 1000s of hours of learning, but with each study session, month, year, I hope I’m getting closer.
Long-term it’s not unrealistic. Plenty of people sound very close to native Australian English speakers who I’ve come across during the course of my life. Plenty I’ve met sound awful. Aside from innate gifts or abilities, putting in the time and effort can make a huge difference. If in the end one doesn’t sound exactly native but is close, well to me that’s better than near enough is good enough.
If you’re swimming daily and want to do well, working on efficient/good technique throughout your training can’t hurt, imo, IF you want to/are willing to spend the time doing so. For me, it’s well worth while, for others not at all, and for others yet again, some dedicated time on improving technique is worthwhile, but not constantly. In my mind, if you’re going to swim (to become very good)/ learn a language, might as well continuously seek to improve your speech as an integral part of all your other language learning activities.