Fake It Until You Make It – Learning by Doing

In January 2025, I applied for a position as a Hungarian as a Foreign Language teacher in Montevideo, Uruguay. The contract was for one year.

Before applying, I already knew one important thing: speaking Spanish would probably be essential. The students in Uruguay obviously did not speak either Hungarian or English, and I was sure they would expect explanations in Spanish during class.

So, on my CV, I wrote that I spoke Spanish at a B1 level.

The truth?

At that point, I did not speak a single word of Spanish.

Now, before you judge me too quickly, let me explain.

As a trained Hungarian as a Foreign Language teacher, I already knew something many people misunderstand about language teaching: the goal of a language lesson is not for the teacher to give long lectures about grammar in another language. A good language class is not a university presentation. It is training in the target language.

My job was never to entertain students with explanations in Spanish. My job was to create situations where students could actively use Hungarian themselves.

And I knew I could do that.

So I took the risk.

I got the job. Nobody tested my Spanish during the interview process.

A few weeks later, I arrived in Montevideo and classes started.

And guess what?

I was right.

The lessons went incredibly well — even though I could not explain things in Spanish. The classes were dynamic, practical, and focused on communication. Even complete beginners were speaking Hungarian during the lessons.

Because that is how languages are learned:

by using them.

Not by endlessly studying grammar tables.

Not by waiting until you "feel ready."

And definitely not by translating every sentence in your head first.

Of course, there was one small problem.

In Montevideo almost nobody spoke English.

So suddenly, I had no choice:

I had to start speaking Spanish.

I did not have time to "study" Spanish in the traditional sense. At the same time, I was running my freelance language teaching business while also teaching my official Hungarian courses in Uruguay. So I was working from 8 a.m. until 10:30 p.m., almost without breaks.

I simply survived in Spanish.

Every day.

At supermarkets.

At parties.

At the gym.

At cafés.

At the doctor's office.

At government offices.

With colleagues.

With neighbors.

I used the little I knew, guessed the rest, made hundreds of mistakes, embarrassed myself regularly, and continued anyway.

And slowly, something strange happened.

Spanish started working.

At the end of my one-year contract, in December 2025, I decided to take a placement test at a random language school out of curiosity.

The result?

B1-level Spanish.

The exact level I had originally lied about on my CV one year earlier.

That experience taught me something important:

Sometimes you really do have to fake it until you make it.

Not because lying is good.

But because waiting for perfection keeps people silent forever.

Most language learners think:

"I will speak once I'm ready."

But the truth is the opposite:

you become ready because you speak.

Language is not learned theoretically first and practiced later.

Language is learned through use.

That is why I always tell my students:

use Hungarian immediately.

Use the words you know.

Use broken sentences.

Make mistakes.

Communicate anyway.

Because if you wait until you speak perfectly, you may never start speaking at all.

Learning by doing is not just a method.

It is how real language acquisition happens.

And sometimes, the fastest way to become the person you want to be… is to start acting like that person before you fully believe you are.