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Language learning dropouts | ||
Tags: Burn-out | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5121 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 9 of 29 26 September 2014 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would also add that sometimes things just change.
The one year I joined a TAC team, the "leader" was quite enthusiastic at the beginning, then was absent after about two months, really not to be seen or heard from for the rest of the year. Not to place *too* much emphasis on it, but team leaders have a lot to do that can probably overwhelm them and, as a byproduct, affect the rest of the team. Couple that with a smallish team to begin with and motivation will quickly dissipate. The most successful teams I've seen in my time here on HTLAL are large, well-organized and communicate with each other regularly, be it through the TAC master log or by other means (regular Skyping, for example). R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5757 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 10 of 29 27 September 2014 at 1:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm one of those early dropouts. I don't stop learning, but when I try to write about what I am doing it seems so insignificant that I don't post it, and with that I feel awkward commenting on other people's progress, and after a while I stop reading. And trying to re-enter the group later on is ... not easy.
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| AmyinBrooklyn Senior Member United States Joined 4042 days ago 87 posts - 122 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 29 27 September 2014 at 2:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems like there are two questions here. One, is whether people lose motivation for language learning and two, is the TAC question. I signed up for TAC this year, my first year on HTLAL and honestly, I just never really understood what I was supposed to do as part of TAC. After signing up, I rarely logged back into that thread - I guess I was not a very good teammate. So I lost motivation with TAC, but I didn't with my language study. In one week, I'll hit my first year of a full study of Spanish -with one -two hours spent on Spanish every single day. I'm pretty proud of it, actually!
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4524 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 12 of 29 27 September 2014 at 10:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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I joined my first TAC this year. I found it interesting until it disintegrated into a cloud of language dust. The most useful thing for me was simply finding out about some other German learners here on HTLAL. So there wasn't much gaining/losing of motivation for me. I am just curious how other people are going with their studies.
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| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4073 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 13 of 29 27 September 2014 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
+1. Another thing about resolutions: it's not that people lose interest in learning languages, it's that people severely underestimate the personal effort required compared to what they can give. This applies to many activities which feature in new year resolutions. For example, take "I will study 45 minutes per day". On the surface it might not appear to be much. There are 24 hours in a day, just 45 minutes should be easy-peasy. But those of use who have experience in grinding it out know that 45 minutes of *extra* focus day in and day out is a *huge* endeavor. In 24 hrs, there are some fixed costs - sleeping, eating, work. What we are left with, are only a few hours, and then committing 45 minutes out of that is a big, big deal. There are some who genuinely like the *process* of a certain activity. They stick with it because the process gives them pleasure. For most, the process is painful, what we are after are the results. When beginning an activity, our brains fool us into thinking we are just about to get the results, and so the activity is pleasurable. After a couple of months, this dopamine fix has stopped, and what remains is just the pain of the activity (or the pain of forgoing a substitute pleasure activity). It has taken me a while in life understanding and accepting this process. With acceptance came the realization that: 1. We just have to power on through the pain. There is no other way. 2. Ensure the pain is not too much to enable to power on (so dont set lofty goals). 3. Look for salves which can ameliorate some of the pain (for me these are buying books, even though I may never get around to reading them; logging time and at the end of the week getting a dopamine jolt looking at the total time logged that week). 4. Accept that I will fall off the effort wagon from time to time. Note that these steps are universally applicable (eg to weight loss).
Edited by Gemuse on 27 September 2014 at 1:15pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4435 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 14 of 29 27 September 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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People have various reasons for getting enrolled in language classes as well as dropping out. Some people
like myself got into French by default because Canada recognizes both English & French as official languages. Whether you like French or not, you have to take it until the end of primary school before you can switch to another language like Latin, German, Spanish or Italian. Even if you got high marks in school doesn't mean you liked French because it was not the language of your choice. Many ethnic Italians in my high school switched to Italian as a second language since this is the mother-tongue they use at home. I know a man who took Japanese on and off for many years but never advanced to a fluency higher than lower intermediate. His reason for going to class was to be able to greet a few Japanese friends he met in university in the US. Otherwise, they are quite fluent in English. The man did not read Japanese newspapers, listen to radio or watch TV programs to the point where he can pick up much of the conversation without reading subtitles. For him, knowing how to say "hello" and "thank you" in Japanese was sufficient. A lady was going to Spanish class every week for about 10 years after work. I don't know if she is still taking Spanish. For her going to class fills up her time as part of her active lifestyle. I don't think she gets to the point of reading a Spanish newspaper, watch or listen to Spanish programs on TV or the radio. I know some people who would stay away from learning or speaking their mother-tongue because they were brought up in a strict family. They tend to associate certain cultures with strict parenting. Personally I am spending about as much time playing music on a piano keyboard, going to band practice every week and keeping up with my French at an intermediate level. Learning a language and playing music is the same. You have to be at a intermediate continue moving ahead. Like learning to play piano, once you start playing a few old Beatles tunes, you get a sense of personal satisfaction. Otherwise if you are going to be playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" every day for the next 5 years you'll be totally bored or you have nothing better to do. Playing music isn't just repetitive exercises. While listening to nice songs I also search for printed music so I can play them. Learning languages is more than going to class and learning subject-verb conjugations. It allows you to read foreign newspapers, watch movies in another language without subtitles. In Canada we have several multicultural radio stations. Throughout the day there would be programming in various languages including Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Punjabi, Italian, etc. I would spend about the same amount of time listening to news and information in English as in Chinese. When a station broadcasts the weather for China I couldn't care less what the temperature is in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou or Chengdu. It is just part of the broadcast. The rest of the broadcast give me news I normally don't hear from an English network like BBC or CNN. My reason for learning and keeping up with another language is that it gives me a window to the other side of the world or listen to a discussion from another perspective. It is easy to get yourself exposed to 1 of half-dozen languages just by listening to CHIN, Fairchild Radio or watch foreign programs on Omni TV. Edited by shk00design on 27 September 2014 at 2:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4900 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 15 of 29 28 September 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
This isn't something I have seen. I have to say that until I joined a TAC team, I didn't really notice them. I joined one for the first time this year and I didn't see any arguing or wasted energy, but I guess I just must have missed that period. However, I really couldn't understand why the first French team wanted to limit numbers on their team. Even though I had never participated I knew there would be attrition. The same thing happens in most of the challenges. Look at any 6wc and see how many people don't post a single tweet. The Super Challenge has about 33 people who haven't posted a single tweet (compared to 125 or so who have posted at least 1 book or film). And that's just people at the beginning. Both challenges will have people who start with good intentions and then just tail off, or drop off. Edited by Jeffers on 28 September 2014 at 10:20pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5198 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 29 29 September 2014 at 10:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Yep, I say this every year, but people still insist on splitting! Anyway I've noticed that the most enthusiastic-seeming members often tend to be the first to disappear. I'm a leader of a team that is all but dead, and some of the initial signups were clearly too enthusiastic to last ;). Unsurprisingly enough, after a couple of weeks we no longer heard a thing from them. Maybe the enthusiasm just isn't sustainable. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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