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Wavering Interest in a Language | ||
Tags: Burn-out | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3828 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 12 20 December 2014 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||
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As I am having wavering interest in learning Spanish (as happens on a regular basis), this discussion topic occurred to me: what languages do you study that sometimes you lack interest in?
In contrast, every time I sit down to study languages I automatically pick up Japanese materials. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3992 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 12 20 December 2014 at 7:33am | IP Logged | ||
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All of my Spanish was so I could use it at work so I totally agree with you. The spark just wasn't there--like it is with German.
Is there some aspect of the learning process that you like to keep you going? For me, it was Scooby Doo books in Spanish and Latino video shows on tv. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3828 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 12 20 December 2014 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
That is my main problem with Spanish: I have nothing that really motivates me to learn, not even usefulness because I plan to live/study in countries that don't have lots of Spanish speakers. So I might put it on the back burner for now and focus on the other two. But anyway, rather than focusing on me, I was curious about other folks' experience with wavering interest, and what languages arealwayssoexcitingyoucan'tstanditeeeek! (yes, that was meant to be one word). :) Edited by Xenops on 20 December 2014 at 7:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 12 20 December 2014 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
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All of them go through better and worse times motivationwise. But I always come back and
regret the time away :-D Taking a break may be a good idea. Or find different resources and smaller goals that could work. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6585 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 12 20 December 2014 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's not a language I've studied that I haven't lost interest in several times, except Portuguese, but that's just because I've only studied it for four months. I regularly lose interest in languages, often in language learning altogether. When I do, I just stop and do something else. Eventually the itch comes back and suddenly I'm knee-deep in conjugations and dubbed movies again.
5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4447 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 12 21 December 2014 at 6:28am | IP Logged | ||
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If you think of learning a language as an academic pursuit you do in the classroom including drills & exercises at
home, you'd lose interest. In order to achieve conversation fluency, you need good reasons why learning that language is important to you. I always think of Jerome White who adopted the simplified version of his name as JERO ジェロ, the African-American who became a successful singer in Japan. While most Americans would be learning Spanish, he chose Japanese for good reasons. Being brought up around his Japanese grandmother who emigrated to the US with an American GI after the War, he fell in love singing Karaoke. Although his physical appearance is more African than Japanese, he always feel some connection to the country as his "ancestral" homeland. After graduating from college, he moved there permanently and spends more time in Japan than the US. Learning a language is not only about acquiring a new skill or simply finding activities to fill up your weekly schedule. In JERO's case he wasn't concerned about the language being difficult or learning Kanji (Chinese characters). He loved his grandmother when she was alive and has a passion for singing Japanese songs. Finding a connection to a language by watching TV programs, movies, reading and listening to the news from another country is important to learning. A month ago, I was in HK for a visit. After returning to Canada, I was reading news from HK online almost everyday on the "Umbrella Movement" for democracy starting with the English edition of the S. China Morning Post and the Chinese dailies. If you feel you have no connection to a county, you need to embrace more in the culture, follow local news, singers and celebrities on TV. Something you do outside the classroom. Although I don't have any plans to pick up Japanese, I love the singing voice of JERO and listen to his music regularly. I also started listening to a boys band (TF Boys) from Chongqing, China regularly. I recently watched a reality TV series from China call Grade 1 一年级. A lot of the Chinese words & phrases I pick up came from newspapers and not the classroom. Nowadays looking up words & phrases is easier than before by simply Cut & Paste characters onto computer dictionary including looking up meanings of proverbs online through Google search. Don't forget, the time you spend outside a classroom is far greater so you need as much exposure as you can. At the same time, you need to find some connections to the language or the countries where the language is spoken. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lunacaelum Newbie United States Joined 3637 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German | Message 7 of 12 21 December 2014 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is how I feel about learning Spanish. In elementary school we were required to take (poorly taught/not really taught at all) Spanish lessons. I burned out on Spanish so switched to Latin in high school. Now I've got an interest in Spanish again. But I still go through phases where I'm bored with it.
On the other hand I am learning German because (1) it's nice to study a non-romance language and (2) my family is of German descent. These are the same reasons why I studied Irish in college. I just have to remind myself how practical Spanish is here in Texas. Right now, I can read it pretty well and I can listen to it enough to get the gist of what people are saying around me. I ride the public transit and it's funny how even in Texas people think that a white girl can't understand Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4050 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 12 21 December 2014 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dutch :)
In the end, after the experience of this year I perfectly know that I will feel exhausted at a certain point in time. And that point is a nice one to start studying a new language ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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