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Language learning dropouts | ||
Tags: Burn-out | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 17 of 29 29 September 2014 at 11:42am | IP Logged | ||
Ubiquitous Bladerunner quote: The light that burns twice as bright... Edited by patrickwilken on 29 September 2014 at 6:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 18 of 29 29 September 2014 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think there are several reasons and the wrong expectations may not even be the most common ones.
Firstly, life just gets in the way. My first hard period of time is the end of the winter semester, around february, and another the end of the summer semester, around june, which can get accidentally prolonged to september. Hard to be an overly active member during those times. Secondly, some people learn more in short terms of high activity and therefore appear inactive during the times in between. I tend to be one of these too. Thirdly, many people don't have time to log. I am guilty as well, it is sometimes quite time consuming to catch up on a log but it is worth it, if the log is lead in a reasonable and useful manner for the one who logs. However, sometimes you just don't have the time and it's better spent on the language itself. Fourth: One thing would actually help me keep in touch with my teammembers. An easy way to bookmark the logs I'm interested in. Bookmarking in chrome/firefox is useless, it doesn't show "hey, there are new posts" and it is difficult to get to those logs in the active topics list or later in the logs subforum. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 19 of 29 29 September 2014 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
Don't you just get email alerts to logs you are following? That's how I keep track of your updates. In HTLAL 2.0 it also would be cool to be able to subscribe to RSS feeds for individual logs. Edited by patrickwilken on 29 September 2014 at 6:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 29 29 September 2014 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've never subscribed to a thread that way other than by mistake. I open the active topics page, and then open each interesting thread in a new tab. Threads I've already visited are shown in a different colour (the way it has been since the mid 90s...). Voilà!
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5129 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 21 of 29 29 September 2014 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
You're very lucky if your email updates are consistent. Emails from any thread or log that I follow usually vary with the direction of the wind. Some have taken days to get delivered, some not at all. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4333 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 22 of 29 30 September 2014 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I will admit that the first year I participated in TAC, I fell off the bandwagon rather quickly, but that only encouraged me to try again this year (I'm that sort of person).
However, I'll admit that this year I fell into a good, active group (Luso's "Team Rare"), rather by fortunate coincidence and four months past January: Luso noticed the language I am learning fit the profile of his team and invited me to participate. Since everyone else is an experimented learner, there never was this frenetic energy rush that dissipated halfway through the year, and now I'm glad I took Luso up on his offer because it has been the presence of my team what has kept me studying it through the year. Of course people don't post everyday; we're all busy, but all remaining members are continously checking up on the thread and discussing challenges to keep the ball rolling. I think it's this misconception that one has to mantain the same high-energy routine throughout the year that essentially bumps the newest members off TAC somewhere between April and August, when push comes to shove and people either get busier or start preparing for vacational periods. While I'm sure some people will never change and just keep treating TAC as a New Year's resolution (as BAnna suggests), and while it is also fairly certain that circumstances change and sometimes it becomes impossible to devote as much time to the language as one'd like to (I'd know: it happened to me this year), I also think the measures that could be taken to decrease the number of dropouts are in the hands of the teams' leaders and more experienced members, such as: 1) Taking a more proactive role both in warning and advising first-timers of the demands of not only TAC but language learning in the first place (ie, "don't join if you're not sure you can manage your time to reach your language goal", "don't aim for B2 if you're A0", etc.), 2) Being creative with, and spacing the team's challenges to one per month, so as to take the pressure off busy-but-willing members on the verge of burn-out, 3) Having a tolerant stance on members who let the team know in advance they will be absent for a while, so as to encourage their coming back, 4) Determining a team structure, so the leader has back-up and the team doesn't dissolve in case of his/her absence... You get the drift. I understand that many of these measures are idealistic and that dropouts will drop out, but I think TAC is a worthwhile challenge, particularly for those who're just starting out and could use the support of a team to stick to a goal for a whole year. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4081 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 23 of 29 30 September 2014 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | ||
For most people, I'd say initial over-enthusiasm is a negative predictor of whether they are gonna stick with a program. Initial dread should be a positive predictor. "Oh [beep], going on this weight loss program is going to be painful...I am going to be starving. Exercise is gonna hurt. I will be tired, cold, and miserable all the time. I dread what is coming" <--this person has a decent chance of success. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5165 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 24 of 29 07 October 2014 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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About dropouts: people should be more and more aware that learning a language is a lifestyle choice: it's like going to the gym, jogging, being on a diet or simply deciding to live healthier. That's what I say to people at work who ask me for tips on learning a language. Most of my co-workers start with Duolingo, but the essence is the same: daily regular commitment which ends up in more time spent than mere two hours a week in a class. It's long-term but not so long as language schools made you believe.
About TAC: I expected much more activity within and between the threads. I used to write long texts about my activities but now not so often. I don't have much new to report, anyway. I keep following the same logs I subscribed to, and only a few get updated regularly. The main discussion about techniques and tips happens in other subfora anyway, not within the TAC. I thought TACs would be labs for new experiments, conclusions, discussions but if you come up with something new it's better just to open a thread at another subforum. The forum isn't that crowded as it used to be before the last attacks, anyway. That's not to say I don't notice support or interaction, it just happens at instances other than the TAC. 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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