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Keep Goals to yourself? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5769 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 9 of 15 05 July 2014 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I actually decided to look at 'things one wants to achieve' as divided into goals, ambitions and dreams.
To me, something can only be a goal if there are clearly defined short term steps one can take one after the other, and succeed or fail in. And, for some of these getting social support and pressure as external motivation can be very helpful in succeeding step by step. Ambitions, on the other hand, are for long-term orientation towards something that may some day become a goal. Because you don't have any plan for what to do right now about your ambition, talking about it means you can't enlist the people around you for support. At the same time, talking about an ambition can feel like you're working towards it, and it can be demotivating when you later on realize that you aren't any closer to fulfilling that ambition. Writing down ambitions and long term goals seems to help many people ... like as if writing down the long term goal reduces the overhead in your brain and helps you to concentrate on the things you can do in the short term working towards that goal, or to find steps you can use to turn an ambition into a goal? I do something like montmorency's wife when dealing with writing essays or trying to solve practice problems or challenges in my life; I try to take in all the information I can, and then I try to work it out while walking, doing other things - and usually I need a time when I can forget about that problem and concentrate on something completely different for my thoughts to fall into place. And then I solve the problem in one go, or write a draft that usually only needs to be checked for spelling errors. But that is a strategy for dealing with immediate challenges, not with sustaining motivation and dealing with varied challenges over a long period of time. What I think writing down goals does for me is that it allows me to not try to deal with the short term steps *and* the entire project all at once (which is doomed to fail), by letting me externalize the long term projection. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 10 of 15 05 July 2014 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I also find that if you download lots of books or audiobooks, it feels as if you've read them all (or at least started :D). But for me it's not a bad thing, as I generally love coming back to stuff, ie it's easier for me to resume reading than to start.
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| holly heels Groupie United States Joined 3889 days ago 47 posts - 107 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 11 of 15 06 July 2014 at 1:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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Instead of publicly stating my TL goals to others, I try to focus more on follow through and the actual mechanics of learning, which is plenty unpleasant as it is even without the unrealistic expectations.
I believe reaching goals in language learning is less problematic because a majority of people are capable of success. It's not like wanting to become a rock star or a Fortune 500 CEO, where a lot of luck is involved. It's also helpful to have the FSI Language Difficulty Scale, which can be viewed as a road map to fluency/proficiency and therefore goals are potentially more attainable and if the learner wants they can inform others as to their progress. It gives the learner a set number of hours to reach that goal and it is up to me to spend those hours as wisely as possible. If I spent those 2,700 hours drawing one Mandarin character over and over again or doing karaoke, I would be sheepish about sharing my goals. I have been criticized by others for not being goal-oriented, and I accept that criticism. Language learning has taught me that it maybe it is better to at least have a goal and fail at it because at least others respect me more for trying. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6553 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 12 of 15 06 July 2014 at 7:37am | IP Logged | |||||
I know what you mean, but this cracked me up. At least you didn't say "to simply smoke some weed". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5239 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 13 of 15 06 July 2014 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
That might help to.. but I don't live in Amsterdam, or Colorado... so can't really try it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 14 of 15 06 July 2014 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As with a lot of this type of research, I'm not really convinced. Which is why I carve my
own path with the scythe of determination. I have nothing to hide. People are allowed to know what my goals are. 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 15 of 15 19 July 2014 at 6:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it's fine to announce your goals, if you are showing progress or effort to back it up. For example, I draw a few pages of comics each week, scan them, clean them up and post them on DeviantArt.Having the pressure of "oh shoot I have pages to draw" has helped not only make progress on my comic, but I also get to show people what I have been working on.I have transitioned this thinking to languages, where I have a goal each day, for example: one Assimil lesson each day, and so many chapters in the book each day. The Super Challange is also very helpful. :)
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