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I feel so demotivated | ||
Tags: Loss of confidence | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| mausi15 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4898 days ago 24 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 34 17 February 2013 at 8:52pm | IP Logged |
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Hello,
I have been studying German for about three and a half years in school and am currently studying it at "Higher" level (Scottish equivalent of AS level, border between A2-B1 delf levels, perhaps). Whilst I find German in school pretty straightforward and am able to get close to full marks, I find my progress outside of school to be cripplingly slow and frustrating. Whenever I try to listen to German radio (Deutschlandfunk, for example) the words just seem to go completely over my head and I don't seem to understand anything. Additionally, whenever I start reading a book, I just become put off after the first few chapters because there are so many words I don't know. I do, however, enjoy listening to music, but I feel so out of my depth with anything else. I know people say that doing stuff like that will help me improve, but maybe my brain is just too slow to process German (e.g when I listen to the radio). I would love to study German (and Russian) at university, but I'm starting to think that this goal is unattainable for me. So, has anyone else ever experienced this feeling and how do I overcome it? I apologise for the moany, self-centred whine, but I just need a little motivation! Edited by mausi15 on 17 February 2013 at 8:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4652 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 2 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:09pm | IP Logged |
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You pretty much summed up what made me drop German, although I gave up a bit earlier, around A2, since I couldn't kept mixing the cases.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6126 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 3 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:26pm | IP Logged |
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Take German, but major in something else. Don't depend on German for your livelihood -- that takes the pressure off. I don't depend on Finnish or Japanese for my income. So, I do what I can, and whatever time I spend is a break from stressing about actual work, so it's all good even when there are problems. With less pressure, I think you might even learn better anyway.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 4 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
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It's perfectly fine to feel frustrated when you don't understand anything, things are completely over your head, or the number of unknown words in a book is massive. The 'secret' probably is to find native material which is at or around your level (or to find a topic you're extremely passionate about and plough through).
So, instead of Deutschlandfunk and Thomas Mann (I'm just throwing something out here), how about -- comics or cartoons in German -- books for young readers (Ronja Räubertochter, Winnetou, Die wilde 13, Die Drei Fragezeichen etc.) -- watch documentaries on TV -- try Die Sendung mit der Maus -- try TV programs or podcasts on topics you're anyway interested in, e.g., science, art, travel, history, entertainment, pop culture etc., or -- participate in (or just read) German language forums on a topic you're passionate about I also would recommend you to do these activities without making them 'study'. That is, don't look up words you don't understand, don't stop to analyze grammar, don't try to consciously learn stuff. Rather try to enjoy German in a stress-free and fun way. Doing that will automatically help to consolidate your knowledge, and you will pick up new words and patterns without much effort. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 5 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:51pm | IP Logged |
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There are many ways to lose motivation and this is one of the most common ones. (No, my
school tried to demotivate me in other and more creative ways). If you don't want to give up, study German your way. There are many of us learning German and there are many who have already learnt it. They have logs, they discuss quite everything on many threads and answer all kinds of questions... Just a few ideas: 1.The first few books or movies in a new language are difficult for everyone. But if you feel they are too difficult because of your vocab and grammar, than get a course, grammar book, vocabulary book or whatever else and cover the gaps. 2. Do you know lyricstraining.com? An awesome site, a lot of songs to practice your comprehension. 3. A radio is not a good starting point, in my opinion, despite what many people and teachers say. It is in fact quite hard (they speak fast, about huge variety of topics which change quickly, the sound quality can play a role and so on). You can more comfortably start with podcasts, radio made for learners (Deutsche Welle website is a wonderful source) or tv series you already know and like but dubbed in German. And after some (quite a lot of) time spent listening, even the radio will be easy. And so will comprehension to the language spoken in vivo by real people. 4. Books. What did you try? I'd suggest starting either with graded readers (easier but quite boring) or with a translation of something you know and like. Harry Potter is a very popular choice for the first book in a new language. And, it is often not necessary to look out every word. If you read a lot and understand most of it you should learn a lot of words by reading them repeatedly in context. It works :-) 5. If you want to study languages at university, work for it and ignore what other people are saying and how your school has or hasn't prepared you. Studying independently is usually the most efficient way of learning and it is a needed skill and a necessary part of any university studies. I had to learn most of the physics for my admission exams (biology, chemistry and physics) by myself because my highschool teacher was an idiot. And I am horrible with physics. So as you see, everything is possible. Start with easier things and get to the more and more complicated. Including the university :-) 8 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 6 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:52pm | IP Logged |
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Your problems are totally normal. You can't expect to be able to understand native materials such as news broadcasts and literature after a few years of learning a language at school. I had nine years of English at school and we even read Shakespeare. However, when I tried to watch English movies in the original for the first time I could hardly get the gist of the dialogues and when I went to America I made the most stupid mistakes in my speech. Reading quality newspapers such as the New York Times was way over my head, too.
As Bakunin and Cavesa already pointed out, the trick is finding native material that doesn't overwhelm you. Watch German movies with subtitles, find easy literature, get bilingual editions or graded readers. And please don't let yourself get discouraged from studying German at university! You're not supposed to know everything right from the beginning. There's plenty of time to learn more German while you're studying. Maybe, you'll go abroad for a term and learn "real" German in the country. That's how most German students learn their "real" English despite already having studied it for nine years at school. Believe me, there's nothing to worry about. You're doing absolutely fine and if you get yourself the right materials, you'll make a lot of progress. Edited by Josquin on 17 February 2013 at 10:04pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 7 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:54pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah. University studies don't even necessarily result in fluency, especially (?) in the UK.
The slow processing thing is perfectly normal. Just keep listening, including stuff with transcripts (news, random stuff online, audiobooks). You're quite a long-term member of the forum, but are you a regular lurker? If you haven't yet, see this page in wikia. pay a special attention to the articles about shadowing, LR, SRS, reading strategies. I think you need to use more familiar content. For example the news or books/movies where you know the plot. also, use the various materials that deutsche welle offers. and try lyricstraining.com as well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 34 17 February 2013 at 9:56pm | IP Logged |
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I should learn to write brief posts.
Yes, it is wise to know something else and the language than just the language, as cathrynm says. But please, don't give the dream up because of the "I will never be good enough to try" feeling. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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