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Language Fatigue? | ||
Tags: Immersion | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| plaidchuck Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/plaidchRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5297 days ago 71 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 9 of 14 20 March 2011 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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The same happens to me sometimes when I meet with my tutor for an hour or two hours, or when I sit down and try to write something in Spanish. Something I do that helps is to listen and try to speak a little throughout the day in smaller intervals (15-30min) before the session or meeting. This way my brain is already primed to begin speaking/listening/writing/etc. Switching gears completely to another language after a day of living in a completely monolingual environment is exhausting.
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| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5140 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 10 of 14 11 April 2011 at 11:29am | IP Logged | ||
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there are such great answers here! :) especially the individual that spoke of working out at the gym--because
this is all so true. if you get "language fatigue", your body is basically saying, "Look man! I am just not built to process these things yet... sooo i really need the time right now to prepare and re-build myself for these situations. Unfortunately, you're going to have to just deal with it. You just go to sleep, and I will take care of the rest." BASICALLY ======== 1) your body needs the proper energy. these energies you get from natural sources: food, water, the sun, energies that eventually get to earth from the distant universe, etc. language learning requires all sorts of energy--your brain needs it, and so do the muscles that vocalize the pronunciation. 2) your body also needs the proper MAINTENANCE where your body can maintain its inner-self based on your environmental experiences. language acquisition is FULL of new environmental experiences. CONCLUSION: ========== you are finding yourself fatigued, exhausted, or going to sleep often because your body is rebuilding itself to be suitable for your new (language) environment. there are surely many uncategorized changes taking place that us language learners are unaware of; however, your body will still change to work with the social environment. A SOLUTION: ========== some might call this common sense, but it is something that adults often forget...hence they think back to when they were a child and wish that they "had that sort of energy again". And what is the solution? I am sure there are many solutions, but for these very reasons is why I practice "Pangu Shengong". It costs like $100 USD to learn it, but it is a tool you will have for life! I highly recommend adding this tool to your language learning routine. You can find approved Pangu Shengong teachers from around the world here: http://www.pangu.org/english/instructor/index.html (website is in English and chinese) And you're probably wondering what is Pangu Shengong. I would describe it as this: a health promotional exercise that takes about 15 minutes to do. it is non-strenuous on the mind and body, and it will help give your body the "maintenance" time that it needs to absorb information (also read as "absorb changes"), as well as helping your body bring itself back into balance. i wish i could give you more exact details....but the more i describe--as this has happened in the past--the more details i will realize that i have forgotten to add. Not to mention that i understand this exercise just about as much as i understand why the sun is shining. As far as helping you acquire new knowledge, i swear by this exercise. Every time i am regularly practicing Pangu Shengong, there is a drastic difference in my language learning and performance. The question is if you care about your body and how efficiently it responds to pulling in new information. And of course you care...that's why you are at a language learning forum. My suggestion: learn Pangu Shengong. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rlf1810 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6332 days ago 122 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, German, Slovak | Message 11 of 14 13 April 2011 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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It could also be that repetitive noises tend to lull the brain into a relaxed or sleepy state. This is a byproduct of the comfort of our mother's heartbeat while in the womb. If you aren't able to understand everything, or most of what you hear, then it is essentially 'repetitive noise'. I've also experienced this after prolonged exposure to moderately loud noises, though I'm not sure of the science behind that one...
-Robert 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5091 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 12 of 14 14 April 2011 at 12:57am | IP Logged | ||
The human voice has a pretty wide range of sound at its disposal, so even though I see perfectly well where you mean to go with this, I'm not quite sure it has such an important impact. A reasonable part of the music I listen to is based on "repetitive noise" structures, where monotony and repetition becomes meaningful, enjoyable and almost trance-inducing. On the other hand, I also listen to many bands (heavy metal bands mainly - Spiral Architect to name one - look it up and you'll know what I mean) which use song structures that are pretty much all over the frickin' place and this also can become quite trance-inducing in its own way, using a wide variety of different time signatures, tempos and rythms often in simultaneous and highly complex patterns - which do have an artistic purpose of their own. My point here is that a new language, I think, would be much closer in its nature, for the learner, to this second type of music I referred to, rather than the first, the one related to the repetitive noises. Edited by FrostBlast on 14 April 2011 at 12:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 14 14 April 2011 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
But how did you learn those languages? That may have a lot to do with it. There's two possibilities for why you're getting so to tired, and both have previously been mentioned by other posters. 1) Your brain is overstimulated 2) Your brain is understimulated Number 1 is the "heavy lifting" analogous to a gym work out. The class may be demanding too much of your brain. Number 2 is like the "mother's heartbeat" analogy. Even though there's lots of language in the air, it's not reaching your brain because you're not able to understand it. Thankfully, the solution to both problems is the same: extra homework. A little extra homework goes a long way. If you're overstimulated, doing extra homework means being more prepared for the next class. This means that there's less new information in the next class, and it is not as much of a strain for your brain. If you're understimulated, extra homework will help you hear Spanish better, so next time you're in class you'll understand more, and will therefore be more stimulated. What should that homework be? That's a different question.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5337 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 14 of 14 15 April 2011 at 2:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Funny thing reading about this fatigue, because with me it is the opposite: the more time I spend with a language continuously, the more absorbed in it I become and the greatest the ease with which I listen or read. My predicament consists of having so many languages and disciplines to tend to that I can't devote several straight hours to any one of them.
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