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What motivation techniques do you use? | ||
Tags: Motivation | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Kampernaut Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5374 days ago 38 posts - 54 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 9 of 36 04 May 2010 at 2:15pm | IP Logged |
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Well I must say that Teango is very creative indeed! Excellent ideas and I may well try a few of them myself.
I've found that a little stick as well as some carrot works for me. Setting up language exchanges and in particular choosing a topic or activity to work with in advance of the session makes me do the necessary preparatory work. This might seem a little negative but is effective for me at least. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tenebrarum Groupie United States Joined 5398 days ago 84 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi | Message 10 of 36 04 May 2010 at 6:52pm | IP Logged |
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I don't think anything encourages/motivates me more than have a pretty flowing (albeit
grammatically flawed) conversation about any topics of interest. This is fun for me and I feel better about where I'm at afterward. But I think I should start some kind of language diary to get a better idea of what kind of progress I'm making. Simply hearing others speak my target language can also motivate me. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5436 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 11 of 36 04 May 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged |
This is an awesome thread. I have a lot of distractions in my life, so motivation is essential. I cannot overemphasize this. Here's one of my favourite methods though; the Jerry Seinfeld calendar. You are probably familiar with it, just with another terminology. If you like, take a look at this artcle which so far has been one of my greatest discoveries. So many people go through life without this advice... Here's the piece by writer Brad Isaac: ''Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime... He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don't feel like it. He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works. He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain." "Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis. Over the years I've used his technique in many different areas. I've used it for exercise, to learn programming, to learn network administration, to build successful websites and build successful businesses. It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day. Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides "compounding interest." Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next. I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take action—even if small—every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day. Think for a moment about what action would make the most profound impact on your life if you worked it every day. That is the action I recommend you put on your Seinfeld calendar. Start today and earn your big red X. And from here on out... Don't break the chain!'' Edited by brian91 on 04 May 2010 at 8:34pm 17 persons have 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 12 of 36 06 May 2010 at 10:52pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not good at motivating myself.
What I am good at doing is making myself believe I'm progressing when I'm really doing nothing. I find the best strategy at times is not to give myself any targets, but simply to make a note of what I have done. When you have an explicit record of your activity and/or progress, you are forced to be honest with yourself. If I set myself targets, I'll often try to cheat just to tick the box. Honesty is the best policy. (English proverb) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5373 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 13 of 36 07 May 2010 at 12:00am | IP Logged |
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My motivation is slightly more down to earth, probably because that's what works for me. I meet my language partner one or twice a week and since I'm responsible for preparing my hour, if I don't prepare anything, I embarrass myself and risk losing her. So I have no choice.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 36 07 May 2010 at 1:13pm | IP Logged |
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If I can find texts and podcast/TV programs about things that interest me (science, history, technology) in languages that I am trying to learn then that's motivation enough. In some languages this is very easy, and then I tend to spend a lot of time with those languages. In others it is more difficult, and then I ought to find a technique to force myself to read less interesting texts - but I am not very interested in learning how to force myself to do unpleasant things.
My wordlists are also a great motivator for me (believe it or not!). I can always find a dictionary, I know what to do and I know that it works for me. Moreover I can do it for 5 minutes or for an hour, and I can watch television while I do it. I just need some place where I can write, some paper and two pencils. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheGBiBanana Newbie United States Joined 5300 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (classical), Arabic (Iraqi), Arabic (Written) | Message 15 of 36 14 May 2010 at 1:36am | IP Logged |
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I need to learn Arabic for the career path that I'm going to take so I pretty much tell myself that if I don't learn it then I will fail. That's all of the motivation I need to study for hours.
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6143 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 16 of 36 14 May 2010 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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As mentioned before, I find a great motivator is to track your progress and keep a log. That's why I've been TACing for the last three years now. Another way to stay on track is to change some of your personal habits. I stopped reading the paper over breakfast, and started using the time to study. Now I don't feel I'm having a relaxing breakfast unless I'm studying something language based. I also listen to some audio based course on every journey I make in a day, especially during an evening walk.
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