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Personal Research: Why Do People Quit? | ||
Tags: Discouragement from learning | Burn-out | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 39 23 May 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It seems like in any discipline, a lot of people give up once they get past the fast
progress in the beginner stage and hit the intermediate plateau. For me, the trick is turning that frustration into more motivation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 10 of 39 23 May 2012 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Lack of progress I think.
After people finish a Rosetta Stone or Teach Yourself course then try to listen to the radio, I know for a fact they won't understand a lot of it. So then people see that as their time being wasted and get very discouraged and decide to just give up. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6154 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 11 of 39 23 May 2012 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Having read a number of learning logs over the years, some patterns for failure emerge,
1. Using flash card software and falling behind on inputting and reviews. 2. Wanderlust - My main reason for moving off some languages. 3. Burnout - Working extremely hard at the beginning, and losing momentum after a couple of weeks. This happened a lot with the TAC. 4. Native encounters. Sometimes the native speakers aren't encouraging or helpful. Not common but it does happen. 5. Difficulty with learning materials and lack of resources. I've struggled with some TY and Colloquial courses. Unless I find better materials, I've dropped the language. 6. Significant life events and life changes. As mentioned before. E.g. death in the family, marriage, moving house, children. 7. Underestimating the task. A lot of people stop when they realise you can't learn a language in a couple of months. 8. Intermediate Plateau. As mentioned before, the long road ahead beyond the beginner stages. 9. Not setting goals. Personally, I find the challenges motivating. It's very easy to let study drift to zero hours per day. 10. Laziness. Watching television in your native language instead of studying. Edited by DaraghM on 23 May 2012 at 5:36pm 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elizabeth_rb Diglot Groupie United Kingdom polyglotintraining.b Joined 4639 days ago 54 posts - 84 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: GermanB1 | Message 12 of 39 23 May 2012 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
Good point! Do you have any tips on how that transformation can be made? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4692 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 13 of 39 23 May 2012 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know this wasn't directed at me, but I'd like to take a stab at it. For me, the intermediate plateau (or "wall" as I call it) can be a difficult obstacle to overcome. My personal method for getting past this wall is to switch up what I'm doing. I mean REALLY switch it up. Flashcards, courses, wordlists, workbooks etc are great for that beginner's jump which happens (for me anyway) between A1 and A2. After that, as I move into the B's is when I really start to notice a slowdown in my progress. This is a sure signal that my method needs to change. In some cases it needs a drastic change. Some of the things I introduce at this point are: Books in the TL, podcasts in the TL, watching movies in the TL with or without subtitles, finding native speakers, writing in the TL. The important thing for me is to get out of the mindset of needing to follow a course or a pre-set path. It is at this point that I acknowledge that I am "into" the language and moving forward is all about refining and expanding rather than actually "learning" the language. I'm sure most of this is re-hashed, but I figured I would put in my 2 cents here. 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4691 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 14 of 39 23 May 2012 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've certainly experienced all of these several times, but I'd tweak number 7. I never really understood how long it's "supposed" to take to achieve what level of proficiency, and I expect many other people never do, either. Only after discovering HTLAL did I come to realize that 1) it's a very time-consuming task to learn a language to proficiency requiring daily commitment, but 2) consistent work will eventually get you there. The discouragement from lack of progress is less dangerous when you have realistic expectations, **AND** those realistic expectations include success. Now that I've been able to start thinking in terms of months and years instead of days, I find myself getting less antsy and frustrated. If I get hung up on a particular word or construction I can say to myself "whatever, I'll keep going and this will be easy in 6 months" and not worry about the fact that I didn't get it this time. I also think that realistic expectations help to control the Wanderlust, because you can really understand how much constant switching is undermining your progress and try to plan accordingly. 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| verbalnerd Newbie United States Joined 4574 days ago 18 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 15 of 39 23 May 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes. I think I'm crossing the line into B1 with Polish (I think, I hope...) and feel that it's time to make this transition... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 39 24 May 2012 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
I guess for me it just happens... The main thing that really motivates me is trying to converse with, or even just being around, people who're speaking the target language. The fact that I struggle just makes me want it more and makes me want to keep working so I can get to the point where I no longer struggle. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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