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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 |  | |
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4688 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 25 of 39 26 June 2012 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
Yup. I was once planning to make working in and with Japan a key part of my career, and was doing quite well learning Japanese, desipte not having discovered the magic of HTLAL. That all fell through, and I gave it up--I remember very little. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elizabeth_rb Diglot Groupie United Kingdom polyglotintraining.b Joined 4636 days ago 54 posts - 84 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: GermanB1 | Message 26 of 39 26 June 2012 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | ||
You sound very much like a woman I see every day in the mirror.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4711 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 27 of 39 27 June 2012 at 1:05am | IP Logged | ||
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montmorecy hit it on the head for me as well.I was studying
Russian for a career related opportunity that fell through. However, the last few months of really getting into it made me grow to appreciate the pursuit of language acquisition.thus, i've decided to begin studying German in earnest since it is more practical, German is part of my lineage, and there is still a small chance of it aiding in career endeavors :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 98789 Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 5043 days ago 48 posts - 55 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English | Message 28 of 39 16 July 2012 at 2:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Personally I quit because of time:
Sometimes I have no time (University) so I simply decide to quit (I wouldn't keep studying a language knowing I'll have a calculus test in a few days). And... I didn't chose to study "languages" because... it's not offered in my city, and I guess It'd be hard to get a job at that. Sometimes I have too much time (vacations) and I tend to get into videogames :/ I tried looking for videogames in my current target language, but didn't get any. Now I'm starting again, and I hope to do it right this time. (I'll try Italian via webcourses and I'm taking portuguese at university). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5021 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 29 of 39 17 July 2012 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the main reasons that people quit learning languages are no different from why
people quit doing other things they try to do. Why do people go to the gym for three months and then stop, even though they want to be in good shape? Why do people start a new hobby enthusiastically then quit after awhile? Why do people start a new book and then quit 3/4 of the way into it? I think it's basically the same thing for anything. The first day you're supposed to do the activity and you don't, there is some excuse. The next day it's a little bit easier because you've already skipped once before. I guess you could make a couple different distinctions. These would probably be distinctions in how an individual views the activity. Let's say that both of these types of people are trying to reach an end goal, whatever it may be: 1. People who enjoy the process of attaining the end goal. 2. People who do not enjoy the process of attaining the end goal. For example. I used to go to the gym several times a week. But I hated it. Eventually I stopped going because I just didn't like lifting weights. I found a new sporting hobby: rock climbing. Now, I have goals to be better at this activity too, but the difference is that I actually love the process, so it doesn't feel like a grind--I look forward to going climbing every day. I think the same distinction would have to be applied to language learning. The reasons people quit would change depending on if they actually enjoyed the process of learning languages. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 30 of 39 18 July 2012 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Another question is: if you like it, do you always like it?
Even your favourite food will become less enjoyable if you eat it every day :) The initial enthusiasm (which for females might be boosted by hormones) wears off before you are ready to use native materials, and in fact I'd think many consider themselves weak if they feel like trying out something new after sticking to the same routine for just 7-10 days. I think most people think that if their main coursebook is good, their usage of other materials/techniques should be justified, and the ideal process is starting from the first page, doing everything, knowing every single word and structure perfectly and only then starting the next book. Having too much respect for the book is especially bad for global learners. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4734 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes Studies: German | Message 31 of 39 18 July 2012 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Mine comes mostly from an inability to use the language in any meaningful way. Learning
words is all fun and games if you cant find a way to use them. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4734 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes Studies: German | Message 32 of 39 18 July 2012 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Another reason is a poor return on investment. I've given up on German, because there's
been to many interruptions in my learning, at this point, I can't go back to relearning basic grammar, it'd be far more efficient for me to start a new language from scratch. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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