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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 |  | |
| Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5591 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 33 of 39 18 July 2012 at 2:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I find I quit studying languages in an effort to re-prioritize my time. Languages are not
the only hobby I have. For the last month I have put my studying of languages on hold as I want to use that time instead to go to the gym, learn to cook, learn chess, travel, get to the stack of books in the corner that I haven't touched in year... I'll come back to studying languages- I always do- but sometimes I just need to put it away for a little while to focus on other things so I can remain a decently well-rounded individual and not only be a language-geek =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4748 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 34 of 39 18 July 2012 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Purpose.
If there's no real purpose for your language learning endeavour, there's a high probability you'll give it up eventually. Having real purpose means that all the factors mentioned here by everybody else won't be a deterrent. This is quite right:
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yuriFromRoma Groupie Italy Joined 4713 days ago 48 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Italian* Studies: English, Russian | Message 35 of 39 18 July 2012 at 3:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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IMHO it's quite difficult to tell why people actually quit studying languages, since each one of them may have a different reason to do so. To me - and I'm assuming that "quit" means stop learning without having reached the planned level of fluency - it's a very different matter to quit a *specific* language or to quit learning languages at all. The former people may change idea just about *that* language, while the latter may just be too slacker/superficial to learn anything up to a certain degree of proficiency, being it playing an instrument, speaking a language, learning to dance salsa or anything else.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4949 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 36 of 39 18 July 2012 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hate to say I am unusual, but I probably am, so it is almost impossible for me to quit on something once I've "set sail".
Regardless, I love languages so that is almost in itself motivation enough, and not just language but the mechanics and etymologies. So that keeps me motivated on grammar and vocab, respectively. But even if those things were not quite enough, the effort I have already put on learning my target languages seals the deal: I think of all the sacrifice in personal/social life, and yes even money (I could work more hours as a student but I don't) that I have made and that clears my head whenever I have even a scintilla of self-doubt. And one final point for me: I made myself understand from the very start, that I will never "stop" learning a language, nor will I ever be able to say "mission accomplished", to borrow from real life. There will be no point in which I will say to myself "ok, see I've learned French" and stop cold. Not the least because by the time I could ever think like that, it would not matter anyway; I should be more than fluent. But I still place goalpoasts: and my major goalpost is to listen/read the target language and understand every word in 2 out of 3 setences. And to be able to hold conversations without "uuhh" being every 3rd word. Then at that point I can relax and just maintain and learn at a slower pace, mostly idiomatic usage and low-frequency vocab. My goal is such in my three indo-European language, and ONLY then will I go full immersion on Mandarin (self-study, tutor every week, and eventually find a way to go to China). I have very ambitious goals in my languages, but I am confident I am half way there already. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5909 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 37 of 39 21 July 2012 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I tend to quit or dial down my efforts if I lose interest in the culture associated with the language. I don't mean that in a negative way - it's more that I realize that it's not for me in the sense that I wouldn't move to that country. I tend to fall in love with a language, get really into it, and look into the culture a lot, and on some level hope that that culture is The One because I'm looking for a place that feels like home. At some point I realize that something doesn't feel right, even if I still have a lot of respect for the culture, and then I tend to lose a little oomph with my language studies as well, and it can go downhill from there.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jsg Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4507 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 38 of 39 26 July 2012 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
That's funny, because I dropped video games in favor of language learning. I still play the odd game here and there, but by and large I just haven't the time for it anymore. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 5083 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English* | Message 39 of 39 26 July 2012 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps in the history of language learning, the reason has been for some: entered a monastery and took a vow of silence.
For the rest of us though, I'd say it's a lack of motivation. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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