|
 |
How can I devote myself? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5762 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 1 of 13 17 April 2009 at 3:04am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I very much like studying Russian and am fascinated by each new thing I learn, but I find that it is difficult for me to concentrate on studying it regularly. In school, I take out my grammar book and secretly do exercises while the teacher talks about... something, but at home, I don't really 'feel' like studying it. I'd rather listen to music (to cure this, I have found lots of enjoyable Russian music), read the internet (I'm not yet at the stage where my vocab and grammar is good enough to read), watch TV (I have no Russian TV channels and I really don't want to scour the internet for episodes), or play video games (woe is I, for there are no Russian versions of the games I play, which is quite a shame. I've tried looking for fan translations, but it seems my favorite series are just not popular enough in Russia). I find it difficult to sit down, read a book about grammar, do exercises, or listen to weirdly stereotypical voices repeating words and having very cheery conversations.
What I'm asking is, how can I keep myself motivated? I really like Russian, and I am quite devoted to it in that I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I have a severe case of Wanderlust in which every new, 'weird' language is like a seductive boy trying to tempt me away from my established... um, partners, I guess (don't tell French I'm with Russian, by the way, and don't even ponder telling Russian I've been flirting with Hindi). I even feel guilty that I can't devote 45 minutes each day to studying (and I certainly have 45 minutes). I've been telling my mom to force me to study Russian, but she says she won't do that until I study piano consistenly each dar for half an hour. How do you keep yourself motivated to study every day for a set amount of time when you feel that there are so much more exciting and fun things to do? Do you motivate yourself through guilt or do you have some sort of prize waiting for you? How is it that you can devote time every day to study without being distracted by other things? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| KakikataEmpits Diglot Newbie Japan Joined 5542 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Japanese*, English | Message 2 of 13 17 April 2009 at 7:15am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I think you better go to a cafe, librarty, or anywhere than your home, where no music, video games, TV or the internet is there. Edited by KakikataEmpits on 27 April 2009 at 9:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6038 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 3 of 13 17 April 2009 at 7:47am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tell yourself that you will be able to play video games only after you've studied Russian for half an hour. Keep a calendar and give yourself a star on the days when you do it, a big black X when you don't. The X's will start making you feel bad and you'll want to see stars instead.
It's important to find fun things to do with a language. If the computer is a great temptation, find some Russian sites on there with fun activities. There must be some children's learning sites, where you can look at simple words and pictures or play some matching games or reading games. Can't you find some Russian radio online? Anything on youtube in Russian? You just need to be doing something, anything with the language, doesn't have to be rocket science. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minder Newbie United States Joined 5602 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 4 of 13 20 April 2009 at 5:48am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lets think about what is going on here, and lets see if we can take advantage of it. Why is it so easy to get work done while at school, but when you get home its a burden? This is because at school your language learning is not the task you are 'required' to do at that time. Its easy to do what isn't required of you, but once its something you feel obligated to do, you lose motivation and do something else.
There is an anti-procrastination technique that works using this principle. Basically you need to convince yourself that you have something else you should be doing. Maybe its school work, cleaning your room, dishes, whatever. Make it something you don't really feel like doing, but you feel should genuinely be done. Now you've recreated the environment you're in at school and once again language learning is something you're doing to relax and get away from whats required of you. Try it out. See if it works for you, but really convince yourself. "Man, I really really really should be doing that homework..." then that language learning will be looking more and more appealing. I wish I had the link to the original article on this technique, but that is basically it. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5565 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 5 of 13 24 April 2009 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I'm not sure what kind of video games you are interested in, but there is a Russian version of Final Fantasy V for the SNES that can be found on most emulation sites. When I was beginning to learn Russian I often played it. Since I'm not a native speaker of Russian, I can't properly evaluate the quality of the translation, but I found it helpful for learning vocabulary and some grammar. Granted, my daily Russian conversations nowadays don't center around knights, crystals, and black magic, but it was a nice stepping stone into the language. There is also a Russian version of Chrono Trigger, but after a short way into the game, the translation became very poor and incomprehensible.
Also, I agree with the previous posters who mention that it's helpful to be in an environment that makes you want to focus and study, rather than one where you are prone to be distracted. Also consider contacting native speakers for help if you haven't already done so. Edited by snovymgodom on 24 April 2009 at 5:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Louis Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5570 days ago 92 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 13 24 April 2009 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A change of environment helps a lot. Simply find your study area. There's a thread in General Discussion about where people study. You should go check it out. :P
I do a lot of my studying in a Dunkin' Donuts close by my house. The coffee keeps my youthful energy up while I study! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6661 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 7 of 13 26 April 2009 at 11:21am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Get Neil Fiore's book "The Now Habit" and it will work wonders for you.
Basically, feeling guilty about not doing something or trying to force yourself into studying won't work. You have to change some basic attitudes of yourself. Do you REALLY want to learn Russian, or do you just like the idea about yourself learning Russian? If you really want to learn Russian, you need to change the way you talk to yourself: "I have to do this" must turn into "I choose to do this" "It's too much" must turn into "I will do it in small, doable chunks" "When can I finish?" must turn into "When can I start?" If you make the decision that you don't speak Russian well enough, and you want to change it, if you choose to learn Russian and if you get rid of that feeling that you must study no matter the cost, then I think you will start studying. You should also focus on fun things and things you like to do. I personally think it's not important if you don't understand Russian well enough to read a book or a newspaper. Just read it, if you don't understand something, skip it, no need to worry about it! Regards, Ilhan PS: check out www.alljapaneseallthetime.com if you haven't yet 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5762 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 8 of 13 03 May 2009 at 5:42am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
I have tried studying in the bathroom, and it's strangely productive, but people either become suspicious or annoyed if you spend too much time in the bathroom, and I can't sit on the floor while people tinkle or read my books/listen to my CDs while taking a shower. I guess if I wanted to be extreme, I could cover the book in saran wrap or something, but turning the pages would be a little hard.
My powers of procrastination are not to be trifled with. The video games stand up, slap me, and then beg: "Play me. You'll have time for Russian later." Oddly enough, I forsake both the games and the Russian for mind-melting TV. If only it were mind-melting Russian TV...
I have actually done that, and it has worked. Unfortunately, my mom soon comes in and is displeased that I am not practicing the piano or taking a bath or studying for a test and threatens to take Russian away from me. I guess this would work better if I weren't already such a terrible "I'll do it later" person.
Seriously? Final Fantasy? That would be awesome. I love Nintendo RPGs, so I guess I'll have to find that since I've heard Final Fantasy is the bomb and all that. Shame about Chrono Trigger since I've been wanting to play it, but hey, one game in Russian is way, way better than no games in Russian at all.
The native speakers I've spoken to have stopped talking to me after three e-mails. (Sorry, but this requires a smilie: :[ ). It really would help me to have a more... dependable native speaker since I really like helping them with English and it's nice to be able to practice Russian with a person, but they all seem to get bored of me after three e-mails or when I tell them I can't use Skype or IM with strangers (though I always offer to record myself and include an mp3 with my e-mail) [about the Skype/IM, it's a parental thing in which I am not allowed to communicate with strangers. My parents are already irked that I use forums and e-mail unknown people and such, but they freaked out when I kept a contact on MSN. The Skype thing is a huge setback for me since every Russian person I've tried to contact is not interested without real-time... programs or feedback or whatever.].
Studying at a Starbucks would be awesome since it's always quiet and I have coffee and junk. Studying at 7'11 would be nice, too, but they don't have seats. Unfortunately, I can't drive and I really don't want to burden my parents by asking them to drive me to some place to study (I can't walk because everything is quite far away from where I live). I should have a look at that "Where do you study?" thread since environment is apparently super-important.
I could do that. I'm not sure how helpful it would be, but I can definitely do that.
It's quite depressing to read a newspaper/book/children's story/whatever and find that you can only understand the headline (even then, it didn't make sense - I got something that George Bush was having a love affair with Mikhail Saakashvilli. What? Yeah, I think that my vocabulary needs to stop being so pathetic, though now I want someone to draw a picture of that... in a romantic, non-sexual way, of course. It's really weird.) The feeling really is important, yes, and I know I have to change my attitude that I can leave studying for later (today, I broke down a song into its components and learned vocabulary, non-sarcastic yay!) since I know it won't get me anywhere. What do all of you do to kill the evil beast of "Laziness", argh? Thanks for all the responses; I'll have to look at them deeper and try them out, one-by-one or maybe in a group. If anyone else is interesting in telling me what they do to keep themselves on track with their studies, please, tell me since I'm interesting in knowing. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
