How do you keep learning despite the lack of passion and the boredom? because you eventually get to a point when you feel that there is no progress.
Find good content! or something fun/different to do in the language. Find a buddy to talk with.
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why even do something that is boring?
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Try to find out what motivated you to learn a language in the first place. Steve Kaufmann has a few videos about that topic. If you are not motivated anymore, maybe it’s not worth doing right now and do something else.
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If you’re bored, or don’t have the passion then you have to either change what you are doing to achieve that goal…or just give it up.
You need a motivation. What is your reason for learning a language? For work? School? Girlfriend/Boyfriend or their family? For fun? To just say you know another language?
If it’s something you HAVE to do, that may be the motivation necessary, regardless of whether it’s boring or not. You have to just suck it up.
If you are doing it for someone else…well, you have to decide whether it’s important enough to you.
So first, find that reason why and assess whether it is important to you. If not, just give it up in my opinion. You do need to spend a lot of time to learn a language. So if you’re not ready for that investment, then you need to be ready. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time a day…as I mentioned in another post recently, I probably have averaged 15-30 min a day for the past 4-5 years. I still have a long ways to go for my ultimate goals. Obviously if you spend more time per day you’ll make gains a lot quicker.
The other part of the equation then is the “how”. What are you doing to learn a language? Are you spending time reading and listening to interesting content? (Fun) Or are you doing mostly Anki or SRS or a textbook? (Boring)
Choose the fun way. Also, if you are using LingQ, don’t stick to just what is in LingQ already. Look for content that is of interest to you to import. If you are not using LingQ, do the same. Look for interesting content. Then use google translate extension set to auto-popup and read, read, read. Watch youtube. Use Language Reactor and watch Netflix with it.
If those things don’t make it fun for you, or you don’t like reading, I’d just give it up. You’re not going to finish, so you might as well not waste the time.
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From looking at your profile, it appears as though you are learning a lot of languages at the same time. Too many if you want my honest opinion. Especially since you seem to be an absolute beginner in all these languages. Basically, you are just dabbling.
I think you should pick one of these languages to start with and stick to it. You will feel less overwhelmed this way.
Try, as others have suggested, to find material that you are really interested in and import it into Lingq.
That said, I am not going to lie: learning a language (especially to an edvanced level) takes time and commitment. It takes more than a love of BTS to learn Korean to C1 or C2 level for instance.
You have to think hard about WHY you want to learn a particular language. There are no bad reasons, but the motivations should be specific to YOU and YOU ONLY.
If you decide that you don’t really want to commit to learning a language at this point in time, there’s no harm in stopping and coming back to it at a later date.
Only you can be the judge!
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After learning English, I started learning Korean. Teaching should be interactive, I advise you to learn from films, TV shows, in my case these are
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It has its ups and downs, for sure. With few exceptions, I make myself do at least some Polish every day. But, eventually, there came a point–right around where I hit Intermediate 1–that it became noticeably easier to read. Once that happened, I found that I don’t have to MAKE myself do my Polish nearly so much; often I look forward to it because I am reading because I like the story (I am reading my way through the Harry Potter series right now; I’m on book 3), not because I have to plug away at my Polish goals. Once you get to the point you can actually enjoy the material for its own sake, then you’re off to the races; it just keeps getting easier.
But progress seems to work that way. It feels like you’re going nowhere fast, then all of a sudden you notice a large change. Those moments serve to refuel you for the next leg of the journey.
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That was really a good advice. I will try it! Thanks a lot.
The most important thing to achieving any long term endeavor is discipline and what fosters discipline are good habits and the right mindset to match. Then, once those basics are developed you can go on to streamline and optimize your plan of attack to obtain that which you wish to obtain.
Let’s start with the mindset; you need to be aware of and internalize that most of the best things in life are not easily acquired and require much work and dedication in order to attain them. You must also be willing to sacrifice for what it is you are trying to achieve. Perhaps instead of doing [insert time wasting activity here] you spend that time, at least in part, in working towards your desired goal instead. This constitutes a sacrifice and although this investment may intimidate you, you must realize that whether or not you choose the sacrifice, a sacrifice is made. If you choose not to pursue your goals although you avoid the sacrifice of the time, effort and pain required to attain said goal you instead are choosing to sacrifice the idealized version of yourself that has attained that goal and gone through the rigors and tempering that such a process entails. Do you believe it is worth it to throw away who you could be tomorrow for who you are today? Think about that.
Once you have the mindset you need a good schedule with a focus on habit creation and retention. Start out with something simple and maintainable-such as studying for 5-10 minutes a day. Once you feel very comfortable with what you are doing you can increase the loads accordingly. The development of these habits are crucial to your success and should not be underestimated.
Once you have the mindset, the habits and the discipline to carry it all out now you can think about how to better optimize the process. You’ve laid the foundation and now all that is left to do is to build upon it. Look for better content, incorporate accountability partners, hire a tutor, acquire language partners, make friends who are fluent in the language you are pursuing, etc. etc. The sky is the limit here.
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Thank you so much for the detailed advice. I’ve been stuck in this loop for years and you’ve made me realize what was the real problem. You have my heartfelt gratitude.
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Very good points about discipline and habits. The usual mantra here of “do what you enjoy” has merit, too, but it is not the complete answer.
The YouTube channel “Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell” very recently published a video titled, “Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time” that discusses how to build positive practices and habits. Some people might find it useful – for this or other purposes – and there are subtitles for several languages. Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time - YouTube
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I only do one at a time for that exact reason. It take a long time before you see decent progress and especially decent comprehension.
You need grit.
When you get to the point where you feel like you aren’t making progress and you are losing passion. I would say stop approaching The language with a “I need to improve mindset”. Get back to ”What kind of content do I enjoy?” And just casually enjoy content that makes you happy.
Interesting content is what drives language learning.
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how can i be a tutor in Ling ??
Another piece is found!. Thanks a lot, I watched the video and it was very helpful.
My approach to a new language is to take a book that I know already and then I try to read it in the target language. This will keep me interested and occupied with the language and I can see progress all along the way when reading the book.
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