These past couple months I have done little Spanish studying and the reason is motivation. I used to be incredibly motivated to learn Spanish and spent 2 or 3 hours every day. Now I get bored and distracted easily and I can’t tell why. This even happens when I’m watching a Spanish show on Netflix or anything.
Does anyone have any tips on how I can get back into the groove of learning Spanish? I’d really like to improve my level over the next couple of months. Also, any content that you really enjoyed while learning Spanish would be greatly appreciated! I’m at a high B1 level currently but can read pretty much anything if it interests me.
Hi. I really like here on lingq recently the podcasts from Spanish podcasts net. They are my favourites now. As for motivation, for me the biggest motivation to learn a language more intensively is always when I know I am going to visit the country where the language I am learning is spoken.
Do you have a Spanish speaking friend and/or language partner? A tutor? I find that always having upcoming conversations scheduled keeps my motivation level high.
I like bouncing around between multiple languages. Whenever I leave one language for a little bit, I always end up going back to it with excitement again. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it does for me. Either way, nothing wrong with a little bit of a break. You’ll want to come back to it soon.
Push through it. Find new content. Try to at least read the news: eldiario.es, diazvillanueva.com, el observador (uruguay) and https://www.meneame.net/ are very decent news sources.
Since you are at a high level where you can access native level material, I wouldnt ask the question “what can I do to become interested in Spanish again”, I would more ask “What do I find interesting in general”. With the language I am learning (German), I always ask myself “what do I really want to read”, then I see if I can find it in German. So the motivation is the content itself, and learning is a by product
Also don’t forget that there’s a world of content on youtube (for now at least). Although people speak informally there and you may encounter a world of dialects too, some of which you should not imitate, if that’s what it takes to keep you interested then try it.
It happens quite often when we are losing a motivation in language learning for some while.
First of all, we have to be patient.
Language Learning is like a life - we can have happy days, funny days, but also bad days, boring days.
How to return our motivation?
Maybe to make a break for several weeks.
It helps sometimes if we return for a while to easier materials in our target language.
We can also to start a new language.
Try to watch some films or songs in a foreign language.
Maybe you can find some interesting native speakers who are ready to speak to you or to write to you.
There are a lot of videos in differebnt languages in YouTube.
Not all are boring.
Soon or late your motivation comes back and you’ll enjoy your study again.
This happened to me when I was learning French and was about your level. I ended up even dropping active input (was doing more passive with Music) into it for a few weeks and realized after that time, that dropping it didn’t make me more motivated.
What ultimately sparked new motivation for me in the language was a mix of things.
1.) I met new native speakers, became friends, which then motivated me to understand and talk with them more,
2.) Switched up resources (as much as I love LingQ, it can get very stale at times, and often times I have to take breaks from it), and
3.) Found new interests (start researching something you always wanted to, but do it in your target language).
And 2-3 hours a day is a lot to maintain, especially at the beginner to intermediate stage. The intermediate stages makes those 2-3 hours so much more worth it in my opinion, opening options up to watch some movies, read a book, talk with natives, etc.
Ultimately I would suggest those 3 things, and/or cutting your time back a day. Try just doing 30 minutes a day as soon as you wake up, and keep at it and eventually motivation will spark back up making you want to do more.
For me, Spanish music and culture always brings me back in, making it hard to focus on other languages.
You’ll get your motivation back, it can take some time, but you will. Good luck.
^^ I like this answer the best, though all post here have been very helpful, except for the guy talking about the fad having run its course.
The most important part is focusing on why you got interested in the first place, and what you are interested in now and pursuing it in the target language.
For me, sometimes I just don’t feel like “doing Spanish” and I just want to do stuff related to my other interests. This might be because my content hasn’t been exciting, I want to turn that part of brain off, or sometimes you just get tired of hearing Spanish people, especially if you’re in the US. A lot of this too (for me) is because part of your learning is facilitated by immersing yourself in some aspect of the target language culture and sometimes you just want a break.
So, relax, know that it’s normal, and that you’ll get back to it.
Usablefiber is correct with this statement. Taking some time off isn’t always a bad thing. Not to mention, maybe even exploring a new language (in the same language family like Italian or French would kind of be fun, and it wouldn’t be harmful for your language learning). Also, don’t get too stressed out over it. It happens to the best of us. Take about a week off if you want and see if you feel better, if not, find an interesting book you have always wanted to read, and try to read it in Spanish. Or the best option, get a girlfriend whose native language is Spanish. Honestly, that has been my best motivation with learning a new language. If you are like me, you might feel more motivated because you are constantly trying to impress her haha. Anyways, best of Luck my Friend. You can do it.
Sorry that my honesty isn’t ‘helpful’. Oh wait, i’m not.
If you really want to do something, or experience something, or learn something, or if you have a real NEED to do it, it won’t get boring. So maybe deep down he doesn’t really want to learn Spanish.
If he didn’t really want to learn Spanish I would have thought he would have given up much earlier. I have a feeling you would have told me the same thing when I took a three month break from Russian in the beginning of my studies, but here I am years later and my motivation seems to never end. Everyone can experience a setback every now and again and by responding like you do, if anything, you’re only doing more damage. Better to shut up, if that’s not too much honesty for you.
I have yet to meet someone who’s mastered a foreign language and hasn’t thought of dropping it at least a hundred times. The first one is the worst in that sense.
I wouldn’t reject @DrewPeacock’s “no BS” advice altogether since @parkerhays has little other choice than pushing through it at that point.
True, he does come off as the guy who constantly says “You can’t handle the truth, snowflakes!” to make up for him being a terrible person. This wasn’t his worst post though.
I think that there is such a thing as an irrational need to learn something and if you don’t have it, it’ll be hard to go all the way with a language.
Talking truth which delicate people can’t handle, more like.
If i go to ballet lessons, and just don’t have the drive to keep going because i don’t enjoy it, why on earth would i force myself to keep going? Because someone down the road kept going and figured out ballet was alright?
There are three types of language learner:
Those not in the country of origin who learn because they want to.
Those at uni/school who have to learn it.
Those who live in the country and NEED to learn it.
Those who learn because they WANT to have no obligation to continue if they can’t be bothered/find it boring. Which is what ‘losing motivation’ means when you cut all the crap.
OP doesn’t even like native media it seems. Why on earth would you force yourself to keep learning something you have no interest in?
Seems to me he wanted to simply learn a language for the sake of learning a language. If he had an inner NEED or a practical NEED to learn it (ie, he can’t not learn his TL because he loves it so much/he needs to learn it for life reasons) wild horses couldn’t drag him away.
This isn’t ‘talking out of my ass’, this is plain and simple truth without the fairy powdered sugar coating that sensitive people like you require to be able to digest facts.
