You’re wrong about me being sensitive. I see your point, but the way I see it there are two possible outcomes here:
A: OP finds motivation and continues, or
B: he doesn’t and quits
I don’t see why you would want to help him achieve the second result rather than just let everything run its natural course. Isn’t that being an ass?
“I’m at a high B1 level currently but can read pretty much anything if it interests me.”
If you can read anything that interests you, there is nothing you should worry about. There are a lot of things to learn besides foreign languages, in my opinion.
You weren’t being honest with him. You were being inattentive. Right off the bat he said he likes learning Spanish and is really eager to get back into it. He just doesn’t know the best way to get his groove back. He’s at a perfectly natural, common, and normal stage to be at for a learner who has been going like gangbusters as much as he has been and who has reached the level he has. What’s more likely: That you are right in that it’s passing fad, or is it more likely that he’s reached a stage that lots of motivated learners have, who report the same feels and experiences, and have ways to move forward–WHICH HE SAYS HE WANTS TO.
Moreover, I appreciate your analysis on the different types of learners, but your logical reasoning from it is misguided. There are lots of things people HAVE to do, but aren’t motivated to do, just like there are things people don’t have to do, but still get bored. I love baseball, but don’t need it watch it year round. I like horse racing, but have been taking a break until recently now that the Kentucky Derby is approaching. I love hearing and speaking Spanish, but I’m ready for the Wall. I NEED to get my teeth cleaned and put my new car registration on the windshield, but I just don’t feel like it at the moment.
True that. Whats up with people needlessly learning all these languages without need? Seems like a nightmare hobby to me! Why not take up bowling, archery, movie watching, smoking meth, ANYTHING! LOL, who learns languages for ‘fun’?? Face palm.
Hey parkerhays,
If you get bored and lost your motivation in Spanish, why don’t you try to learn a new language. You don’t have to study your new language 2-3 hours every day. It’s a good chance to take a glace at a totally new grammar structure or new words. If you like it, you can continue to learn.
If you lost your motivation in language learning, I think you should stop learning and find something new. Soon you will realize how good you are in Spanish and language learning and how much you like it. 
solenderdog is correct. Speaking a foreign language is an unique experience and keeps your motivation high.
Nowadays I can’t focus on language learning but try to watch movies or TV Series with english or German subtitles. It’s sort of listening practice, isn’t it? Maybe you can try it.
Archery??
“Right off the bat he said he likes learning Spanish and is really eager to get back into it.”
No he didn’t.
I like using netflix in Spanish with the Spanish subtitles and count it toward my listening time. It’s like reading and listening together in lingq
But they are more common than archery.
Seriously? Again, you’re being inattentive. The OP explains his situation and then right away asks for help, specifically stating:
“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”
He explains how he was doing a lot of Spanish learning, that he wants to do so again, and that he would “really like” to do even better in the near future.
Unless you completely ignored the second paragraph of his post, how could you have possibly misunderstood his intention?
First off: Bowling is awesome. I always have a great time doing it. Secondly, Smoking meth is hardly a hobby. It’s just a bad habit that doesn’t require any skill and I do NOT recommend it to anyone because of the health risks. Thirdly, Archery sounds completely boring and much less interesting than language learning. You might as well recommend stamp collecting or model ship building.
You are disrespecting archery?
I could see archery being interesting, especially if one started crafting one’s own bows and arrows. Usually, I find things get more interesting the deeper I get to know them. Just like people!
Oh yea: Isn’t Norway really into sports like that? I didn’t mean to disrespect your sport, I’m just saying that unless you are training for the olympics, I think there are better things to do.
I know that being good at archery requires good body condition. It’s absolutly more interesting than going to gym and lifting weights.
I haven’t played (or gone) bowling yet. It looks like that Americans love it. It’s probably awesome. Once I tried to play American football and it was awesome. Language learning is also awesome because you don’t need someone to do it. You can’t play football alone or you can’t do archery at home in the midst of the night.
One of the best ways of language learning is that watching movies, listening to songs, reading books and talking about things that interest you (that’s what I am doing now) are the parts of the process.
At the very least, we all agree that Smoking meth is a bad idea? Also Speed skating seems kind of lame. I know the Dutch love that sport.
Jesus, I just tried smoking meth AND studying. I couldnt concentrate. Archery seems dangerous on meth, so I went bowling, but I kept throwing the ball overhand…
usablefiber, man you really have a passion for netherlands, is it your plan marriage a dutch girl?
Totally agree with this. If things seem to be getting stale with a language after a few weeks or months, I always do a Christopher Reeve on it! (Apparently he had an exotic arrangement with his first wife, whereby he would be an absolutely model husband 99% of the time, but would occasionally vanish for a wild week with hookers in Vegas, or something! :-D)
Anyway, what I find is that, each time I come back to the original language, it feels that little bit better and easier than before. I was listening to some new Russian content recently - which was actually the first time for several months I’ve done any Russian at all. I was genuinely surprised at how easily I seemed to “tune in” to it. Listening and trying to understand Russian seemed to be much more of a conscious effort in the past, but something has definitely changed for the better.
(In fact, I almost wonder whether a break from a language could actually be beneficial - a time to let things “settle” in the mind maybe?)