Language Learning: Staying Motivated

Posted on 18. Jul, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Relocation, Tools & Resources
3 comments

Staying motivated and focused can be a challenge in long-term projects, and learning a foreign language is no exception. Without measurable goals and a clear intention, you can easily end up overwhelmed and discouraged.

Even worse, you can find yourself stuck in procrastination mode, with all the layers of guilt and self-criticism that go with it. I don’t know about you, but that’s not my idea of fun.

Willpower and struggling

You may be thinking, “Well, this is not about having fun – this is about being disciplined and consistent and strong-willed enough to study every day and learn the damn language already!”

And I see your point. Discipline and consistency and willpower are all great qualities, and they certainly do come in handy every now and then. My concern is that by relying on willpower alone, you can turn learning a foreign language into a power struggle. It’s like pitching the side of you that knows it should study against the side of you that doesn’t want to study.

I am not a fan of struggling. Actually, that’s a bit of a lie – I am a recovering struggle addict, but that’s a story for another day. What I mean is that there has to be a better, gentler way to bring ourselves to study.

External vs. internal motivation

Trying to stay motivated by putting pressure on ourselves typically doesn’t work very well. Neither does bribing ourselves with the promise of a reward if we study diligently. That kind of external motivation is usually not strong enough to overcome challenges such as, say, mastering the French imperfect subjunctive – a formidable prospect that even sends shivers down my own Gallic spine!

So the trick is to find your internal motivation – what makes you want to study. Even better, what makes you look forward to studying.

How do you get there? It very much depends on your personality, your values and what fires you up.

My recipe: 35% goals, 65% fun

What works for me, without fail, are crystal-clear goals combined with a good dose of fun.

Goals: The best way for me to stay motivated is knowing exactly what I want to achieve.
“Learning the language” is too vague for me – how will I know when I have reached my goal, and how do I measure my progress? But “learning enough business Spanish to write professional emails without needing the dictionary” – now that’s specific enough that I can work toward it and keep my desired outcome in mind.

What do you want to achieve? Different categories of expats will have different needs when it comes to language skills. What will your particular situation call for? Are you a corporate employee, a NGO worker on a 6-month mission, or a retiree who mostly socialises with fellow expats? What and how much do you need to learn to make your life easier?

Fun: If I am going to be studying a foreign language every day, I want to find ways to make it fun. That is, either engrossing, or completely wacky and unexpected.

I happen to be a geek, so I can easily lose myself in books about the most obscure subjects. Your mileage may vary, but the idea is to find a topic that fascinates you, and read about it in your chosen language.

You can also watch a movie in your target language, and re-enact parts of it when no one’s around. Or listen to a song, and sing it at the top of your lungs in the shower. Or I don’t know, make sock puppets, and practice your recorded dialogues with them! Keep it light, and soon enough you’ll think of your daily language lesson as play, not hard work and drudgery.

My favourite way to keep things playful? Listening to foreign songs and trying to write down the lyrics. It does wonders to boost your vocabulary, and for auditory learners, associating the words with a melody makes them much easier to remember.

When I started learning English in middle school, I did this exercise with all of the songs on the then newly-released Appetite For Destruction (yes, I know I’m dating myself here).

By the end of it, I had picked up a lot of, er, interesting vocabulary, and enough grammar that I could have penned a short essay about the comparative merits of Jack Daniels and cheap vodka. Alas, the opportunity never materialised, as the Dominican Sisters who ran the school did not seem too keen on basing our assignments on the life and works of Guns ’N’ Roses. Oh well.

What helps you stay motivated? Share your language learning stories with us!

Emmanuelle

Image by elycefeliz, via Flickr Creative Commons