Learning a new language can be interesting, exciting, and inspiring at first. However, after some time, you might start losing motivation. If you’re currently in this position, know that you’re not alone. You may procrastinate on your lessons because you’re too exhausted, aren’t in the mood, or have some activities in between your regular day. As a result, you slow down your progress or don’t master the new language effectively.
Fortunately, some tactics could help you stay motivated to learn Spanish, German, Japanese, Swahili, or any other foreign language you may be interested in. You may start by considering any or all of the following:
1. Join A Class
Learning alone can cause you to lose interest in studying in several ways. For instance, because you aren’t accountable to anyone, it’s easy for you to skip a chapter or a lesson. If you do that for one day and the next, you’ll eventually find yourself quitting or taking longer to master your target language. Learning alone also makes it more difficult to avoid distractions. Moreover, you’ll have no one to help you when you’re stuck on one specific lesson.
Thus, it’s best to join a class to avoid all the above hurdles. However, mastering Japanese or any other language faster and more effectively will require finding a good school. The institution must be easily accessible, and its staff must be certified. Furthermore, they should offer more learning resources and offer affordable classes.
Learning in a class is more recommendable because you’ll have a scheduled time for lessons. You’ll also have a trainer who tracks your progress, so you’re accountable to someone. Additionally, you’re less likely to get distracted while in a class. Besides that, you’ll be around people with the same goal as you, so you’ll likely have friendly competition that can help you be more motivated to learn.
If you can’t find a good school near you or online, find a friend with a similar interest to join you. You can use a videoconferencing platform or organize meet-ups. Alternatively, you call each other to track each other’s progress.
2. Find Other Fun Learning Methods
Aside from the classes or individual lessons you’re taking, you need to consider other fun learning methods to keep you motivated. This way, you’ll prevent boredom caused by monotony.
For more interesting learning, you could find time to engage with people who speak your target language. They can help you improve your conversation skills, pronunciation accuracy, and fluency. Likewise, they might teach you a few things about their culture, which will help you understand the true meaning of words or phrases. With this, you don’t have to translate anything from your first language, improving your proficiency.
You could also make your learning process fun by reading blogs, books, and magazines in your target language. Try watching movies, television (TV) shows, and videos, too. You may also play games or listen to podcasts in the language you’re trying to learn.
3. Set Realistic Goals
Setting goals is essential for effective learning and helps you stay on track. However, you must have realistic and attainable targets. Know that mastering a new language can take time. So, it wouldn’t help to expect to be fluent in a month or know all pronunciations in one lesson. This might only leave you disappointed.
Instead of seeing the results only, focus on and try to love the journey. Have attainable goals like finishing a chapter or section within a realistic time frame. Completing a 30-minute class successfully, without distractions, is also a target worth aiming at.
Celebrate Milestones
Rewarding yourself after attaining your set goals can be another way to keep you motivated. For example, buy yourself a coffee if you’ve finished a chapter successfully. If you’ve learned a certain category to the best of your ability and have mastered it, purchase that pair of shoes you’ve wished for, eat out, or order in. Gifting yourself can help you stop postponing study time and avoid distractions. It will also enable you to be more committed and intentional with learning.
Final Thoughts
Learning a new language can be exhilarating when you’re only starting, but you may lose motivation along the way, which is quite normal as you’ve seen in this article. That said, you can do some things to regain your initial interest in learning.
For instance, taking a class instead of doing your lessons alone can help. In addition, books, TV shows, magazines, and interacting with natives of your target language could make mastering it more fun. Further, setting realistic goals and celebrating milestones can help you be more dedicated and focused on your language learning.