Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

General discussion about learning languages
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Le Baron
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Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:02 pm

I have to say that apart from Indonesian (which I'm taking easy) at the moment I'm actually quite sick of the process of language learning. Of targets for reading and listening etc.

I know there'll be advice about doing this and that to lighten the burden; and how such-and-such an approach is probably not conducive to pleasure and motivation. However don't you just ever feel like saying: 'I'm not going to do this for a bit'? And be saying it because it's actually not a really massive deal?

It may be being overwhelmed generally. I have a lot of other things to do and sometimes I'm not getting them done or done on time. I'm contemplating freezing them all except for dabbling in Indonesian for pleasure.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby einzelne » Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:33 pm

Hell, yes! (I have nothing much to add.)
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby guyome » Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:40 pm

Yes. Sometimes it's hard to find motivation to study beginner material when I could do much more interesting things in other languages. Usually, I just do these much more interesting things and wait for the urge to study to come back. It may take a few days, a few weeks or even months, so it's not a very efficient strategy I'm afraid :D
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby księżycowy » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:00 pm

I certainly do have times when I get sick of it. I think that for me, it usually is part of the other stressors that are going on at that time. But yes, I do.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby iguanamon » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:01 pm

For most of us here, learning languages is a hobby. So, by definition, it is not a necessity. If your hobby is interfering with your life and what you want to accomplish, then it is a problem. There are people on the forum who have taken breaks from learning. Some have taken relatively short breaks. Some have taken breaks for months and years. Some have taken decades long breaks... Iversen comes to mind. It didn't harm him when he came back to it.

Yes, you will lose some progress. What is all that progress worth if you cannot do other things that you want to do. There is a great big wonderful world out there and life is happening. It's worth poking your head out of the house every now and then to see what's going on or it will pass you by.

We have a saying here in the Caribbean about people who are away. Whether they are gone away for weeks, months, or years doesn't matter. They are simply "off-island". They may come back. They may not. If they do come back, we welcome them home. Language-learning is like that too.

Learning languages can take a lot out of you and a lot away from you. Ironically, for learning a means of communication which provides us with a connection to others, the language-learning process can isolate us from the ones we love who do not share the hobby with us. The process often takes place alone, away from family and friends. It can take away time from other activities both indoor and outdoor- I do not/will not listen to podcasts while I am sailing. I sometimes miss reading books in my native language.

The "sunk-cost fallacy" need not apply. Life is too short to spend the little time we have doing something that we don't have to do when we don't really want to do it. Fortunately, there is a happy medium between being obsessed with something and spending too much time on it to our own detriment and not doing it at all. It doesn't have to be an either/or dichotomy... though if one wants it to be, then if quitting brings more happiness... quit!
Last edited by iguanamon on Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby Iversen » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:03 pm

No. Sometimes I have other things to do, and after I left the university in 1981 I saw that my chances to land a decent job at the university were minimal and I suspended all language learning (i.e. 'went off-island" for all practical purposes)- but not because I didn't like studying languages.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby german2k01 » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:15 pm

Yes, sometimes. After all, apart from your native language, every other language requires a lot of mental effort to learn so it is a mentally taxing activity. However, this activity can be fun if your reason is deep and have a closer relationship to the language you are learning.
Now I do not focus on language learning but rather focus on enjoying the content. Language acquisition will take place as a side effect :D
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby Blue Saka » Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:56 pm

Yes. I stopped for several years, until recently. I had to prioritize.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby RyanSmallwood » Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:29 pm

I’d say I get sick of formal study, but so far there’s always enjoyable ways for me to keep my languages up. I know your not convinced of it’s efficacy, but I’ll just mention that Listening-Reading helps a lot for incorporating my interest in reading with language learning and is a large part of why I find it sustainable as a hobby.

Though I’d say with starting a language from a new family, I always consider how much of an initial time investment of formal study I’d have to put in, so potentially in the future I might just stick to closely related ones to what I studied before. But it is a huge time investment and so unless I’m really enjoying my learning materials and overall goals for what I want to use for the language it probably wouldn’t be worth keeping up.
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Re: Do you ever just get sick of language learning?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:07 pm

Yes. Hence my not-so-dense weekly summaries. There was a time when I listened to target languages for hours every day, when I did grammar exercises, when I shadowed native content whenever I left the house, when I did scriptorium, when I not only took online classes - I also was a tutor.

Not anymore. Things get in the way, then you find something else on which you can spend some free hours.
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