A language learners’ forum

I've abandoned a few, but I do come back to them now and again for a look, especially if I went some way. I feel like I gained something from even the ones I no longer actively learn.
Nowadays I'm careful. I only start a language after long consideration, based upon access to resources and chances for using it. I expect to be with it for some time, rather than a dalliance. Even though I see value in something like Japanese, the likelihood of me going there or throwing myself into Japanese literature seems a remote possibility. I also can't abide things like Japanese anime. So I just leave the language alone. I have enough to do.

After seeing just how long and difficult it has been to learn Japanese, I feel similarly. I don't mind learning Japanese, since it's nice to be able to understand anime somewhat and so on, but I just can't imagine the prospect of spending another three years studying Korean when I have much less motivation than I did for Japanese.

Like many others, I've definitely started some and then placed them on indefinite hiatus. It's hard to say whether they'll be rescued or not. I imagine lack of time will prevent me from truly looping back around to them all, but at the same time I've found things that were challenging before no longer seem quite as impossible after a bit of experience in another language that gave me some valuable perspective that helped to loosen the knot holding me back in another. I think of the ones I've already attempted, I'm most likely to loop back around to Irish and Finnish, with a toss up between German and Norwegian for place number 3.

Iversen wrote:I once started to read TY Arabic, and I dropped it as soon as I discovered that the Arabs mostly don't write their vowels. How can you learn such a language from books alone?

Yeah, that turned me off from Arabic at first too. The more I learned about the language, the more it made sense why the Arabic alphabet functions the way that it does. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of Arabic resources, even good ones, don't properly explain the Arabic language enough to get past this hurdle in an efficient manner.

I think it's totally normal. I started my (non-scholastic) language learning journey with Japanese, and barely got anywhere with it. Reflecting and realizing how much I loved being in France during a vacation when I was 16, I started learning French. Haven't looked back since. Every once in a while I pick up a Japanese book and flip through or read a little, but I am not sure I'll ever try and learn it again. That's alright tho!

I like these questions - they make me think and remember different experiences...

Stopping implies starting; and to me, starting implies that I really meant to learn that language to some level (say, to be able to create grammatical sentences)... and stopping implies I have the intention of never learning that language again. So there are a couple of languages that I really stopped, they were going to be too difficult for me to acquire to any useful level and I wanted to avoid a black hole.

But most of the languages I've tried are on pause, waiting for their time to roll around again. And then, there's some that were not really started - I learned enough nouns and adjectives to communicate while traveling, but never had an intention of really learning.

I stopped learning Russian. Something about the language just didn't click with me. I didn't like how the language sounded, and I had no connection with the culture.

For all my other languages, I maintain them. I nearly gave up Hindi, but recently I've gotten interested again, so I'm glad I stayed in contact with the language during my hiatus.

Stopped: Time and again. Given up: Never.
To quote the old proverb, "七転び八起き" (lit. "seven times falling down, eight times rising up")!

firewheel wrote:Hi Friends,

Just a random topic for discussion.

Did you have an experience whereby you started learning a language, but it was very challenging and difficult for you, so you stopped learning it?

Dropping languages is the easy part. Sticking with a language without dropping takes a monumental level of willpower. It's like asking a chain-smoker to quit cold-turkey.

fresh_air wrote:Dropping languages is the easy part. Sticking with a language without dropping takes a monumental level of willpower. It's like asking a chain-smoker to quit cold-turkey.

I thought the analogy with smoking was "Quitting French study is easy, I've done it dozens of times".