Serbian - B1 in One Year

[basica]

Time for another chart So, this post is going to be about perception and basically how to never rely on it If at all possible, rely on figures that you can measure and have measured, or failing that the opinions of people around you to help shape your own view of things. I say this because this month has been rather interesting for me as I've been feeling more out of my game than I usually do, but two interesting bits of feedback have emerged.

Firstly, my daily writing. I feel like this month I have been in a real slump and not really writing as much as I should and I was even falling behind my average for the same period the month before. However an interesting picture started to emerge as I looked at the figures as the month went on. My average eventually overtook the average of the month before and looking at the chart I could see that while I am having ups and downs still, they are much "tighter". My perception of having really let this month go was totally bogus in every which way, I had only 2 days with less than 130 words (compared with 7 last month) and 22 over 140 words (in contrast to 17 over 140 last month).

So, the other was my conversation partner sorta blowing away my perception once again of feeling like I was forgetting words, or not being as smooth or flowing as I felt before. I was sorta telling her how I feel like I am speaking so much more poorly than our last exchange or two and she was kinda like "what the hell are you talking about? you're speaking just as well as you usually do". It was refreshing to hear and boosted my confidence.

With these 2 experiences in mind, I have learned to not pay too much mind to how I think things are going without paying a lot of attention to the facts, and letting them play out for long enough for the information to clear up any potential confusion.

[basica]

Hello everyone, I'm just writing to say that I have decided to take a break for a while from my studies. I am well and truly burnt out at the moment and it's a real struggle to continue to force myself to study when I have grown to dread it. Rather than push through, I am going to take a big massive break from pretty much everything. I will maintain my weekly conversations, and continue on with anki, albeit at a much reduced rate (about 50 cards a day). I will revisit this in about a month and see if I want to slowly scale things up again, otherwise I will maintain this until my trip in November which hopefully reinvigorates me some.

Thanks for the support, it's been much appreciated. I will probably still be around this forum a little bit, but probably not all that much until I get back into a more active role in my language learning. Thanks again

[Bakunin]

Hello everyone, I'm just writing to say that I have decided to take a break for a while from my studies. I am well and truly burnt out at the moment and it's a real struggle to continue to force myself to study when I have grown to dread it.

Sorry to hear that, I've always enjoyed reading your log. But I think it's good that you took the decision to take a break. It might be heresy here, but even a life without language learning can be a happy life

Do you already know why you burnt out, or is it too early to say?

[Radioclare]

Sorry to hear that you're feeling burnt out, but I agree that a break is probably the best thing to do You know I was feeling pretty fed up of everything the other week as well and since then I have pretty much abandoned everything except watching TV. I feel a lot more relaxed and positive now, so hopefully you will start to get the same benefit

Make sure you stay in touch and let us know how your trip goes

[basica]

I figure I'd give you all an update. I came back to see how long I was gone for, thinking it had been months or something only to find it hasn't even been 1 yet. I pretty much dropped everything language related. I haven't been doing anything language related at all, I am not even attempting to think or talk in the language and even the last few times I've spoken with my parents I've kept to English.

In the mean time, some of my nerdier interests have taken over and that's what has been consuming all this free time I now have. Still can't believe it's only been a month. It feels like it's been an eternity With that said, I think the main thing that has put me off was that I was pushing myself too hard for too long. Well past the point I was thinking "I should probably ease up". Needless to say I won't be making that mistake again.

So, with all that out of the way I gotta say I still don't feel ready to come back and especially now due to some personal circumstances which have caused me to cancel my trip this year - there isn't much of a rush anyways. I will probably take another month or so off and then try and ease myself into it slowly. In some ways I feel like everything I had learned has atrophied away since I had been avoiding using it at all this last month, but I had a dream last night and I was speaking in Serbian again and it came back to me quicker than I'd have expected hehe.

Anyways, thanks for the support guys. I've been looking at your logs and it's good to see you're all still at it. See you guys in a little while after I've enjoyed this break a little more

[Serpent]

Great to see you again!
I think a major cause of burnout is a strict distinction between learning and fun. For me, one doesn't exist without the other, but such a long-term strategy would be impossible if I pushed myself too hard. Much of my contact with languages is automatic and/or natural - through music, interfaces, twitter, facebook, books, media etc. Essentially, after high school I kinda conditioned my brain to consider stuff in Russian less fun. I totally understand that it's not something everyone can do.

Do you now have any contact with Serbian at all? I would highly recommend simply using music for now.

[iguanamon]

Seconding Serpent, fun is key. If I could vote for her post a thousand times, I would. Here on the forum many people set out to methodically learn a language in what may be akin to a military style full frontal assault. Some people need that and like it. Some learners (some) tend to go great guns for a while but eventually burn-out. So concrete goals may not work for everyone. After five years at HTLAL and here, whenever I see one of these "missions" to learn a language, I cringe a bit because in the majority of cases the outcome is somewhat predictable. The good news is that there's nothing wrong with you, it may have more to do with your approach.

Benny at Fi3M seems to have gotten the whole "X in Y time frame" going. Not that I am criticizing him. I get the thing about how some people need to have a set time to accomplish something (a deadline) because without it their natural tendency may be to procrastinate and not do too much. We all know people who have been learning X for ten years and have nothing to show for it. There's another side to this coin, however. Some people let the goal determine what they do to such an extent that it can overwhelm them. People are made of flesh and blood, not microchips. Leo Babauta wrote in his zenhabits blog about no goal and acheiving without goals. I won't quote from the article but it's a quick read and may give you some ideas for the future. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There can, indeed, be a happy medium between the two. This may be an alternative to consider.

Good luck and good to see you back for a visit.

[basica]

Thank you for your support guys, I've really taken it on board and I plan on getting back into it soon, but I have a somewhat of a nice detour in the mean time. I'm heading up to Korea end of this year, and though Korean hasn't really been a language of great interest to me, I figure I'll try and make the most out of my time there by learning a bit before I head over.

I'll create a new thread for Korean and so I guess we can see each other there till next year when I get back on the Serbian horse

[basica]

Do you now have any contact with Serbian at all? I would highly recommend simply using music for now.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I kinda did a hit and run there

Yeah, I have basically avoided any and all contact with Serbian. I may listen to music or watch a couple of movies or whatever here and there but they are not done with intention. I don't know what happened mentally, but it did get to the point where I couldn't stand the thought of doing anything language learning related I've calmed down a fair bit now, and my passion has reared its head again

[Daniel N.]

If you need any assistance / have any questions, I'm (almost) a native speaker, so I can help you. This should be a hobby and fun, and no, what you have learned is still somewhere inside your brain