We have to maybe convince ourselves that this is what we want to be doing.
This is fun for us.
This is enjoyable.
Hi there, Steve Kaufman here.
Today I want to talk about how to stay motivated when you're learning a language.
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Um, so motivation, it comes up all the time.
We all know that to be successful in anything it helps
to be genuinely motivated.
And we also know that we are more motivated at some
times and at other times.
And so even in learning a language, we can be very molded, motivated
initially for whatever reason.
And then we go through periods where we're not motivated.
So how do we stay motivated?
Well, First of all, let's say that we can't be equally motivated all the time.
So at times your motivation will flag.
However, I think the first thing about motivation is to have a clear goal.
Why are you learning this language?
All right.
Is it because you want to communicate with your in-laws in the old country?
Uh, is it because you need it for a job?
Is it because you're interested in some aspect of the culture?
Or you have a friend, uh, or you want to travel.
You know, make sure you have some clear goal.
Maybe you just want to learn the language so you can show off in front
of others, uh, perfectly legitimate.
Uh, maybe you want to learn a language because it's an improvement activity
and we all know that, you know, as human beings, if we can learn, if we
can learn, if we can improve ourselves, it gives us a sense of satisfaction.
It gets the, I dunno, endorphins, adrenaline or
something, working in the brain.
We like that.
The brain likes that the sense of, of attack.
And that sense of acquiring knowledge.
And there's a great sense of achievement and satisfaction,
uh, which, which comes from that.
And those are all legitimate reasons, goals for learning a language.
And I could probably, I'm sure that people out there have other
goals that are also legitimate.
Any goal that motivates you to learn is, is, is important to have.
So I think a big part of motivation is the goal.
And when your motivation flags you got to remind yourself of why you're doing
it, remind yourself of why this is important to you, to learn this language.
And of course, if it's no longer important, then maybe you should stop for
a while until you get that itch again, you know, I want to learn this language.
So a big part of motivation is, is the goal, the why.
Another big part of motivation is the process itself.
And I often say, you know, the process is the reward.
Uh, if you can enjoy the process of learning a language, then you're
not, you're less concerned about how quickly you're improving, because
you're enjoying hearing the sounds of the language, discovering new
words, new ways of saying things.
Uh, you're enjoying the fact that you understand things now that you didn't
understand three or six months earlier.
You're not frustrated by the fact that you don't understand.
So the, the, the whole, the process itself, uh, gives you a sense of
achievement, a sense of enjoyment.
So therefore you have to look for ways to make that process enjoyable.
I've talked about mixing in repetition, which is easier, or, you know, a lot
of the content, and you're focusing in on some aspects, some structures
in the language, or some ways in which words change in the language, some
aspects of grammar in the language.
So listening to repetitious material can be enjoyable, but at the same
time, you want to find enjoyable content, uh, things of interest to you.
So that again, the process becomes enjoyable.
Uh, you know, just as an aside, uh, on Twitter, I sometimes comment on
different tweets that come my way.
And some person had tweeted that, uh, you know, he's 16 and jobs, any job
he's had is boring and he only gets a few weeks off and he's got, that's all
he's got to look forward to in his life.
And I said, well, you know, with an attitude like that, you
probably better to quit the job.
If you, if you think the job is genuinely pointless, find another
job, uh, because even in work, if you can find a way to enjoy the
process, you will be more successful.
Uh, and of course that brought an avalanche of Twitter comments from
people who were, I don't know, communist or whatever they were, jobs are all
bad and the boss gets all the money.
We make useless stuff that only goes to the rich and all this other stuff.
And nobody enjoys their work.
And you obviously were in a position of power, you old
white man boomer or whatever.
I don't believe that.
When I go to a restaurant, I have the impression that
the server enjoys serving me.
Uh, I have worked in factories.
I worked, okay I wasn't a permanent laborer there, but I have worked together
with people in factories for weeks on end.
I've also been part of the management team and a majority of people actually
enjoy what they do, and those who do enjoy what they do, they do better, uh, because
it's not just eight hours of drudgery.
Not to mention the fact that, you know, it's a social environment where
they're together with their buddies and it's an important part of their life.
As we go through life, no matter what our activity is, you know, we have some...
some ability to control how we feel about that activity.
We can decide that we're going to enjoy that activity or,
or not enjoy that activity.
And it's not obvious that a, you know, a very wealthy person who's have nothing
but the best of everything to eat and the biggest home is enjoying his life more
than someone who has a simpler life but has lots of interests, lots of friends
and family and relationships and stuff.
So it's up to it up to us.
And so that's, sorry for the digression, but I think the same
is true in our language learning.
We have to maybe convince ourselves that this is what we want to be doing.
This is fun for us.
This is enjoyable.
So if we have these goals and at the same time we enjoy the process, we find
things that are enjoyable to do, or we persuade ourselves that this is worthwhile
doing, this is what I want to be doing now, so that the process is enjoyable.
All of these things are motivating.
Uh, if we are frustrated by the difficulties, frustrated by our obvious,
uh, you know, problems in the language, which are part and parcel of learning it,
because if we knew the language and made no mistakes and understood everything,
then we wouldn't need to learn it.
So, because we're learning it, we are in fact encountering these difficulties,
but we can find a way to enjoy these difficulties if we set our minds to it.
So those are sort of my main thoughts on, on motivation.
Another thing that comes up from time to time, if you have been studying the
same bit of content and you kind of think you should be doing this content because
it's the next level of difficulty, but you're not really interested in the
content, find something else because there's a tremendous difference.
If we're interested, like let's say that it's something in the language
you're learning and it relates to your job or relates to a sport that you're
interested in, skiing or something.
And all of a sudden it's interesting.
I mean, that level of focus that we can achieve when we have content
that's genuinely interesting, you know, is, is so much stronger.
That pull, the resonance is so much stronger than if we're studying
something that we feel we should study and we're kind of pushing
ourselves and forcing ourselves.
So make sure in order to maintain motivation, motivation that you work
with content that has some value to you either because, and I find myself very
motivated to listen to my mini stories over and over again, but at the same
time find things that are interesting, so that all of a sudden from being somewhat
passive and I should really do this, you all of a sudden, wow, I'm interested in
this and you'll see that you won't even notice that you're learning the language.
You won't even notice it.
The language is washing over your brain because you're pursuing something
there that's of interest to you.
And that helps with motivation.
Okay.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.