Not only they learn one language but they learn two, three and four.
So let us see how they motivate themselves to keep on learning and
Fighting the way home!
NecK
I don't think anything encourages/motivates me more
than have a pretty flowing (albeit
grammatically flawed) conversation about any topics
of interest. This is fun for me and
I feel better about where I'm at afterward.
But I think I should start some kind of
language diary to get a better idea of what
kind of progress I'm making. Simply hearing
others speak my target language can also motivate me.
Robert
I'm not good at motivating myself.
What I am good at doing is making myself
believe I'm progressing when I'm really doing nothing.
I find the best strategy at times is not to give myself
any targets, but simply to make a note of what I have
done. When you have an explicit record of your activity
and/or progress, you are forced to be honest with yourself.
If I set myself targets, I'll often try to cheat just to tick the box.
Honesty is the best policy. (English proverb)
Sara
My motivation is slightly more down to earth, probably
because that's what works for me. I meet my language
partner one or twice a week and since I'm responsible for
preparing my hour, if I don't prepare anything, I embarrass
myself and risk losing her. So I have no choice.
John
If I can find ****s and podcast/TV programs about things
that interest me (science, history, technology) in languages
that I am trying to learn then that's motivation enough.
In some languages this is very easy, and then I tend to
spend a lot of **** with those languages. In others it is
more difficult, and then I ought to find a technique to
force myself to read less interesting ****s - but I am not
very interested in learning how to force myself to do
unpleasant things.
My wordlists are also a great motivator for me (believe
it or not!). I can always find a dictionary, I know what
to do and I know that it works for me. Moreover I can do it
for 5 minutes or for an hour, and I can watch television
while I do it. I just need some place where I can write,
some paper and two pencils.
Michael
I need to learn Arabic for the career path that I'm going
to take so I pretty much tell myself that if I don't learn it then
I will fail. That's all of the motivation I need to study for hours.
Johan
As mentioned before, I find a great motivator is to track
your progress and keep a log. That's why I've been Taking
for the last three years now. Another way to stay on
track is to change some of your personal habits.
I stopped reading the paper over breakfast, and started
using the **** to study. Now I don't feel I'm having a
relaxing breakfast unless I'm studying something language
based. I also listen to some audio based course on every
journey I make in a day, especially during an evening walk.
Suzan
I try to work every day on each of my languages. I number
each of my work pages so that I know I've worked 47 days,
or whatever, on a given language. There's a mild satisfaction
that comes from passing various milestones: 50 days,
100 days, 365 days, etc.
I use a different combination of paper color and folder
color for each language. This is, of course, totally trivial,
but it's kind of nice to finish looking at, say, Arabic for the
day (blue paper, green folder) and to pick up, say, Bengali,
with its bright yellow paper and vibrant red folder.
I'm fortunate enough to have a partner for two of my
languages. We pull each other along, both being
much more responsible because of the other than we
would be on our own.
By far the greatest motivation, however, given my literary
goals, is having a **** to work on that I really enjoy. The
reasons may vary from **** to ****, but once I settle on
something I love spending **** with that work. The
author starts to feel like a genuine person after awhile,
even though he may have lived centuries ago. And
even if I know the gist of what he says through a translation,
nothing compares to grasping his thoughts in his own
language. One tiny example: In 1001 Nights, the Arabic
equivalent of "I hear and I obey," is used quite often.
Having heard the phrase in English since I was a child,
learning it in Arabic and coming across it on the
page makes me feel as happy as a puppy getting a
little pat on the head. Once in awhile my partner and
I will start working on a **** that just doesn't move us.
We give it a week or two and then, if things don't improve,
we toss it aside and move on to something
more interestingSo let us see how they motivate themselves to keep on learning and
Fighting the way home!
NecK
I don't think anything encourages/motivates me more
than have a pretty flowing (albeit
grammatically flawed) conversation about any topics
of interest. This is fun for me and
I feel better about where I'm at afterward.
But I think I should start some kind of
language diary to get a better idea of what
kind of progress I'm making. Simply hearing
others speak my target language can also motivate me.
Robert
I'm not good at motivating myself.
What I am good at doing is making myself
believe I'm progressing when I'm really doing nothing.
I find the best strategy at times is not to give myself
any targets, but simply to make a note of what I have
done. When you have an explicit record of your activity
and/or progress, you are forced to be honest with yourself.
If I set myself targets, I'll often try to cheat just to tick the box.
Honesty is the best policy. (English proverb)
Sara
My motivation is slightly more down to earth, probably
because that's what works for me. I meet my language
partner one or twice a week and since I'm responsible for
preparing my hour, if I don't prepare anything, I embarrass
myself and risk losing her. So I have no choice.
John
If I can find ****s and podcast/TV programs about things
that interest me (science, history, technology) in languages
that I am trying to learn then that's motivation enough.
In some languages this is very easy, and then I tend to
spend a lot of **** with those languages. In others it is
more difficult, and then I ought to find a technique to
force myself to read less interesting ****s - but I am not
very interested in learning how to force myself to do
unpleasant things.
My wordlists are also a great motivator for me (believe
it or not!). I can always find a dictionary, I know what
to do and I know that it works for me. Moreover I can do it
for 5 minutes or for an hour, and I can watch television
while I do it. I just need some place where I can write,
some paper and two pencils.
Michael
I need to learn Arabic for the career path that I'm going
to take so I pretty much tell myself that if I don't learn it then
I will fail. That's all of the motivation I need to study for hours.
Johan
As mentioned before, I find a great motivator is to track
your progress and keep a log. That's why I've been Taking
for the last three years now. Another way to stay on
track is to change some of your personal habits.
I stopped reading the paper over breakfast, and started
using the **** to study. Now I don't feel I'm having a
relaxing breakfast unless I'm studying something language
based. I also listen to some audio based course on every
journey I make in a day, especially during an evening walk.
Suzan
I try to work every day on each of my languages. I number
each of my work pages so that I know I've worked 47 days,
or whatever, on a given language. There's a mild satisfaction
that comes from passing various milestones: 50 days,
100 days, 365 days, etc.
I use a different combination of paper color and folder
color for each language. This is, of course, totally trivial,
but it's kind of nice to finish looking at, say, Arabic for the
day (blue paper, green folder) and to pick up, say, Bengali,
with its bright yellow paper and vibrant red folder.
I'm fortunate enough to have a partner for two of my
languages. We pull each other along, both being
much more responsible because of the other than we
would be on our own.
By far the greatest motivation, however, given my literary
goals, is having a **** to work on that I really enjoy. The
reasons may vary from **** to ****, but once I settle on
something I love spending **** with that work. The
author starts to feel like a genuine person after awhile,
even though he may have lived centuries ago. And
even if I know the gist of what he says through a translation,
nothing compares to grasping his thoughts in his own
language. One tiny example: In 1001 Nights, the Arabic
equivalent of "I hear and I obey," is used quite often.
Having heard the phrase in English since I was a child,
learning it in Arabic and coming across it on the
page makes me feel as happy as a puppy getting a
little pat on the head. Once in awhile my partner and
I will start working on a **** that just doesn't move us.
We give it a week or two and then, if things don't improve,
we toss it aside and move on to something
