How dedicated are you?

[Baburra]

I'd say I am dedicated but in my own way. I don't tend to practice regularly but I learn bits and pieces here and there as I find that is my way of learning another language that won't make it feel too much like I am working too hard on it. I am dedicated in the way that it has been years of me just finding phrases to latch on to every week or so and I have retained most of those lessons and I'm still going and I don't really plan on stopping and that's partly because it's not such a huge weight on my schedule anyway. 

[Yoshie]

+Barburra I definitely know what you mean and I too like that approach. Sometimes it can feel like information overload when you try to cram it all in all at once or in one sitting. The brain is more receptive when not so pressured and you process and grasp the information more easily with breaking it up into shorter sessions. I think that for me at least, in a situation where you have to bulk it together and cram, it becomes extremely daunting and you stray away from doing it and you lose out in the long run.

[Tripeo]

My parents think I'm crazy because I'm always speaking English with myself, it really is a weird thing to hear and see, but it definitely is useful when it comes to practicing. I consider myself an organized and dedicated person when talking about language learning and that sort of thing that requiere a lot of dedication if you really want to get good at them, that's why being dedicated and passionate about the languages will always be a must.

[Victor Leigh]

Of all the languages I know, there's only one which I didn't learn formally. This is Chinese, all three dialects. That's because my parents speak Chinese. The other languages I learned in formal settings ie in a classroom atmosphere. English is what I learned from my very first day in school ie kindergarten. It's now my natural language. Malay is a compulsory subject since it's the national language where I grew up. When I lived in Thailand, I attended adult education classes to study Thai. I even took the government exams. And passed.

Would I have the dedication to learn a new language outside the classroom environment?

This I will have to find out. Right now, I am learning a computer language. That's a language, too. This I am doing by spending about four to six hours every day studying and doing exercises online. So far, I have managed to finish my basics in HTML and CSS. Yesterday, I started on Javascript. I keep myself on track by blogging about my progress in learning programming. It's sort of like forcing myself to learn every day so that I would have something to blog about every day. Maybe I will try this with learning a human language.

[Yoshie]

3 minutes ago, Victor Leigh said:

Of all the languages I know, there's only one which I didn't learn formally. This is Chinese, all three dialects. That's because my parents speak Chinese. The other languages I learned in formal settings ie in a classroom atmosphere. English is what I learned from my very first day in school ie kindergarten. It's now my natural language. Malay is a compulsory subject since it's the national language where I grew up. When I lived in Thailand, I attended adult education classes to study Thai. I even took the government exams. And passed.

Would I have the dedication to learn a new language outside the classroom environment?

This I will have to find out. Right now, I am learning a computer language. That's a language, too. This I am doing by spending about four to six hours every day studying and doing exercises online. So far, I have managed to finish my basics in HTML and CSS. Yesterday, I started on Javascript. I keep myself on track by blogging about my progress in learning programming. It's sort of like forcing myself to learn every day so that I would have something to blog about every day. Maybe I will try this with learning a human language.

Haha, you're interesting re the last part of your post.  I might take that approach in mastering said applications.

[Victor Leigh]

22 minutes ago, Yoshie said:

Haha, you're interesting re the last part of your post.  I might take that approach in mastering said applications.

Please do. I have been putting off relearning programming for a few years. I was a programmer before but there has been so many advances in technology that I simply have to start all over again. Putting your progress in learning online, in your blog, is both a commitment and a motivation. When you blog about it, you have told everyone that you are on it. Then to make sure that your blog doesn't die of inactivity, you simply have to keep on learning. And when you blog about it, you get a sense of achievement. That sense of achievement is a very strong motivation to learn more. As someone put it, great success is the cumulation of little successes.

If you like, you can see what I have done so far on my blog by just searching for it under the name "Aree Wongwanlee", which is the name I am known by in Thailand. You can also find me on Facebook under the same name.

[Yoshie]

+Victor Leigh No prob, will check it out.

Btw, I'm no programmer but I have a genuine interest in technology and how it is created and how it works. I do have a creative mind so things like that I find interesting. Plus, I like to know how to do things myself where possible even when it comes to a computer or gadgets in general. I've been wanting to do a web design course for a minute now but I haven't been able to get to. Still determined to become certified hopefully sooner than later though.

[clair02]

On 7/31/2016 at 5:04 AM, VinayaSpeaks said:

sadly, when it comes to learn a language I am not very dedicated. When I start learning a language,I am very active in the beginning. I devote myself to learn the language. As the time passes gradually, my enthusiasm for the languages decreases, I begin to give less time for learning the language. And finally, I stop learning the language. This has  happened to me couple of times. I started to learn French 15 years ago. However, I have not been able to speak the language properly until now.

I understand what you mean. It's always fun and exciting in the beginning and when that initial excitement wears off, you start to lose motivation and enthusiasm for it. I experienced that when I first started studying another language and the technique that I used to help motivate myself was to remind myself why I wanted to learn that language in the first place. Your big 'why' plays a big part in your motivation and determination to learn any language. Do you want to be able to converse with your friends from another country in their language? Is it so you can get a better job? Whatever the reason, keep it in the forefront of your mind and think about it often and you will find the inspiration to continue with your studies. 

[abonnen]

I think at point in my life I am only now semi dedicated to learning a language, I think it is becasue I just have a lot going on right now to just really  sit down and focus the time I need to on learning.

[AntonioCalcano]

I'm extremely dedicated when it comes to learning languages. Languages are my life and my passion, I find them very exciting because they're a new way to get to know more people around the world, to learn more cultures and customs. It's been very easy for me when I feel passionate about learning something and even when I haven't felt that way it's still easy. I guess I was born that way, learning languages being very easy for me.

[Tripeo]

On 19/9/2016 at 10:30 AM, abonnen said:

I think at point in my life I am only now semi dedicated to learning a language, I think it is becasue I just have a lot going on right now to just really  sit down and focus the time I need to on learning.

It really becomes a problem when you don't have enough time to invest on practicing and learning, it's really bad, for real. As long as I know, if you really want something you will just go for it no matter what, that's why you have to ask yourself if you really want it and how badly you want it in order to increase or probably decrease your motivation. Good luck.

[Victor Leigh]

Ah, the perennial question. What to do to keep the flame alive and, preferably, roaring? It's actually quite normal. Everything that starts must come to an end, eventually. Everything that lives must die, eventually. Learning something is not exempt from this cardinal rule. However, oftimes, the flame dies out before anything gets cooked, so to speak. So what can we do to keep up our spirit and keep on learning until we succeed? I think the answer lies in innovation and variety. As we study a new language, we should be on the lookout for new ways to learn it. For example, have we been learning it from a particular teacher? How about learning it from one more teacher? Have we been learning it from a particular book? How about learning it from one more book? At the same time, we should be on the looking for new ways to use the language we are learning. Have we been practicing it by talking to someone who speaks the language? How about practicing with one more other person? Have we been practicing it by speaking only? How about practicing it by singing it as well?

[Yoshie]

+Victor Leigh That's certainly a smart approach and I believe variety definitely helps to break monotony in any aspect of life itself.Like myself, I tend to get bored with things pretty easily and want to move on to something else or another way of achieving the task at hand. While I was studying languages in school, the prescribed texts were enough in a sense but it was an annual challenge to source the required reading and listening material as I don't reside in the US or so. To add to that, they were a pretty penny but sacrifices were made. So, I say, if you can afford to acquire a good variety of learning material for the language(s) you're studying, do so as it will help greatly with keeping you interested and willing. Travel if you can to experience the authenticity of the language and its speakers and enjoy what it has to offer.

[hades_leae]

On 9/11/2016 at 0:55 AM, John Snort said:

Any time I'm learning a new language I often put in a lot of time into it. About six hours each day or more. The first hour would be for the language lesson. Second hour will be used to learn new words. Third hour will be for reading some text aloud and the rest I'll watch some videos. It's quite an intense schedule but I always give it my all.

If I had more free time, I'd probably allocate even more time to learning in order to speed up the language acquisition (process).

That is very intense, I can't see myself working all of those hours just to learn a new language just to perfect it. There are plenty of people who spend about half that time. I found a school where they only wanted me to go there for 2 hours a day for 2 months to learn Spanish, but hey if it works then good for you.  I never heard of a schedule like that. I call that real work right there.

[Tripeo]

@abonnen I feel you, but you could always try to get used to talking to yourself to make it easier for you to learn, you don't really need a certain schedule for it, just be creative.

[VinayaSpeaks]

I want to add more to what I have stated above. You cannot dedicate yourself to something that does not interest. Therefore you need to be interested in the language that you are studying, once you are interested, you can dedicated to learn it, which will bring positive results. Additionally, you also need time. If you do not have time, how can youdedicate yourself.

[LeesaJohnson]

Just watch some videos, read books and try to write something by which you can express your views. 

[Chelsea]

Hi! It always happens to me that at first I´m really dedicated, do all the homework and attend to every class. Later on is where I start to miss classes and skip homework. What usually happens to me is that I really hate to attend to class when it´s not close to where I live. What was really a solution for me was to start studying Spanish online in this way  the classes adapt to my schedule and not the other way around.

 I recommend Spanishzoom.com since I started studying here I didn´t quit and I have all my classes at my own rithm whenever I have the time.