I CAN’T FOCUS ON ONE LANGUAGE
The solution to this would probably lie in limiting my activities to just a few things. However, I have a hunger to do so many things, and limited physical and mental energy to do them all. When I run out of both, I get really irritable and shut down. So language learning motivation is a toughie.
I love languages. More specifically, I love speaking them. Sitting down with the tools to learn them is harder for me. I know what I need to do, how, and how often. It’s something that I experiment with all the time and truthfully, I know that if I set my mind to it, focus, and get to work, I could speak several more languages than I do now. But which language do I focus on?
I’m a really moody person. It’s my number one biggest flaw and I’d love to change it but it’s permanent. Some days, I’d like to focus all my attentions on a language that I don’t have many chances to practice while ignoring the language that surrounds me. It’s dumb. I’ve been living in this new country for several months and my comprehension is pitiful. I don’t care if it’s a hard language. I don’t care how long we’ve been here…I’ve been here long enough to have at least a basic conversational level and I don’t. I haven’t made any real effort to dive into listening exercises that are easy to do with all the fantastic tools I have. And I beat myself up about it. My husband can already have some basic conversations with our neighbors. It’s not to make a comparison, but we both know how to acquire new languages. I see his efforts and I know I’m perfectly capable of doing the same.
Often, the battle is pushing myself to really attack each one. While writing this, I realized that the best thing for me to do now is to simply schedule a lesson with a tutor online and start speaking. Once I hear myself do it, I will no doubt get completely hooked on each language. It’s a tiny revelation I had recently. I took three Italian lessons with a tutor online in November and was thrilled because each lesson confirmed my belief that I can indeed speak Italian and just need practice.
It seems like the problem of the language motivation is solved. Time to book the next tutors. In a future post, I’ll share information about where I find my language tutors for anyone who is interested in trying it out.
