I have been dabbling in a few languages over the past year – Japanese, Spanish, and a bit of Korean but I keep bouncing between them & never really stick with one long enough to make real progress. I get super excited at first, start using apps, watching shows, even reading graded readers but after a few weeks, I lose steam & end up jumping to the next language that catches my interest.
Anyone else been in the same boat? How did you choose one language & commit to it? Was it based on travel plans, work or just personal interest? I want to hear what helped you stay motivated and consistent. Inhave see this post Starting to watch Japanese video without English subsjira certi Also, if anyone has tips for not getting distracted by all the shiny new languages out there, that’d be awesome too!
I don’t know that you have a great pool of people to ask here since most of us dabble in two (or more) languages.
The closest thing to advice I can give is:
Pick a main language and be serious about why you want to learn this language. For example for me this is Japanese. I have had a lifelong interest in the language and the culture, I like reading manga (except when I don’t ), I like watching variety shows, I like (for some definitions of like) watching dramas, I like playing Japanese video games. I like that it’s a huge challenge compared to other European languages. A lot of my hobbies are easy to do in Japanese compared to other languages. Every time I make another language my main language I always kinda miss Japanese. All taken together, Japanese makes the most sense as my main language.
Get your main language to a set point before taking on a new one. It feels good to make the rapid progress that you make as a beginner to a language, but it sounds like you’d like to go further than that. I’m only intermediate in Japanese at this point, so you might get better or more nuanced advice from the more advanced readers/speakers here, but I’ve found that you over time go through stages where it feels like you’re learning so many new things and then times when it feels like learning has slowed down. For me, I can typically leave my language at one of these lulls and then come back later and be both way more excited to get back to it, and also feel like I’m jump-starting that language again. I have a few languages parked at A2ish that I’ll probably pick up once I feel my Japanese is more on autopilot.
My bonus piece of advice is to figure out what you can do every day (or however often you have to dedicate to your studies). For me getting my language studies into a routine where I do it without really having to think about it is the only way I keep motivated in the long run. I don’t have a lot of advice for how to do this, but there are some challenges on the forums that could be a good way to get some accountability if that will help.
Welcome! I second @shitsurei 's excellent advice and honestly can’t add more except to say definitely go through those pointers.
Tell us more about what interests you about the languages you started!
The game changer for me was to choose just one thing I would do everyday and to track it (reading, and my reading volume), and every month I do a vocab assessment to gauge progress. Also I keep a learner log and the tips and ideas I get from others have really made a massive difference
I’ll third @shitsurei and add that whatever method you choose should be fun/enjoyable for you.
I’m beginning my 4th year of spanish, and the first wasn’t fun so I would putz with other languages. I also wasn’t making the progress I wanted to so I became resentful and start putzing with other languages. find a method that keeps you engaged and looking forward to doing the work. for me it was comprehensible input/dreaming spanish. who knows what it will be for you! but fun makes all the differnce!
Picking just one language was an unfortunate necessity for me, and the choice just came down to what I had more fun with and what I could foresee myself getting the most mileage out of. I stuck with Japanese because 1) it’s difficult and makes me feel smart, 2) I travel to Japan every few years and knowing the language enriches my experience there, and 3) there’s a large pool of Japan-exclusive content I could potentially engage with if I get good enough.
I used to be very passionate about French and was maintaining a high B1-ish level for several years after university, but after 6 months of learning basic Japanese to prepare for my first trip to Japan, I discovered that Japanese had completely wiped out my French ability. French suddenly felt difficult in situations where it was previously effortless, my active vocabulary disappeared, and I couldn’t string a simple sentence together without accidentally switching to Japanese word order or throwing in Japanese particles. It seems my brain only has room for one useable foreign language in it, so I had to decide whether it was worth it to sacrifice Japanese to rescue my French, or if I should get good enough at Japanese that losing years of French would feel worth it. I still love French and wish I could be competent with it, but in the end, studying it doesn’t give me the same mental satisfaction that Japanese does, and realistically for my lifestyle and interests, French does not give me access to as many experiences that I can’t just fall back on English for. Even if you’re the opposite of me and have the potential to learn as many languages as you like, asking yourself “If I could ONLY have one, at the expense of all of the others” might get you thinking about what parts of each language are most important to you and which language suits you best.
And as others have mentioned, the key to sticking with whatever language you choose to prioritize is just to make a habit of engaging with it. If studying is an embedded part of your routine that’s comfortable and enjoyable, it doesn’t matter if the novelty wears off, because the routine maintains your momentum for you. Your habit could be watching a 5-minute grammar video while you make supper every day, or listening to audio tapes at the gym, or doing flashcards on the bus – every little bit adds up, and as long as you stay consistent, you’ll see the results that motivate you to keep going.
I’m only learning one language, but the “What keeps me doing Japanese instead of bouncing to one of my other hobbies” is pretty much what @shitsurei describes in her point 1. There is no way I’d still be learning Japanese if I hadn’t transitioned from “learning Japanese with textbooks/tutors/exercises” to “using Japanese for fun things while looking up a ton of vocab” a while ago.
Yes, when I was younger. It’s because I didn’t find a real goal that could motivate me long enough. I previously took introductory lessons for German, French and Japanese for fun with friends and thought it would be useful for travel and ordering food. Turns out I would speak to my friends as usual in English instead and during travel, I could still use English and just point to the menu what I wanted. So these goals did not keep me motivated beyond a few weeks of novelty.
I found my favorite actresses by chance after watching their dramas with English subtitles. So my goal was to be able to watch their dramas or interviews without subtitles. This kept me motivated at high level for a long time 1 to 2 years. This is enough to keep me motivated with studying my Anki flashcards, rewatching their dramas many times etc.
Personal interest as big fan of those actresses. I changed quite a few but they all gave me similar high level motivation, each at a point of time since I only like one actress at a time
Set a real long term goal and find the perfect motivation that could last you for a long time and work on that until you achieve the goal.
My primary point would be: find an activity that you are willing to commit time to (as several others have mentioned) every day. Beyond that, you can study other languages as much as you want, as long as you always maintain your daily habit with your base language.
Also, it may take a while to find the right language or the right activity for you at this moment in time. If you keep jumping around, consider why that might be and how you think you can best get what you want out of your study time.
Good luck!
slightly off topic
I just wanted to address this briefly because something similar happened to me and it felt really devastating at the time. But over time I realized that my ability to understand my previous language hadn’t gone away, and as long as I can understand then I have reasonable confidence that I can speak again, someday, if it’s really important to me.
I believe over time our brains can become more resilient to things like multi-lingualism (even as adults ). I don’t know if that helps, but I hope so!
I believe this, too! At first it felt discouraging when my first foreign language (Spanish) seemed to get wiped out by German and it felt like I only had 2 modes: native language + foreign language mode. But after my German was secure I found on holidays a lot of my Spanish was still there and easily re-aquired. And the resilience point is also true in my experience as well, since then it feels like French (I’m rather weak at but will focus on it now and then) and Japanese also have their own separate buckets.
I don’t have any research right now to back this up, but my understanding from a lot of the research I have read is that your brain needs to use its inhibition system in order to speak two languages. So if you didn’t learn two languages at the same time, your brain will need to learn how to do this, and while it’s training itself you’ll get that, “my brain only has two modes, native or foreign language” feeling. I believe that should go away once L2 is established enough and shouldn’t interfere with L3 any more than your native language does. There also isn’t any long term issue with learning languages where you’re about the same level at the same time (i.e. that interference is a temporary stage), it will just take longer to acquire your two languages than if you had learned them separately (although less time than it would have taken to learn both languages one after the other, most likely).
It’s also why my brain is obsessed with some Japanese words that there aren’t exact words for in English and always wants me to use them, こだわる is its favorite, kinda fittingly
I appreciate the reassurance! I do still have an alright level of passive comprehension in French, so I’m sure the foundation is still intact and I probably could return to it if I really needed to. It’s more a matter of effort, and whether that effort’s worth it.
I AM holding on hope that I don’t actually have a one-language-only brain and can be proficient in both of my languages one day, but at least for the time being, trying to accomplish absolutely anything in French without unconsciously mixing Japanese into it is extremely frustrating to me, and since language learning is just my hobby and not a necessity, being frustrated with it means that I just won’t put myself through it. And considering that learning just baby tourist Japanese was enough to knock out years worth of confidence in French, emotionally I’m not willing to relearn intermediate French at the potential cost of an even more dramatic effect on my Japanese For now, I don’t have the time or mental energy to juggle two languages fighting each other, even if I do have a brain that could learn to handle it eventually.
I totally get that and it sounds like you’re doing a great job of prioritizing what is both fun and useful for you.
This is super interesting and completely explains this weird situation I had where I went quite quickly from a “verbal output in L1 only” situation to a “verbal output in L2 only” situation. I didn’t learn the inhibition I needed in order to do both and consequentially when I tried to speak L1 a couple years later it was a massive struggle.
Also consequentially, when I eventually moved back to my home country I thought it meant I was losing my L2 forever, which made me feel really sad. But I now believe that I just still hadn’t learned the thing which makes bilingualism possible.
@mitasali, sorry for semi-hijacking your thread! But please do keep us updated on your exploits and explorations! If you feel like it, at least.
Hi, I think I can maybe give some advice as an all-in Korean learner (have learned French and Chinese at some points in the past, and may someday go back or start something new, but not anytime soon).
The first thing to consider is what is your goal for language learning. I’m sure you know that Japanese and Korean are much harder than Spanish (for English speakers), but it might be difficult to imagine how much harder. I can almost guarantee you it will take multiple years to get to a solid level in Korean or Japanese where you can consume your favorite media without much friction. And if it takes less time, it’s probably because you’re studying as your full-time job. So if you simply want to learn another language and don’t care too much which one it is, I think you should probably learn a Category I language, like Spanish. You will progress much faster. I can tell you from experience that the difference between Cat IV (Chinese / Korean) and Cat I (French) is insane.
The other thing to consider is that if your motivation to learn Japanese or Korean isn’t strong enough to keep you from dabbling right now, you should think about whether you will be able to maintain that motivation for the months and years it will take to achieve a good level. Since you are on this site, I’m assuming your goal is at least somewhat related to consuming native media.
Additionally, I’ve heard that comprehensible input content for Spanish (eg Dreaming Spanish) is very well developed and readily available.
Honestly, as a Korean learner myself who knows a lot of Korean learners, serious and nonserious, I would recommend that dabblers choose a different language, unless they genuinely don’t mind spending a lot of time at a beginner level or staying at a beginner level. There are so many languages that an English native speaker can progress faster in if you don’t have a strong reason to learn Korean in particular. I’m genuinely saying this to potentially save you the time and frustration.
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), I like watching variety shows, I like (for some definitions of like) watching dramas, I like playing Japanese video games. I like that it’s a huge challenge compared to other European languages. A lot of my hobbies are easy to do in Japanese compared to other languages. Every time I make another language my main language I always kinda miss Japanese. All taken together, Japanese makes the most sense as my main language.
). I don’t know if that helps, but I hope so!