Motivation problems...tips?

So I will try to make this short and sweet. I’ve been learning German a little over a year now and I’ve made great progress. With a lot of time put into the language, most very enjoyable time spent I’ve achieved around a B2 level roughly. At least that’s what people tell me, I haven’t taken any tests so it could be around B1.

Lately though I’ve had a hit at motivation that has just made me have little to no desire to put time into it. When people talk about motivation and language learning it’s usually struggles in the beginning but it’s not spoken about so much once someone has already attained a conversation level but wants to advance. I have a few theories as to why I’ve had a lack of motivation: more busy with work, no set work schedule so it’s difficult to find the time, financial issues have discouraged me from achieving my goal of saving the money I need to make this trip to Germany, next to no Germans in my area to practice with, and even difficult to converse on Skype because there’s a 6 hour time difference forward and I usually get home at least 5 p.m., at a language level where listening to podcasts and reading seams like not enough and I just want to speak more but I can’t.

I would just like to ask you all if you’ve had any experience or similar situation and if there was something that helped you get back on that horse. I have had pretty steady motivation this entire past year but my working situation and other factors were a lot different aswell that I think that allowed me to succeed. I can’t put all the blame on these factors, I know that but I just really need a pick me up that would get me pumped for reaching that level but sometimes I just find myself saying, “Well, you already pretty decent so why even bother going to that next level, you can communicate yourself.” Which is not the mindset I want, I don’t want to just be able to converse and communicate, I want native-like fluency and I’m not getting there with this attitude. I just wish I could break out of this fog. If anyone has tips or advice or just personal experience with something similar I’m all ears.

Variety. Either change what you are listening to and reading, or start another language, or just leave it alone. Your language will not suffer, and when you get back to it, you will find that you will be better than ever.

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Surely there’s gotta be some cute German girls in your area, Logan?

Maybe start a meetup group?

Also try putting together a long list of the most interesting German content you can possibly put together, and then pick something from that list once a day.

One thing I did was find native radio and tv programs (interesting to me), and got the sections that I found most interesting transcribed. I got permission, then put together a program where I would review and proof the materials and then share on LingQ. This worked for me on a number of levels. For a reasonably small cost I got a massive benefit. Just the act of sharing, motivated me to go through in detail and make sure the content was as good as can be.

Also, try to think through some creative way to get to Germany, that doesn’t involve a lot of expense.

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I suppose you do have hobbies/interests beyond language learning so how about joining a German speaking internet forum and participating there? That way you get around the time difference and at least get writing experience if not speaking. You might even find someone willing to talk to you after a while, say on weekends or early mornings or late at night.

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“… break out of this fog. …” As with any fog, this thing about not being interested will lift in time. If you were to force yourself now, you might end up resenting your efforts/German, so it is a good thing to have a little rest and do only as much or as little as you want to do at the moment.

We all have hit this fog and the advice given by the others is worth following. @iaing’s suggestion of doing something for yourself and others, ie sharing material that you put together, may be a very good way of deepening your understanding and rekindling your enthusiasm.

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Thanks for the advice, that’s what I’ve been trying to do lately is finding different books. I really wish I could find more material with dialogues with audio and text because it’s usually more engaging. I’ve been watching more videos because that’s where you can usually find that and its just the easier option than reading for instance. I also thought about learning some french and maybe just a rekindling of languages in general would help me. A break is always an option too but I’m not sure if I’d be willing to risk that because I’ve been known to take ‘breaks’ and then never come back to it but with this it’s a little different.

oh iaing I only wish there were cute German girls in my area haha. Unfortunately my town is pretty remote, there could be but I can’t find them anywhere. There is a meetup group in Atlanta that I’ve gone to but the problem is they usually only meetup on thursdays at like 6 p.m. and that just usually never works with my work because Atlanta is like an hour drive of where I live but I go any chance I get.

That’s a really good idea though about watch tv pograms and radio and taking sections you like and transcribing, I will have to try that. So these bits that you got transcribed you would gather together the audio and text and upload it to Lingq?

That’s good advice, I will go onto italki or interpals sometimes and just chat with people but I like your idea of going on forums because you are interconnected with multiple people at once on a specific discussion instead of one. Thanks for the tip.

Thank you for your comment, it really made me feel better about all this. I figured it happens to the best of us. I mean I have no fear that I won’t reach my goals, it’s just one of those things where your kind of sad in a way that your not as excited about something you have been consistently excited for. I’m sure it will pass and I’ll come back stronger than ever.

Thanks everyone for the great comments, I can always count on the Lingq community for some helpful advice and encouragement. :slight_smile:

I like to read/listen to the harry potter series because they always have audio books with text for those and it’s a good story and there is plenty of it to take you to higher levels, once you finish all seven books you won’t need text to accompany the audio anymore and could just listen to anything you wanted. It might not seem interesting, but the key is to visualize what you read well, that always gets me more involved and excited in what I read. Also you might already know the story, but in my opinion there is always something new to pick up the second and third time through any series of that length. Not to mention the massive amount of related material, if you can call yourself a fan there are tons of movies, podcasts, games, documentaries based around it to appreciate which are all much more entertaining when you connect with a story and it’s characters well.

Another reason an audio book is great in my opinion is because if you have mastered the english version the foreign one is a breeze, it’s practically like cheating, you already know what’s going on, no trying to parse confusing messes of words. I plan to read/listen to the series again in german once I am fluent in spanish, and so on.

I don’t want to stop your enthusiasm, but you will never get permission from TV stations or radio stations to share their material on LingQ. I’ve tried it several times and never got permission.

You can upload material to LingQ for your own use. You just can’t share it in the library.

Ah okay good to know, I was kind of thinking the same thing.

I have got permission for this, for some radio. Also many small podcasters don’t have a problem with this, it’s just extra publicity for them. Just have to ask around.

Also, if the audio provider has business smarts they will see a lot of value in also getting access to transcripts – as it instantly increases their search engine optimisations etc.

I’ve banged on about this issue for years. It’s the ultimate step in getting a lot of top notch content on lingq.

In the end, I just went myself to prove this model works. see here → Login - LingQ

I’m speaking from German TV stations and radio stations. German sources is what Logan is looking for.

I’ve found some podcasters and other resources which gave me permission. You can find them in the German library of LingQ.

I guess Germans hesitate more giving permission. As far as I remember I had to send about 10 requests to get 1 permission.

I had some success but I never got permission from TV and radio stations. The problem is here the complicated rules of copyright here, I got once explained. They have to ask every person who is involved in the process of creation if in the contract isn’t fixed that they can give permission to share it elsewhere (what usually is not the case). So it is much easier to get permission from a podcaster (a one-person-show).

Hi,

Did you read Lykke’s notes on lack of motivation, on her blog?

I do understand, if you don’t have a main goal, as getting a trip , or a GF in Germany
it’s hard to keep oneself motivated with fuzzy goals and lot of chore to do…

Have a look on Steeve’s videos, he made some on thsi topic.