How to stay motivated when learning a language

4 practical things you can do to stay motivated when learning a language.

When you first start learning a language it is incredibly exciting. You want to soak up any and every single possible thing. You are ready to learn the whole dictionary in one week and can’t wait to get to past simple. But what do you do when the initial excitement wears off and studying and practicing feels like a chore?

I have collected 4 things you can do regularly to stay motivated when learning a language.

Switch up your practice routine: If you keep using the same book and doing the same things to practice it is easy to get bored. Try to do things differently from time to time.

Meet people: When you study endlessly but never use what you have learned for its actual purpose: communicating and connecting with others, you can lose focus and motivation. So get out there and meet new people, even if online, so you can remind yourself of the wonderful things that can happen if you speak a foreign language. A good conversation now and then in the language you learn can fuel your motivation. For more on this, with ideas for places and websites to meet native speakers, visit How to learn a language without traveling

Reward yourself from time to time: Get yourself a nice book in your target language, or go to a restaurant where they serve food of the country you want to learn the language of. Do anything that makes you feel good that is connected to the language or the culture.

Check your improvement regularly and set new goals: Dust off your old language book, check an old dictionary or test you wrote. It can make the fruit of your hard work visible so you can be motivated to keep going. Here is how: How to check your language development and why it is important. You might need to also set new goals for yourself that reflect the new level you are at. Check out some Advanced language learning goals.

Practical things to lift you up

• Make a motivational mood board. Make a collage of pictures and photos that represent your motivations to learn the language. Hang it on your wall, save it in your phone, and you can take a look it when you feel too lazy.
• Look through older vocabulary books and tests, even messages and texts you’ve sent to see how far you’ve come to keep you going.
• Whatch videos of polyglots to get you in the language learning spirit.
• Watch YouTube videos of countries, cities where they speak your target language. Or go on Google Earth and “take a walk”.
• Go to a restaurant where they serve food of the country. Or prepare a meal at home and enjoy it it while you are studying.

I hope after implementing these practices you will continue to enjoy learning and using your target language!

Keep it fun,

Zsófi

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