Stages of language learning: motivation, demotivation and...

How many times have you been asked the question “Why are you learning x language“? Personally, I lost count. I can usually come up with a pretty reasonable answer, for example “because I have German friends“ or “because I want to work in the translation field“. However, sometimes I can't think of anything else other than “just because I like it!“. And truth be told, that is why I started and why I continue to study most of the languages that I know.

In my opinion, you can compare language learning to a relationship: at first everything is amazing, you're in love with the language and just want to keep discovering more. And then the problems start to come up. At the beginning it's just little things here and there, once or twice, no big deal. But after a while you get bored, you lose interest. Sometimes you can work it out and fall in love again, but sometimes the interest just isn't there anymore and you need to let it go.

When I first started learning German in high school, I was completely in love. I was the best in my class because I was motivated. At the time my motivation came from the fact that I had been to Frankfurt with a friend who spoke German and I wanted to be able to have these “secret“ conversations with her in German so that no one at home in Italy could understand us. Then I started university *cue students all over the world nodding in agreement* and somehow I just didn't want to learn German anymore. I actually hated it. I lost my motivation and I couldn't find it again. Basically my relationship with German was going through the “demotivation stage“. The stage where you stop taking it out for dinner and buying it flowers and become very blasé about the whole thing. And moving to Berlin didn't change this. All my friends here speak English and that means I can get away without speaking German pretty much all of the time.

As my love for German dwindled, I began to take interest in the Russian language. Many people I met in Berlin speak Russian and this feeling of genuinely wanting to know more, to learn, simply out of passion and a willingness to be able to communicate, was my motivation. At one point, whilst browsing the internet during one of my many sleepless nights, I suddenly thought “You know what? I'm gonna start learning Russian!“. And so I did. I learned the whole Russian alphabet in just one night.

I also met other people who had this same drive, but with German, my long lost lover… LANGUAGE! Long lost language. I could see how their eyes sparkled when they were speaking German, that same sparkle you get when the waiter is coming to the table with your food. I could really feel how much effort they were putting into speaking this language. And that's when I finally realised that I shouldn't let myself be discouraged by my own lack of motivation. I just needed to find it again!

Well, I still haven't... but here's my advice: if, like me, you're feeling demotivated, try to think about what brought you to start learning the language in the first place. Try to remember the joy of learning new words, new fun expressions, being able to have more advanced conversations with people. And if this still doesn't work, stay positive and find a new reason to learn! 

If you can relate, I hope my story of roller coaster motivation has helped you to realise that it's quite normal to lose interest in a language and that you are absolutely not alone. There's a whole bunch of us out here. So let's unite forces and find that motivation together!

Valentina