Making It Through Your Language Learning Journey: The Short and Long Game

Language learning has one core rule that will take you all the way to success:

Stay Consistent.

All you need is consistency. In fact you can do whatever you want in a language and you'll start to learn it. Our brains are just wired that way. This sheer flexibility of learning is one of it's major advantages. It doesn't matter if you're studying vocab lists, reading news articles, watching reality tv, or listening to a podcast on super-niche topics.

All you need to do to grow is interact with the language, but…

If you stop doing things in the language your progress will stall and you'll have to wait longer to reach your goals. But this is easier said than done. There's a lot of psychology at play.

That's what this article is about; Everything you need to know to keep the party going.

Acquiring language is a marathon, and just like a marathon, you need to keep up a consistent pace. There are so many distractions though, anything that's effortless is generally more attractive than something that takes effort.

Procrastination stops your fluency fast-track. Procrastination is the enemy.

"All I need to do is not procrastinate." you craftily think to yourself.

Great. Let me help.

There are two layers of motivation, the macro and the micro. The micro is simple, it covers the day to day activities and sessions. This is usually where procrastination causes trouble.

The macro is a little more intense. It's the overall motivation to achieve a large goal.

We'll get to the daily procrastination stuff later… (lol)

But the big stuff is very important. The macro motivation, the long game. This will determine if you reach fluency or bomb out.

New opportunities always follow a very specific motivation pattern. It doesn't matter if the opportunity is learning a language or a new method for learning languages better. It's especially noticeable in large goals, stuff that takes lots of effort over extended time. Language learning follow this motivation pattern.

You start off overhyped. There's something new, everything will be perfect. Once you obtain it it your life will be magical. Something, somewhere, inspired you to act because you saw an amazing opportunity.

At this point your motivation is at its maximum and you're putting in lots of effort to realize the outcome. At this point motivation is no issue at all.

But then…

Now that you've actually started it and are experiencing it for yourself you're starting to notice the cracks in the game. Study sessions are a bit monotonous, it's harder than you thought to learn a word, anki reviews start to pile up.

This is the point when you start to notice it's not all sunshine. But you stick through it hoping to see returns for your effort.

But the results are not coming. You're putting in a lot of work and not seeing any results at all. The stuff people promised you that made you start on this journey in the first place are not showing up. You realize there was a lot of info you weren't aware of at the start and this information is very pessimistic.

That 10,000 sentence method really means 10,000 sentences. It also means 2 hours of anki

reviews a day before you can even start working on new sentences.

It means watching a show and feeling dumb because you can't understand enough to follow the plot.

It means actually going out to meet native speakers and talking with them, never mind finding ones that are suitable.

Here's the thing, this 3rd part of the journey is in everything, and it's always brutal.

And here is where you are forced with a choice.

Do you continue, or do you try something else?

Do you quit learning Spanish and learn guitar instead?

Do you stop doing mass immersion and try a speaking from day one method?

This choice is actually nefarious.

You see when deciding whether to quit something, you are usually comparing it to something else. And that something else is it's own journey. So it will look extremely optimistic to you.

This is what happens when you choose "Something/Anything Else":

You've been trying the Sussy Subtitle Method for weeks now, your Tagalog isn't improving much and it's getting hard to stay motivated, and now you've heard about the 5 Minute Flashcard System… Some classy lasses on Reddit are getting results with it! Maybe it is better than the Sussy Subtitle method. So you drop the Sussy Subtitle method and move on to the 5 Minute Flashcard system.

Now what happens? You've just started this whole process over. There was a bunch of stuff about the 5 Minute Flashcard system that you didn't realize. It's starting to become a slog, it also has stuff that sucks!

In 3 weeks you'll be back here making this choice again. Luckily methods tend to be more forgiving. At least you're still learning Tagalog. It's way worse if you're dropping Spanish and learning guitar instead.

Many people spend their entire lives following this cycle of seeing a new opportunity, trying it out, finding out the cold reality of it is harder than expected, and jumping ship only to start the cycle all over again.

The other option is generally the better option. Obviously don't do stuff you don't want to do. But things do get better after the wakeup call and sticking to it. You're now informed that it sucks a more than you thought, but luckily you're basically at your lowest point.

From here on out you get used to it. You keep going. You keep improving little by little. As you start to make improvements and try and mitigate the issues. Eventually things start clicking and working for you, and you'll start to see success.

At this point it's clear sailing. You've committed to learning the language, or sticking with the method and you're seeing the gains and it's manageable to reach your goals.

You've likely seen this cycle in your life a lot.

I know I have.

Everything from jobs, hobbies, relationships.

It's so core to the experience of being human. Learning to navigate it will greatly improve your odds of reaching fluency. As well as bring you success in pretty much any future endeavor.

I wish I had it spelled out for me 10 years ago.

Since learning language is a marathon, sticking to consistent study sessions is king for achieving results.

Studying for 10hrs one day and not touching the language for a week is bad. You'll forget what you learn much of the time.

Studying for 30mins every day is much, much better.

So it's easy to understand logically that if our goal is fluency we should set aside time every day and do a little work studying. It's simple on the surface.

But simple does not mean easy to do. Language learning is work, and getting started on work can be very difficult.

That's why I needed a few techniques and tricks to stay consistent.

This is by far my favorite method for pushing through procrastination preventing me from starting my daily study sessions.

I found this awesome technique for whenever I had a study session planned for the day but needed that extra push.

I call it the Just 5 More Minutes technique.

I've had way too many times when I started binge watching a show. I'd be watching into the evening and bed time rolls around, and I'll think, "Just one more". Eight "just one more"s later and the sun is rising and work starts soon.

Same thing happens to me whenever I played a game called Civilization. You'd play a turn. Then "just one more" turn, and it's been 20 hours and you forgot to eat.

I decided to test this out with things that are decidedly less fun and was surprised by the results.

All I do is set a timer for 5 minutes. The amount should seem almost too short. Then start the timer and put your full attention into the task for the duration. I'd read French articles for 5 minutes, then beep-beep-beep. At which point I'd do one more, and restart the timer because it didn't feel like much.

At a certain point inertia begins and I stop setting timers and just do the study session.

Once I feel like stopping I set another timer and work 5 minutes longer. Then just do one more.

When people bail on study sessions it's because things get too hard, they are feeling anxiety and pain about continuing. The benefits outweigh the cost. Their optimism got shattered by reality and they realized how much effort is actually required to achieve their goals.

This specific time in your language learning journey is where it's the hardest to stay motivated. Likewise and you're extremely likely to procrastinate here.

Procrastination is a coping mechanism for dealing with anxiety related with stopping or starting a task. You will do anything but the task. Making alternative work and rationalizing excuses for why you're not doing what you should be doing.

These procrastination anxieties are due to frustrations, feeling unfulfilled, and overwhelmed. Sometimes procrastination stems from self esteem and fears of failure, inadequacy, other's opinions or imperfect execution.

You put too much importance on a task or an outcome, it becomes larger than life. You raise the stakes, "what if you do it wrong". This fear cripples you and you avoid the task to avoid being unsuccessful. This happens at a macro level (Learning a language and not seeing the results you were expecting) or micro (if I fail too many anki cards I'll have to do even more reviews tomorrow).

In short there are a billion possible causes for why it's so hard for us to just do the 30 minute study session.

The Just 5 More Minutes method is a type of timeboxing. It catches the situation at it's start. The task is no longer insurmountable, and it's no longer life or death, it's almost too short so you can't possibly succeed anyway. The pressure is gone, and it's only 5 minutes.

Each one builds inertia and since you doing it it loses it's bite. It's basically priming a water pump. If you try and use a water pump on it's own it's almost impossible to get water out. But you pour a little in, and then when you pump the water flows. These mini 5 minute focused work activities are the water in the pump. Soon motivation will flow.

And when you add in the 5 extra minutes at the end, your amount of time studying will be quite extreme. You'll also feel amazing after every session because you pushed yourself.

The Just 5 More Minutes technique only takes 5 minutes to start. (lol)

But you need to be ready to start in order to begin the 5 minute timer in the first place. Grabbing your books and booting up your computer adds a step. And that step can make all the difference.

That one more step that may stop you from doing your study session. Especially when you're at a hard part of your language learning journey.

This is why environment can make or break you. Paying attention to setting your workstations up correctly is extremely powerful.

It needs to be as fast and as simple as possible to set up your study station.

If you have to boot up the computer, and have a shower and put on your study clothes, and do other normal people things before you start studying it'll cause problems.

Think of it like Apple designs iPhones back in the day. 3 clicks from anything you want to do.

Everything ready at a moment's notice.

Your anime should be primed and ready to watch at the click of a button. Your dictionary ready to go. Your book on the table next to your reading chair. Keep your workstations ready at a moments notice. it should take you less than 2 minutes to start interacting with the language at most.

It's even better is you have to go around your language learning set-ups to do regular things. Sorry, dinner will have to wait while you clean up your grammar text books off the table.

This section is genuinely brought to you by the "Just 5 More Minutes" technique.

The previous tricks are for crafty people too smart for their own good who think themselves out of work. But some times an overt hammer is required instead of mental finesse.

At the end of the day you have complete control over your body and your mind. You can mentally complain about a task, while forcing yourself to do it. This next technique is perfect for willful people.

Even though your body and your mind are a part of you, the consciousness inside has final say. I know it sounds weird to say a mind doesn't control things. But I'm talking about the thoughts you have, the emotions you feel and the narration they provide.

And all of those things can be flat out ignored.

It's entirely possible to force yourself to study. This brazen ignoring of your reasons not to do something can make all the difference. Especially if you're forcing yourself to just do 5 minutes.

A very successful business owner I know has told me that he exclusively uses this method to work hard. In fact, if his mind gives him objections while he tries to do work, he forces the body to do even more. Oh you don't like doing anki, now we're doing anki ALL NIGHT LONG BABY.

Personally I rarely use this technique, but it does definitely have it's place. Especially when you're completely paralyzed by some prospect and all your other tricks aren't working.

Also certain personalities definitely enjoy bossing things around. It could be a great tool for some of you.

There's not much more to be said. Thanks for reading this article.

Only you can walk the journey, and I know you'll do amazing at it.

If you take anything from this piece be sure to pay attention to the long game stages and how they impact your life.

If you found this article useful, please share it with anyone you think would benefit!