Motivation

How do my /lang/ friends stay motivated to keep learning their language of choice? With real life and stuff, its hard to set aside time to sit down and learn; but even after passing that obstacle I sit there and end up getting nothing done.

So, what do you guys do to stay motivated?

Honestly, its all about making good study habits.

First off, schedule set times that you will learn your language and stick to it. For example setting aside 4-5pm Mon-Fri and 3-4pm Sat-Sun just for studying you language and actually using that time to study.

Second, when you sit down to study make sure there are no distractions. A good way to do this is make a study area that doesn't have any unnecessary distractions (TV, computer, etc), and this includes things like cell-phones.

Third, plan what you will study in advance. This doesnt mean things like "Study Hiragana" (if you are learning Japanese), it means SPECIFIC goals to work towards during your study session (eg. Study か、き、く、け、こ and make sure I'm using proper stroke order.) And also make sure that all of the things you need to make your study session successful are there before starting or you will find yourself "looking for an eraser" for 30 minutes that you could be using to study.

Many people simply can't work successfully if they are hungry. Eat something healthy that will keep you full before starting to study if you are one of those people. You could also consider keeping a snack with you while you are studying (but don't start reading the nutritional information or something while studying). Generally I wouldn't recommend keeping a snack with you while studying (due to the fact it can be distracting), but its better than getting nothing done because you are fantasizing about eating delicious food.

Don't take breaks. I'm referring to 2 kinds of breaks here, the first one is that "15 minutes of TV" break, and the second one is that "I'm just going to take the weekend off" kind of break. Taking a 10 minute breather during a long study session (eg. taking a 10 minute break to stretch every hour for 3 hours of studying) is generally okay as long as you don't start watching TV or something like that. However, taking a weekend off is generally discouraged, especially if you just recently started actually sticking to your study schedule. The occasional day off here and there (preferably once a month at most) is perfectly fine, and is in fact recommended to prevent you from overloading your mind but taking a whole weekend off (especially if its more than once) will throw your studying off balance so I wouldn't recommend it. I also wouldn't recommend taking any days off at all for the first little while of studying as it will probably develop into a bad habit later on.

Stick to your schedule, and try not to change it too much. I touched on this earlier (and I'm sure a few times through writing this) but you need to make sure you are actually sticking to your schedule and not just loosely following it. By sticking to a schedule your body starts getting more in tune with it and you will do better work. This is why it's advantageous to go to school or work every day at the same (or approximately the same) time.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Repetition can be beneficial while learning a language but it gets boring quickly and when done wrong it won't help you at all. Lets go back to the hiragana example; writing out か five times on a piece of paper is boring and tedious but it will kind of help you. On the other hand, writing out か one hundred times in a row will probably not be very helpful; your brain starts going on autopilot after repeating it just a few times which means you are just wasting time (and not even in an entertaining way). Its more useful to write か five times, き five times, etc. and then go back to Anki or Smart.fm etc. and practice your memory of them that way.

Keep it fun! This kind of goes with the last point. Make sure you are having fun when you are studying (I know it sounds hard, but it really isn't if you just try). SRS programs like Anki and Smart.fm can be lots of fun to play and they give us instant gratification because we "win" them. Over-using them of course will make them boring; so try not to let that happen. When you get more fluent in your language try watching TV that's in that language (WITHOUT subtitles). Not only is that enjoyable but it also gives you a great chance to study what you know in a much more "real" situation.

Thats all I can think up right now. Hope this helps!

Think of all the foreign muff you'll get.

I don't wanna become one of those faggots that starts a language and never gets it to fluency.
that's enough motivation for me

>>4
I agree. Far too many people start a language and then dump out because it gets too hard for them. They just look like douchebags who can't live up to a challenge, so it definitely works as a good motivation.

While studying English, I was mainly motivated by the fact that all the good tv-shows/movies, music, games and the internet are in English.