How to Stay Motivated on Your Language Learning Journey | A YT video + my afterthoughts
Today, as I opened the YouTube account I use for engaging with content in Romance languages, I found a video in my feed by one of my favourite YTers, Davide from the channel Podcast Italiano, about motivation in language learning. And since I'm in a bit of a language learning slump lately, this was exactly what I needed, so I clicked on it immediately.
The video is in Italian, but there are English subtitles available.
The key takeaway from the video is that you should have a clear vision on what you want to achieve and why, how exactly do you want to use your language, the opportunities it would open for you. In all things you do, including language learning, you should know what motivates you to strive towards that goal, to embark on that journey, so that in harder times, you could remember these reasons and keep on. However, when it comes to setting your goals, you should focus on the language learning habit you want to develop, or on the journey, rather than the end.
For sustaining motivation, the guest of the video, Luca Lampariello, suggests a kind of visualization/affirmation exercise. He recommends that you write down your dream of using the language in the present tense.
And this is what I decided to do in my diary and share it with you.
For a bit of a background, I'm a Latvian with a C1 in English and some kind of intermediate-level fluency in Spanish. Right now I'm focusing on learning Italian (here's more on my journey), and my dream would be to learn at least one language from each Indo-European language branch. I'm also a fan of linguistics, and I'm slowly reading two linguistics books in my free time (I just finished phonology, and now I'm reading the phonological profiles of different languages of my interest on Wikipedia).
So here's my motivation for learning Spanish. For the sake of practice, I'll write it in my target language.
Soy perfectamente trilingüe. Leo y comprendo libros complejos, tanto clásicos como modernos, y esto me transporta a las tierras hispánicas; veo su cultura, su forma de vida. El español simplemente vive en mi mente, cómo también lo hacen el letón y el inglés, y puedo pensar en cualquier cosa en esta lengua tan hermosa, tan poética, siento sus ritmos en mi corazón y su sabor en mi boca. Leo articulos científicos sobre la lingüística de la lengua española, su evolución y su conexión con otros idiomas indoeuropeos. El espacio cultural e informativo está completamente abierto para mí. Viajo por paises hispanohablantes, conociendo a personas nuevas y explorando diversas culturas, sin ninguna barrera lingüística entre ellos y yo. Quizás algún día incluso viaje a algún país latinoamericano como voluntaria en un orfanato o como profesora o médica, si completo mis estudios de medicina. Tal vez aprenda algo de las lenguas mayanas, podría ayudar a documentarlas, estudiarlas... Bueno, ese sueño se está convirtiendo en algo un poquito loco (aunque sin duda fantástico), pero en qualquier caso, las posibilidades sí que son infinitas.
And here's why I want to learn Italian.
Ora posso raggiungere un'altra lingua al mio inventario: sono quadrilingue. Con un'altra lingua, quasi potrò considerarmi poliglotta. Anche la mia capacità di cantare è migliorata, e ora interpreto bellissime arie dell'opera italiana con un accento perfetto. E, chiaro, anche ascolto molta opera, capendo tutto ciò che sento. La conoscenza della lingua mi aiuta a comprendere le canzoni e quindi cantare con profonda pasione. Leggendo libri e viaggiando, esploro la ricca cultura italiana. Assaporo quella lingua cosí poetica, no come lo spagnolo, che che è un po' più ritmico, ma più legata, più cantilenante. Parlo liberamente con le persone italiane, senza alcun problema. Chissà, un giorno potrei persino viaggiare in Italia per prendere corsi e migliorare ulteriormente la mia tecnica di canto.
Yes, these visions may turn a little wild in the end, but it doesn't matter. As long as these dreams inspire you and pull you towards the achievement of your language goals.
Note on the process: First, I handwrote these paragraphs in my diary, then rewrote them in the draft of this post, making changes along the way, of course, and copied them into a request for ChatGPT to correct them. Then I implemented the corrections. This made me realize that I need to finally start writing in Spanish, as that could seriously boost my level, helping me pass from effortless babbling to actual skill.
Ok, here's some for Portuguese and French, which I'm not officially learning but understand much better than feels legal due to my Spanish. My plan is to learn the pronuciation and orthography of these languages, so that I could proceed to read Mikhail Petrunin's comparative grammar of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. Why? Because I like comparing languages, and I want to try such a learning method.
Well, there's only two things I know how to say in French: salut and Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. And I'm kinda sick of not understanding Elisa in the videos of Liga Romanica,a wonderful multiligual YT channel where four people converse in their native languages, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French, occasionally inviting a Catalan or Occitan, or some polyglot. And, of course, if I knew French, there's a lot of French classics to read. And once I reached a higher level of comprehension, I suppose I would want to start talking.
E português? Não me importa. O meu prtgeš e so španhol com um sotak' português d'Europa terrivel. Mais não me importarai poder ler em esse prtugeš, compreerlo perfeitamente e também falar de verdade. I apologize to everyone who actually knows Portuguese. I don't. So I didn't even bother to check the horrors that I just wrote for mistakes. Portuguese is a cool language, and I wouldn't mind comparing it to Spanish. Also there's Coelho's Alchemist somewhere there in my mental reading list.
Now, it's your turn. What motivates you to learn languages? Feel free to write in the comments. Preferably, in your target tongue(s) ;-)
If for some reason you happen to be curious about my language learning adventures, here's my casual tiny language blog, Polyglotia.