5 Ways to Stay Motivated

CC subtitles available in multiple languages.

What is your “why” when it comes to language learning? Perhaps you have multiple “whys”. If you have a “why”, you are primed for success and are more likely to reach your language learning goals. I reveal the five language learning motivations in this video. Do I cover yours?

0:00 Trigger #1: Curiosity
1:11 Trigger #2: Connections
1:33 Trigger #3: Obligation
2:07 Trigger #4: Moments of success
2:30 Trigger #5: Context
6:01 The importance of staying curious throughout your language learning journey.
7:09 My language statistics: thousands of known words in various languages.
8:35 Getting to the stage where the language triggers the language.

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My Podcast:

#motivation #languagelearning #polyglot

[Thelinguist]

What motivates you to learn languages?

[edmundjacobs]

Number 6 trigger : watching Steve Kauffman videos.

[deutsch.direkt]

For me, it's all about experiencing moments of success, combined with personal growth and cognitive development. It's similar to practicing a musical instrument. But most importantly, you have to do it for the love of it. If you're not enjoying the process, revise your methods and goals. Thanks for sharing these tips!

[Yzahcken]

THANK YOU for sharing these insights!! Curiosity, connections, obligations, moments of success, context. May God bless you !!

[huizilopoxtli]

I want to read nonfiction histories and biographies in French and German. My current method is to spend an hour reading French on one day, German the next day, and continue alternating. I'm reading mostly online news articles on a variety of topics in order to broaden my grasp of vocabulary. I hope eventually to be able to read books in French and German, and Spanish as well. Thank you for the videos, they inspire me to never surrender.

[RM-jbbv]

This video made me realize I could probably benefit from a change of attitude. Steve’s description of all those levels of progress is very accurate l, except that in my experience, every time I hit a milestone, it becomes a plateau. And frustration sets in. It’s like each time I level up, I realize how little I actually know and how much more complicated I thought this would be.

There is probably a word for this bc I have heard some people apply this same thinking to scientific discovery. Wherein each major breakthrough just introduces more complexity rather than solving the problem.

[e-genieclimatique]

in brief:
The video discusses the crucial role of motivation in language learning and identifies five triggers of motivation: curiosity, connection, obligation, success, and context. These triggers vary in their impact at different stages of the language learning journey, i.e., getting started, intermediate, and advanced or "airborne."

1. Getting Started: The speaker highlights curiosity about a new culture or language, personal connections to the language (e.g., family members, friends), obligation (such as work or school requirements), a sense of early success (like understanding basic phrases), and context (traveling to a country where the language is spoken) as potential motivators.

2. Intermediate Stage: The speaker explains that the initial triggers can evolve and strengthen. Curiosity may deepen with increased language exposure, connections may strengthen as communication improves, obligations can increase (like deciding to work abroad or take a language proficiency test), success moments can further boost motivation (understanding a movie, having a fluent conversation), and the context becomes richer (discovering new content like YouTube videos, Netflix series, or books in the target language).

3. Airborne Stage: The speaker points out that curiosity can continue to grow without limit, connections can multiply, and obligations can change into a perfectionist urge to master the language. At this stage, learners may experience a sense of success as they begin to think and respond directly in the language without translating. The language context becomes so embedded in their minds that they can respond almost automatically.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of staying open to these motivational triggers throughout the language learning journey to achieve a desired level of fluency, typically B2 level or a comfortable fluency level.

[lesterfernandez]

For me you are a great teacher, Steve !

[賴文茹-yw]

5 triggers to motivation:
Courisity/ obligations/
a sense of success with language/ Connections/ language context

[samgrafton]

Loving LingQ! Could we please add HINDI as soon as possible. Punjabi and Tamil would also compliment it BEAUTIFULLY. Especially since LingQ already has Gujarati.

[Tehui]

I've been learning my target language since the start of 2019. I've reached a B2 / C1 level now. Looking back, I don't know how I managed to stay motivated during those 4 1/2 years. Some of it was establishing and maintaining good habits, and the other was just my strong desire to become fluent in the language. If I only I had the same desire and habits when it comes to exercising everyday. LOL

[jojoflark]

I read Manga in foreign languages, and my motivation never stops.
One piece, demon slayer, spy family, my hero academia, even shojo...
it's my way and it works,
I'm french, i learned English, then Japanese, then, actually.... RUSSIAN

[joebuckaroo]

I took Chinese in college--though I didn't get particularly far. A lot of my motivation (my Chinese girlfriend) went away. Now I'm trying to learn German. Many times when I'm trying to say a word in a sentence, the Chinese equivalent of words will come out instead. Fun times.

[nobuwakaa]

Your talking is my motivation of learning English.

[brian]

My failures actually motivate me more than my successes.

[gustavrus]

i have suffered with lack of confidence whilst speaking another language, sometimes even online environments such as social media aghast me, therefore, in order to build my confidence I am working on meditation and self-affirmation that I can speak languages, I just have to overcome that dreadful feeling that comes with shyness, which is lack of confidence!!

[rubentriana]

Tengo diferentes motivaciones para aprender varios idiomas. Me interesa aprender inglés porque quiero disfrutar de las películas en su idioma original. El francés me atrae porque muchos de mis libros favoritos fueron escritos en ese idioma, y sueño con leer En busca del tiempo perdido en su idioma original. Por último, el alemán me interesa porque me brinda acceso a los mejores conocimientos de arte y arquitectura, y muchos de los textos que tratan sobre estos temas no han sido traducidos al español.

[andryrakotonarivo]

Misaotra betsaka, Thank you, Merci, ありがとうございます。

[jordan]

Thank you. I’m tryna learn Turkish for my friend in Turkey. I’ve known her for 4 years now and I’m lacking heavily on my Turkish.

[futurez]

'Moments of success' is sooo motivating during the early stages and then they become more and more rare as you progress to higher levels. They're there, if they weren't you wouldn't be progressing at all, but it does sometimes feel like those successful moments have completely dried up. ☹