Don't Make Long Term Goals in Language Learning

CC subtitles available in English and Japanese 日本語

It's fine to have a long term vision that we would like to be fluent, have intelligent conversations in a language or understand movies. It's nice to have that as a vague goal, but in order to push yourself in that direction, you should not focus on the long term goals.

0:00 Making long term language learning goals never works out for me.
2:23 How I would measure student success if I ran a language classroom.
4:33 I want to go from 10,000 to 15,000 known words in this 90-Day Challenge in Persian.
6:39 Measuring known words in your target language on LingQ.
9:15 How much will my spoken Persian improve in this language challenge?

Special thanks to Yukari for providing the Japanese subs.

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#languagelearning #languages #polyglot

[Thelinguist]

What are your current language learning short term goals?

[daystyrfer]

My goals are to be consistent, even if it’s a little bit a day. Learning Spanish has been enjoyable so far and I’d like to keep it simple.

[isaaclau]

Languages are not a contest. Everyone learns at their own pace. People learn differently. We have to learn how we learned.

[itsMaiku]

It reminds me of an analogy I heard about mountain climbing. Sure we would all like to reach the summit (“fluency”) but instead of that we should focus on the base camps along the way. Short term goals that also serve as markers to see our progress. Have a great day!

[MDobri-syce]

The only long term goal I made in language learning is consistency!

[reef]

My goal is just enjoy the process enough that I will happily do it the next day. So far 100 days into Spanish.. Sometimes it feels like your are not making progress but with language learning you are often where you are supposed to be, there should never really be breakthroughs, maybe early on with some grammar thing you misunderstood it could make you comprehend 100x better, but overall the deeper you get into any language, or anything really the more nuanced the progress becomes. At the begging it’s just about showing up, it’s like the gym consistency is the only thing that really matters. Create your own language routine that you enjoy, and just do it! Everyday!

[CouchPolyglot]

Long term goals can feel so far away and unreachable, it is better to focus on what you want to learn this month for instance, or on sticking to your daily routines :)

[AdrictotdtTwitch]

What works for me is to actually not having a goal at all, like now in my 4th language I've realized that learning languages are a long life journey and if you have constancy you'll improve but this isn't a race but a marathon.

[jensbernhard]

I love his “I don’t know.” If Steve doesn’t know, it’s highly likely I surely don’t need to worry about it!

[Tehui]

After only 3 1/2 years of being a committed language learner, I've found that the best goal (for me anyway) is a daily or weekly target time dedicated towards immersion or learning activity. I'm currently putting in about 20 hours per week. I do have a long term goal, but like Steve said, I find it better to focus on how much I'm putting in.

[octaviorizo]

Thank for sharing. Greetings from Nicaragua 🇳🇮

[PolyglotSecrets]

I prefer that too, I am all about the process and almost never think of the destination. However, I think there is something to be said about people who get motivated by reaching the summit - a long-term goal might be just what they need.

[AJBonnema]

This video addresses the insecurities and feelings of powerlessness where every intermediate language learner is desperately trying to see progress but sees none. The concrete short term numeric activity goals work to see this progress. And they are encouraging. I am not so sure though, that one should not set long term goals. I think long term goals are essential in order to enjoy the journey after the long term goal. I am interested in actualities and in political discussions, but following them at the moment is very hard. I know that when I am able to follow them, I have accomplished my first long term goal. Understanding people while speaking informally, is my second long term goal. I still think those goals are worthwhile. They are just not short term and should not be looked upon that way. So, apart from the title, I agree with Steve.

[AnneCummings]

re counting specific words (run, running etc) or the word groups, I agree that each form is a different word and used in a different way, and is super supportive to clock each one separately.. but if I were you Steve, I would say, it's my program so I can do whatever I want to :)

[littlexuen]

Thank you Steve, just discovered your channel last week and I'm really appreciate all of your video contents. All of them are really helpful and encouraging. I'm stuck in language learning plateau with my Egyptian Arabic studies recently and your sharing give me a lot of new idea to keep progressing. Thanks again.

[valentinaegorova-vgtb]

Very useful and inspiring. I use LingQ for learning Turkish and German and I will recommend it to all my friends. BRAVO!!!!

[ariohandoyo]

Just finished watched the first video, i just want to talk to people clearly and confident in english that is my shorten goal.😊

[budmcbudderson]

This is good advice for any long term pursuit, I would say.

[peterreid]

Good video Steve. Focusing on long term goals can be demoralising.

[habibebilgili]

Thank you for this encouraging video. When I watch this video, I realized that my comphrehension in English improved as I listen to the simple things that I could understand. I did not think that I was going to understand everything, like movies or podcasts in the future. I just enjoyed. But today I can understand everything. And now I have learned to Dutch. I just focus on my daily plan. If I think the future, I frustrate and give up to study.