Burnout is the greatest enemy of learning any language. It takes a goal like fluency that motivates you, that drives you, and turns it into something you hate.
I think most of us have had that moment when we’ve worn ourselves down trying to memorize as much as we can in as little time as possible and for just a moment, you hate the language, you hate learning the language and you want to throw the whole project out and find something else to do.
Or worse, the amount of time you spend with the language slowly slips over time and before you know it, you haven’t touched it in a couple months!
Given my experiences with burnout, I’ve been trying to nail down what it is so I can deal with it directly.
I think there are 3 elements:
- Demanding Perfection too Soon
- Lack of Context
- Excessive Reviewing
I’ll start with context. Without context, all you have are Kanji and word lists. Long Kanji and word lists. We don’t use words out of context, why try to learn them there?
In my earlier kanji experiments, I tried using a list of the most commonly used Japanese words to provide context for learning kanji. Whenever I added kanji, I also computed what common words I could now read that only included kanji from my list.
This way I could build my vocabulary while building a feel for each kanji based on the words it appeared in.
It was horrible. The words added context for the kanji and that helped, but the words were out of context! Drilling the words to practice reading the kanji was absolutely mind numbing.
Wherever context is lacking, burnout is lurking.
Next up is excessive reviewing. This is simply a case of prioritization. What needs to be reviewed and what doesn’t?
Spending hours reviewing material that doesn’t need review is asking for burnout. Spaced Repetition Systems or SRS’s in their various forms are a great tool for dealing with this. Material that is easy for you is reviewed less and challenging material is reviewed more.
But even an SRS can blow up if you put too much in it too quickly. Then it doesn’t matter how well you’ve prioritized what to review, you’re spending way too much time reviewing.
Variety is the key. Reviewing/studying is one of many things to do to learn a language. When time spent studying pushes out reading for pleasure, enjoying a good TV show or conversing with a pen pal, burnout is bound to happen.
Lastly, Demanding perfection too soon. This one’s subtlety is what makes it more insidious. Kanji, words, grammar, pronunciation, listening comprehension, reading speed: All these things take time to learn and are learned at different rates.
Some kanji come easy and some are hard. Some grammar patterns are easy to read but harder to hear. Everything is learned at different rates.
So, to force yourself to study and restudy the words or kanji that challenge you, is fighting your own brain. Your mind wants pictures, sound, patterns to associate information. Subjecting it to more review and study for what your mind hasn’t built a pattern for is busy work.
See the kanji being used. See the word being used. Your mind will create imagery, uncover patterns that will be the basis for your memory.
The implication is that when you get an answer wrong, note the correct answer and move on. Subjecting your self to “extra” review is a recipe for burn out. Then, not only won’t you recall the information, but you might not even want to.
Learning a new language is a fun process. Eliminate sources of burnout and you can keep it that way.
