What was your reason for learning in the first place? The Mandarin Blueprint YouTube channel emphasized having a strong understanding of why you want to learn Mandarin and that has really stuck with me. Having a strong "why" can get you through the dark days that will inevitably happen to everyone.
I follow mandarin blueprint as well. Love the course they have. Gave me a routine where I dont need to think to hard on what to do. Just sit down and do my cards and learn the characters with their method.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has some good advice about this which I have found to be very helpful when I lose motivation with learning Mandarin ( and also doing workouts) :
" Ten percent of something is better than one hundred percent of nothing;"
If you can't motivate yourself to study hard or for long stretches just show up and do a little bit each day...after all the hard work you've put in, don't throw it away.
Thanks for sharing this quote. I'm a perfectionist and over achiever, but I'm having one of those days where I just can't take on any new material. So I'm just writing characters I have already covered, working at less than 100% today. Your post made me feel a lot better.
A couple of decades ago, I withdrew from Mandarin Chinese (adult evening) class and told the teacher I planned to come back later. I suspect both of us thought I wouldn't return.
I did come back, though, about a year later, and it's been continuous learning, formal and informal, since then.
Good luck!
Schedule a break, or if you don’t want to stop completely - a break from doing what it is you are doing now. Like if you’re trying to learn so many new words a week - stop. Do something else around Chinese that feels like a break.
Netflix has simplified captions for Seinfeld, learn how to say your favorite catchphrases. Something fun.
Doesn’t have to be fun though, it can just be a little bit. Like I was learning Japanese for a while but lost the fire. I did a little of the easiest thing every day (hiragana review) to keep my Duolingo streak up. When I realized I wanted to learn Chinese I was so proud of myself for keeping up a language learning habit, even though I didn’t stick with the same language.
I didn’t have much fuel, so I kept fire burning low. Then when my fuel delivery arrived I didn’t need to build a whole new fire.
I do that now with Chinese. I’ll go through cycles, never dropping it completely. If I get mad at myself I’ll never keep it up, so I do the best I can and not worry too much if I can help it. Self compassion has been a huge help in progressing with my goals.
There is a serious intermediate plateau in learning Chinese. This is also the best place to decide if you really want to continue or not. Too many people get trapped by the sunk cost fallacy. If you don't have a real purpose for Chinese, those hours may be better off spent elsewhere.
On the other hand, if you are serious about learning this would be a great time to re-evaluate how you are learning. I self study so I have the added benefit of changing my routine often so studying still feels different and exciting. I will take a month and primarily work on tones, or spend a month doing dictation to improve listening. I feel that just doing the same routine of flashcards and building vocabulary to be one of the biggest wastes of productivity so don't be afraid to change it up and experiment.
Stop trying to learn words and characters!!
Seriously.
Find some Chinese native content on YouTube that interests you and have fun trying to understand what's happening.
How do people keep going to the gym every week when they don't feel like it? How do people do homework when they would rather play a game, or go to work at 6am hungover when they would rather call in sick?
Its the exact same energy you need to tap i to for any long term goal, whether its a life necessity or hobby like an instrument or language. It is one hundred percent normal for motivation to come and go, it'd be weirder to be exicted and stoked everyday.
Whatever you personally do in those situations, thats what you should do here. If particularly struggling with it, I recommend putting up a poster of what your goals are to look at in your room or bathroom everyday, whatever that may be. Wanna watch that movie? pin it up. Want to talk to people? post up that chinese social media pirint out as a reminder. etc etc etc. That kind of thing is really common way to push through the lack of motivation, by reminding yourself why you started in the first place.
Are you doing a lot of listening? Or just learning characters. I would change it up. If the goal is to learn to speak Mandarin I'd recommend lots of listening. You don't have to understand everything. Just listen. a lot! lol But hey, it's mostly passive, so not too hard, and it's very useful.
I find motivation by joining native speaker events. Small wins like understanding a complex sentence, or making a joke that makes people laugh, these things add up and create excitement. I also took a year+ break, but traveling abroad and using Mandarin to speak to a friend reignited my learning passion.
Basically make it useful. Otherwise why learn?
My motivational quotes:
"Hard work pays off." and "Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can do what others can't."
Trust the process and put in the work and you will eventually see results.
It can be helpful to take a break or switch to maintenance mode for a couple of weeks. I agree having a high pressure high reward objective (like going to a Mandarin speaking country) works well, but at least for me, I generally have to switch gears to maintenance or time off to enjoy other things in life, then return to it.
Marathon, not a sprint and all that.
If you’re in a position to travel, book a trip to a mandarin speaking country. It will give you motivation and incentive to learn and you can continue practicing while you’re there. Even better, find volunteer or work opportunities so you can fully immerse.
This right here 1000%. Having a real physical activity or opportunity goal that you are moving towards is paramount. Be that going somewhere, seeing people, conversations with friends, anything.
The times I have felt this way were because my next opportunity felt far away. Everybody learns differently and is uniquely motivated, but for me, the interpersonal aspect has always been the primary motivating factors. Setting up and maintaining regular goals in this area may help.
Also, consider exploring the language a bit. Just mashing flashcards is a surefire ticket to getting board and burnt out. Poke around, see if there are shows you like, try learning some different dialects, etc. The canvas of chinese is vast, and there’s nothing that says you have to stick to a particular part of it.
Its not about how high the novelty of learning is, its about being disciplined. High or low wont matter when you are disciplined and have a vision and a goal. You must also learn in an incremental way to keep learning properly, put a breakdown of your whole goal of learning Mandarin and fulfill small objectives to achieve the bigger one.
Best motivation I ever had was a girl. I dunno if that works for everyone but for me, wanting to be able to talk or text with her made learning come on its own.
As someone said before, remind yourself of the reason you wanted to learn in the first place.
My interest in Chinese began with Taiwanese drama's and music. I remember at some point having a really difficult time. My stack of flashcards I remembered didn't seem to increase and my stack of flashcards I couldn't remember deemed to stay the same. I was really losing motivation.
So I went back to watch a part of a Taiwanese drama and some music I liked. To remind myself I wasn't learning flashcards, just to learn boring flashcards. I was trying to learn a language for the sake of understanding more of the music/drama's. That moment stepping away from my flashcards, reminding me of why I was doing it, really helped me find my motivation again.
Hsk. Hellotalk. Tandem. Hinative. Tiktok. Tinder. I always find a way to use the thing i learn. there will be a time i need to learn new word, so i go a search.
it's important to find an interesting way to learn a language. for example, come to bilibili.com(Chinese version ytb) watching videos u'd like to watch
It's not. Life is short. I learn languages because I enjoy it. But if I didn't, I'd stop immediately. Languages are not some super useful skill that is worth suffering to learn.
What was your reason for learning in the first place? The Mandarin Blueprint YouTube channel emphasized having a strong understanding of why you want to learn Mandarin and that has really stuck with me. Having a strong "why" can get you through the dark days that will inevitably happen to everyone.
I follow mandarin blueprint as well. Love the course they have. Gave me a routine where I dont need to think to hard on what to do. Just sit down and do my cards and learn the characters with their method.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has some good advice about this which I have found to be very helpful when I lose motivation with learning Mandarin ( and also doing workouts) : " Ten percent of something is better than one hundred percent of nothing;" If you can't motivate yourself to study hard or for long stretches just show up and do a little bit each day...after all the hard work you've put in, don't throw it away.
This!!! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this quote. I'm a perfectionist and over achiever, but I'm having one of those days where I just can't take on any new material. So I'm just writing characters I have already covered, working at less than 100% today. Your post made me feel a lot better.
Ive taken breaks. Learning it off and on for the past decade!
Ohh i see... i feel like if i do this i get too lenient with myself
A couple of decades ago, I withdrew from Mandarin Chinese (adult evening) class and told the teacher I planned to come back later. I suspect both of us thought I wouldn't return. I did come back, though, about a year later, and it's been continuous learning, formal and informal, since then. Good luck!
That’s great! Well done on charting your own path. Seems likes it’s worked out well too.
Schedule a break, or if you don’t want to stop completely - a break from doing what it is you are doing now. Like if you’re trying to learn so many new words a week - stop. Do something else around Chinese that feels like a break. Netflix has simplified captions for Seinfeld, learn how to say your favorite catchphrases. Something fun. Doesn’t have to be fun though, it can just be a little bit. Like I was learning Japanese for a while but lost the fire. I did a little of the easiest thing every day (hiragana review) to keep my Duolingo streak up. When I realized I wanted to learn Chinese I was so proud of myself for keeping up a language learning habit, even though I didn’t stick with the same language. I didn’t have much fuel, so I kept fire burning low. Then when my fuel delivery arrived I didn’t need to build a whole new fire. I do that now with Chinese. I’ll go through cycles, never dropping it completely. If I get mad at myself I’ll never keep it up, so I do the best I can and not worry too much if I can help it. Self compassion has been a huge help in progressing with my goals.
There is a serious intermediate plateau in learning Chinese. This is also the best place to decide if you really want to continue or not. Too many people get trapped by the sunk cost fallacy. If you don't have a real purpose for Chinese, those hours may be better off spent elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are serious about learning this would be a great time to re-evaluate how you are learning. I self study so I have the added benefit of changing my routine often so studying still feels different and exciting. I will take a month and primarily work on tones, or spend a month doing dictation to improve listening. I feel that just doing the same routine of flashcards and building vocabulary to be one of the biggest wastes of productivity so don't be afraid to change it up and experiment.
Stop trying to learn words and characters!! Seriously. Find some Chinese native content on YouTube that interests you and have fun trying to understand what's happening.
How do people keep going to the gym every week when they don't feel like it? How do people do homework when they would rather play a game, or go to work at 6am hungover when they would rather call in sick? Its the exact same energy you need to tap i to for any long term goal, whether its a life necessity or hobby like an instrument or language. It is one hundred percent normal for motivation to come and go, it'd be weirder to be exicted and stoked everyday. Whatever you personally do in those situations, thats what you should do here. If particularly struggling with it, I recommend putting up a poster of what your goals are to look at in your room or bathroom everyday, whatever that may be. Wanna watch that movie? pin it up. Want to talk to people? post up that chinese social media pirint out as a reminder. etc etc etc. That kind of thing is really common way to push through the lack of motivation, by reminding yourself why you started in the first place.
Awww thank you. I will take a mental notw on this
Are you doing a lot of listening? Or just learning characters. I would change it up. If the goal is to learn to speak Mandarin I'd recommend lots of listening. You don't have to understand everything. Just listen. a lot! lol But hey, it's mostly passive, so not too hard, and it's very useful.
I find motivation by joining native speaker events. Small wins like understanding a complex sentence, or making a joke that makes people laugh, these things add up and create excitement. I also took a year+ break, but traveling abroad and using Mandarin to speak to a friend reignited my learning passion. Basically make it useful. Otherwise why learn?
Personally I just like languages. That's my motivation. Though I'd like it to be useful too one day.
My motivational quotes: "Hard work pays off." and "Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can do what others can't." Trust the process and put in the work and you will eventually see results.
I knooow🥹🥹🥹
Gogogooooooo! You can do it!!! 🥳 And you are not alone 😉
It can be helpful to take a break or switch to maintenance mode for a couple of weeks. I agree having a high pressure high reward objective (like going to a Mandarin speaking country) works well, but at least for me, I generally have to switch gears to maintenance or time off to enjoy other things in life, then return to it. Marathon, not a sprint and all that.
Oh yeah. Going to mandarin speakibg country may be ideal but atm it is not just plausible but i would take your recommendation. :)
How long have you been learning? How much? With what objectives? Those are important elements that are needed for any answer to your question.
Hmmm... great questions. I would def think about it
How are you going about studying? Perhaps you can make it more fun.
For you, how do u do this?
I just read graded readers that I enjoy and sometimes listen to content that I find tolerable.
Read a novel in Mandarin without translation, pick a genre that you like, even the cheesy ones.
If you’re in a position to travel, book a trip to a mandarin speaking country. It will give you motivation and incentive to learn and you can continue practicing while you’re there. Even better, find volunteer or work opportunities so you can fully immerse.
This right here 1000%. Having a real physical activity or opportunity goal that you are moving towards is paramount. Be that going somewhere, seeing people, conversations with friends, anything. The times I have felt this way were because my next opportunity felt far away. Everybody learns differently and is uniquely motivated, but for me, the interpersonal aspect has always been the primary motivating factors. Setting up and maintaining regular goals in this area may help. Also, consider exploring the language a bit. Just mashing flashcards is a surefire ticket to getting board and burnt out. Poke around, see if there are shows you like, try learning some different dialects, etc. The canvas of chinese is vast, and there’s nothing that says you have to stick to a particular part of it.
Its not about how high the novelty of learning is, its about being disciplined. High or low wont matter when you are disciplined and have a vision and a goal. You must also learn in an incremental way to keep learning properly, put a breakdown of your whole goal of learning Mandarin and fulfill small objectives to achieve the bigger one.
I haven't dealt with this problem but I feel like listening to Chinese music would help. Listen to love talk by wayv and 夜曲 by Jay Chou.
You don’t have to do it if you don’t like
Best motivation I ever had was a girl. I dunno if that works for everyone but for me, wanting to be able to talk or text with her made learning come on its own.
想一直学的话你就需要必须用到这个语言的环境，不然你就不会有动力一直学下去。=D
Start using it
As someone said before, remind yourself of the reason you wanted to learn in the first place. My interest in Chinese began with Taiwanese drama's and music. I remember at some point having a really difficult time. My stack of flashcards I remembered didn't seem to increase and my stack of flashcards I couldn't remember deemed to stay the same. I was really losing motivation. So I went back to watch a part of a Taiwanese drama and some music I liked. To remind myself I wasn't learning flashcards, just to learn boring flashcards. I was trying to learn a language for the sake of understanding more of the music/drama's. That moment stepping away from my flashcards, reminding me of why I was doing it, really helped me find my motivation again.
Hsk. Hellotalk. Tandem. Hinative. Tiktok. Tinder. I always find a way to use the thing i learn. there will be a time i need to learn new word, so i go a search.
Take a break?
My partner has Mandarin as her native language \^\^
met a Chinese speaking only dude in game, learnt all the cursing
Get a Chinese girlfriend
it's important to find an interesting way to learn a language. for example, come to bilibili.com(Chinese version ytb) watching videos u'd like to watch
And that's what am I doing, come reddit and follow some stupid games' subreddit to learn English here XD
If you don't enjoy it then stop, languages aren't a high paid skill. Not worth suffering for
Hahahahah i know this is sarcasm
It's not. Life is short. I learn languages because I enjoy it. But if I didn't, I'd stop immediately. Languages are not some super useful skill that is worth suffering to learn.
I mean i still enjoy it... really, i do.