5 Ways to Reignite Your Passion for Your Foreign Language Training

Do you find yourself flagging mid-way through a foreign language training course or perhaps you’ve completed your studies and are struggling to retain your enthusiasm for the skill now you’re out of the classroom?

It is a fairly common experience to fall into patterns of behavior that essentially neglect your new skill and unless you take direct action you could see yourself lose your new language skills quicker than you acquired them.

So how do you relight the flame of passion that started you on the road of learning a new language? Here are five ideas to get you started:

Mingle

Whatever the endeavor you might have chosen, it always helps you have other people around you who are interested in achieving the same goals.

Enthusiasm is contagious and sometimes when you feel that you are in a rut you need the input and encouragement that can only come from like-minded people.

Today, with the opportunities the Internet has to offer, it is easier than ever to connect to people with similar interests and tastes. Once you’ve all completed your course you can then continue your interaction but in your new language.

Bad Habits

When you’ve finished a learning program it is very easy to fall back into previous bad habits, whether that means simply not keeping up with training or ignoring your new skills altogether.

So, one of the first things you need to do to get the passion back is to identify any flaws you might have and then rectify them.

Once you have identified what you are, or aren’t doing, it will be much easier to alter any bad habits you may have developed.

Reading

A major part of any cross cultural training program, constantly reading materials in the language you are learning, whether it is well known novels from the country of origin or more specialized books, is highly recommended.

A great way to continue your reading in your new language is to subscribe to one of the main newspapers in that tongue.

Today this is even easier with the mobile internet meaning most publications will be available online if not in print.

Re-immerse

Some people have a type of ‘withdrawal’ when they complete their studies and miss the actual process of learning, causing them to put their new skill on the back burner and effectively negate much of what they set out to do.

An easy response to this is to re-engage with the process, perhaps by using the language school in another capacity.

Taking a further course or qualification to build on skills you have already acquired is highly recommended and you could always consider joining activity groups where your new language is spoken, such as dance classes.

Don’t Worry

Sometimes when you’ve invested time, effort and money in learning a foreign language and have successfully completed the course it can be something of a disappointment to not use your new skills on a day to day basis.

This can have a detrimental effect on your achievement, causing you to neglect your new language.

To rectify this, forget about immediate results and enjoy the process for what it is. Take a short holiday to the country whose language you have learn or re-familiarize yourself with your course materials on a semi-regular basis.

Learning a new language is an ongoing process and the only way you can stay motivated is to put your new skills to use at every opportunity.