Dealing with feeling scared or shy to do a language exchange
Language exchanges are a very important and useful way of absorbing the language. If you’re feeling nervous, you can wean yourself in using a professional tutor who can encourage you to speak without as much pressure to communicate. The best way is to just go for it. Most people you will find are very helpful and accommodating. The best way to do that is through a service where you can type to people first and see if you are compatible language partners, or where the other person is a trained tutor.
Losing motivation to learn the language?
It’s mainly about dedication over motivation. You need motivation to get started, you need dedication to reach your goals. Try this mindset: if you are really excited to study today, awesome! If you are not really feeling like it, then (too bad!) you need to do it anyway. Focus on being very self disciplined, so if you decide to do something, then just do it.
There exist many good apps for language exchange online, but we suggest you learn the basics before utilizing those. Something that might help your motivation is writing down your goals and breaking them down into smaller achievable goals. Such as, “by the end of this month I’ll have learned 200 words”.
On another note, try to find the one language that really speaks to you. It’s hard to learn a language unless you are completely interested in every aspect of the language and culture. The language itself will keep you going.
Generally speaking, there are two main reasons you might be feeling demotivated:
- You may not be learning the right language for you
- You struggle to maintain the motivation to do a specific thing in the short term, though looking back you still would like to have taken the time to study
Some people are demotivated because they are not learning the right language for them, and may be better of switching. Knowing which situation you are in can be the difficult part. The best way is to spend time considering your goals and motivations. Place yourself in the future once you already know your language. Does the idea make you as excited as whatever alternative you are considering? Your best avenue is generally to try to restore your motivation before you give up or change language.
Remember, waning motivation is a natural part of language learning and happens to everyone. Beginners often find a drop in motivation after the early stages as a new language begins to lose its sparkle, and other languages or activities start to seem more appealing or interesting. It can be difficult to motivate yourself to study.
