Motivation is the key to success in everything from good to evil. Receiving God’s blessing is motivation enough for many humanitarian organizations to use their money to help others. Receiving sacks full of money has been inspiration enough for bank robbers since before Bonnie and Clyde. Basically, we need a reason for doing anything. Humans are lazy by nature. Without satisfaction in our activities, most of us would just hang out on the couch all day watching reality tv.

How do we get motivated for language learning? We have to connect the language to something we already like. For example, if you meet a person you like from a foreign land, suddenly learning his or her language takes on much more importance. Or if you like History, then read or write about History, the language comes alive for you. Or watching your favorite shows in a foreign language makes language learning much more interesting than sitting and learning the vocab for the digestive tract. Your learning has to have a purpose, a meaning. If not, you will bog down in the mud just 20 miles before reaching Moscow. As you can see, I like History.

A personal blog. that is very cool. I know the feeling of making people happy when you can speak a little of their language. I remember a student I had several years ago. He was very shy and nervous. But he opened up when I started using my limited knowledge of Russian. It made me happy to make him feel more comfortable in class. He remained my student for a year.

Unfortunately, not everyone can read things and learn. Most people have to work at it. I agree that motivation is a big key. We need a "why." In many cases, we need a "why" that is bigger than ourselves. I encourage anyone reading this discussion to ask yourselves questions like, "Who besides me would benefit from this?" "What do I want to use this language for?" These smaller parts can be put together to find your big "why."

For example, part of my why for learning German comes from connecting with a very lonely woman several years ago. She had just immigrated from Germany, and the little bit of German I was able to use with her helped her to feel lighter and more at home. I didn't find this out until years later, but it hasn't left my mind.

What is your big "why?"

Robert,

very interesting your experience. Turkish and Japanese are hard languages to learn... I still didn't give up of Japanese ( yeah, maybe I'm the language's crazy, Lol. I can't be satisfied in just learning English, Italian... Just look my profile to have an idea. I want to know 6 languages) , maybe one day, but I recognize it's tough...

@gah - that’s just my experience talking. Sometimes there is nothing you can do except stop learning a language because you can’t connect with it. That was the case with Japanese and Turkish. I found no connection except food, I love sushi and Turkish food. So I quit learning Japanese after studying 3 chapters frm the book. I quit Turkish after 8 chapters, I think.