I’ve been studying the Italian language for a very. long. time. Unfortunately, I’ve also been taking breaks from language study for a long time.
This experience, I believe, makes me a better English coach! However — I’m not fluent. I know my level of fluency is much lower than I’d like it to be. The reason for that? Taking a lot of breaks from my language study.
My Inconsistent Study Habits
If I had studied consistently after my very first Italian tutoring session… I’d be fluent enough to easily pass a B2 exam by now. And by “consistently”, I mean spending 20 minutes every Saturday and Sunday looking at something in Italian. Not even every day!
Sometimes I want to kick myself.
Why can’t I spend 20 minutes a day looking at or listening to another language? I do so many other things every day… Finding 20 minutes shouldn’t be difficult. However, those thoughts only hold me back.
Criticizing myself is not helpful.
Sometimes life just happens. I took a long study break for health reasons at one point. And another break for stressful scheduling issues. I started my own business in 2020, which was a very stressful year for 90% of the world.
The important thing is that I re-started. And I keep going.
I also try not to judge myself. If I go 3 steps forward and 2 steps back… I’m still 1 step ahead of where I was at the start.
If I go 3 steps forward and 1 step back… then I’m 2 steps ahead of where I was!
Where I’m At Now (with my language studies)
You know what? Because I never truly quit and I kept going back to it… I never forgot everything.
- Simple conversations about my work and hobbies are still possible.
- I remember how to conjugate verbs in the present and simple past tenses.
- It’s possible to ask questions about other people’s lives and hobbies.
- I can talk about my pets, my basic emotions, and the weather.
Well, that’s not bad.
So if you’re planning to jump into language study again, take a look at some of the materials you used earlier. See what you can remember. Who knows… you might be pleasantly surprised with where you are!
So now the question is… how do you re-start my motivation after a long break?
How do you keep going?
How to Re-Start Your Language Study After Taking a Break
Obviously, the first step is to be kind to yourself about the break. It happened and we can’t change that.
We’re only moving forward now!
Step 1: Review the things you learned before your study break.
Just pick something and read it or listen to it for a few minutes every day!
After doing some of my own research and finding helpful articles like this one from Eurolinguiste, here’s what I’m doing:
- Start from the beginning and skim your study material. Reinforce what you already know. Let it give you confidence and motivation!
- Set a timer for 5 minutes every day to free-write. This shouldn’t be stressful. I’m not re-reading or judging myself. I tell my English students to do this… so why not use it for my Italian? It’s just getting my brain back in the habit of producing language on command.
- After a week or two, focus on the resources that feel like a challenge but not too difficult. I’m spending a bit more time with the resources I used before my last break.
When I re-started my Italian studies this time, I went back to the very beginning. (It’s a very good place to start… when you need more confidence!)
I remembered struggling with a lot of these resources the first time I read them or completed them. But I forgot how much I had improved before the break, so I was very pleasantly surprised with how easy some of it was!
That feeling motivated me to work through the materials that were still difficult, and to go into the second part of my plan to re-start my Italian studies:
Step 2: Make your study habits easy and enjoyable to prevent taking a break from language study… again.
Your goal now is to make language study as sustainable as possible! That means you need to make study time an enjoyable habit.
- Find something you can read every day. (Even if it’s just a short news article. One of my favorite sites with short news articles for my students is Breaking News English.)
- Speak with a tutor or native speaker as soon as you can. Get your confidence back!
- When you feel the motivation, study some vocabulary. It is the first thing you forget because words are often unconnected to anything else in your memory!
Finally, no matter what… keep your reasons for learning at the top of your mind.
Also, be proud of yourself!
I’m proud of you for sticking with it! …Or getting back to it.
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