I'm Kyejin and I'm joined by my co-host, the founder of Innovative Language, Peter Galante. |
Hi everyone, Peter here. |
Okay, so Kyejin, last time we talked about how to stay motivated. |
And today, how to get back into a language learning routine. |
So if you've ever fallen off, or you took a break just because life got in the way, because life can be busy, today we're going to talk about a lesson that is for you. |
Okay, great. |
Peter, did you take a break from Korean this year? |
This summer specifically? |
Well, passive learning where I'm watching Korean dramas or listening to Korean music, no. |
But active learning where I sit down and actively attack the language, yeah. |
Yeah, summer time and vacation time is usually chaos for routines. |
Yeah, right. |
Actually, me too. |
Yeah, I went on a vacation. |
I mean, I saw my family for a week and I'm going on a vacation soon. |
And I'm very busy preparing for moving in, moving out. |
So you have a lot going on, or you had a lot going on, plus you have a lot coming up. |
And life gets, just life gets in the way. |
Exactly. |
So let me be very honest. |
I'm not spending a lot of time learning a language like before. |
Good. |
Good, good. |
Better for my chances to beat you. |
Okay, okay, fine. |
So now, I would like to go back to my routine. |
Yeah, and also same for me. |
The summer came along and, you know, I have my routine, my family has their routine. |
But in the summer, the three kids, their routine is completely changed. |
Yeah, I can imagine. |
The older kids, they can create a routine themselves. |
But the younger ones, he needs attention. |
So all these routines are mixed up, rearranged, and changed. |
And that makes it very easy to fall out of your routine. |
Yeah, that's true. |
And also, I know some people are taking break from language learning because they lose motivation when they don't see the progress. |
So I guess having this kind of break is very common for the language learners. |
Yeah, so it's kind of tied to motivation. |
And then things that get in the way of motivation, right? |
And when we say a break, I think anything over two weeks is probably a break. |
If your routine... |
One week, if you're not feeling well and you miss a week, that's fine. |
But anything over two weeks, that's a very kind of risky time. |
Because let's be honest, is learning a language easy? |
No, it's so difficult. |
It's like going to the gym or working out or swimming. |
Do you swim, K-Jin? |
No, and I don't drive. |
I don't know how those are connected, but... |
There are some things that I cannot do. |
Swimming and driving. |
You cannot swim. |
I cannot swim. |
And you cannot... |
I cannot drive. |
Okay, stop learning languages. |
Swim and drive. |
But the two weeks is dangerous because swimming, working out, learning a language, these are hard to do. |
So watching Netflix, watching YouTube, scrolling through shorts, watching a movie, these are easy things to do. |
And chances are when you're out of your routine, you find something easier that slips right into that time. |
Yeah, I agree. |
Yeah, and that's why like the two week is a crucial one. |
If you miss two weeks in a row, it's so easy to say, yeah, you know, let me take a longer break or let me not go back. |
Yeah, like let me take a break one more week. |
Yeah, that's actually a better, clearer. |
And then before you know it, months have gone by and you have no progress. |
Not even no progress, but I think this is Stephen King movie, where it's like where time is eaten by something. |
But like your progress is constantly being eaten, right? |
Like if you get to this level, time starts to eat away your progress. |
So it's not only you're not progressing, but you're losing. |
Losing. |
Yeah, we are human beings. |
We forget the words that we learned and memorized. |
So just by taking a few weeks off from my language learning, I can feel that, oh, I already forgot a few words that I used to use so naturally. |
Yeah, so that's why taking a break from a routine makes it easy for that routine to be replaced. |
Shall we say routine replacement or replace routine replacement? |
So that's why these bouncing back or starting again is a crucial skill, not just for language learning, but for life and good habits and good routines, right? |
So as a language learner for many, many years, do you have any tips on how to go back to this routine? |
Okay, so let's break it down into a few elements. |
The first is motivation. |
Okay, Kyejin, how good, how amazing is vacation? |
Vacation is so fun. |
I think, why is it so fun? |
Maybe it's because it's different from my regular routine. |
It's different. |
Everything is fresh and just fun. |
I do what I like. |
Yeah. |
And have you ever gone on a vacation to a resort where you stay for like five days or something? |
Oh yes, a long time ago, yes. |
And as soon as you get there, you break all the routines you're used to. |
But what do you do as soon as you get there? |
I eat. |
Okay, so you eat. |
Yes. |
And then you find out what's good. |
And then what do you do the next day? |
You kind of go to all the places you find what's good. |
And what do you do the next day? |
The next day, I eat. |
And then you optimize it. |
You find the best restaurant, the best times. |
Essentially, you're kind of creating new routine. |
And usually, at home, I don't eat after like 10 p.m. |
But during my vacation, I eat at 11, 12, bad routine. |
Yeah, and when we say bad routines, meaning like they're releasing all the dopamine in your brain. |
You're so happy. |
These are like bad, good routines. |
Yep, guilty pleasure. |
Right? |
And when you're back home, you know, there's work routine, working out routine, learning a language routine. |
These are hard. |
Hard. |
So you went from hard work to less hard work to fun work. |
Going back to the hard work again. |
Starts with motivation. |
Yeah, how do you... |
And that's where you have to start. |
Some people, it's easy for them to switch on and off. |
I worked hard so I can play hard. |
Now I'm going back to working hard. |
Maybe that's not me. |
That's not me. |
Not me, well said. |
So, but I think now we're talking about motivation. |
One nice thing about motivation. |
So while it's not me, I can rationalize a bit. |
Like, look, I had my fun and if I want to have fun again, I have to get back to the hard routines. |
Ah, that's true. |
So in my case, I use the fun I had at the trip to justify doing something hard again. |
And that's how I get started again. |
That reminds me of my friend. |
She's working out so hard every day and I asked her, how can you work out every day? |
And she said, I want to eat. |
That's why I work out. |
I want to eat more and more. |
So I was like, ah, I see. |
So that's one of the things that helps me. |
Number two, remember when we started at the beginning of the year, I always write down my goal. |
You're right. |
Do you? |
Goals? |
Yes, of course. |
New Year's resolution, right? |
Yeah, so inside of the book, I usually have at the start of the book, I write my name and I have my goals. |
So I start by reading them again. |
And it's not as fun as when I first wrote them. |
When it's a brand new book and this is my goal because it's all imagination and emotion and the trip's going to be so good. |
And now I know it's not that easy. |
So it's a little harder, but I go back and I read why I started in the first place. |
Yeah, actually now I changed my wallet so it's a little different. |
But I used to have my goal, New Year's resolution in the paper on my wallet. |
And there's some transparent place and I put it there. |
And I always look at it whenever I open my wallet. |
Wow, that's very good for financial goals too. |
Because you're looking like, oh man, I can't use this money. |
Close the wallet back up. |
So, but putting it in the right place. |
So yeah, I put this at my desk and I reread why I wanted to do this. |
Yeah, reading goals over and over again helped a lot. |
I should change my wallet again. |
Yeah, so that's number two. |
Number three, and this one is a little questionable, but I do like this. |
But I don't start with it. |
After I've been working at a goal for three to six months, I will share with other people that I'm working on this goal. |
Ah, so you tell everyone around you like I'm doing this, I want to do this. |
But not right away, not the first day, and not before I start. |
Because in the past, before I started, guys, I'm getting in shape this summer. |
Summer comes and? |
Nothing happened. |
Nothing happened. |
So I wait till I start a bit. |
And then when I'm confident that I have the routines, then I stick with it. |
So because I started in January and I took a break in August, I had already told people. |
So again, that adds a little external pressure for me to continue. |
Yeah, I can guess because these people will ask you whenever they see you, right? |
How's your goal going? |
Like, are you enjoying it? |
Did you make progress? |
And I don't want to say no. |
This was a little dangerous though, because it can lead to demotivation if you're not reaching your goals. |
That's true. |
That's why I usually wait to make sure I can achieve it rather than saying something before or right at the beginning. |
I see. |
What do you think? |
Yeah, I think that's a great one. |
And in my case, when I go back to my routine, there are some things that I do. |
First, I start with something very small, like, okay, I'm not going back to one hour full lesson, but I take just one podcast a day. |
It takes just like five minutes a day. |
And I do have five minutes because on the train or when I walk, I have to go back to have five minutes. |
So I listen to it. |
Very easy one. |
So instead of jumping right back into one hour. |
Yeah, my regular routine, I start from the easier one. |
Yeah, that makes sense. |
Something a lot of people don't factor in is that time eats away at your progress. |
Knowledge too. |
Everything, right? |
We forget. |
We do. |
So if you were here before you started or before your break and two weeks or three weeks have gone by, maybe you're slightly down to here. |
Yeah. |
And think about it. |
Even in your own language, you forget words. |
Yeah, I forget the words. |
So there's a bit of a gap. |
So, you know, humans are like, oh, I was here. |
So now when I come back, I want to start here. |
But you've actually slightly dipped. |
So you got to start here and starting slower. |
Yeah. |
Makes sense. |
And the other thing is I make a routine that I cannot avoid. |
So tell me a little bit about this. |
Yeah. |
If I make a routine myself. |
Okay. |
From eight to nine, I study myself in the living room. |
Then I often make an excuse myself. |
Today I'm tired. |
Well, today I finished work late. |
So maybe I start tomorrow. |
Well, I mean, all the reasons are there. |
But if I make a promise with a teacher, like I show up at 8 p.m., then I feel bad to not show up. |
So I try to make some promise with someone like going to the group class or private class or school. |
So I have to do. |
And once I get used to it, it's not difficult to do. |
It's just difficult at the beginning. |
That's interesting. |
So you involve other people and not friends, but someone involved in the language learning process. |
Right away to give you a hard anchor in your schedule. |
Like tomorrow I'm going to meet that teacher. |
So I need to study. |
Yep. |
That's a very good one. |
So the motivation, then getting back into your routine. |
And do you keep the same routine? |
So this is a good question. |
So for me, if it's a short break, two weeks to one month, I can normally keep the same routine. |
Meaning if I have an Italian lesson Monday at nine o'clock, I keep that time slot. |
But if six months go by and I haven't, if I've taken a long break, six months or longer, I actually relook at the schedule. |
So do you make new routine? |
Exactly. |
And because I realized many years ago that if there's such a long break, you have to start from scratch. |
You cannot go back to something that long ago. |
I see. |
Is it more difficult to go back to the same routine? |
It's very, very hard. |
Because when you stop that routine, maybe let's use weights because weights are nice and easy. |
If you're lifting, say 100 kilograms, right? |
And six months go by, you're thinking, yeah, I used to go in the morning at seven a.m. and I'd lift 100 kilos. |
Seven a.m., let me go. |
About six months have gone by, you're not going to be able to do that. |
I see. |
So in this case, it's more like psychological mindset that you're accepting that that is gone. |
Let's start new. |
Ah, I see. |
Maybe, yeah, as you just mentioned, going back is harder than making completely something new. |
Ah, you said very well what I wanted to say. |
I see. |
Yeah, that makes sense actually. |
Your old teacher might be like, oh, you haven't been studying. |
And that might get you like really upset like, yeah, I've been busy. |
So starting new is quite nice. |
And then that happened. |
I had an old teacher I was very high level with and I realized that my progress had gone down. |
I hadn't studied in years. |
So I started with the new teacher, got my progress back up, then connected again. |
So, yeah, when it comes to timing, if it's a short break, |
I think you can get back to your regular routine. |
You're probably used to it and the timing in your life fits. |
But if it's a longer break and you're listening to this, don't be afraid to start from complete scratch. |
Print out a calendar and fill in your calendar and find out when you have that time. |
That's a very good one. |
You also mentioned the goals. |
Set the goals a little bit below when you stopped. |
Start something easy and simple. |
Small. |
Small. |
All right. |
So, yeah, and luckily our sites have a lot of tools that you can use to start nice and slow again. |
Yeah, for example, the podcast, audio or video lessons that I just mentioned. |
Or also we have group and private classes, right? |
Yeah. |
That you can meet with your teacher and talk once a week. |
So, there's many ways, videos to watch, vocab lists to test yourself with. |
Oh, someone else is getting fined. |
I'm getting donation. |
Donation. |
Thank you. |
So, yeah, and it's interesting too that it's a chance to create a new routine. |
You can try something new that you might like better than something you've done before. |
Yeah, that's true. |
That's true. |
And you refresh your mindset too. |
Yeah. |
And because you're rested, your motivation should be higher. |
That's right. |
Okay. |
So, KJ, any thoughts on bouncing back? |
Yeah, so I'm sure everyone has this kind of experience. |
And I hope our tips are useful for our learners, our viewers. |
Yeah. |
In my case, yeah, I started right back up with my teachers at their regular schedule and regular intervals. |
How about you? |
What approach will you take to getting back into your language? |
I'm going back to my school first after my vacation. |
My vacation is coming soon. |
And yes, I'll go back to my audio listening, the podcast on my commute time. |
That's nice. |
Yeah, it's interesting. |
I wonder, maybe we should talk about how to create an on-the-go routine for a while you're away, right? |
Because even though routines are broken, when you get to the new place, you have a chance to create new routines. |
So potentially you could create a really good study routine while you're away. |
Yeah. |
That's right. |
Would you like to talk about that next year or sometime this year? |
Because at the end of this year, there are long holidays. |
Yeah. |
So maybe we could do this a little later in the year. |
Yeah, sounds good. |
Okay. |
So Kyejin, that's it. |
So if you have any questions or if you have any thoughts or if you want to share a story, email us at inner.circle.innovativelanguage.com. |
And stay tuned for the next inner circle. |
Bye. |
Bye. |
Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time. |
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