There are indeed times when we simply cannot study.
We all want to learn as efficiently as possible. We may not know how to do this, but one thing most of us grasp at some point is that the more you engage with the language you’re studying, the more you acquire. This often leads to a steady rise in study activity as such results are difficult to ignore.
“I wasn’t able to do X before, and now I can.”
But what happens when that time with the language is brought to a screeching halt? What happens when a mountain of hurdles suddenly erupts where your clear path to fluency once was?
What happens if you just need to take. a. damn. break. for a while?
As this crab is not one of many in a bucket, we’ll attempt to answer these questions today. So claws out, and let’s start a-burrowing.
Contents
- On Momentum.
- Bad students and good learners
- How life got in the way of my flawless plans
- Existing in the eye of the storm
- A Japanese shock to the system
- The N1 plan
Momentum
I’ve mentioned before that momentum is a powerful force when learning a foreign language. If you want to progress within a reasonable timeframe, it’s essential. When one studies as a matter of routine, progression becomes assumed. Days that go by with nothing done feel like wastes and failures, and those who’ve felt the power of momentum strive to harness it.
But sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes you’ve got to stay late at the office for financial year end. Perhaps you’re horrendously behind your blogpost schedule and have to desperately attempt to catch up. Maybe you just happen to be on the run for some shit you did back in the day and you get word the cops are on your case and you’ve just got to get outta dodge and head for the border like right now.
What do you do then, huh?
Quit sleeping for a few days? Ruin your meals and foodstain your textbooks at the same time? Crash the car concentrating on cramming in audio clips?
I had to find this out for myself recently. It was four months until the JLPT N1, and I had a plan. A plan I believed would get me over the line.
However, it required daily grammar study. I’d done something similar before, albeit under different circumstances, and I was ready to get to grinding again, so to speak, so it didn’t appear too daunting.
All I needed was time to build up that precious momentum…
Don’t wanna be like you…
Teaching group lessons for adults, the most frustrating thing was where English fell in some of the students’ list of priorities. I wasn’t asking for food and shelter to be demoted or anything, but surely it’s got to be ahead of tragedy-binging the news or lying in state behind a mask. Why bother coming to the lesson at all? They didn’t put in enough effort to gain any momentum whatsoever. They didn’t give themselves the opportunity to improve.
I had some absolutely fantastic students too who improved wonderfully over the years I knew them, but they did so through their own effort and struggle outside of the lesson time. As somebody who prefers to learn by myself, I recognized them almost immediately and tried to facilitate to the best of my ability, but some of those classes were held back by those who, with the tiniest of prodding, would admit to having no interest in English at all.
Their ‘why’ was all wrong.
Some of them had been studying, sorry, going to classes, for more than fifteen years, yet their level was no higher than that of a junior high schooler. I corrected the same mistakes in my last lesson as I did in the first, because they did next to nothing between lessons. Absolutely lovely people, but… why inflict this on everyone and yourself?!
If you’re reading this, you’re probably not one of those people.
Make it your break
In fact, you likely have quite a bit in the bank when it comes to taking a break from your language study.
So when you go through periods of very limited time, when you’re so busy that sleep takes absolute priority, do what you can, but don’t stress about not getting your study in. These times usually come around when one is sorting out one’s food and shelter anyway (changing job and moving house). You’re not exactly putting your study aside for another game of solitaire, here (are you?!)! The language will be waiting for you when things settle down again.
There is a pitfall to avoid, however.
If this is a period of change in your life, it can smash your old habits into smithereens, banishing it, and its memory, into the depths of the abyss.
As Language Gandalf the Grey, you simply must dive in headfirst after that memory and emerge Language Gandalf the White.
Life got in the way
I’ve managed to fit studying into a busy schedule fairly well in the past, but this time… there was a lot going on. The final week of my previous job, starting at 10am and generally finishing around 9pm, coincided with my moving house (from an apartment with a French name to one with an Italian name). I had ample breaks in that job, but as they came in fits and spurts they were inconvenient and didn’t lend themselves well to moving. This had to take place before and after work, to the certain chagrin of my neighbours, old and new.
Oh, and I was late trying to hire a moving company (in moving season, no less!), so only an extortionately-priced one was available. They didn’t even have the price listed on their website, and when it was quoted to me over the phone I nearly spat out my Strong Zero in disgust. Not payin’ that, m8.
Luckily, I was able to employ the good graces of Mr. Pine Peninsula and Ms. City Approach, who helped immensely with their vehicles and muscles.
But then came the farewell parties… and the welcome party… and the half day spent in city hall changing my address… A necessary change in immigration status wiped out another day.
I’d get home and feel a flicker of rage that I had to cook dinner! At a time like this?!
No prizes for guessing what didn’thappen during that time.
(No, not that. Mind out of the gutter, please.)
It was Japanese study.
A veritable oasis
Not serious Japanese study, anyway.
But I did manage a smattering of reading, and rather than any feeling of achievement, it actually was quite relaxing.
Here’s what happened.
During a particularly hectic day when I felt dragged from pillar to post, I noticed a gap in my schedule and that I happened to be near the library. In I went, picked out a book and had a simple read in Japanese.
I hadn’t done anything for a while, hardly even thinking about studying, but I’d found an hour and it was golden.
To be honest, I didn’t manage to do much else. In the gym I semi-listened to a Youtube video. Phone conversations with the moving companies and navigating their websites were certainly a kind of practice, but were about as interesting as the plastic paneling on the printer you bought in 2008. Every little hjälps, but it didn’t feel like it.
That reading session reminded me the situation was temporary and calmer times lay ahead. Perhaps it was the enforced quiet, but it felt like side-stepping out of time and busyness for a bit.
I could have done other things, like conbini or delivery meals instead of cooking so as to make time to watch a movie/drama. I could have spent every free waking moment on HelloTalk (“sorry for my late reply”). I couldn’t have listened to podcasts while cycling because that would have been ILLEGAL, but if I was a law-breaking scoundrel I could have done that, too.
And I could’ve crashed and burned myself out. So I didn’t.
A Japanese shock to the system
As is the way with these things, eventually the fog cleared and before long, my surroundings were completely different.
Back in a junior high school. No lessons for the first week.
I’d gone from an all-English language and cultural environment to an all-Japanese one. If before had been chalk, this was very much cheese.
My new apartment is much nicer, too. The hourly earthquake-like tremblings as the freight trucks rumble by are a thing of the past. Gone are the late night lads standing around a running motorbike engine in the Lawson carpark metres from my window at one in the morning on a Monday night. Gone are the lorry drivers napping with their engines running in the Lawson carpark metres from my window at two in the morning on a Tuesday night (notice a pattern here?). I have wi-fi for the first time in two years!
I have to wear a tie to work now and it doesn’t feel horrendous.
Back on a horse that’s already bolted
Time to get back on the horse, methought! The N1 one isn’t until July and I’d knocked out a few grammar points before that busy period anyway.
With a couple of weeks of effort, I might even be able to catch up with my original plan! Now then, when was the application deadline again…
Last Friday…
なるほど…
Join me at a future time for my considerations when making a plan for the N1 in December… I guess…
