How to Help Lack of Motivation Issues?

To give a bit of background, I work part time, 4 days a week giving me needed time to pursue Chinese studies, which I came here for.

I also study at a Chinese Language Center near my house for the last 3 months. The teachers were OK, but it seemed the goal was to smash through a ton of vocab and move on. A lot of reading of texts and memorizing. The end result is that I can read a lot of characters, but I realized that my mind was only reading them one at a time, and not getting the entire concept of the story. So when we finished reading, the teacher would ask questions and I would not have a clue how to answer it. I find it takes me a few seconds to collect my thoughts, and there was usually a much smarter person blurting out the answer quicker. After that, we move on.

The Asians seem to have no problem with this learning method of memorization. I find for myself, to truly understand the topic, it has to be something practical that I use often, and that once I say it a few times, it gets locked in my memory. The method of teaching at the University absolutely did not do it for me, and I felt quite disengaged by the end. I tried another university once, and it was a similar type of teaching. Why I am discouraged is that it seemed to work for someone else, so I feel quite “broken” if I can use that word to describe it.

Because of my more free schedule, I have time to go out and talk to locals to practice. But since I know my grammar is all wrong, and my vocab is limited, I feel self conscious and recently just stay at home resting or watching English movies. I guess for me the path of laziness allows me to do nothing and I feel comfortable, however what really is the point then of saying I am studying something I am not. Even language exchange friends speak better English than I do Chinese, and guess what, we end up defaulting to English again.

I have no idea what it is I need to do to get motivated here, so I am just spinning around in circles. I think there might be a bit of social anxiety in here somewhere too, the fear of looking foolish, making mistakes… Not sure if anyone has any suggestions or has experienced this before…??

I can’t help you, because I haven’t even reached that phase of learning yet, and I may never reach it at this rate. I think you will get some advice, though (or I hope so).

But the very level of anxiety and self-criticism that you’re displaying right now, combined with the fact that you’ve been doing the appropriate things, indicates to me that you’re probably going to become competent in Chinese (in fact, you may already be competent and not realize it yet).

It’s a big issue in language learning, and not just in Taiwan and CFL. I see it constantly when I work in the UK where learners have to do 15 classroom hours for a visa, and my university’s program was 21 hours.

The basic problem is that classroom study is largely a waste of time, for more than a few hours a week. It’s unmotivating, inefficient, and dominted by the cultural and cognitive constraints of the teacher. It’s tied to a pre-internet model of education that is often at odds with how 21st century people think and work.

All these ways of working the ‘flipped classroom’ are irrelevant when placed alongside the business interests of ed institutions, and immigration departments, worldwide, who insist that you press your cheeks against the plastic and transmit noroviruses, rather than actually learn a language. If you were motivated by that, you’d be an idiot. Do you need to be in the school for your visa? If not, drop it like a hot potato and teach yourself. Decide what you want to understand: listen and read and use your dictionary. Decide what you want to say: google it, then do it. Absorb feedback from your interlocutors. Repeat.

About your shyness. it’s a thing. For sure. I’m not denying your feelings or an experience. But if you let it become a thing that defines whether you are successful in your mission, here, that won’t get better, it’ll get worse. Punch through it. You aren’t ‘performing’, you are conducting anthropologic fieldwork: you are making first contact in the tribe’s own tongue. Keep a written and recorded dossier and increase your interaction daily until you are one with their habits and customs. :wink:

Good luck!

If you are finding that you understand words, phrases, or sentences but miss the overall meaning, try translating something you read. It can be a big help to realize which parts you don’t understand by forcing yourself to try and come up with a translation.

From my own personal experience it might be to do with timing and having too much free time.

Last semester I worked like a slave teaching over 40 hours per week. I have cut it down this semester to just 19 hours with the hope of studying more Chinese to hopefully get the hell out of here. However like you I find that this extra time is just wasted watching movies or surfing the English web. I found that I got more done when I had less time because I had those time constraints to push me on.

Just something to think about.

PS - I also live in Kaohsiung.

Thanks for all your comments.

Charlie Jack, thanks… I can get by in simple conversations but then they start hammering me with a lot of new words I haven’t heard of and my brain just shuts off. I guess it is an overload. Not quite competent yet :slight_smile:

Ermintrude, I was starting to also believe that classroom study for more than a few hours was a waste of time. We were doing 3 hours a day, for 5 days a week. It’s unmotivating because they only follow the book, and they are required to get through all chapters so they can test on it. So not a real lot of time given to making sure it is understood clearly so as you said an inefficient use of time.

I am surprised that none of these ed institution business interests ever tried to do something novel for teaching instead of just rote memorization, but I guess what they think isn’t broke won’t be fixed. I am working so I don’t need them for a visa fortunately.

You had said “Decide what you want to understand: listen and read and use your dictionary. Decide what you want to say: google it, then do it. Absorb feedback from your interlocutors. Repeat.”

Just want to clarify this…i intend to write a letter to someone soon… If i google it, I guess I will end up with nonsense as a translation. How can I use that correctly? Do I say it like it is translated and then ask for feedback or…?

Hokwongwei, good suggestion on the translation. A lot of my friends FB pages are in Chinese, and I can read parts but not all of the comments. I will try the method you suggested.

Milkybar, you are right, I have a bit too much free time. Actually, I don’t have much free time, but I procrastinate too much and so a lot of work comes down to the last minute. And you are right, with less time, you procrastinate less since there is much less “float” time to do nothing in. I am also doing 19 hours a week or so.

I will see about trying to implement these suggestions into my routine and see what I can do… Thanks everyone!!

You need to work on your ‘dealing’ skills, not just the nuts and bolts of the language. Try thinking of how to say ‘Whoah, hang on, I’m just learning, can you work with me a bit here?’ and ‘Got moast of that but what does xxxx mean?’ and clarifying what someone said to you: ‘so you’re saying that I should xxxx, right?’

Some institutions are doing some stuff: working on different ways of funding stuff. Coursera and their partner institutions like that are sinking time and money into stuff (they’re also mining your data, but that’s another thread) and some universities are doing bits and pieces with this, but they are constrained by so much, not least learner expectations, immigration rules for overseas students (many countries are trying to actively reduce the amount of backdoor immigration and illegal work through language study so what learners do is fairly proscribed).

You had said “Decide what you want to understand: listen and read and use your dictionary. Decide what you want to say: google it, then do it. Absorb feedback from your interlocutors. Repeat.”

Just want to clarify this…i intend to write a letter to someone soon… If i google it, I guess I will end up with nonsense as a translation. How can I use that correctly? Do I say it like it is translated and then ask for feedback or…?[/quote]

Yup. If you write a letter now, you’ll write shit. Forget it: you’re not at that level of output. What I mean is, when you talk, the feedback will be ‘Huh?’, or they will ask ‘more questions’, and that is your feedback. you need strategies for ‘huh’, which is where confidence comes in. You need strategy sentences such as ‘Uh, I want the think that does xxxx’ or ‘No, I mean that thing you use for xxxx’. When you use those sentences, the responses give you material that you can use in your next convo. You are making situations whereby people teach you words and structures.

Also: listen to more Chinese. Most early learners only listen in between they are trying to speak. Too high a cognitive load then. Take your headphones off when you are out and about. You might not understand much, but you are opening up to the cadences and sounds of it all.

Is that clearer?

Two things. Your work and your friends/free time. You should be spending most of your day if not all of your day (if possible) using Chinese. The best thing about my situation now is my friends always speak Chinese. They either don’t know English or don’t want to use English forcing my Chinese to improve!

Look up Mark Kitto’s article online " you’ll never be Chinese"

[quote=“Ermintrude”]

Also: listen to more Chinese. Most early learners only listen in between they are trying to speak. Too high a cognitive load then. Take your headphones off when you are out and about. You might not understand much, but you are opening up to the cadences and sounds of it all.

Is that clearer?[/quote]

That’s not so easy as daily conversations on the street in Taiwan or in Taiwanese.

Responses to dumb posts were sent from my Nexus 7, I hate Apple BTW, with Tapatalk 8

[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote=“Ermintrude”]

Also: listen to more Chinese. Most early learners only listen in between they are trying to speak. Too high a cognitive load then. Take your headphones off when you are out and about. You might not understand much, but you are opening up to the cadences and sounds of it all.

Is that clearer?[/quote]

That’s not so easy as daily conversations on the street in Taiwan or in Taiwanese.

Responses to dumb posts were sent from my Nexus 7, I hate Apple BTW, with Tapatalk 8[/quote]

Yeah, I lived in Taipei where it was easy to hear a lot of guoyu. Apologies if not relevant.

Radical idea: learn Taiwanese if that’s what everyone is speaking around you. More useful, easier.

You may just notice the Taiwanese more but I doubt it’s actually more common. It’s basically only spoken by old folks these days, so maybe you just need to change where you’re hanging out.

The OP already knows why things aren’t going well: a traditionally-minded Chinese class that eats up his time and is not addressing HIS needs.

So, either a) become much more proactive in guiding your Chinese class – stand up and politely demand your rights as a student (wait time, having things written down for you, re-reading, additional questions in writing that you can take home, etc.) or b) find a different class or learning experience.

I am not surprised that several months of stuffing vocabulary in results in no ability to interact with people. 1,000 words divided by that amount of class time means each one was repeated what – five or six times? Not gonna do it.You need to hear and later read the words you are learning over and over, in unexpected contexts, until your brain has really acquired them, not just memorized them for some ridiculous quiz or exercise in class.

Pinpointing a very clear goal you would like to gain in future, and developing the awesome feeling at that moment might be helpful? That’s my way always for every challenges in my life so far. It works actually.

What if you wanted the awesome feeling of climbing Mt. Everest? Would just pinpointing the goal be enough, if you didn’t have the right equipment and training? I’m sure having goals is helpful and motivating, but it isn’t going to result in success, if New Year’s resolutions around the world are any indication.

@Ironlady: He said his problem is lacking of Motivation, didn’t he? I think working with the mental problem insight about what you wanna do is the most important thing, as there are ready million ways, tools, teachers, etc. to help you to climb up to mountain but why just few people can get success? The difference is just someone having goals as well as high ability to imagine and feeling for the successful future, someone not.

He asked what he needed to get motivated. You said “a goal”. I said, “I don’t think a goal will do the trick.”

Well, it’s typical for nowadays education here there is always to blame teachers, don’t even start to think that they don’t put enough effort into it, always faults of others. Huge problem from kids have been pampered so much and teachers too low social skills, then the result there are “someone” thinking to change, motivate themselves might be impossible to them, with the first obstacle everybody starts to cry and piss their pants. Yes, there are many things he needs, then my suggestion “the effective insight goal” should be a very important factor due to that situation. What’s wrong with setting it up and getting benefits from it? or in Taiwan “du bist zu chronisch untervögelt” to be able to get that? Ha ha.

They put enough effort in it but it’s the wrong effort obviously, and they probably work hard for the money but for many students it doesn’t matter how hard the teacher works if it doesn’t get results.

Responses to dumb posts were sent from my Nexus 7, I hate Apple BTW, with Tapatalk 8

One major problem is the way Chinese is taught. To be frank it’s a joke and does not cater to adult learners.

The constant use of English back to white people in particular is also a challenge, it doesn’t make it easy especially at the start.

Also many people in Taiwan don’t speak standard mandarin or any mandarin at home. My in laws are Hakka for instance. I live in Taichung and most people around here speak Taiwanese or Taiwan Guoyu. They would mostly speak Taiwanese at home or when joking with friends, or a mix of both.
These are just some challenges,but they can all be dealt with to one degree or another.