Keeping any habit alive required consistency. If it’s not really urgent for you to learn a foreign language on the go in an environment that pushes you to do so like school or university, it will be up to you to keep yourself motivated enough to put in the effort and time to learn and progress while learning a language. In this article we will explore ways on how to keep being interested in studying over the long-term and not give up.

1. Set goals that matter to you.

If you do not know why you study the language, it’s hard to justify choosing study time over other activities like watching your favorite show or learning something else. So, before you buy books or download a new language learning app, ask your self “Why do I want this language in my life?”. Maybe you want to live in a country where people speak that language, or you need it to advance at work, or maybe you would love to watch movies in that language and understand it without subtitles.

I started learning Korean after moving to Seoul because I wanted to communicate with people, look for a job and understand what is going on around me. It was a very compelling “Why?” for me to study Korean for several hours day in and day out for a year. I am currently learning European Portuguese because I enjoy Portuguese music and want to travel to Portugal in future. It’s a strong enough reason for me to keep learning, although I slip here and there.

2. Make it a part of your day.

It makes a big difference wether you learn a language every day even a little bit over doing it 1-2 times a week but for several hours. Before you say that you do not have enough time to study daily, let me explain what I mean.

If you want to progress in learning your target language and eventually become advanced, think about what you do every day as a native speaker of your mother tongue. You read (news, books, etc.), you watch and listen (Youtube videos, movies, podcast and so on), you use the language every day while speaking to your family and friends, for example. What if you try to mimic this behaviour for your target language?

Instead of searching for a dinner recipe in your native language, do it in a language you learn. Listening to podcast on your way to work? Exchange it for a podcast in a language you learn. Little by little you will get used to rhythm of language, start noticing words that you hear often and motivate yourself to learn more because it goes well. I would suggest to start with things that you like(like your hobbies), this way you have a double interest in learning. And eventually it becomes such a usual thing in your everyday life that it stops being a habit that you need to remember to implement, and you just do it.

I like to watch docu-series about nature, so I switched English series to Portuguese. So far it’s being going well. If you need a place to store all the activities you did for your language learning, please sign up for Almaa. We are building a tool for polyglots to keep all your language learning in one place and track progress.

3. Adjust according to your goals and schedule.

You can always readjust your language learning schedule if something else requires your time that week or month. Or if a certain grammar book does not do a good job explaining material, try to find another one that does. Be flexible in terms of tools you use and change the tools that do not fit your way of learning, making you want to quit or are simply not right for your goals.

I had this problem while starting to learn Portuguese language. A great book teaching Portuguese that I found was intended for Brazilian Portuguese learners. And although I like how they explain material, it just was not right for my goals. It took some time to find the right book and video course, but now my studying process is more valuable, easy and enjoyable.

Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and patience, but brings so many rewards. It opens the world one country(or several) at a time, let's you learn about a different culture and meet new people. So, I would say that it's worth the effort.

Which languages do you study and what are the things that keep you learning and not giving up? Let me kow in the comments below.