“I don’t seem to be making any progress!”
Ok, before we look at what you are studying, let’s look at you. Answer these questions honestly:
- When do you think you stopped making progress?
Are we talking about months, weeks or days? If it is a general feeling and you cannot identify a specific date, you are probably being too hard on yourself. Have a break, take a day off, have a sleep and get back to studying when you feel refreshed. Most times when we feel that we have stopped making progress, we have actually stopped noticing how far we have come. It is easy to forget progress made. If you think this is you, take a look back at some old study notes. I guarantee that you will find the exercises easy. This might even give you a little confidence boost!
Sometimes we feel like we have stopped making progress when we have actually started comparing ourselves with other people and other people’s progress. Do not fall into this trap. None of us learn in the same way. None of us have exactly the same learning speed or style, even identical twins can have varying results!
If you can 100% identify when you stopped making progress and have quiz/test results to back up your theory, then ok, maybe you have slowed in your learning, but there will be a good reason.
- What has been going on in your life since your progress changed?
- Have you taken on more working hours?
- Has your home life/family situation changed?
- Have you changed location or the way that you study?
- Are you more distracted when you study and are you finding it more difficult to concentrate?
- Did you change your diet? (Yes, this can make a difference!)
If you can identify when the progress stopped, then you can get it back on track.
- Ok, so you know when you stopped making progress and you know why. How are you going to fix the situation to improve again?
- Have you been studying alone? Get a study buddy!
- Have you been using the same textbook? Try something different; a podcast, an app. Keeps things fresh!
- Give yourself a truly immersive experience – check out my tips here.
- Look what is out in the world for free!
The main point of this post is, go easy on yourself. You are learning another language and that in itself is impressive. If you are reading this then you already know English and many people stop there!
Give yourself a pat on the back, see how far you have come and then look for inspiration.
Good luck, you have got this!
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