When It's Time To Quit A Language Learning Resource | Polyglot Language Learning Tips

[@Diotallevi73]

Careful: If you postpone a resource you have to make sure it'll still be there when you are ready for it. More than once I had to deal with deleted content on youtube I had added to playlists before (ABBA interviews in Swedish, complete films in Greek...). Now I add+store offline 👍 Great video Robin, thanks 🖖

[@LostDeku]

In my experience, I do find myself having to fight the urge to complete something for the sake of completing it. However, sometimes I find that, in fighting that urge, I swing too far the other way and leave a resource too early sometimes. Grammar can be quite a bore at times and sometimes I can be over-eager to decide that I no longer need to keep going. So for me it's a matter of balancing the two urges.

[@tayeedmacpherson8692]

Like the improved quality of your videos, well done 👍

[@SilentJaguar68]

I have a bunch of assimil courses too that I've never finished 😂😂 Most of the time I get slightly halfway through before I lose steam with it. But I really want to have just one that I eventually finish all the way through! I do make assimil easier by removing out all the silence between stuff so it's easier to listen on repeat

[@Diotallevi73]

It's funny, I stopped Swedish Assimil a little after lesson 50, too. Never decided to stop but lost interest and by and by started going for authentic content instead :-) What made me skeptical after lesson 50 was their 2nd wave. If you have worked your way through the course the way they expect you to, you know the lessons you have finished by heart, so what should a backward translation of these very texts help? I think that's why I stopped at that point, thinking: Okay I don't really want to continue the way the authors tell me to, but I wasn't ready to just go on my way. Yet.

[@tomususan]

Opposite. Jumping from resource to resource. #noveltyrush

[@elliottmcfadden6261]

Wow, it’s like you read my mind. I’m on lesson 90 of 100 of Assimil Spanish, and I’m having such a hard time sticking with it. I’ll probably grind it out since I still find the colloquial phases I learn useful, but I’ll be happy to move on.

[@tonguesinc.8233]

Yeah, sometimes a coursebook just runs out of juice. I think my Teach Yourself Russian is still something I'll make it to the end of someday

[@johntyy88]

I had often found myself skimming chapters/lessons I found boring/uninteresting/not useful looking for a reason to keep going. So then I put it away, move on, and come back to it eventually to look over. I bought a book for spanish that I worked so hard to learn and get through a few lessons, and finally I was like it’s too advanced for me right now. Then I come back to it later and I do much better.

[@DanClapp]

I started learning German and I had to quit pimsleur after the first 30 lessons, it was just so boring and slow. Same thing with michel thomas, I found the interaction with the students to be extremely distracting and I couldn't bear the abysmal pronunciation any longer. I'm still using assimil, and the German version is only 100 lessons, that's been my favorite beginner resource so far. Now I'm focusing a lot more on input (easy german, podcasts, childrens books, songs etc.), and will begin to really study the grammar and purchase some dedicated grammar books in the near future. Anyway, you make great videos. Very inspiring!

[@stacykrasnikova7744]

A little unrelated, but thanks to your videos I understood that my double degree program isn't really worth it and so I'm quitting and going back to my first university :)

[@derrickmclean4267]

I agree but also disagree. I defiantly know the feeling of just wanting to be done with something. But I do think there's tremendous value in completing something start to finish

[@icaitox]

Robin, could you make a video about the tecnique you use to memorize verb conjugations? I have decided to start studying french and would like to know the opinion from someone that has been doing that for a while.

[@erickmacias5153]

I think sometimes you can get more from that resource even if you think you are ready to move on. It's true than normally when you have that feeling it's because you are ready to jump from Beginner's material to an intermediate, however, that month that is going to cost you finish the Beginner's resource is not going to be just "Losing time to finish a resource", but instead it is a month learning at a 90-80%, which is not necessarily bad.

[@fintanmcgee4903]

It would be good if you could document the way you learned French versus Japanese and other languages e.g. Assimil, translating documentaries, easy languages, podcasts etc.

[@coconutpineapple2489]

It takes time to finish just one textbook. I'm perfectionist. But when it comes to studying textbook, I don't learn them completely. That's a good idea to move on to the next one.

[@KirbyLinkACW]

Question! You said you studied Japanese before, right? Have you heard of the Remembering the Kanji series of books? I learned about it from Matt vs. Japan, and it made me wanna give it a try. If you have heard of it, what do you think of it?

[@MuttFitness]

Je regarde pour le content et votre barbe.

[@kirillbuzukov7377]

Thanks ! But it was not helpful . Too many words so I have been lost somewhere.. It is a pity because I like the barb

[@biricikkiz7]

Yeah...letting go....we should do it even with textbooks..😂 But I rather tend to finish what I've started..although it's maybe no longer effective...

[@irenemcnamara9699]

There is no language In ready to give up on. Why would you spend all this time learning a language and then give up on it?

[@RonaldMcPaul]

Drink every time Robin shakes an imaginary baby.