How Does Burn Out In Other Areas Of Life Affect Language Learning?

You will often hear me talk about language learning burn out, but studying a language is not the only way you can become burnt out.

In fact it is probably more common for people to suffer from burn out in other areas of their life, especially from work, so if this where to happen to you …how would it affect your languages studies?

To be honest, it would affect things pretty badly. Burn out is a serious issue and it will affect everything in your life negatively, including your language studies.

Burn Out Can Ruin Your Life, Let Alone Your Language Studies

If you speak to anyone who has suffered from burn out, or even if you have just read about it, you will quickly see that it’s a pretty dreadful experience. It is certainly something you would want to avoid.

If you get burnt out from work for example, this can have a drastic effect on your whole life, both at work and also at home. The combination of the mental and physical exhaustion really takes its toll and you can often end up feeling like you cannot cope with basic everyday tasks.

Simply getting out of bed and getting dressed is a huge ordeal for people who are burnt out, so the chances of them sitting down to study a language is pretty much zero.

Language learning requires a lot of effort and if you are struggling to cope with your life in general, then studying a language on top of this is just not going to be possible.

If you where already studying a language when you got burnt out, I would imagine that your studies would stop, you are not going to have the motivation, let alone the energy to continue with it.          

(You can read more about – What Is Language Burn Out and Why Does It Happen?)

You Want Your Mind To Be Fresh When Studying A Language

Studying a language is tough as you need to process a lot of new information and compare this with what you already know as well retain this information.  

The reality is that the fresher you mind is, the easier you will find it to study and the better your results will be.

However, we live in a world where we have all sorts of commitments and distractions, so we may have a lot of our time and energy taken away from us, which means our language studies suffer.

This usually isn’t too bad and we can still study, but if you are burnt out, then it basically means you have no more energy for anything. If your job has pushed you into a state of burn out you will be mentally and physically exhausted, just trying to perform basic tasks are going to be tough for you.

The second you open your eyes in the morning you are going to feel foggy and sluggish and just not very mentally sharp. This is the total opposite state of mind you need to be in to learn a language.

Even if you forced yourself to sit down and study, you are really going to really struggle if you are burnt out, you will just not have that mental clarity you need to process what you are studying.

Everything is going to feel like you are climbing up a mountain and your progress is going to be pretty much zero.         

You Want To Have Low Levels Of Stress When Studying A Language

If you are going to start learning a language you need to have quite low levels of stress in your life, as language learning will bring you plenty. If you are already starting with a high level of stress, then the language is probably going to tip you over the edge.

I think a lot of people really underestimate how much of a big commitment learning a language is and while it is fun, it does come with a lot of stress, especially in the beginning when you can really feel like you are drowning in information.

You ideally want to have your life in balance when you start learning a language so that you can handle the sudden increase in stress. If you are suffering from burn out in other areas of your life, or you are close to this, adding a language to your life is probably going to be too intense. It will feel like you are adding petrol to a fire and it will just make everything worse.

The extra pressure from the rest of your life is also going to make learning the language seem so much harder and it is more likely that you will quit.   

It really is a huge commitment and you need to be ready to bring that in to your life. If you have not got things in balance you will struggle.

Language Learning Will Make Your Burn Out Worse

If you have become burnt out at work, and you are studying a language in your spare time, you will find that the language learning makes things worse.

Your mind is already going to be exhausted from work and trying to add the extra strain of learning a language on top is just going to make things worse.

Learning a language will drain most people and it can realty take a lot from you, of course the trade off is that you are rewarded with progress, so most people do not mind the exhaustion. However, if you are trying to start studying when you are already in a very low state of energy …you are only going to end up getting more exhausted.

Often hobbies can give you a break from life and make you feel refreshed, especially if you are suffering from burn out at work. However, this isn’t the case with language learning, it is going to be draining you even further of your limited mental resources and it will just make your situation worse.

I would imagine that most people who are burnt out from work will just stop studying their languages naturally; they are just not going to have the energy to continue with them.

You Can Actually Get Burn Out From Learning A Language

I think it is important to remember that learning a language itself can cause you to burn out. You can very easily over do things with your studies and just drain yourself to exhaustion.

The fact that this can happen just shows that it will only end badly if you where to try and study a language when you where burnt out from work. It is only going make the situation worse and make your feel even more burnt out.

(You can read more about – How Common Is Language Learning Burnout?)

Conclusion

Now you can hopefully see that being burnt out from other areas of your life is going to negatively affect your language learning.

Basically you are going to feel exhausted and then your studies are going to stop because of this. You just won’t have the energy to carry on, and if by some chance you do, you will probably just make yourself feel worse and end up stopping due to this.

If you manage to get burnt out from work, try and recover from this first, then you can think about studying a language when you are recovered.  

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Language Learning Burn Out)