Should I Take A Break If I Experience Language Learning Burn Out?

Learning a language can be really draining and you may find that if you push yourself too hard the process will wear you down to the point of burn out.

If this happens, then you need stop and take a break. I know this is frustrating, but it is going to be the only way around this problem

If you want to keep learning and making progress with the language, then you need take a break when you experience language learning burn out. Trying to carry on will get you no where!

You Need To Rest If You Are Burnt Out

Burn out is miserable and it really is something you want to try and avoid as it can really disrupt your ability to study.

However, if you have reached this point, then you need to stop and rest.

There is no real way around this, you have pushed yourself too far and your brain and body are going to be totally exhausted. You need to take a step back and let everything re-calibrate, which means taking a break.

You need to totally stop your language studies for a while and focus on relaxing, sleeping and even eating well. If you can do this you will start to feel better after a few days and then you can focus on getting back to learning again.   

You Will Make No Progress, So Why Try To Fight It

I know some of you will try and fight through the burn out, but I have to tell you it is not worth it, you will be wasting your time and more importantly, you will make no progress with your language. 

When you look at the symptoms of burn out they are not pleasant. You will be exhausted both physically and mentally and your general feeling towards learning will be very negative. You may find you are avoiding studying or just feel very overwhelmed by it and will basically have no motivation.

All of this is not exactly conducive to learning. Even if you do try and push through, you are going to struggle. Your effort levels and ability to concentrate are going to be so low that you will just not make any progress, which will only lead to frustration and exasperate those feelings of burn out further.

You can’t fight your way through this, you need just embrace that you need to rest and take a break.

You Can Try to Still Keep Going, But Very Minimally

While I have just said you need to rest, there can be some instances where you can try and push through.

Really this can only happen if you are very aware of your body and mind and you have realised that you are entering into that burn out state.

I would argue that if you have reached burn out, you are probably not fully aware and that is how it has happened.

I really think If you did have this level of self awareness you would have realised you where getting fatigued a lot and would have started dealing with the problem then, rather than let it reach the full burn out stage.

However, if you are just entering burn out, and I mean you are really on the edge, you could try and reduce your work load, but drastically. This way you would still be pushing on, but it would be very, very small steps.

As I already mentioned, I think if you where self aware you would do this while you were still in that fatigue stage. You would notice you are pushing a little too hard and then scale your workload back to try and reduce the fatigue and ultimately avoid falling into burn out.

I think if you did this when you where fatigued you would still need to reduce your work load, but not as much as you would have to when burnt out.

I would say you need to do almost nothing. I am talking about doing one Duolingo lesson a day. Literally 5 minutes of work and that’s it. If you are actually burnt out, you will even find this strenuous.       

I would argue that this is almost pointless; you would be doing so little it wouldn’t even be worth it. It would make more sense to just stop, rest and recover and then go at things with a little more vigour when you are feeling good again. 

Your Body Will Force You To Stop Eventually

I don’t think it really matters if you want a break or not, because at some point your body is just going to force you take one.

If you are unaware that you burnt out, or you are trying to ignore it and push on …you will eventually crash.

You are running on empty and eventually you will stop and this is really not a good place to be. All the negative effects of burn out will just get worse and worse until you basically can’t carry on.

While this is often only in extreme cases, it can happen. I have had this happen to me, and it wasn’t nice. I was literally bed ridden for a few days.

I would say that the language learning alone did not burn me out, my work life played a large part of it to. I tried to ignore the situation and carry on, which didn’t last long. I reached the point where I could barely focus and ultimately the language learning had to stop as my work was my priority.

However, stopping studying was not enough and trying to push on with my work just made it worse. I was so tired and aching all over as well has having a crippling headache. I was sat at my computer and literally felt dizzy. I had to go lie down and basically I stayed in bed for about 4 days until I felt kind of normal again.

I had pushed myself beyond my limit and my body basically crashed and I felt actually unwell. My body and mind where totally ruined and I ended up sleeping about 11 hours that night.

You really can’t keep pushing through, you body will not allow it and it will force you to rest! 

(You can read more about – Signs That You Are Suffering From Language Burn Out)

Make Sure It’s Only A Break, Don’t Quit On Your Language Learning

If you do start feeling the effects of burn out you should of course take a break …but make sure it is just a break.

It is very easy to just quit all together. Your brain will hurt and your body will probably too and it is understandable why you would want to walk away from the whole studying thing. No one wants to feel awful, so why would you put yourself through that.

The thing is, if you study in a way that avoids burn out it can be extremely rewarding.

You also need to remember the end goal will be worth it. Hopefully you won’t experience burn out in your language learning journey, but I think it is more than likely that you will at some point.

Learning a language is so long and difficult that you will experience some rough times, but you must never lose sight of why you started all this.

Just give yourself some time off and come back to the challenge refreshed. Burn out is just a hurdle that you need to manoeuvre past, don’t allow it to stop you all together.

Conclusion 

Hopefully now you can see that taking a break is important if you are suffering from language learning burn out.

The problem will only get worse and you will eventually have to stop anyway as you will just not be able to carry on, so do not be scared to stop and recuperate.

Taking a break is going to help you overcome the problem and allow you to then keep studying and actually make the progress in the language that you want to make.

Languages are a long game, so it’s okay to take a break and catch your breath from time to time, especially if things are getting a little tough and you are feeling burnt out.

(You can read more about – How Do You Overcome Language Learning Burn Out?)