What Are The Causes Of Language Learning Fatigue?

Language learning fatigue is something you will face, especially as a beginner. It can be quite frustrating and some of you might not even realise it is happening.

Unfortunately a lot of the causes of the fatigue are just general study activities, so you can’t really avoid them, but you can study in a way that will limit the chanches of fatigue setting in and causing your trouble.

We will get tired and fatigue is a totally normal part of studying. It is something we can all suffer from at any point and so long as you can recognise it has happening then you can try and stop it from affecting you.

(You can read more about – What Is Language Learning Fatigue?)

You Only Have So Much Energy In A Day

The reality is that you only have so much energy to spend in a day, and everything you do will reduce this and you will become fatigued, no matter what you are doing.

You need to see your brain like the battery on your phone, it is only going to have so much power and eventually as the day goes on, it’s going to run out of power.

The more you use your phone, or the more you ask it to do certain things, the quicker the battery will drain. This is exactly the same for your brain and learning a language is something that requires a lot of energy, so you can quickly drain yourself and get fatigued when studying.

You can try and top your energy up with food and rest, but really the fatigue is always going to start to set in if you are pushing yourself.

Language Learning Is Tiring

Language learning is an activity that is just naturally tiring. Everything you do is going to cause you to expend a lot of energy and if we use the phone example again, it is a task that really drains your battery quickly.

It requires a high cognitive workload and it doesn’t matter who you are, or what level you are at, you can quickly get fatigued when you are learning a language.   

Learning a Language Is Stressful

Language learning is stressful and this is exactly why you end up using a lot of energy and becoming fatigued.

You will be outside of your comfort zone, especially as a beginner, which is when fatigue is more likely to happen. Everything you are doing is confusing and makes no sense and your brain doesn’t like this.

Your brain will be a little panicked by all this and it will start trying to deal with this stress by working harder than usual. You will be processing everything and trying to make sense of anything you can, which just causes you to burn up a lot of energy a lot faster than usual, which is why fatigue is much more likely.

You Goals Might Be Set Too High

Your overall goals may be set too high and this can cause you to get unnecessarily stressed. There is nothing wrong with having big goals, but they still need to be realistic. Having crazy goals will affect how you end up studying on a daily basis and this in turn can lead to fatigue happening during your study sessions.

Basically you will end up pushing yourself too hard every day, to meet this overall goal, and really you will end up doing too much each time and you will become fatigued.

Studying A Language Is Mentally Draining

It is just a fact that learning a language is mentally draining. You cannot avoid this, it requires you to think intensely and this will drain you.

You will be actively thinking the whole time, trying to recall things and piece other things together. We usually do not engage our minds in this way in our daily life, so we may not be used to using this level of concentration.

Of course not all language learning is so draining, you can do things like immersing, which are fairly passive, but even this will be more intense that watching shows in your own language, so even this can tire you out pretty quickly.  

You Might Be Trying To Study Too Much

A classic cause of language fatigue is simply from trying to do too much all at once. This of course can be linked to your overall goal, where you will end up pushing yourself too hard in general.

However, even if you overall goal is not to extreme, you can still end up trying to do too much on a single day.

It is very easy to try and do a little bit too much and you will overstretch yourself and quickly become fatigued. This can even happen if you are practicing too much. A classic example of this is when you end up speaking in your new language a lot more than you usually would, such as at a party. You can quickly become fatigued as you are just not used to that level of practice.  

You Might Be Studying Too Quickly

You may also be studying too quickly; this can of course be linked to doing too much, as you will quickly going through a lot of material.

However, you may just going through a small of amount of material too quickly and this can still cause fatigue. Your brain can only go so fast and it will struggle to keep up with the pace you are trying to go at.

You will find that you are not able to go at the same pace as you can in your native language and this is simply because you are not as comfortable with the language and it will take a little more processing. 

You Are Not Taking Regular Breaks

You need to digest the new information that you have taken in, which means you need breaks.

Not taking breaks will really increase your chances of fatigue. You have to see studying like eating, you need to chew your food and take a breath in between. If you just keep shovelling the food in, you will choke …and while you cannot choke on the language, you can be overwhelmed by it and a simple break can help avoid this.

You do not need to stop and rest for long, even a couple of minutes can be can enough to just clear your mind and refresh things. A good rule of thumb is to study for about 20-30 minutes, then have a 5 minutes rest.

You should also get up and walk away from wherever you are. This little change in environment can really change you state of mind and can really help reduce the onset of fatigue.  

Another good way to do this is to learn throughout the day. You can do little bits here and there, and as it’s spaced out it is not as intense and you are less likely to feel fatigued.

(You can read more about – Is It Necessary To Take Breaks While Learning A Language To Avoid Learning Fatigue?)

You Might Be Tired From Other Areas Of Your Life

I think it is foolish to try and see your language learning as a separate thing. You also have to consider the rest of your life as this can affect how quickly you can get fatigued.

You may be suffering from stress and tiredness from your life and this can drain you of energy, meaning you go into your language study in a suboptimal state and your chances of reaching a fatigued state will be much higher.

(You can read more about – How Can I Avoid Language Learning Fatigue?)

You Might Not Be Having Fun

An often overlooked cause of fatigue is the lack of fun.

If you are enjoying yourself, it doesn’t seem like you are learning and you will find that you can do a lot before you get tired.

You can see the opposite of this when you are not enjoying yourself. Everything can be a real effort, and this can really drain you of your energy very quickly.

Just think about the difference between enjoying a movie in the language. 90 minutes can fly past, and then compare this to reading some boring text book for 90 minutes. Your brain will be fried from having to make yourself focus on the text compared to watching the movie.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see some of the causes of language learning fatigue, you will clearly see a lot of them are just from studying, so it can be unavoidable at times. However, how you go about your studies can make a difference.

Just take your time and go at a slower pace and take breaks frequently. If you do this you should find that you are not suffering from fatigue as often. 

(You can read more about – What Are The Symptoms Of Language Learning Fatigue?)