Why Do So Many People Give Up When Learning A Language?

When you speak to people about language learning, you will often find that a lot of people start, but soon give up.

I am not sure on the stats, but I would imagine that the vast majority of people who set out to learn a language do not actually achieve it (especially if you include those who learned at school), so why do so many people give up before they have success?

There are a number of reasons, which I will go through below, but basically it is a long and slow process with many difficulties along the way. Most people are giving up too early and if they just kept going they would get what they want, which is a real shame.

It Can Take A Long Time To See Results

One of the reasons why people give up on learning a language is because it can take a seriously long time to see some meaningful results.

People want instant results and this isn’t going to happen in language learning. You could maybe learn some words or phrases today, but you are not even scratching the surface of the language and you might be studying for over a year and still not understand much.

You really have to put a lot of time in before you get anywhere and most people can’t quite accept that this is the reality and they give up long before they have given themselves a chance to achieve anything.

(You can read more about – How Long Will It Take To Learn A Language?)

Learning A Language Can Seem Impossible

Taking a long time to see results can really add to the feeling that learning a language can seem impossible.

Languages really are huge and it can be like climbing a massive mountain. If you are standing at the bottom, looking up it can seem impossible to reach the top. You can get this same feeling when you start to realise just how much you need to learn in a language.

The task just seems impossible to a lot of people and this can really eat away at them and make them want to quit before they have even tried to make a real dent in the language.

It makes sense, why would you want to waste your time doing something that you think is totally impossible.

The thing is, if you keep taking one step at a time you will get to the top of the mountain. Too many people get fixated on the end goal and think it’s too hard to reach. It may be far away, but it is entirely possible to get there with time. You just have to keep going and not give up.

Self Doubt Will Take Grip

Self doubt will take hold of all of us at some point when learning a language, but for many it can become too strong and make them quit.

Studying for months and not seeing any progress is tough going, you really will question if you are doing things rights and if you are on track or not. This will only get worse when you make mistakes or struggle to remember something.

The feeling that the language is impossible to learn will creep in and you will really start to question yourself. You can easily look at others and say “well, they are different” to justify why they could do it, but you can’t.  

However, really you can do it too; you just need to keep going. Doubting yourself will only end up in your failing. You are no different to anyone who has tried to learn a language. The only reason they were successful is because they believed it was possible and kept going.

You Have No Language Goals

A large part of language learning is having a goal, and real plan. If you have no idea what you are trying to achieve, or how can you reach that, you are going to really struggle.

Languages are huge and complicated; you can’t just dip your toe in and expect to do well. Languages really are like oceans. If you want to conquer the seas, you need to be able to navigate across them.  

People without goals and plans will quickly get lost and easily give up. Some simple structure to your learning really can make the difference.

(You can read more about – How To Set A Language Goal)

You Are Overwhelmed By The Language

It will not take you long to get that overwhelming feeling when you study a language. Everything can seem to confusing and complicated. This can turn your lessons into a real misery and you can quickly not enjoy yourself.

If you have this feeling for long enough, you will want to quit. No one wants to spend hours and hours studying something that is annoying and painful.

I think you need to accept that sometimes this will happen, learning a language will never be totally plain sailing, but in general you should be enjoying it most of the time.

If you are feeling too overwhelmed you need to take a step back and try and focus on something a little simpler. It’s annoying have to take little steps, but it will help you in the long run. Keeping things small and simple will make sure you are not over whelmed. 

You Are Not Enjoying The Process Of Learning

I think this is fairly self explanatory, if you are not enjoying yourself while learning a language; you are of course going to want to quit.

The problem is that learning a language is hard; it’s not going to be enjoyable the whole time. 

You sort of need to find the balance. There is nothing wrong if it being a bit of a struggle, but on some level you should be enjoying it, or at least excited to be doing it.

If you are boring yourself to tears, you will give up, you need to enjoy learning a language in some way, which you can usually do through what you are studying or how you are studying. If you are enjoying the material it can really help, either way need to get some enjoyment from your language or you will want to give up.

You Can Never Reach Perfection In A Language

We are all perfectionists at heart and if we can’t master something, we don’t want anything to do with it, which is why you will find that a lot of people will quit.

People really hate making mistakes, but the problem is that like 90% of learning a language is all about making mistakes. For most of us, it is not natural to feel so uncomfortable and be constantly making so many mistakes.

Some people understand that this is just all part of the process, but for a large number its knocks their confidence and they think they are not good enough and stop learning. 

Having The Wrong Mindset Will Make You Quit

You have probably noticed a theme through the above points, which is that you need to have the right mindset, or you are really going to struggle.

The basic concept for success is that you just need to keep pushing and you will eventually see results. If you can have that mindset, you will not give up. 

But you mindset can also be affected in a few other different ways:

Lack Of Motivation

Motivation is huge when it comes to learning a language and usually when this goes, so does the studying.

Most people want to learn the language, but they just are not motivated enough to see it through. It really does take a colossal effort to learn a language and it can be hard to have this level of motivation when there are so many other things in life that will easily pull you away, especially since they will usually be things that are more rewarding in the short term, which language learning can’t really compete with.     

(You can read more about – How to Keep Motivated When Learning A Language)

Lack Of Consistency

A lack of consistence is for me the worst thing you can do when learning a language. Just doing little bits of study here and there is all well and good, but really you will never see any results.

You need to be consistent and continually chipping away at your studies. This is really true for anything in life and the reason most people fail at anything is just from a lack of consistency.

You will find that a little break turns into a longer and longer one. The next thing you know that 2 day break has been 2 months and after that, you just don’t go back to it.

Some People Are Lazy

Unfortunately some people just quit as they are lazy. Basically they just don’t try hard enough and are not willing to put the work in.

No one wants to admit that this is why they quit, they will usually try and justify that it was too hard, but the reality is that they seen no progress and where too lazy to push themselves into getting to a point where they did make progress.

You can’t really do much about this, if you are lazy, you are lazy. You will really need to change your outlook on things if you want to overcome this.

(You can read more about – How To Fight Procrastination In Language Learning)

You Do Not Make It A Part Of Their Life

If you want to be successful at language learning, it needs to be a part of your life, both the language itself and how you go about learning it.

If you just make it some separate thing that you have to make time for, you won’t. You need to actually live with it.

The TV series you watch, the friends you talk to, the news you read …it all has to be in the target language.

If you have no reason to use the language in your life, you are probably going to give up a lot easier than someone who thinks it has a purpose in their daily life.

Conclusion

As you can see there are a lot of different reasons why people give up on learning a language. The sad thing is, most of these can be avoided, or at least ignored, allowing you to carry on.

I do think half the battle is knowing about some of the difficulties you may face. If you are aware of what might go wrong you can be prepared for it and ride the storm as such.

If you feel like giving up, don’t. You can do this. It takes a while and it takes effort, but you can learn the language you want to learn. It is entirely possible; there is no need to give up.

(You can read more about – Can Taking A Break From Language Learning Cause You To Forget What You’ve Learned?)