Taking breaks during your language learning journey is an essential lesson I recently learned. This week, I needed a break from studying and it was my first in six months. The impact of this has surprised me. A few things I have noticed so far: I have not forgotten my lessons, I feel more motivated, I am more well rested, my focus has improved, and I can recall information faster.
You will not forget anything if you take a week off from learning. I was apprehensive about taking a break earlier in the year since I was afraid I would halt this journey. Because I am a huge procrastinator, I did not trust myself enough to stop and take a break even when I felt extremely overwhelmed. I also feared that taking rest days in my studies would make me forget everything I learned. Looking back, I realized that fear stopped me from giving myself downtime. One week later, I reviewed everything and was surprised to see that I can recall my lessons without struggling.
Taking a break sparked more motivation and I am now looking forward to learning a new language soon. I also realized that I want to continue learning my current target language. The experience allowed me to understand why we all need to focus on doing things we love and are passionate about. Choosing to learn a language I am interested in has allowed me to stay focused on my goal. It has not been easy for me to give up yet. Even when I lose momentum, somehow, I always manage to pick up my textbooks and power through. If I weren’t as interested, I would have taken a break and not looked back.
My brain and body feel extremely well rested. Surprisingly, my brain has felt a lot better since taking the break. Normally, I would average four or five hours of sleep, but in the last week, I averaged seven hours. I am currently back to self-studying and doing my best to be consistent. Learning that being inconsistent and ignoring needed rest days is not good. Earlier in the year, I was not enthusiastic on taking a break which meant powering through seven days a week for over six months. I now realize that I should be incorporating more time for rest. This experience has also taught me that I must switch up my study sessions. Instead of doing most of the lessons at night, I will focus on completing them during the day. Saturdays will be for brief reviews lasting 15–20 minutes; Sundays will be days for rest.
My focus has improved, surprising me the most because I looked at my notes and textbooks and read them without struggling. Once I returned to studying, absorbing the material did not feel overwhelming or dreadful. I am now at a stage where I see how my hard work has been paying off, but there is still more to learn. Reviewing is fun and exciting because I only have to learn a few things that I’ve missed.
It is a lot easier to recall information since taking my break. Remembering vocabulary and making quick sentences have become easier for me. Words that I didn’t understand before miraculously made sense now. Although I am focusing more on increasing and improving my vocabulary, I was still proud that I was able to remember a lot. However, I also forgot a few words, which is expected during this journey. Learning and forgetting words and grammar structures are common, so do not get frustrated if it happens to you.
Giving myself rest and grace has been important. I am learning not to overwhelm myself. If you want to take a break from your language journey, you should do so if it starts to feel overwhelming. However, please make sure not to take a six-month break because you will need to pick up the habit again and develop a disciplined routine. During this one-week break, I have learned the importance of rest to prevent burnout. Earlier in the year to prevent burnout, I would reduce my study time from two hours to one hour a day. Somedays, 20 minutes of studying would be enough for me to feel less stressed. I now understand that giving myself a few days after a prolonged period of diligent studying to feel refreshed and prepared is essential. Stopping my procrastinating tendencies has been challenging, but I see how being more disciplined has allowed me to be more productive and responsible with my time.
Originally published at http://thoughtsofang.wordpress.com on August 27, 2022.
