Motivation issues

Textkit Community Open Board
1

I split this into three parts to make it easier to read (I meant it to be a simple question but it ended up David Copperfield). The question is part three.

I. BACKGROUND
I’m currently in a bit of a tough stretch. I was in an introductory (Attic) Greek class for nine weeks before falling ill and spending a week in the hospital. The next week I was advised to take easy, so I stayed away from work; losing two weeks’ class wasn’t as big a deal as it seemed because I was far ahead of the rest of the class (keeping to my own pace, which was faster than theirs). And then I developed a new and still-mysterious ailment and spent another week out sick, and then when it still wouldn’t go away with treatment, I dropped all classes on medical withdrawal. During this time I tried to get back to Greek (the only subject I really cared about) but couldn’t get my head in the game, so to speak. After two weeks of doing nothing and watching my feet swell and recede (generally a sign of organ failure or autoimmune disease, both dire ailments, but tests for both were conclusively negative and three doctors, two ER docs, and a vascular specialist all gave it the “WTF?” treatment), I decided that I needed some studies back in my life or I’d go crazy.

Among other things, I got Pharr’s Homeric Greek. I wanted a fresh start, for one; I wanted a fresh perspective; I was going to take Greek 101 again in the future, so there was no point in knowing all the material; Homeric is the dialect recommended on this site, if I’m not mistaken; Pharr has the student reading the Iliad very early in; and the style is very different from Athenaze and I have a strange fetish for early-20th-cenury textbooks (specifically the actual objects, those cloth-bound green or blue octavos with stamped gilt lettering and a delicious aroma).

II. MY PROBLEM, AND HOW I RESOLVED IT
I didn’t mind starting from scratch because Pharr gives far more detail on some very interesting topics (the declensions, for instance) that Balme and Lawall do, and because there are some important differences between some Homeric and Attic forms that are apparent from the first two chapters. There are plenty of translation exercises, which I’ve always found terrific fun, and the Greek-to-English ones can be real puzzlers compared to the softball Athenaze exercises. So I got through the first several chapters quickly and efficiently (even the new vocabulary is coming more quickly than ever).

And now I’ve spent several days on the second declension – which is identical to its Attic forms with a couple of slight variations – and have made no progress. I’ve encountered no difficulty because I know the grammar presented. I’ve got about 3/4 of the vocabulary in memory (most of it sticks the first time through the list) but have no desire to learn the rest. Doing the translation exercises would help learn the rogue vocabulary and would be fun, but I don’t feel like stretching myself. It’s as if my brain has turned against me; I’m in the head space I was in when I got out of the hospital. I just feel like doing nothing, or at least doing nothing productive. The next chapter is just review and after that is some exciting new material that I’ve never studied before in either dialect. I should be happy and motivated and ready to press on and finally meet something completely unfamiliar and make friends with it. But instead I’m being an intellectual stay-at-home because my mind doesn’t feel like changing out of its pyjamas.

III. THE QUESTION
Everyone says that stagnation is the most damaging thing that can happen to someone learning a foreign language. It’s been three days with no study and something’s got to change – and something will change, because writing all of this has convinced me to get out the book and some sheets of paper and see what I can do. But there will be future funks: what to do? I’m not going to waste board space with another pity-party in that event; I’m sure that everyone here has run aground at some point or another but obviously has gotten back up and succeeded. I’ve found that time generally heals all motivation problems, myself, but that’s crappy advice to give someone. Lowering your shoulder and plowing through it is the stock answer, but when your brain won’t cooperate, your brain just won’t cooperate.

I’m interested to see how people have dealt with this common and potentially devestating issue.

2

I’ve very sorry to hear about your travails. I sincerely hope you wind up as healthy as an ox and back to school with all vigor and enthusiasm!

As for your question, are you able to go outside? I usually need a nice long walk, in the country preferably, exercizing the body and freshening the mind. If you’re able to do something really physical, that also might be helpful.

3

This depends on how sick you still are.

If you are still sick, get healthy before continuing Greek seriously. I always think it’s ridiculous that teachers expect students to do homework while they’re sick, since anybody who is too sick to go to school is too sick to do homework (okay, maybe somebody with a broken leg can do homework in the hospital, but even then I wouldn’t push it). The same applies to independent study. If your body is draining brain power to get itself healthy again, let it drain brain power. If you fight it, you take longer to recover and any work on Greek that you do will stink anyway. If you let your body recover before continuing Greek, you recover faster and can do good Greek work sooner.

If you have completely recovered already, this is different. Don’t dump yourself back into intensive sessions, but commit yourself to at least 15 minutes a day. This will give you enough momentum to slide you back into your Greek routine.

If you are partially recovered, it’s your call. Personally, I would not push it, but if you are recovered enough to be this concerned about it, it might be time to take it up again. Just a few weeks ago one of my classmates fell sick for a week. She partially recovered (she seemed healthy, but her immune system was weak), came back to school for a few days, and then turned completely sick again. Don’t let that happen to you.

EDIT : I loathe being sick. You have my sympathy.

4

How sick I still am is a bit of an odd issue… early this month my feet got all red and swollen and I had a 101-degree fever, although I felt fine. I obviously wasn’t fine, so I went to the emergency room where I got IV steroids and antihistamines, and the fever and inflammation went away. I stayed on oral steroids and Benadryl for five days and it was gone. I took organ-function tests then and everything came back fine. The big concern is that edema can be an indication of organ failure (liver, kidneys, heart) or an allergic reaction. I hadn’t been exposed to anything unusual that I’d be allergic to, but an immunosupressant steroid and an antihistamine combination made the problem go away. It looks like an immune response, but God only knows what it’s a response to. It’s not autoimmune because tests for that came back negative. It’s a huge mystery and everywhere I’ve been – the ER and several other doctors’ offices – have shrugged their shoulers.

It comes and goes; my feet and ankles generally swell up with fluid for about three days before they go down. Pitting peripheral edema is the symptom but I have no idea what’s causing it, and sometimes it scares the hell out of me because some very nasty things can cause it. But I check out fine. My feet are fine for a week, week-and-a-half between episodes. So I’m not really sick per se, but the whole mystery of the business can be a major psychological grindstone and can be quite exhausting to boot. It’s really, really unlikely (I’ve been told by every doctor not to worry about it), but I could have some fatal disease about to strike. Who knows? It’s got me on edge… when I can get into a groove in Greek, it can take my mind off of the world, but I haven’t been able to get into that groove lately (I’ve just started up again, though).

Thanks for the well wishes.

5

with Dr Hans Ørberg?

~E

6

Maybe you could read some Greek (e.g. Lucian or Plutarch) with the English translation beside you. Then you could make what you are able to do at that moment : it can range from reading Greek using a dictionary to comparing the Greek text with the translation in order to see if you understand how the text was so translated, or even reading Greek enjoying the beauty of the language and of the writing.

For example, here is the Greek text of the “Dialogs of the Gods” by Lucian. I find it particularly enjoyable, although there is no English translation added. :frowning:

If you enjoy philosophy, you will find here
The Greek text of Diogenes Laertius and here is an English translation.

There are also plenty of images and maps about Ancient Greece on the web. What about finding out some Greek inscriptions ?

In any case, I wish the best for you.

Skylax (whose strange English has French origins and who is always happy to practise Schultze’s “autogene training” relaxation method)

7

Having once suffered the horrors of glandular fever some years ago I would say your lack of motivation is probably caused by being sick! I think all I could do for about 3 months was (a) watch TV (b) sleep. I am normally a person who tries to fit in 25 hours a day, so this wasn’t in character. Why not just relax and if you really feel like it, read some translations of Greek authors, at least that way you will feel connected. The other suggestion of doing a very short (no more than 15 mins) seesion of language study is also good. Let’s face it, unless you are about 95 years old you probably have many more years in which you can study.
On the bright side, the enforced rest was very good for me and helped me to get my life in perspective. I stopped being so keen to climb the “corporate ladder” and decided to concentrate on playing more music and generally enjoying life. So maybe you should just enjoy doing nothing for a while.

8

Not appropriate in this thread, Epi.

9

Hello screamadelica,

I have suffered a very similar fate as yours. Half way through my first year of Greek I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (a very little disease), and I had to completely withdraw from school. It wasn’t very long after that I was in the hospital for 12 days straight, with major gastrointestinal surgery resulting in the removal of my large intestine (I know it sounds gross, but this is pertinent to you situation). When I got out of the hospital, I often found myself just sitting on the couch crying. For no apparent reason. I was extremely depressed, and on top of that I had just come off of morphine, and oxycodone…which I had been dependent on for severe amounts of pain. I would venture to guess that if you have also been on major pain killers, at least part of your problem is the havoc that they wreak on your various hormonal levels. You said you were on steroids (to which Epi would be very jealous) and I have found that when I was on large doses of steroids I became rather testy and agressive.

What finally helped me out was going to my doctor. He said he was glad that I was a bit emotional about the entire process, that it is the patients that don’t show any emotion that worry him. He then promptly wrote me a prescription for a mild anti-depressant for a period of about 2-3 months. He said that this should help my body “level itself off”, and that with all of the surgery and medication my body was in a complete and total funk.

I took a full year off of school, and then I started right back up in the second semester of Greek. Before I went back to school I did brush up a bit, but the human mind is an incredible thing…I picked things up quickly and was fine.

So…what would I advise you to do? First, get healthy. Keep going to your doctors until they figure out what is wrong with you. I don’t think you will be able to jump into this heart and soul without being healthy. Second…don’t worry too much about “I’m not studying Greek”, because although life is short, there is still time. If you are picking up Greek as readily as you are while you have been ill…imagine how much easier it will be when you don’t have health issue doggin your heels.

And finally…hang in there. I have been there, and I know how much life can suck, when you’re not sure what is going to happen next, or if you will even be alive tomorrow. Be persistent, and have some consulation that at least one other Textkitten knows how you feel.
–Matt

10

Kopio:

Ouch, that sounds nasty. My sympathies (although it often annoys me when people lionize me for something that I’ve gone through (I’ve got several diseases or conditions that I guess you could call serious but seem minor enough to me; none are life-threatening, and that’s minor enough); the worst is when they call you brave. How am I brave by going on living when life sucked? Would somebody with less courage have killed himself? Are you saying that my life sucks that badly (this is the offensive angle of the “brave” comment)? Is not committing suicide all that’s required to be brave nowadays?).

I’ve got some more work done. Thanks for the 15-minute suggestion; if I don’t feel like doing serious work, I can just take a run through my flash cards (I do three chapters at a time, 4-5-6 right now. When I get to chapter eight, it’ll be 5-6-8, et cetera: I’ve found it’s a good mix of review and new material, while the review is new enough not to make the whole stack boring and is old enough to be fully learnt by the time it’s phased out. Your mileage may vary). Sometimes that does get the motor running, too. Sometimes I read or reread some of the grammar section in back (I find a lot of it interesting; I guess we all do or else we’d be studying Italian or something). I’ve found that simple exposure to the language can help keep the light in your head on. It’s similar to French like that: I’ve forgotten enough French that I probably couldn’t have a decent conversation, but I can still read it and when I do, my French immediately improves and all sorts of things come back to memory. I don’t know if it’s possible to truly forget a language because I had “forgotten” all sorts of things in French that I later immediately recovered upon exposure. There’s a spot in your brain that gets tickled when you read something that’s recognizably French or Greek, I guess, and I can feel it tingle just from passive review. So that much is good.

The trouble with just taking it easy is that I always feel so lazy and worthless that way – get awfully depressed, guess I haven’t got a peaceful soul, because if you’re at peace with yourself, you shouldn’t need outside things – and I need something to do to alleviate the boredom and depressed feelings. Greek is an escape, it can be thrilling, and it gives that tingly feeling in the head as described above that’s a bit like a drug.

Thanks for the responses.

11

if you aren’t up for doing any difficult work, do you have any passages you’ve translated before? Sometimes when i’m in a lull, I like to spend time reading a passage I’ve translated beforehand, makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, (I’ve got a few selections from Ovid and I’m currently working on ‘Latin Fables’ just for such occasions) Since I’ve done the translating before, I wouldn’t exactly call it work, but I still feel productive as I am able to spend time ‘studying’ Latin, and it is good practice to help remember those little vocabulary words, it also makes for good reading on the treadmill-which won’t help you now of course.

Or perhaps you can spend time reading an English version of something you hope to be able to read in Greek in the future (to keep the motivation up).

Hope you get better soon.

12

I know all about the brain not cooperating. Generally it ebbs and flows throughout the day, and with me there is no biological schedule for study that I’ve been able to discern (sometimes I’m a night owl, sometimes a morning person). At times it doesn’t want to cooperate for days. I find myself looking something over with a ‘You idiot! How could you not have seen it?!’ when it does work, even with really obvious sentences. I don’t have any recommendations except the stock answer :frowning:

I do hope you get better soon.

13

Hello there,

I hope you feel better. The only advice I have is the one I take when something like that happens to me. I draw. By this, I do not mean that I only draw in times of sickness, but when I do, it really helps me relax. I do not feel worthless by doing so. It keeps me busy and creative…But I don’t know if you like to paint or draw. It was only a suggestion given with the heart. Hope you get well soon!
:wink: