Motivation to continue...

Textkit Community Open Board
1

Considering that textkit has over 3000 members, and that there are probably only a few hundred that actually post here regularly, I think I can safely assume that I’m not the only one who has encountered this problem.

What does everyone do when their motivation to study and practice latin (and greek for that matter) slows down? I have just started learning last december, so it’s only been a few months, but over the last 3 weeks I’ve almost stopped completely. LAME :unamused:
I’m not studying latin at uni or anything, so I would especially like to hear from the independant learners. Maybe I should set some dates for work to be completed…

I just want to get over this lazy feeling so that I can go back to learning a little every night.

And yes, I pretty much know what I have to do, and what everyone’s replies will be (“just f*ing suck it up and do some work”?) but i thought that writing this could provide a little motivation too.

Anyway, if anyone has some sugestions then thanks :wink:

Cheers,
james

2

Can I ask which text you are working your way though ?

I am taking a two-pronged approach:-

  1. I am working my way though Lingua Latina which is more interesting than most texts.
  2. I enrolled in the Living Latin course at the Academia Thules and this requires that I complete a lesson every 3 days so it doesn’t allow for a lot of slacking off.

When I feel I am losing motivation, I force myself to do my Latin in the mornings. That way I don’t spend my evenings trying to work up enough enthusiam :slight_smile:

3

Join a study group. (No time right now. Maybe I will have some more thoughts this evening.)

4

Hi James,

I don’t know if I can’t help you with the motivation problem but here are my opinions as I’m also a self learner of Latin and if I remember it well we are both using the same book (D’Ooge).

So if you don’t mind I ask, where in the book are you now? I remember that when I have reached the 3rd declination I was feeling very lost. At that time I did again all previous exercises and that helped a lot, for two reasons. First because showed me that I already have learned a lot, secondly because I was able to clarified the parts where I was feeling lost.

Other part that motivated me in the book was the reading matter at the end of the book. Some texts with a story that I would be able to read without being single phrases to translate. After the lesson XLII (that also was a long text to read) I start to count how many lessons there were till I would reach the lesson LIII that would open the reading matter. I little childish I know, but at that time that was what kept me more motivated.

By my experience I have more trouble to get to my Latin studies after I haven’t studied for a while. As I know it will be hard times, primarily because of forgotten vocabulary, so even when I’m not feeling in the mood to study Latin I usually force myself to the daily session of Latin. Usually after start I get on the mood again very quick.

Other trick I did was bother the people of these forums with little composition (sorry guys, but more will come) to see how much I could tell in Latin (if I know how to tell it then I can read it also) and get impressions of people with more knowledge in Latin.

I also start to study Latin with an objective, to be able to read first the books of Caesar and then the other prose writers, so you can say that I have a goal to help me keep the motivation. Although I now realize that objective is, and will be for long time, very distant.

Don’t know if this feedback helped you in anyway, but I do hope so.

Best regards,

Andrus

5

I’ve been learning Latin for a bit over a year new (self-taught). There are times when the motivation slows down. I use the Do’oge book , which is nice because the excersizes go pretty quickly so over a period of time I can look back and feel like I’ve accomplished something. Now that I’m nearing the end things are a bit harder and it gets very frustrating. I joined the study group here, Im not sure if there are more openings for it.

Another thing I thing I like to do is take a short piece of text I’d really like to read (there must be something in particular you are looking forward to reading) and then work on it word for word, and with the help of footnotes and maybe an english version I can read eventually read it. Perhaps it isn’t a very good ‘academic approach’, but that is the joy of self-learning, you can learn any way you want, as long as you keep at it (that admittedly is the trick) I’m not so great at latin, but I can read Ovid’s “Orpheus and Eurydices” , so whenever the motivation is waning I’ll pick up that or one of the other simpler stories I’ve worked out and read it. Someone once posted a site for some easy Latin stories, Hercules and other myths. It had excellent footnotes and a corresponding dictionary for those stories. Each story was broken down into short paragraphs which made it very approachable for the near beginner. Unfortunately, I don’t know the site off hand. I could look it up though.

So that’s my advice, in a round about sort of way. Decide why you are learning Latin (as in, what material interests you, what do you hope to read etc.) look towards that goal and work a little bit every day. Stick to one of the books, it is easier to gauge progress via lesson numbers than simply ‘am I any better at latin this month than the last?’

6

I get the same problem sometimes, usually just after Christmas when it’s very hot here, I’m tired after the Christmas/New Year visits/parties & shopping. It’s not just Latin & Greek but also my music, I can’t even be bothered taking the instruments out of their cases. I used to fret about it but now I just decide to take a few weeks off and do nothing for a while. After a few weeks I am starting to get enthusiastic again. Let’s face it, no-one can work at any thing, a job or study, without a break every so often.
You may also be starting to find that you need to try to get back into a class room situation for a while, however, that can be difficult to fit around jobs or if you live a long way from a university or college. I have just finished 3 years of distance learning for university Latin, but have decided to continue my BA by actually attending a university! Despite being the “class ancient” it looks like being a lot of fun.

7

It is tough to do this on your own, that’s why I suggested to join a study group.
If you can entice a buddy to take up Latin as well, you will be in much better shape.
Studying together will probably pull both of you through any slump.

8

Well, I too have been in your situiation (I think 3-4 weeks is the longest hiatus I ever had from Greek), so I won’t tell you to shut up. But try to do some work. Just a little work. Not a lot of work.

For me, when I do a little work, it amazes how much I know/have progressed.

After doing a little work, I remember why I am studying Greek. And my motivation returns.

At this point, I don’t think my motivation will ever go down again. I’m over the steepest stretch of the learning curve, and I have invested too much time and energy into this project for me to give up before getting my payback (well, I’ve already have some payback, but not enough!).

You can recover from this. You will probably lose motivation a few more times. But only a few more times.

Stick to it.

EDIT : However my problems with Greek have usually have had less to do with motivation than with lack of time. Perhaps the advice above is not as applicable to your situiation as I thought.

9

I haven’t ran into this as a problem for Greek, because…well, I just simply love the lanuage. Now mind you, I did take four years at Uni, but it has been a couple of years now (or something close to that) since I have had formal Greek. But I have kept on reading it, just for fun (plus, I’ll be damned if I’ll spend all that money and time learning something just to loose it!)

Now Hebrew…that’s a different story. I have had a love/hate relationship with Hebrew almost since the beginning. I took two formal years of it at Uni (it’s my minor), but the last year of it I was simply gritting my teeth, trying to make it through. I mainly took it because a prof who I respect and love dearly looked me square in the eyes and said, “Matt, you really need to learn Hebrew”. Like I sais, I dearly respect and love this prof, and he was right. It has come in useful, but it has been quite a while (maybe two months?) since I have picked up much of anything Hebrew. For me it has to kind of grow on you. In my mind, I am becoming more fond of the language.

I suppose to some point the language itself has to endear itself to you. Does that make any sense? The reason why I study Greek is because I love it. I have a passion for it. That isn’t something that can really be manufactured. But in some senses I think it can also be like eating your brussel sprouts (which I have always said, “if there is anything that tastes like a fart smells, it’s a brussel sprout”), you just eat them because you know they are good for you and you know that you will be all the better for it (see my reference to Hebrew). Now after reading this post, many of you will think I’m completely off my rocker, but that is really how I see not only language, but most things in life. If the passion is there, it is something that I can always excel at. I don’t say that egotistically, but realistically. I am obsessive enough (truly) that if I truly fancy something, I will shortly become very effecient at it.

So sorry if my thoughts seem scattered, it is very late :unamused:

10

Thanks for all the replies! What a community, its like some bad porno where people come out of nowhere to lend some stranger a hand (but in a good way)…

I’ve been away from home for a few days, so sorry about the late reply, but i’ll try to respond to everyone.


Hi Leoninus,
I’m working through D’Ooge, which is sweet. I also got a book voucher for christmas, and have ordered LL (get it by the end of the week, woop woop woop). Study in the morning is a good idea actually, and one that i used while at university, might try that again. Where abouts in melb are you from??

Hi Andrus,
I’m up to Lesson XIX (D’Ooge). Thinking back, this is probably where the problems started; I was feeling pretty lost with everything i had to memorise, and moved on before i had a good grip of them. For example the 9 irregular adjectives (vocab), memorising demonstratives and the different tenses of the verb to be. Going over them over and over and over is so boring.

I think the best thing to do would be to go through the previous lessons again, though i was trying to put that off for as long as i could :slight_smile:

GGG,

After doing a little work, I remember why I am studying Greek. And my motivation returns.

heh, so true, and it’s something that i always forget. “Motivation comes through doing it, not thinking about it”. I pretty much drilled that ito my mind for uni to help with all those painful study sessions, and it generally worked. It’s only been 3 months since uni finished, and i"ve already forgotten it… i’m becoming dumber by the day…

Antianira,
I have a few cheap books that I have found (I got The eclogues of virgil from a small op-shop for 50cents the other day, and another cheap book by Petronius, muahaha), but there are too many word endings that I haven’t encountered yet. I guess from 3rd declension and the different verb conjugations. Maybe i can just translate a few sentences that look easy :wink:


Thanks for everyones input, it’s really appreciated. Like I said in the first post, I pretty much know what i need to do, but just wanted a little support. :laughing:

I’ve at least gone over and read through the earlier excercises, and I’ll start writing tomorrow

Cheers,
james :wink:

11

Just read through that again…

Holy crap I’m such a girl

12

Holy crap I’m such a girl

haha. we’re all at least half. I haven’t read more than 5 sentences in latin for almost a week, so don’t feel bad. hmm… now that i think of it, i should. well, i’m off to latinize, thanks for reminding me, dear squirrel.

-jon

13

:smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:
Well, with that in your favour you might just have the strength and determination to finish your studies.

(Goes off-stage breathing fire and tossing curls)

Only joking Squirrel- face :laughing:

14

Hi James,

Glad to see you back, I was wondering if you had given up of Latin.

I know exactly how you feel, as I have pass by the something. Besides doing a review of previous chapters, that would be a good idea even if it isn’t an appealing one, you may find this program a good helper with the memorizing aspect:

http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~hasenfra/wlatin.HTML

It has some strange behaviors with WinXP but after you get use to it you will see that it is great. The only part that I can’t work with is the vocabulary. If you need help to understand how to make it work in WinXP feel free to contact me.

Best of lucks in your Latin studies.

Andrus

P.S.- You did know that you would make some female members of the forum breathing fire, didnâ€:trade_mark:t you :laughing:

15

I’m in Keysborough in the S.E.
Maybe we can start a Melbourne Latin Speakers’ Group one day when we are both proficient ?

16

haha.. well I was going to reply with some comment about also needing a block of chocolate to complete that “might”, but maybe that’s a little risky :stuck_out_tongue:
On a side note, I went to adelaide last year and stayed in the hotel on teh beach (all payed for as part of a cytogenetics conference! I love free stuff). Only stayed for the weekend but it was pretty cool.

Thanks Andrus, I’ve seen that webpage before but never downloaded the program. I’ll have a look :wink:

Maybe we can start a Melbourne Latin Speakers’ Group one day when we are both proficient ?

Heh, sure, but it might take me a while. If you don’t already know, Melbourne Uni have a pretty good range of latin books (if you go to another uni you can get a CAVAL card to borrow from there for free).

anyway thanks guys,
james
:wink:

17

ahem hem hem…

risky, indeed. breathes fire
:smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: