For All Foreign-Language Learners, How Do You Deal With This?

[eatfastnoodle]

I'm not a new learner. I don't have much of a problem in writing, speaking, reading or understanding English under pretty much any circumstance. I've read enough novels to lose interest in reading more; I've seen so many movies and watched so many shows that I see cliches everywhere; I have read enough newspapers and magazines to know what the writers are gonna say just by reading titles of the articles; And I have known enough locals long enough that superficial chit-chat doesn't interest me any more yet deeper interaction doesn't seem to go anywhere because of fundamental difference in culture and life experience. I'm kinda get stuck in limbo, I can't push forward any more and really start to lose interests in pushing forward despite my best effort to drum it up. Yet I don't want to lose my fluency because of lack of practice, something I'm sure would happen if things don't change, as you all know, it's not easy to learn a foreign language, I invested lots of time and effort in it. I'd hate to lose my edge, but I'm really starting to run out of sharping stones.

[gougou]

What do you want to know English for? That's exactly how you should learn it then. But if you really weren't interested in novels, movies, newspapers and people*, there's little reason to keep on learning. Consider it a sunk cost and move on.

* which I highly doubt. I can't believe that there aren't any novels, movies, people that could provide you with some new ways of thinking. Maybe you're just looking in the wrong places.

[roddy]

Yeah, do something else. No point in maintaining fluency if you don't need or enjoy it, and it's not like you can't pick it up again later.

[Meng Lelan]

any more yet deeper interaction doesn't seem to go anywhere because of fundamental difference in culture and life experience.

That's exactly where interaction gets real deep. You can engage in very-in-depth discussions of fundamental differences in cultures and life experiences!

[gato]

Get a girlfriend who only speaks English.

[Don_Horhe]

Terry Pratchett ;)

[Erbse]

Start your own business.

[Meng Lelan]

Embark on a fulfilling satisfying career in educating the deaf-blind.

[tooironic]

You've given a lot of information about your attitude but little information about your life. Why did you start learning it in the first place?

[Lu]

And also, what do you like in your own language? Try finding those things in English.

[GreenArrow45]

try role-playing, there are sure to be words you dont already know, and it would be fun

[eatfastnoodle]

Get a girlfriend who only speaks English.

Let's just say the longer I stay in the US, the less interested I am in your suggestion. I think I seriously need a vacation back home, too bad sh*t happens all around me lately that just won't give me a break.

[roddy]

Sounds to me like you're tired of more than English. Nothing wrong with that, but if you don't sort it out one way or another you'll be miserable and make people around you miserable.

[dreamon]

Do you like hiking? Did you see the old-fashioned America? East coast towards the North, where the forests are? Catskills, Adirondacks? Cross-country driving? If you are on the West, try the Cascades, Yellowstone.

[eatfastnoodle]

Do you like hiking? Did you see the old-fashioned America? East coast towards the North, where the forests are? Catskills, Adirondacks? Cross-country driving? If you are on the West, try the Cascades, Yellowstone.

I'm still very much interested in traveling and seeing places, especially natural wonder/gorgeous scenery. Problem is I'm not rich, I need to work for a living and whenever the fun part ends, the good ol' sucky portion of life swings back in force.

[gougou]

the good ol' sucky portion

Yep, indeed it's not language that is your real problem.

[Chinese Food]

I have spent time learning French, Hebrew, and Arabic. I can tell you that I started to get the same feeling towards the three after about a year of learning them. There comes a point that you simply find no enjoyment in them anymore, and that's the point where you merely need to stop. There is a French saying, "When the food stops tasting good, stop eating." I believe that this applies to languages as well. If you're not in the circumstance that you're surrounded by the language everyday, then there really isn't any point in continuing to learn it.

For instance, I taught myself how to read and write in Hebrew at near native levels. I still occasionally read Israeli newspapers from time to time, but do I have the everyday opportunity to use the language? No, not really. I don't live in Israel and there are only a few families who live near me that speak it. I'd like to keep my level of comprehension where it is at, but the fact of the matter is that I will slowly start to lose it unless I am actively keeping it up.

[agkcrbs]

The thing I enjoy the most about English is learning (and trying to apply) its history.

We tend to mash 'language-learning' together with 'culture-learning'... but the only culture a lot of English-speakers claim to know is the vacuous, assimilative, modern sort of anti-culture, the so-called 'pop-culture', with all of its empty trifles and assembly-line opinions; and it's something you can't go extremely deeply into because it's not a deep thing by nature. The greatest English literary and religious classics are basically repositories of old, traditional English culture, which you can't even approach except by delving into a former stage of the language.

So, my advice is that if you can't find any reasonable, relatable friends, go find an old book, eighty or a hundred years old at least, several hundred at the most, and make friends with it.

You may also find it re-invigorating to start studying a cousin tongue like Icelandic or German, or even French or another lending Latinate dialect, or Greek. That's what I did after studying Cantonese, and, finding Mandarin unpalatable, turning instead to Korean and Viet -- both of which force a person back into Cantonese.