We covered a lot of ground in this interview, and as a language learner you will be delighted to hear her excellent advice.

One Thing You Need to Know About This Episode

This is a bilingual podcast.

If you are not an experienced German learner, there will be some parts of the podcast that you don’t understand. But like all language learners, you’re not alone in that feeling. Try to stay with us, trust that we will come back to English again and again, and challenge yourself to become comfortable with not understanding everything.

German Learners: Click this link to view a full transcript (bilingual) of our conversation, so you can listen and read along at the same time.

The Learning is The Goal

Some people learn for practical reasons like travel or employment. to me is how both Judith and I come from monolingual households. There was no focus on languages, we both started at age 10, and yet this "late start" did not mean that it was impossible to do.

She says she used to try and invent her own writing system as a child because she found Chinese so fascinating.

Use Your Language Early

Judith says that it's important to do something that is NOT studying all the time. She says

I get easily demotivated if it's just studying a textbook

Judith books early lessons with tutors and uses her language in all kinds of ways so she can stay interested.

The Importance of Goals and Tracking

Even though Judith doesn't struggle with the general motivation to learn a language, she does keep track of her progress.

She's kept a spreadsheet on her computer for many years, and maintains a goal of doing a little more each year.

I absolutely agree with her on this, and found myself doing more with my language in the same amount of time when I started tracking. If you're interested in how learning languages works with my system, check out the Language Habit Toolkit.

How to Get Over an Intermediate Plateau