Language Loss & Study Break Strategies | Speak Business English Fluently
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Hi, everybody. It's Curtis Davies and Amy Whitney from realenglishconversations.com. Today, we're going to have a discussion about getting your motivation back and restarting your English after taking a break. And we have some great ideas and strategies to help you do that.

Yeah, we've really noticed that a lot of our students right now are struggling with their motivation. And I'm not sure what the reason is. It could be the time of year. It could be that people are really busy. But we want to make sure that we can help to get you on track. So the first place that we're going to start is by talking about the two types of breaks that we have. What are those, Curtis?

Well, there are unplanned breaks that are like emergencies. You hurt yourself. You get sick. Something comes into your life and stops you from continuing. And the other one is more of like a planned break, like the holidays coming up or you have a family vacation or you've got somewhere to be and something to do. It's planned. And that can cause a break too, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And there's kind of this other situation, which is related to motivation. And it's an unplanned break, because you didn't really know when it was going to start. And you don't really know when it's going to end. And you certainly don't have a plan for when you're going to stop being motivated. So

So we need to really recognize that we're in that sort of situation. And I think that we can help you to do that right now. We actually have three questions that we'd like you to think about as sort of a self-evaluation. So what's the first question? First question on a scale of one to 10, what is your current motivation level?

So one being low, 10 being high, right? Yeah, exactly. Just take a moment and think, you know, are you really motivated? Are you driven right now? Or are you feeling like a little bit lost, unsure what to focus on, unmotivated when you decide to study? Okay, second question. When was the last time you really worked on your English?

I mean, something that you worked on that moved you forward, not just listening to a podcast, something that you actually worked on that you saw some progress from. And the third question. How much progress have you made over the last three months?

So this is a bit of a different scale. We're going to say minus 10 is going to be absolutely zero, nothing. You did absolutely nothing, not even listening or watching anything. So because they're listening to our podcast, we're going to assume everybody is not a minus 10, but you might be a minus nine. And then you have plus 10, which is the best progress you've ever had in your life.

And just to help you understand this scale, zero is what language maintenance looks like. So negative 10 means you're doing absolutely nothing, and that means you're losing your progress.

Plus 10 means you're making lots of progress and really moving forward. So I want you to think about that number. And I'm going to talk a little bit about language loss and really what we need to do as intermediate to advanced level learners just to maintain our current level.

So I can say from experience, unfortunately, many, many times I have experienced language loss. And that's when I take breaks of usually more than three months where I'm not really working on my language at all. Sometimes I might have a class with a teacher just for some practice, one or two hours a week. And that helps me to kind of maintain my level, but I'm not advancing forward and I'm not losing. Okay.

So language loss is really frustrating because you work so hard to increase your level, to advance. You're working hard. It takes time, motivation, dedication, and all of these things. And to lose that motivation,

very, very quickly, just like going to the gym, for example. If you work hard, you exercise, you strengthen your muscles, you get your body in shape, you can lose a lot of progress in a very short time. And we don't really think about language in this way because it's our brain, not a muscle. But we all know if you don't use it, you lose it. So if you've taken a break, if your number on that scale was anything below zero, you

Like you're not maintaining, you're actually losing your language right now. You really need to take some time right now to remember why is English important to you? And are you okay with this type of loss? The answer should be no. So what are you going to do to get back on track? And what's your advice, Curtis? All you need to do is choose your start date.

And this is something that's easy to do. Anyone can do it. But the problem comes when you want to stick to that start date. Yeah. Are you the type of person where that date is going to come and go and you're still not doing anything with your English? Or are you the type of person who's actually going to sit down and get started?

And the vast majority of the people that I work with, and I think most of us in the world, we're really in that second category. And it happens because when it's just us learning English by ourselves or anything that we're doing, when it's only us involved, it's very easy to say,

well, I know I was supposed to start today, but, you know, I'm really tired or I'm busy and I don't feel like it. I'll do it tomorrow. And there's no consequence. There's no disappointment. There's no problem because it's just you having a negotiation with yourself. And, you know, we all know how that goes. So there's something that we can throw into the equation here that can prevent that. And this is a strategy that Curtis and I use. And of course, the students that learn with us.

And that's really working with someone. And what does that do? How does that change the situation, Curtis? Well, let's think about it like a doctor's appointment, right? When you reserve that person's time and you make that doctor's appointment, you just show up. You don't even consider whether you feel like going or not. And the reason why is when you don't show up for an appointment, you feel bad because

And it's crazy because our behavior is so much different when another person is involved, right? Yeah, it's something that, I mean, we do it in all sorts of situations. We have a gym partner. We have, I don't know, whenever we're working with another person, we're usually more motivated, right?

And this is something that you can use to help you to stay on track. So again, going back to that reference, if you're the type of person who generally says that you're going to start studying your English on a certain date and that date never comes,

you might find that you're making better progress and being more consistent by working with another person. And I mean, if you're not able to take classes with a teacher, maybe for example, right now, you're just not in an economic position where you can take classes.

You can ask a friend or a family member, someone who's really important to you. You can ask them to call you or send you a message on a particular date. But I really recommend taking the time to explain how important it is for you to improve your English so that they understand that this isn't just a request that they can forget about. You really need them to hold you accountable.

One more thing that I want to mention just before we wrap up here is having a strategy using the same strategy of the start date for planned breaks. So, for example, later at the end of this year, most people are going to be taking a week or two weeks off around the new year.

And with a lot of our students, we notice that they start, well, like right now, if you're not really motivated, you might be on a break right now. And you might be saying to yourself, you know what, I just, I think maybe I'll just start in January again.

And what's really happening is you're taking a three or four or maybe even a five month break from your English. And I can tell you the loss of language that you're going to experience during that time is going to make you be very disappointed and frustrated when you get back on the program in January. So what you can do is think about when your break actually happens.

and take that break. Like taking breaks is important for us, right? Yeah. And be okay with that. It's okay to take a break.

Everybody needs one. Right. Everybody needs a break, especially with all the stress that we've been going through. But we need to be conscious of that break. So right now, if you're kind of like, well, OK, I'm not really doing anything with my English. I really need to get back into it. What you can do is you can work hard right now, really hard, really make it count up until the time that your vacation happens. Take your break. Don't worry about your English. If you feel like you want to study, great. If you don't, don't.

And then determine when you will come back. What is your start date? If you start working on January 4th, are you going to start your English on January 5th or 6th?

Choose that date and make it happen. So if you're working with a teacher right now, or if you think that what we're talking about is logical and that you might do better working with somebody, what I would recommend is really choosing your lesson dates all the way from now until the time that your vacation or your break is going to start. But also make sure that you book your first appointment back when you actually want to come back.

Because, I mean, Curtis, let's face it, for the past several years, as we've been looking at our calendars, when do people normally come back to their English lessons in January? It's like the middle of January.

So you can think about it, even if, hypothetical, totally not realistic, even if everybody stopped their English just before the Christmas holiday, like around the 20th of December, they're not coming back until the 15th or 20th of January. That's an entire month. And I can tell you that many of our students are totally checked out during December. Like they're just thinking about holidays and they're not, you know, they're not very serious about anything. So,

So you can decide if this year, if you're motivated right now, this podcast has really woken you up and you're ready to go, you know, just really set your schedule. If you're learning with a teacher, book your appointments and be sure to book that appointment after you take any sort of break. If you're ready to take your English to the next level, you might be excited to know that Curtis is currently accepting new students.

Not only is Curtis a host on this podcast, but he's an expert teacher who specializes in developing speaking fluency, pronunciation, honing your listening skills, and building up rock-solid confidence, often within just a few lessons. To get started, click on the description area below to view Curtis's calendar and book the time for your trial lesson.