I enjoy learning languages and I am sure one reason is because I have had success. I certainly enjoy learning languages more now than when I was a high school student learning French in Montreal in the 1950s. In those days I had no strong desire to communicate in French with anyone. If I had to deal with French speaking Montrealers it was more comfortable for me to speak English.
Today that is different. Even for a language that I can hardly speak at all, like Korean, I prefer to struggle with my Korean than to speak English. I enjoy doing it and I do not mind appearing to be awkward. So I enjoy learning languages but I recognize that it might be an acquired taste. Language learning at first seems a daunting task in terms of the work involved and the damage to our egos.
I am convinced that to achieve anything in language learning, to overcome the obstacles, requires intensity. When I take on a language with the intention of raising my level, of achieving a breakthrough, I have to commit to doing it almost every day for a period of three months at least. I see so many people who go to class once a week, or even once a day, but do not achieve any intensity Interior designers. They are passive learners, going through the motions of learning. They are not deliberate, motivated, high-intensity learners. They do not get to that feeling of weightlessness, the breathrough stage.
Now I guess you could argue that not everyone is motivated to speak a foreign language. But then if the learner is not motivated why even bother going to the language class in the first place. If you are going to spend the time, do it with intensity. Develop the habits of intensity.
A big part of intensity is the efficiency of your study methods. Much of traditional language learning is not efficient and therefore does not enable the learner to achieve the required level of intensity. When we designed The Linguist system we designed it for intensity and efficiency.
