How do you get back into language study after stopping for a while? Life can get in the way, and before you know it, months have elapsed without your doing any study. Shame, guilt, and grief set in. Discouragement: the great enemy! These emotions are obstacles to be dealt with.
So how do we resume study seamlessly?
The first part is mental. Remind yourself it is normal to take breaks. Even after years of not using a language, we can relearn what we had learned ten or twenty times faster than when we started out. Vocabulary fades really fast if we don’t use it – even in our mother tongue. But we can easily relearn words we used to know. I always found that grammar stayed in place dormant and was pretty easy to reactivate. It’s the same thing with pronunciation. Your mouth and your ears remember.
The best way to reawaken a language is to reconnect with the familiar. Find your old recordings and podcasts and just start listening. Be passive. You are recreating an echo. It is useful to have the written texts as well. Refresh your eyes as well as your ears.
The other best way is to find brand new fun materials that attract you. The internet language tools available keep multiplying: movies, videos, tubes, games… There is an endless wealth of language resources.
The third best way is to connect or reconnect with the culture of the language you want to learn. Find meetup groups on the internet and go play with natives and other people who want to learn. There is no substitute for being involved with other people.
So in with the old and in with the new. Within a week or two you will be amazed how much you have recovered of your previous knowledge.
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