Thanks for this post and congratuations. I think I was one of your first followers but I've been mainly passively following your projects and posts. I think you've done extremely well. Thanks for all the information you've shared. I plan to use it at last.

… but usually, that's all I do, because I'm too lazy to develop the self discipline to actually open said textbook every day and learn some more phrases, and if I come across people who do speak French I don't know enough to have a clue what they're saying.

I'll be in a French class next year, though, with a teacher holding me accountable. It's not as amazing as getting off my butt and doing it myself, but it's something, and I'm okay with that. Hopefully combining that with what I already do will give me enough of a kick up the arse to take off, but if not, well – that's my responsibility. It's up to me.

I do agree that you can't teach passion. I believe, however, that you can spark other people to discover their passion. I didn't know how much of an interest language was for me until I came across your blog, because the way you learn looks a hell of a lot more fun than the way I learned languages in school, which didn't really inspire me beyond a passive “Hmm, this looks interesting” attitude.

Thank you for this post. I love your blog! Are you ever going to start a forum or something?

I should also add that the reason that passion is important is because it's what keeps you going when you really, really, REALLY don't want to anymore, when you are at your lowest, you're disheartened, you're discouraged, you feel defeated and like it's hopeless, passion is the motivation that gets you to push through all that and come out the other side (it gets better, it always gets better, it's just an issue of being able to weather the storm so you can get to the bright sunny day on the other end).

Cheers,
Andrew

Having said that surely you have to be careful about what you are passionate about. You Benny are passionate about language learning and enthusiastic about a few languages. Some people are passionate about a language (they couldn't walk off and leave it, wouldn't be satisfied with just refreshing it occasionally, it they live in the target country they may well live there for the rest of their lives). Do the same rules and methods apply equally in both cases?

Anyways time went on, the game changed, i started hating it, i quit, watched some anime, and then got obsessed with japan. I wasn’t pasisonate about anything for around 3-4 months, i was kind of just in a limbo, watching anime and playing stupid flash games (good ole middle school eh?) then, i started learning a bit of japanese, nothing big, i wasnt pasisonate about it, but then i met a guy who was learning japanese, and suddenly i felt it, the same drive, the same overwhelming amount of energy and focus i had when i was obseesed with video games surged within me, for the next 4 months japanese became an obsession, everyday i would learn substantial amounts 200 kanji in just 4 months, and that was without me knowing any cool tips until i found this site. after that i quit japanese, and ever so often it comes back up, but i haven’t been overly motivated about it.

conclusion: anyone can learn to be passionate, to learn it consciously requires constant motivation and repition, and most importantly; action. i you arent passionate about something or a language just start doing some research on it, start dreaming about speaking that language or whatever you wanna do, dream about how you will use it, what experiences it will generate, etc. Also, use stagnant time to your advantage, when you’re in your car think about translating random objects, or if you already know how too, start saying it out loud, start making connections, asking questions about your target language so you can search up and clear doubts later. It is amazing what we can do when we are truly passionate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz2-49q6DOI

I once read in “The Luckfactor”:
“We are conscious of only a tiny fragment of the factors that
influence the way we think, decide, and behave.”

A conscious approach (at least for me) often fails, because it's ridiculous to make complex decision on little information
(even if you write things down … compared to what's in your unconscious mind I would still consider that little information) Intuition would be the key.

Unfortunately (this doesn't hold true for language learning, I think there are always ways to do it) many people don't have the possibility to flourish.
A-not-so-good-example: think of a family that needs to be feed on a daily basis. Let's suppose the dad is a highly gifted actor but has a low-paid job due to low qualification. How likely is it that he is going to pursuit a career in film?

I know, I know the example is really bad but I guess you get the picture.

For my first week I will be attending an Esperanto event in Pécs, and for that week Esperanto will be more important than Spanish, French or Italian.

The importance of a language depends on who you are with. My focus is always on speaking, so mountains of poetry isn't going to convince me to speak one language over another if I am more interested in living in particular destinations to get to know people

I am definitely interested in Russian, but its “economic impact” is the last thing on my mind. I will gladly learn the least economic language in the world if I feel it will lead to an enjoyable three month experience