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A bunch of time has passed since I mentioned wanting to learn two languages in one of my blog posts here and I have an interesting update in relation to that. While I am not sure which two exactly I meant, I have actually spent a notable part of my recent freetime on learning one. It has been around three weeks at this point and I made a lot of progress that I am really happy about and feel like I am past a good bit of the initial steep part of the learning curve.

The big thought of this post is an interesting realization that I made a while ago. When I now think about the way I have come in regard to my language learning, one thought that is really close to my mind is 'I really wish I had started a month earlier. I would be a lot further now'. This one is actually a no-brainer when you think about it. Activities that rely on long-term commitment seem intimidating. If you decide to learn a language, it will probably take a while until you can translate a whole lot of sentences or even hold an actual conversation. You might need to invest a lot of time until you see some of the more satisfying results. Combine this with the usual excuses for procrastinating and you've got yourself a recipe for perpetually being discouraged from progressing in the respective area - until you defeat just that by starting.

By starting I don't mean reading the first chapter of your introductory grammar, learning the new writing system and stopping again. Let the following idea shape your motivation: 'I could be this much further if I had started a month ago'. Another thing that really helped me was quitting habitual gaming. I might actually have not touched a videogame, except puzzles, for two months at this point. What a good riddance. I hope you could take something home from my experience. Now do something good and be happy about it later.