In my experience, one of five emotions cause people take a break.
The first one is doubt/fear. For example, I’ve taken an indefinite break from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because I fear getting hurt again. I sprained a ligament within the first month of taking classes and had difficulties walking after that. It took two months for the ligament to heal.
The second one is discouragement. For example, I took a break (or even quit) learning Korean because I couldn’t pronounce these three damn letters. It still grates on me a little.
The third one is overwhelm/feeling emotionally drained. For example, I used to pause my Mandarin studies every spring because it was the busy season at work. I worked 12 hours a day to keep up with the workload. It was exhausting and stressful. There was even this one day (maybe even more than one day) where I plopped on the floor and wondered how on Earth I was going to face tomorrow.
The fourth one is boredom. For example, I used to take a 15 to 30-minute bathroom break in my high school Social Studies class. I needed a break from the monotony. I’d sit on the toilet for too long or wander the halls, dreading the moment I’d have to finally go back to class. Sometimes I’d ask my girlfriend to take a “bathroom break” at the same time as me so we could hang out.
The fifth is confusion. For example, I took a break from learning Gujarati because I was unclear about how to go about my studies. My usual methods for learning languages aren’t possible for this language.
Why do you want to take a break?
Are you scared, discouraged, overwhelmed/drained, bored, or confused? Regardless of which one it is, it seems to me that a break doesn’t solve the root issue.
Quitting my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lessons didn’t rid me of my fear. It was a way to run away
Quitting my Korean studies didn’t rid me of the discouragement of being unable to pronounce three difficult letters. It was, again, a way to run away
Pausing my Mandarin studies every spring didn’t change the fact that I was overwhelmed and drained. All it did was postpone my eventual and inevitable mental breakdown from overwork
Taking a long bathroom break didn’t make my social studies class less boring.
Pausing my Gujarati studies did not give me clarity of how to approach learning the language
Here’s what I ended up deciding to do (after taking a break) in the situations listed above.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: I have hired a personal trainer and work out daily. I think if I feel better about my fitness, I will be more confident to go back to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (and martial arts in general.)
Korean: I’ve accepted defeat for the time being. It wasn’t (and isn’t) a high priority in my life. I may revisit learning Korean in the future, but for now I’ve quit. I have bigger fish to fry.
Mandarin: I had a few wake up calls. One of them was a panic attack. I eventually realized that I had too much on my plate at work and changed my lifestyle. I also accepted the seasonality of my language learning. Even now, I spend at least 1 month a year doing intensive studies (4+ hours a day, 7 days a week) and the remainder of the year taking a more relaxed approach.
Social Studies class in high school: I only partially solved this problem of boredom, but I did it by choosing to fix my handwriting. I used to hold my pen like a caveman and had illegible writing. I spent my social studies classes learning to print like a modern man instead of a caveman while the teacher droned on endlessly.
Gujarati: I was stumped for a while. I ended up getting lucky and stumbled into a solution: the LingQ app. Using this as a learning tool is exactly what I need for Gujarati. I also, literally today, found some sites I didn’t know existed that I think I’ll be able to use.
What will your approach be?
Will you take a break? Swallow your pride and admit defeat? Pivot and try a new approach? Something else entirely? Let me know! I’d be curious to read your thoughts.
My habit is, when I get back from a break, I head right back into what I was doing before. Since it usually involves burnout, I just burn out again. I'm working on trying to isolate the major factors for what overwhelmed me so that I can make adjustments when I come back.
I think you're right in that it's super important to be attuned to what's going on in your mind/ body and recognize when you need a break or when / if you need to quit. I found Language Transfer super helpful because it's an audio course (I'm learning Swahili) so I can do it while taking a walk and it's not overwhelming at all.