Yeah it sounds like all the stuff you LOVE about Spanish has suffered during the exam crunch. Time to start dancing, meeting Spanish speakers in Japan, enjoying your favorite TV shows / podcasts :D Thanks for being honest and excited to hear about your gap year!

Good luck, emi. You’re doing great. Take a break, and come back stronger; thats how we all move forward. I’ve reached a pretty decent level of Spanish where I can understand a lot but can barely speak. Although im not burnt out, I may experience it soon. Whatever the case is, your realistic videos have influenced others greatly.

I just discovered your channel and love it for exactly this type of authenticity! Thank you for sharing. I am also really amazed by your progress and for acheiving your goal. I think you are doing great! I have been learning on and off for 1-1,5 years and this has happened to me multiple times, fortunately only for a short time but mostly my problem has been a lack of interest in textbook work and/or strict study of grammar/vocab. For this reason I could probably never complete the exam like you did. I am trying to enjoy the language learning process and not pressure myself. Though at times it's been enough to change my focus whenever I've lost interest (at some point all I did was watch short episodes of Peppa Pig for example or just listen to music in Spanish), sometimes I've had to give it a complete break for a few weeks, not even wanting to watch or listen to anything in Spanish. At one point I started taking Salsa lessons and that helped the motivation kick back in. Same as traveling - that will help a lot. I traveled to Spain last year and it gave me a big boost of motivation because I was actually using the language there on a daily basis even though I could only speak very little at the time. I am sure you will rediscover your initial excitement when you are experiencing the culture and language first-hand.

I'm so glad that you talked about this! I feel like losing motivation is something that every learner experiences at one time or another but rarely mentions it :)

I sure enjoy watching your videos. Very inspiring. Thank you! Gracias!

Fall 2021 I started a new job and felt too busy to focus on Spanish. What helped me was to play video games in Spanish by changing the language settings. I keep my phone next to me to look up any unfamiliar words and it helped me a lot to expand my vocabulary.

Tbh idk if it’s burnout or summ, but lately I’m just done with everything. Like I’m not depressed or anything, I’m fine… it’s like I find something new, replace it in the place of old, consume it for a good while, and then again find something new. Well I’m pretty sure it’s ‘cause of my study pressure,, I’m in the last year of high school so I could never really enjoy anything this year… but learning/ consuming Spanish content definitely was a big highlight of the year. Btw emi, I love you sm. I’m more than fortunate to have found your channel this year. You have been a relaxing spot for the 8 months or so I have been following you! I absolutely adore your content and how you at times make frank and chilled vlog/ conversational content. I love how you aren’t really a cashgrab. I love your authenticity and realness. When I tap on your video I know what vibe I’m going to get, and I love it. You’ve built a very strong audience and I for one am proud to be one of them. Lots of love and oh good lord I did write a fucking essay in here💀💀💀

Thank you so much for this very honest and timely video. Perfect timing. Much appreciated.

Thank you for sharing, I really aprciate the openness! I think burn out happens to everyone but Im glad we can be honest about it and not ashamed of it :) Happy New Year!

I appreciate your courage and honesty. You do you boo-boo.

Hey Emi, great vid. I'm only 5 months in and still enjoying the process of learning, but appreciate that what you talk about will hit me for sure at some point in the future. So thanks for the heads-up, love your honesty, please keep the videos coming😃

Thank you for the honesty! I love following your journey and it has helped me tremendously! I have similar goals but in another language so I am thankful for your ideas and struggles for a picture of what I can expect. Take a break and remember why you studied Spanish and all that you’ve learned so far. That is my advice but I hope to see more uploads whether or not they Spanish related!

Thank you so much for this video!!!

Thank you so much for sharing, Emi! I totally understand, I started a new job back in September and my new work schedule did not work with my favorite italki teacher's class schedule so I haven't taken any lessons since September. I have a language exchange friend who I kept talking to weekly but I haven't done any "real" studying in awhile (and like you, I feel really guilty about it). Now that I'm on winter break I've been looking around for a new teacher and I have a trial lesson scheduled. Fingers crossed it goes well and I can get a new study schedule figured out for the new year!

I appreciate how honest you are about the current stage of your language learning journey. I just recently found your channel, and this is super motivating to keep trying to learn Japanese! Also, your videos are genuinely crafted and super relatable :)

I think it’s just this time of year too Emi, the rush before Xmas and all that has killed any motivation for me too. It will come again I’m sure! All the best for the festive season abs the new year!

Love your videos Emi

Same, just with everything in life. I'm taking a break of everything. I planned on studying language and getting some work done over the holidays but nope. Gotta rest

your video motivates me a lot ありがとうございます🙏

I FELT this. For real I do think there could be something about this time of the year, since I'm also feeling burnt out in other aspects right now, but when it comes to Spanish burnout, that did happen to me around September, it had kinda lost its charm and I stopped getting that little mental reward everytime I'd speak it. What I did may not be for everybody, and it may sound counter-intuitive since it seems like you'd pile more stuff onto what you already have to do, but I just put Spanish on the side and started learning a new language - in my case Esperanto. What it did was let me keep the habit of consuming a foreign language daily but not keep burning myself out on Spanish. After a while I basically just started missing it and picked it back up, with a little rust to shake but nothing too bad. Really hope you manage to get yourself out of this situation ! And please remember to prioritize your own happiness, the channel shouldn't be a source of peer pressuring you into doing something you don't love anymore : ')

What helps me is setting new goals!

New to your channel. I’m from Maryland and I’m self learning Spanish too. I definitely understand feeling burnt out.

Hope you have a great holiday as well emi! I think it's perfectly okay to prioritize other things for a while now that you're at a more comfortable stage. I don't know if you've talked about it already but I think reading books in spanish would be a quite relaxing and fun way to keep practicing. And give us recommendations too! Also that's really exciting that you're going to do some traveling after you graduate. I'm studying in the UK so it's cool that you're coming here, and I'm super jealous that you're also going to latin america

¡Hola Emi! He descubierto tu canal recientemente, soy nativa española y tengo que decirte que tu español es increíble. Espero que recuperes la motivación para continuar practicando español, eres tan buena que sería un pena perderlo. Lo que dices al final de este video creo que es clave: pasarlo bien mientras se aprende, que no sea una obligación sino una diversión. ¡Saludos de una subscriptora! 😀

Finally, I think I can get off my chest a very similar experience. It's been 4 years since I first started learning a foreign language (そしてそれは日本語です！), and there are phases when I feel burnt out even though I'm setting goals for myself. You're right when you said you have to also consider having fun doing the process, and I'm pretty sure I could apply it too in my journey since I tend to have a one-track mind in achieving goals. With that being said, I'm looking to do some language learning maintenance for next year. I'm gonna focus on reinforcing my knowledge of the languages I'm learning, Spanish included, and do a lot more immersion than focus on rote memorisation and textbook readings. Perhaps I'd really encourage that we engage more in immersion rather than academically approaching the learning process (unless ofc your language goals call for a more academic approach like I would for Spanish eventually.) 大丈夫ですね！来年から言語の学びを一緒に続けて出来ます！

Hey Emi! I totally feel you! I think you hit it on the nail when you talk about the “fun” part mainly because if you’re having fun learning the language or inquiring about the language or absorbing the language you definitely want to see all the burn outs and you’ll be perfecting it that much more. However, I will say that if you do you think you hit your goal of where you wanted to be such as intermediate then definitely don’t stress yourself about it because you obtain the level that you wanted so in hindsight yeah you’ve reached your goal but I think it’s just time for the funsie onesie section of learning a language. I’m not gonna lie to when it comes to learning a language originally for me the part which I was drawn to the most I really enjoy comprehensible input and things that are fun and engaging. That being said it is very cool to know that you’ve made progress from koine up to this point so kudos to you also I enjoy your Spanish blogs all the outfit because it’s awesome Edit: TL;DR have fun with the language. I understand your burn out I feel like even with me sometimes I feel burnt out but just remember having fun with the language is always better than forcing yourself to enjoy the language helps you retain it more as well :-)

Relájate y tómate el tiempo que necesites es súper normal sentirse agotado después de estar tan sumergido en un idioma o una actividad en general. Lo que sugiero es que pasivamente continúes teniendo contacto con él, con música o series cómicas tal vez, tratar de encontrarle el lado relajado al idioma 😉 un abrazo

1) Losing motivation is super normal. To be fair as you learn more you, you realize how much more there is to learn and that makes it a little dreadful. Your first convo is like “wow I actually talked to someone” and by the tenth one you’re like holy sheeiiitt I would need so many more words to have a smooth convo. 2) I think I’ve gone through the slump more than once LOL I just do the bare minimum when I’m going through it. I try to just read one chapter a day out of books (that I like) in Spanish & I love to read so that’s never incredibly hard. Eventually something ignites my spark again. 3) Your journey to Spanish speaking countries will definitely “remotivate” you. I just got back from Puerto Rico and I feel so excited to learn more and get better so that the next time I’m in a Spanish speaking country I can do even more stuff. 4) Only wanting to be conversational is valid. I would only say that if you think you want more and that Spanish speaking countries will help, I challenge you to keep pushing yourself comfortably until you get to those countries. The better your Spanish is the more opportunities you will have there that English speakers don’t have & you can use your Spanish to learn more Spanish. This concludes my essay 😂😂😂😂

Hello. It's a good video. Thanks.

I feel motivated reading books in spanish that I'm interested in, watching youtube videos and reading comments of contreversial topics, watching shows I enjoy, podcast. I have been at this for years now and it is better to enjoy your studies instead of it having to be a chore. One day I do have the hope to live in Spain as well :)

I felt so burnt out on Spanish in 2019 after taking a semester course in the spring and then doing two months of Lingoda in the fall. I really hadn’t done that much (was still high key a beginner) but it was all using methods that I don’t like. I hardly did anything in 2020 and then in 2021 I was like “I’m going to do only the things I like.” And I’ve enjoyed this year so much & I’m more motivated than ever! I’m interested in looking into the DELE, but I’m cautious about ruining this journey for myself. Hope you can regain the joy again soon!

I am currently going through this and I think it’s also because I’m on fall break and having time away from college makes me not want to do anything and just do my break. I normally will take 3-4 hours of italki lessons a week and I haven’t done any lessons so far lol. I agree about making mistakes all the time while speaking. Speaking has been my “weakest link” when it comes to Spanish. I had been writing down journals in Spanish as some suggested as a way to learn differently, but it’s not interesting to me, maybe because I’d rather improve my speaking. What I’ve began doing is listening to content that interests me though I might not understand it all. I’ve started watching gaming videos in Spanish, but also other content such as Español con Juan, CriesInQuechua, and Dreaming Spanish

I think what happened is what happens to me after every major project or undertaking comes to an end...I miss the structure and certainty and kinda just drift aimlessly until I find a new spark or project to do.

My Spanish studies have been stunted mostly due to pressure from other things: work getting busy. the pandemic getting worse, have a bad moving experience, etc. Before, I could study for an hour everyday and enjoy every minute of it. But now I’m just trying to get through the mandatory life things, so the fun extras like Spanish seem so hard now. I’m wishing the best for you and that you find the fun in learning Spanish again! Thanks for being so honest and not pretending like you have a plan to get back into it!

I work on my Spanish for a while, then slack off for a while, then repeat the cycle forever. Could my bad Spanish be a lot better? Sure. But when I'm into it I'm into it.

I’ve been feeling this incredibly heavy with Japanese! I love when people talk about the intermediate plateau because it’s genuinely very hard especially when you don’t have as much of an interest in the proficiency exams 😭

After the first year I felt the same way. Also after the 2nd year. I would have to remind myself that, "hey, I am understanding and communicating ideas I wasn't able to a year ago. There's a lot of language to cover between intermediate and advance. I felt moments of where my Spanish clicked in another gear/level. Now it's easier after almost 3 years.

Hi, Emi I haven’t been with you since you started. I’ve started and stopped with Spanish a zillion times. At any given time, I’ll test on paper anywhere from an A-1 (after hrs of study) after a break to Intermediate 2 depending on how much brushing up I do before taking the placement test. The real problems are: 1) I don’t actually speak Spanish and can’t understand a lot when spoken and 2) I keep losing motivation. I honestly think the only way to keep learning is to set goals or to travel to a Spanish speaking country as you’re doing. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth setting a goal of passing the C-2 Dele in 8 months. I’m not starting from scratch.I can read Spanish and can speak in a (very) limited fashion. Do you think it’s possible?

I've been having the same feeling which you mentioned in this video. I'm travelling round asia/latin america for 6 months from April onwards and I was expecting my motivation to surge the closer I got to the trip but it's been the opposite. It's a strange complacency thing

Can you make a video of how to studied for the dele exam/how you got to B1?

Do you like Kimi no Na wa? You'll enjoy Durante la Tormenta aka Mirage - on Netflix. Many do spaced repetitions but forget about spacing it. The best way out of this kind of burn-out is to pause for a few days, weeks, months then come back.

Encontré tu canal por esa misma razón! Haha parece que no me puedo motivar. Todavía no siento competente después de doce años aprendiendo el español y es por eso que me encuentro sin motivación. Si ya ha pasado doce años sin mejorarme cuanto tiempo más voy a perder sin mejorar. Sí escribí ese comento en español pero puedo tomar tiempo y todavía hay errores… así que.. si tienes ideas, quiero escucharlas!

Oh wow, I looked up to you because you seemed to be navigating Spanish without the intermediate level slowdown I did. Work life training also interfered. I decided I would try to be more easy going. If there's a Spanish speaker I'll try to speak. I'll watch shows and movies in Spanish, maybe even news. Otherwise I've stopped forcing stuff in a long while. I can always come back to it, and I realise while I'm rustier with the gap we don't really forget the language when not used

Are there any areas/communities of Japan where you find lots of Spanish-speakers? I know there are a lot of Japanese diaspora (Nikkei) from Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil (though, I know Brazilians speak Portuguese) and other parts of Latin America who reside in Japan. So I'm curious where or how you find Spanish-speakers in Japan.

i got burnt out from uni spanish modules due to the constant assessments for the past 2 years, at least I'm B1 and also use the simple sentence construction even though I know the other ways of producing speech. i couldn't watch Spanish content because of burn out too. also uni Spanish assessments are done similarly to dele which is tiring, on top of that, I had to do presentation in Spanish which is def not my strong suit, the listening comprehension in my uni is a nightmare, couldn't catch a lot of things. still have a huge love for Spanish language and the cultures be it castellano or latin america.

I just want to UNDERSTAND Spanish. I don’t care if I can speak it just understand it.

やっぱり短期間でもいいから現地に住まないと続かないですよね

I feel the same I’m stuck in the intermediate plateau, I feel im not retaining as much

スペイン語はさておいて、そもそも東京出身でなんで英語がそんなに流暢なんかが知りたいです。発音がネイティブにしか聞こえません。小さい頃に英語圏に住んでたとか、英語のイマージョンができる環境にいたんでしょうか