Tips for foreign language learners yourself

These tips are based solely on my experience, above all, studying grammar and memorizing words.

1. Consider the lack of external motivation. This is a different experience, different from when someone asks you. I do not know whether it is possible to somehow prepare for this, in any case, do not dismiss this factor.
2. Work on the system, do not invent anything yourself. I learn words with cards. Previously, I simply wrote out unfamiliar words from the dictionary, respectively, to the same word there were several meanings, the words were from different subjects. Then I began to memorize words using the methodology of Pavel Litvinov “3000 English words. Technique of memorization ” (the book is not expensive, 70 rubles). There is nothing difficult, the words are grouped by subject, each word has one meaning, but the performance has increased by 2 times. Previously, I could memorize 20-25 words a day, now it is more than 50.
3. Keep in mind that learning a language is an extra burden. Of course, it differs from fatigue, concurrent mental work on decision-making, and so on. Nevertheless, this is additional stress. If you have chosen for yourself an intensive pace of learning, learning a language can greatly “eat” your daily mental resource. An important point, mental effort is not necessarily equal to the time spent.
4. Count your time. In addition to memorizing words using cards, I also study grammar using the English Grammar in Use textbook. On average, I perform 1-2 lessons a day and memorize about 20-30 words. Considering that in these training courses there are only 145 lessons and 3,000 words, it can be calculated that at my pace these two courses will be completed in 5 months, if I study at the weekend. No weekend about 7 months. Such a simple calculation makes it clear that learning a language is more like a race for a long distance than a hundred meters when you lay out the maximum, but for a short time. In addition, in my experience, one-day overpower easily interrupts two days of normal work. In other words, if you want to achieve very fast results, you will have to do super efforts every day.
5. If something does not work, do not take it as a problem. Most importantly, when you try to understand things that are not fully understood, do not overdo it. Do not create problems out of it. In my experience, then incomprehensible moments disappear themselves and often turn out to be not as important as I thought. I don’t know how it works, perhaps the brain needs time to absorb information, or new information from the following lessons allows you to better understand previous lessons. In any case, getting rid of perfectionism, I have become much better off.
6. When you do not want to learn anything, start with the words. In addition to the fact that different lessons / words can be learned in different ways, there are different days. There are days when you want to learn the language, there are days when you can no longer see him. In the second case, I begin to do the simplest operation, write out new words on the cards. By the end of such a “warm-up”, you drag in and do the rest. I don’t know, like you, grammar is harder for me than learning words.