Learning pleasure: effort or relaxation?

It is clear to me that you benefit from being motivated when learning a language. If you like your studies, you will do more of it and keep it longer. But what exactly is 'fun'? It is a concept that is different for everyone. However, with my classes you can expect a number of things and it is questionable whether you like that.

learning words or grammar I never disliked learning, but that is something that many students find annoying while it is part of it. It is an effort exercise that requires effort.

There are students who prefer to learn through the more relaxed 'trials and errors'-way in which you would learn the language as you are in Italy. But that is simply not possible if you are in the Netherlands or Belgium and are studying Italian here.

My own experience

Personally, I always found practicing in groups during class boring and stupid. Often you are sitting with someone who is not on your wavelength and it is the chanting of sentences that are in the book. I didn't see the point in this kind of drills where you can use little creativity, but only have to learn to apply a material in a standardized situation.

It wasn't effort, it seemed pointless relaxation to me. It was just boring. I often try to make the practice of conversation in my classes relevant and personal, but the fact remains that you are often just talking a little bit without any immediate need, just to practice talking.

Now I know its usefulness: you have to apply knowledge in order to acquire it. Speaking a language is not just understanding the grammar rules and being able to use the dictionary. There are many people who think that way: you can find everything on the internet, you can look it up, right? But being able to google something is not the same as knowing something and being able to apply it.

Effort: insight

When I go for a run I don't always feel like improving my personal best. I also know that often that will not work and sometimes I just want to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

I also have students who do not like to set a goal (for example, achieve A2), but who simply take the lessons out of pleasure and let it happen more to them what the teacher proposes and how their development is going. I then have to think a bit about driving a car and how you learn to look at things that are happening further down the road.

That's good for your overview. You should not only look at what is or is not directly in front of your car. Whoever drives in front of you is not the only thing that is important for good driving, you also have to be able to look ahead and see that 100 meters away there seems to be a traffic jam or an exit has already been indicated.

Anticipation helps you become a better driver. I think that's how it works with acquiring a language. That is why I try to make students think ahead about what is to come, in which phase (A1, A2) they are and which learning objectives belong. Gaining insight into your own learning process takes some effort.

Effort: stomping

I'm going to go back to stamping word lists and grammar rules for a moment. Learning a grammatical rules is not popular with many students. This is how it appeared recently this article in the Volkskrant. That article actually ridicules the learning of grammatical rules. It is of little use to you in communication. Indeed, it has been scientifically proven that learning words or rules without context, without using them, makes little sense.

But that doesn't mean they don't make sense, that means you need to give grammar a meaningful context and use it. You should apply grammar in, as far as possible, meaningful conversations and writing assignments that require effort and thought. That effort is not that popular because many people don't know how to do it either. Giving meaning to the content of a speaking or writing assignment.

Relaxation: easy-peasy

It seems easier to say: let's chat a little in Italian, it's okay to make some mistakes, I get what you mean. Effective communication is more important than correct communication. But I don't believe in that. In order to be effective, you must also be correct.

So I'll give you some examples of mistakes that students can make, which can cause misunderstandings and where you are not effective without stamping, learning and effort.

On the left what they say (nice and relaxed), then what they mean and in the third column the result of mistakes in practice. At the end is a list of the grammatical effort you need to make to avoid the problem.

What is being said	What is meant	What is meant	How to avoid the problem
Ha una penna?	Hi una penna?	It is not clear who is being addressed.	You need to know the conjugation of the verb have.
Hi una penna?	Hi una matita?	You don't get what you ask for.	You must have learned the right word.
Mi dai una penna?	Mi scusi, mi potrebbe prestare una penna?	By formulating something more polite, you get more goodwill with the person to whom you ask the question.	It is necessary that you know something about the conditional.
Se avevo una penna, potevo scrivere il tuo indirizzo	Se avessi una penna, avrei potuto scrivere il tuo indirizzo	Formulating more correctly allows you to say things about the world that you cannot express otherwise. You express yourself more nuanced.	It is necessary that you know something about the subjunctive.

My kids sometimes say 'easy-go-lucky'. That is relaxation: nice and easy but often meaningless. Nothing wrong with that, not everything has to make sense. Sometimes something is very easy, but you don't think about making something a little difficult for yourself. Out of convenience, because you don't see that it can actually be quite difficult.

I also see it in the children of the plus class. They see the translation of a word and think: oh, I can do that, check, it's in! While using that word, remembering it and applying it in a grammatically correct sentence is an entirely different story. They drop out cognitively, while they do not see that there are still many steps to be taken to achieve the goal: being able to speak a little nice Italian.

Learning to make sense

It is therefore important to see that you have to take many steps before you can actually do something, that you gain insight into which steps they are and that you have to make sense of those steps.

My tips? Give yourself meaning to exercises, make it difficult for yourself and make an effort. Making sense is asking yourself questions, seeking answers and making an effort. Why is this so, am I expressing myself so well? Look up the potential difficulties. Really, there are plenty!

Some forms of exercise can also be relaxing. For example, I find practicing the regular forms of verbs in old-fashioned grammar exercises very relaxing. Because making mistakes is frustrating and creates tension, but understanding something and a lot of repetition can be very relaxing and it is also motivating if you understand grammar and can check off exercises that you have done well.

It may seem strange that the effort itself is also partly the meaning of life, but so it is with valuable friendships. Our closest friends are often just people we've spent a lot of time with and have known for a long time. If you put a lot of time and effort into a project, you will naturally become attached to it and love it. Sometimes you only see afterwards why something makes sense.