How do you deal with difficulty, failure? : Othor Games

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:22 am

I'm tired of you worthless ingrates holding me back from my success.

My job here is done.

Learning a language takes years. Patience is the key.

That's why I didn't choose extra languages.

This is so good to hear. My friends are just like, "I don't understand why you're having so much trouble with this." :angel:

As for dealing with failure, I retry until I succeed or give up. I usually only become more determined to succeed the more I try, so if I give up it's usually very early on.

Oh, yeah, this was me and programming and CSS. I tried for something like 2 weeks and just gave up. My brain just does not work that way.

Learning a language is completely humiliating, there are no two ways about it. You sound like Manuel from Fawlty Towers but not in English. You have to get used to talking with a burning red face while sweating profusely. On the telephone it is even worse. But once you finally get there it is a great feeling.

Me, I just stutter a lot and have vast silences between spurts of words. You can figuratively see the wheels spinning.

aw Japanese isn't that hard

Even the Chinese have difficulty with it. Apparently there are a lot of conjugations and they just can't be bothered. I've been studying it, too, but only vocabulary so far.

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 7:59 am

Booze.

I get http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hammered... After a couple of drinks I just don't care about failure any more :foodndrink:

This often helps. Unless you're a sad drunk. Then you're just adding fuel to the fire.

I try to spend some time doing something I'm good at. Then I go back to the difficult activity I was struggling with, knowing that even though I svck at this, I have other talents, gives me more confidence.

Hope that makes sense :tongue:

What language are you trying to learn?

Makes sense, ya. I'm learning Norwegian. There is no "try"!

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:47 am

This often helps. Unless you're a sad drunk. Then you're just adding fuel to the fire.

Makes sense, ya. I'm learning Norwegian. There is no "try"!

I thought they learn norwegian while drinking and eating grandiosa pizza.

» Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:14 pm

This often helps. Unless you're a sad drunk. Then you're just adding fuel to the fire.

Which is what I recently found out I am. I thought resorting to alcohol would solve my problems and it ended up just creating more problems and making me feel worse. Sure, I was giggling stupidly at everything and felt good, but I was dead inside.

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:30 am

I tighten my boots, dust myself off, square my shoulders and say " [censored] this I need a beer"

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 12:54 am

I've been learning a new language recently, and my reaction to my mistakes has lead me to the question in the OP.

I notice that I get very down on myself if I make a mistake or if I'm having difficulty learning something, and the failure really smarts. I've enlisted the help of friends- they check my writing samples, have conversations with me- and I get almost every single sentence that isn't simple (John kicks the ball. Sally eats pasta.) wrong, so I feel really badly for wasting their time and asking them to help me study. I'm almost at the point where I feel I shouldn't ask them for help anymore because it literally involves them fixing the entire attempt.

It's incredibly frustrating. I've never had this much trouble learning anything before! :confused:

(Besides programming and CSS, but that's an entirely other problem; I'm more a practical and less a conceptual person.)

Anyway, yeah: how do you deal with failure and difficulty?

Do it http://i.imgur.com/I3Fxp.png until you succeed :smile:

.

It's not a direct comparison of course, but the general concept remains. Keep trying until you succeed! Be brave, and you can do it!

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 12:19 am

I try to relax, try a different technique and or continue after a pause. Sometimes it is also wise to skip over one thing and do another. Over doing something such as learning words can actually hamper your process. Also, I try not to master everything in a week, a more natural learning over time is more enjoyable.

If I fail to relax and am for example tired, I might throw my notes out of the wall and bash my head against the window, but things rarely get that heated these days.

» Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:24 pm

Some people can learn languages really quickly, but for most, it takes a loooooong time. You're conditioned to speak a certain way and it's difficult to just switch gears at first and do it in a completely different way. I'm the same way as you - learning the words is super duper easy, but making them into even remotely understandable sentences is impossible. I keep hoping that one day it'll just "click" but it hasn't happened yet. lol

As for failure: If how you're trying to learn isn't working, try something different. Not everyone learns the same way so you have to find your groove. I learn best hands on - I have to actually do something to learn it. Put me in a lecture and it goes in one ear and out the other. (Which is making college loads of fun...) And when I fail, I feel like dirt at first but then I actually anaylze why I failed and try to find a way to succeed or..... I give up. :wink:

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:22 am

By learning from my mistakes and moving on.

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:12 am

By learning from other peoples mistakes, and moving on

» Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:56 am

When you fail you need to accept it, and use it in the learning process. Langauges can only be learned through constant practice and usage, no matter how many times you mess up. We all mess up when we're young and learning to speak for the first time, why expect perfection when learning to speak for a second time?

Well, that's what I'd like to say anyways. Personally? When I fail I quit and cover up all evidence of having tried in the first place. :hehe: