I know this is a pretty general issue that many face, but I felt it might be therapeutic to write out my dilemma. I apologize for the long length.
In 2018 I was really bored at my job and decided to take on the challenge of learning Korean. I stumbled upon it after a few weeks of listening to Japanese/Korean music on Youtube. I had never studied a language before in my life and I found the whole process incredibly exciting. I studied very intensely for several months on my own. Eventually, I took a continuing education class in Korean. That experience motivated me to go back to school and take Korean language classes for credit and ultimately complete a BA degree in International Studies. I then went on to complete a Masters. During this time I also studied Japanese fairly intensely for about 6 months. As you can see, deciding to study a language totally changed my life.
I never became what I would consider fluent in either language. Probably a TOPIK 1, level 2 in Korean (upper beginner/low Intermediate) and a N5 (beginner) in Japanese. I think becoming really fluent in Korean is pretty unrealistic unless you lived in Korea and gave up English for a long time - at least with my abilities, I know that is what it would take. I don't want to go that far with it. I find Japanese speaking/listening much easier, so I may be more willing to go further with it. Not to mention, there's more learning material for Japanese. I just don't really have a strong desire to learn thousands of Kanji. That's my only issue with Japanese. I never visited either country. I'd like to, of course, but have somewhat of a fear of traveling that I need to overcome.
Since graduating last year, I've struggled to recapture that same level of enthusiasm for language learning. A couple months ago, I thought maybe I should start a new language and see if that sparks anything new inside me. I chose Spanish and did 12 Pimsleur lessons. It was humbling to remember how hard it is to start a language from scratch. It took me a few weeks just to get 12 lessons done, and I was making lots of mistakes. I assumed Spanish would be easier than Japanese/Korean, but if anything, I found it much more difficult. Perhaps because the words are similar enough to English to make it a little confusing. Also, the word order being similar to English really throws me off, since I'm so used to translating everything backwards. I'm sure that can be overcome with time... I'm just not sure how much passion I have for Spanish.
My current plan is to try and study Korean for the next 1.5-2 months (just so I don't totally forget everything), then switch to Spanish or Japanese in the new year. I'll probably sign up for a class and see if being around fellow learners will help re-energize me.
TLDR: I feel guilty if I only study one language and ignore the others, so I end up doing nothing. Studying more than one at the same time would maybe be doable if I didn't have a job... but I think I lack the discipline to juggle 2-3 languages on my own while working. How to get my mojo back?
Sorry for my long, rambling story.
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