So what really motivates people to learn a language? It's not what you think...

So what really motivates individuals to learn a language? The answer to this question might vary according to whom you ask. What I found in my work as a language expert and Co-Founder of Edugo.ai, it's that there is no one size fits all answer to this question… or maybe there is?!

Learning a second language or foreign language is different in many ways from learning a school subject, it’s a socially and culturally bound event. The significance of this social dimension has encouraged many researchers to examine language learning from a social psychological perspective instead of a traditional linguistic one.  

I came across a number of studies and some of the most interesting that I found was by R. C. Gardner and his colleagues. Gardner and Lambert are responsible for proposing the most commonly used framework for understanding the different motivations that language learners typically have. They distinguish two types of language learning motivation: Instrumental motivation and Integrative motivation.

An individual is Integratively motivated when he studies a language with the aim of better understanding a culture, language, and society. Exhibits an integrativeness- i.e an openness to other cultural communities. Language aptitude is a tool for building relationships and meaningful communication. Some learners have a personal affinity with the people who speak that particular language, for instance, a boyfriend, girlfriend or family members.

An individual is Instrumentally motivated when he/she studies a foreign language purely for a practical reason such as getting a salary bonus, pass an exam or get a promotion. In this cases language competence isn’t the goal in itself, but rather the vehicle to achieve a separate professional or personal accomplishment. Instrumentally motivated learners usually exhibit a lower degree of interested in the culture of the target language.

Several studies showed that Integrative motivation yields faster and more effective language learning results than any other type. For instance, integratively motivated individuals learned words faster than those who were instrumentally motivated.

In many interviews with foreign successful people here in China, I noticed the same pattern emerging over and over, they learned to speak Chinese fluently because they were Integratively motivate!

In my interview with Fionn Wright, named by City Weekend Magazine as one of the “11 Most Influential Movers & Shakers inShanghai” when I asked him why and how he learned Chinese he simply replied that: 

 I didn’t learned the traditional way, didn’t use textbooks, didn’t go to the classroom and didn’t have a personal tutor. Basically when I was a student one of the reasons to come to Asia was because from a young age I thought that Chinese girls were beautiful, and for me learning the language was less about oh I need to learn Chinese and was more of, oh I want to talk to that girl and I really want to understand her Chinese.

But at the same time, I was interested to make new friends talking with people and slowly building a relationship with them. But what I found most important about that period was not actually the language it was understanding the culture, the way Chinese people think, the way they communicate.

In another interview with Enrico Iaria, Forbes China 30Under30. I asked him the same question, why and how he learned Chinese, he simply replied that:

I decided to learn Chinese not really because I was thinking about the potential opportunities that I could have at work but more as a challenge. And I challenged myself because I was really curious to learn more about how I can possibly interact and build a stronger relationship with my fellow Chinese business partners. As soon as I reached a certain level of Chinese I really started to understand what's going on and most importantly once I get into the language I learned about the culture behind and I found that there was a huge dimension of unspoken words that really matters, especially when you deal with Chinese people, that was an interesting discovery for me.

These are obvious examples of Integratively motivated learners who successfully achieved fluency in Chinese no matter how busy they were or how hard it is to learn Mandarin. 

Nonetheless, language learning requires a long-term time commitment, for instance learning Mandarin for an English native speaker it takes 2200 hours in a classroom with a teacher.

Do you have this amount of time? 

Many of our premium Edugo.ai members told us over and over that, they don’t have the luxury of time or energy to spend 2200 hours to learn Mandarin in a classroom with a teacher. And I am aware that you as busy professional hustling in China have the same problem.

How can you schedule your lessons with your personal teacher that comes to your office once per week knowing that one day you are in Beijing the next day in Shenzhen and the day after in Singapore?

But even if you manage to do that, how can you find the mental energy to do a 1 or 2-hour-long Chinese class after 10 hours of intensive work or a business trip? 

After all, for professionals work is the main reason for being in China, therefore, it has the priority over everything else.

Is there any hope for those who want to take the extra mile of learning Chinese and boost their career/opportunities here in China?  

The simple truth is that if you want to learn Chinese despite your motivations, the old tools and resources won’t yield results because they do not merge well with your hectic and busy corporate/entrepreneur life. Apps like Duolingo, Busuu or Rosetta Stone are great but you need a system that is flexible and adapting to your own needs rather than you adapting to it. A teacher, available anytime and from anywhere that teaches relevant content to your industry and personalized to you. Forget about the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), it’s just a way to measure how much you know.

At Edugo.ai , for instance, thanks to the AI technology we not only decrease the time that you need to spend with a teacher (no more 2200 hours), as a matter of fact, the online lesson is only 15 min and it can be performed from anywhere and anytime. But also once the lesson is finished the AI system that supports the teacher during the lesson analyzes the grammar or pronunciations mistake you made and automatically creates a personalized review lesson where you can review and interact with the content that the teacher taught you.

You can practice and improve your speaking, reading and writing skills independently during the day or week at your own pace and get immediate feedback from the AI system (it's like having your personal teacher in your pocket all the time).

Don't believe it yet and curious to experiment yourself how we use AI to help busy professionals to learn Mandarin? Get your trial lesson here https://www.edugo.ai/

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