When learning a foreign language, it is easy to get demotivated and give up, especially when one is self-studying. One of the most common causes of demotivation is the belief that we don’t make any progress. I think that there are two reasons why language learners can have this feeling: if you don’t study, you are not making measurable progress if progress means “getting closer to an unreachable goal”, the journey will last forever. These are some ideas to stay motivated when you feel like you are treading water. First of all: are you studying? Before lamenting that your Japanese is not improving and so on, ask yourself if you are really studying. Sometimes, I think “I am fed up with studying because I don’t make any progress anyway”, when the truth is, that I am not making progress because I am not studying. I wish that I could become fluent by just watching films and reading books but, even if it does help improving one’s reading and listening skills, it’s not enough to take …