I’ve gotten to a point in my Spanish-learning journey that is far beyond what most American learners would ever reach. I can converse with just about anyone and my vocabulary is huge, by foreign standards.
But I still don’t feel satisfied where I’m at, to the point where I’m really hesitant to move on to another language.
I’m not sure that I’m a perfectionist, but I do have a strong desire to go deep on things and really be thorough in both my process and my results.
I’m not sure that this is a “good” or “bad” thing, but it has its positives and negatives.
It certainly allows me to accomplish things that most won’t. Most people would say “good enough” and then not go any further.
But it also limits me. The difference between being able to carry on a very basic conversation with clear-speaking native speaker and being able to converse with anyone in addition to understanding almost every word in novels is huge. In terms of a time investment, you are probably looking at 300 hours vs. more like 3000.
I could look at my survey results and ballpark how much time I’ve actually spent learning and practicing Spanish, but I suspect I’m in the ~2000 hours range. And yet I don’t feel satisfied with where I’m at.
I’m sure this applies elsewhere, too. While I don’t have much else that I’ve actually dedicated that much time to (although I’m probably around 2000 hours for playing DotA), I think where it really affects me is that I’m hesitant to spend even minimal time on things because I feel it would be pointless without getting really good.
Whether that be sports, music, etc. While it’s just fine to really focus on certain things and get great at them, I think it’s also important to balance it out and realize that I don’t have to be great at everything. Certain things I can just enjoy even though I’m bad.