Set yourself a goal for the dayįor example, say to yourself in the morning, ‘I want to spend x amount of time on vocab or grammar,’ or ‘I want to complete this many exercises/games,’ or ‘I want to have at least one conversation in the language today’. You’ll pick something up without even realising you’re ‘studying’. Put the radio on in another language or some language tapes or an audio-based lesson like EuroTalk Rhythms while you’re washing up/cleaning/getting dressed in the morning. Ok you get the idea! Try for links to loads of cultural sites (TV/comics etc) in several different languages. Found a new book to read? Get the translation (or, even better, the original foreign language book!). Watching your favourite TV show in the evening? Find it online dubbed or with subtitles. Reading the news online? Find a foreign newspaper to read instead of your usual one. Surfing Facebook in your lunch break? Switch it into your language. Do things you were going to do anyway… in another language! You’ll be surprised how quickly it adds up! 6. Keep a language book or app with you and you can always do a bit of reading or revision while you wait. If you added together all the time you spent each month just waiting around for things (waiting at the doctor/dentist, waiting for a bus, sitting on a delayed train…), you’d probably realise you were wasting hours of your time just getting bored. (Disclaimer: Do not do this if the language is Arabic or Mandarin and you can’t read the script yet! You might have trouble switching it back… I speak from experience here.) Make post-its of everyday vocab and stick them around your house/office to learn the names of household items. Try switching your phone or Facebook into another language so you see it every day without changing your routine. In fact, 10 minutes a day of flicking through some vocab flash cards, playing a couple of revision games or doing a couple of units in a language app is probably more effective than one long session each week. There’s no reason why you have to spend hours at a time for it to be effective. Or make some friends who speak that language and resolve to spend at least 15 minutes chatting to them in their language before you switch back to English. There are plenty of websites like and where you can find a partner to exchange languages with, either in person or over Skype/email. Try to find a language partner who speaks the language you’re learning and chat to them over tea/beer/dinner. If you’re one of those healthy types who walks to work, try listening to the radio or a podcast on your phone. ![]() ![]() Half an hour or so on a train or bus is the perfect time to read a book in another language, pull out your iPhone for a couple of uTalk games or listen to a podcast (there are loads designed specifically for learners). This is my favourite strategy, as it uses time that I would otherwise spend staring out of a train window, or (now that I take the tube) at someone else’s armpit. Please share your own suggestions in the comments, and let us know which of these ideas works best for you. But don’t despair – it can be done. Following up from last week’s tips on how to learn a language on a tight budget, this week we’re giving you some ideas about how to keep learning even when you’re short of time. We know what it’s like – you really want to learn a language, but things just keep getting in the way: work, school, commuting, exercise… There are so many things to fit into the average day, that it’s not always easy to make time for studying.
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