I want to learn, but I am too busy: The Lazy Girl Method

Hello and welcome to the third blog in my language series. Firstly, I wanted to say thanks for joining me again. It has been gratifying to work on this blog so far, and I am fortunate to have you here with me once again.

This month's blog is going to be a short one. because you know I am lazy this month, hence the title

I am sure by now you have realized that I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, which is why the last two were 100,000 pages long. I will try to keep this one short and sweet so it is easy to read.

Let’s dive into this month’s blog: I want to learn, but I am too busy: The Lazy Girl Method 😴😴

Introduction

Let’s face it, one ot the biggest obstacles in learning a language is time, or rather the lack thereof.. Many people want to learn one or multiple languages, but life simply gets in the way, or at least one would think. When I started my own language journey, I was overwhelmed with how much I had to learn and how little time I had to do it all, from holding a full-time job, commuting to work, trying to meet fitness goals and do practically everything that keeps us occupied in our adult lives, it was practically impossible to find the time to study/practice and because of this. I gave up a few times before I finally decided to create a plan and stick to it. So let’s go over the plan in this post.

The Plan (One of many)

Let’s be honest, structure can be one of the most challenging things to establish, especially when it comes to learning new skills. The very first thing I had to do was create a study plan to make things less overwhelming; I believe there is no one-size-fits-all study plan out there. Some people prefer to start learning with apps like Babble, Busuu or even Duolingo (more on this later), others enrol in courses and programs to get started, and some even go as far as buying textbooks and throw themselves into the language. From my perspective, I highly discourage buying a bunch of programs and textbooks in the first few months of language learning, because it can create an illusion of progress and completion and also it can be pretty pricy. The brain has a way of filling in the gaps when we are trying to learn something for the first time, when we do too much at the start. That being said, my Lazy Girl approach would be to start slow. Here are a few things I suggest you do within the first few weeks to the first 3 months of your language learning adventure

Choose one learning platform and stick to it like your life depends on it:

I personally recommend YouTube and podcasts in the first few weeks of learning a language. Why? Because YouTube and Podcasts are a low-effort way to get started, you can simply keep them in the background while doing something else; that way, you can give your mind something to do while doing another task like cleaning or cooking. A good example of this is a YouTube channel for learning any language called Pod101. There are many Pod101 channels, such as FrenchPod101, JapanesePod101, GermanPod101, etc. Each video teaches simple sentences, greetings, how to count and many other things in your target language, which I believe is extremely useful when getting started with a language. I am currently watching GermanPod101 videos to brush up on my German before diving into the apps.

Dedicate 15-30 minutes a day to your target language

I know I am going to lose a lot of you here. If you read up to here, I want to thank you for your time!! Bye.

For those who are still with me (thanks for staying), here is the truth: real progress cannot and I repeat CANNOT be made unless there is consistency and discipline behind it. In fact, when I get asked how I create a routine around learning a language at the genesis of it all, I always say you’ve to make it a habit. Studies show that when you repeat a behaviour (learning a language in this case), the brain strengthens neural pathways each time a behaviour is repeated, making it routine. This means that over time, conscious effort shifts to automatic processing, which is why it is crucial to create a 15-30 minutes a day habit. It is extremely tempting to push study sessions to one or two days, but research shows that it is more efficient to have a daily practice rate rather than a full session every now and then

Start using the language immediately:

Most people find that they can retain information once they put it to use once they put it to the test. A good way to do this is to go over everything you have learnt in a day and recite it back to yourself. I prefer the teacher method; teaching what I have learnt to someone else, even if they are not learning a language. I did this in the beginning, once I started learning French, and I would recount everything to my family and friends, and it did wonders for my memory, even if they were confused about it.

Language apps are your friend, but not the answer

I am sure by now you have heard the grand claims of some gamified language apps ( *cough cough Duolingo *cough cough) that you will learn a language easily using their platform and will get you closer to fluency. Here is the thing, although language apps are great and will keep you motivated, you must, and I repeat MUST, use them as a tool to complement your learning. In other words, use the apps as revision tools, not as your only learning tool. You can do a lesson a day on the app, then continue with your primary content, so as to reduce complexity.

Personally, I’d say that apps like Duolingo should be used to get a “feel” of your target language before fully investing, say, bout 1-3 weeks.

When it comes to language apps, I recommend LingQ. Why? because you have an all-in-one deal with LingQ.

Want to know more about LingQ? Check out this video: by Stephen Kaufmann, language enthusiast and polyglot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rMDMNf5nDY

Review at the end of each week

Finally, once you have started learning, I recommend reviewing everything you have learnt each week. Think of it as a weekly review before learning something new. This is a great time to clear out any doubts and go over things that were not clear. I would recommend doing this for at least 20-30 minutes each week, preferably on the weekends before the next week starts. This means that at the end of the week, you would have spent at least an hour learning your target language. Awesome, right?

This method, in my opinion, is way more practical and is extremely low effort, So if you take this one-hour time frame a week and spread it across a few months, let’s say 1 year (because we are ambitious like that), you would have spent around 52 hrs on your target language and that’s in the first year alone using this “low effort, bare minimum, lazy girl” method (my calculations are assuming a low effort method, results vary based on the individual approach)

Okay, I think I have covered the essentials for this month. I hope this blog post was helpful. It was shorter than usual, but we covered a lot. Thanks for reading, and as always, if you have any comments on this post or anything you’d like to add in particular, feel free to do so. Thanks for reading Tschűss