Are You Working on Your Language Every Day?

Days off are killers when you're learning a language. You need to be doing something with the language you are studying every single day in order to maintain the thread. If you miss a day, you end up backtracking a little bit the next time you pick it up. It's almost like two steps forward, one step back.

Not everyone can put in 'official study time' every day. That's why I always try to promote ways to include language learning time throughout the day, at different times, using different tools and different techniques. You can substantially add to your language learning time (and efficiency) by doing this in a concerted way. It takes some preparation, planning and discipline, but it is well worth it. It doesn't have to eat into the rest of your daily time. In fact, if you do it right, you can add significantly to your daily time and be much more productive.

If you feel you don't have enough time in your day, then look at precisely where you are and what you are doing throughout the day. Look for ways to take advantage of non-productive time. If you have the time to play Angry Birds, then you have the time to learn a language. When you add up all the game playing, waiting on line, waiting at red lights (or bus stations, train stations, airports, doctors offices, etc) it can be quite a bit, and there are lots of ways to use that as productive language learning time. Remember that the next time you're texting (or tweeting) your friends, unless you're texting in that new language, that is.