Yes You Can: Fitting Language Learning into a Busy Schedule |
"I don't have time." "I tried, but I can't seem to make any progress." "I always wanted to learn French. But I have three kids now." These are only a small selection of the reasons it is difficult to learn a new language as an adult. The most frustrating part of being an adult language learner is that the issue lies not with the will to learn, but rather with a lack of time.
Don't be frustrated. There is a way. It is not the amount of time put into learning a new skill, but rather the consistency that matters. Like water rolling off a stone, little drops over a long time will make lasting impressions.
I know what you might be thinking. "Water over stone? I don't have that kind of time! I want to learn now!" The reality, however, is that language learning is a serious undertaking that requires serious time. Even if you could sit all day on a beach with nothing else to do but learn Russia, it would still take a long time. Years. It might take a year to just get familiar with endings in the plain present tense. Wait until you see the subjunctive. Okay, I didn't mean to scare you with the subjunctive. One just needs to accept the reality of the effort involved. Just like a teenager should not get discouraged that he isn't jamming like Jimi Hendrix after strumming a guitar for three days, a language learner should not give up because she can't understand a conversation between two native speakers after a short period of learning. Languages are really complex. They take lots of time to learn. It's okay to take time. Fifteen minutes a day over a period of five years is a pretty good foundation. "Five years?" Yes. And that's just the beginning. Think about it. A five-year-old child has heard his native language for almost six years, because language learning starts in the womb. And a five-year-old can definitely understand what other kids are talking about and what mom means when she says, "Pick up your toys." But if a five-year-old wanders into a conversation about geopolitics, tax regulations, or another adult topic, it is like the Peanuts comic strip: "wa, wa, wa, wa, wa."
A person who plays the guitar every day for fifteen minutes will not be Jimi Hendrix in two weeks, three months, or one year. But she will be on the right footing. It's the same with language. In one year of learning Mandarin, you will not be walking around Shanghai having fluid conversations with locals. But you will be able to order a coffee, explain to a co-worker that you have a wife and two kids, or tell a foreign exchange student that your favorite movie is The Breakfast Club. And that is not too bad. It is much more than you knew the year before, and much more than somebody who has never attempted to learn the language. And don't worry, the subjunctive will come in time. Don't stress about time. Time is on your side. Forget about "being fluent" in one year or two years. Instead, take a longer and more positive outlook: each day you will get better in your new language, fifteen minutes at a time. Put in the Michel Thomas, Pimsleur, or Teach Yourself on your morning commute. Or get through three pages of a Goosebumps in Spanish before you fall asleep. Or cycle through a short stack of flashcards while you wait for the kid's soccer practice to end. That's all you need. Each day those drops will wear down that stone.
You can also think of language learning as tending a garden. You would not spend twelve hours a day weeding your garden, and you wouldn't spend twelve hours a day learning a new language either. Fifteen minutes, however, each day will go great lengths. Fifteen minutes of weeding on Monday; fifteen minutes to water on Tuesday; fifteen minutes to repair a raised bed on Wednesday; fifteen minutes to resoil a pot on Thursday; fifteen minutes to prune on Friday; fifteen minutes to water again on Saturday; and Sunday to take a break. So with language. Fifteen minutes of verb forms on Monday; fifteen minutes of vocabulary on Tuesday; fifteen minutes of newspaper reading on Wednesday; fifteen minutes of listening to the news on Thursday; fifteen minutes of Teach Yourself on Friday; fifteen minutes of listening in the car on Saturday; and Sunday to take a break. Updated July 2019 Back to the top of the page