How To Use Your New Language Throughout Your Day

Learning a language is a big task and it takes a lot of time and effort, unfortunately the main reason people stop learning before they reach their goals is because they cannot commit to the time it takes.

I think this is an awful shame because by just breaking down your learning and spreading it across your day, you will always find the time, no matter how busy you are.

(If You haven’t already, you can read more about – Why You Should Spread Out Your Language Learning Throughout The Day)

Break Your Study Into Smaller Chunks

You should try and put aside a block of time to focus on studying. Maybe it’s only an hour a week, maybe it’s an hour an evening. It doesn’t matter, just try and schedule in whatever you can. This time should be spent doing “traditional” study such as grammar lessons, tutors and reading or writing exercises. Anything like that is basically going to be some sort of focused learning.

However, you need to also try and integrate your target language into your routine throughout your day.

Spreading out your learning time out like this means you can do lots of little practice sessions that all build up over time.

How To Do Small Sessions of Language Learning Throughout The Day

All of the below techniques are pretty much things I do every day. There is about 10 things here, and I might only spend 5 or 10 minutes doing them …but it all adds up.

If you do these things too you can easily spend an hour or two every day using your new language.

This only compounds further if you manage to do this every day. Imagine getting to the end of the year knowing you’ve spent 365 hours using your new language, without even including your actual study time.

Watch Youtube Videos

I know for a fact that you waste loads of time every day just watching random videos on YouTube in your native language …it’s okay, we all do it, but it’s time that stopped.

All you need to do is just watch a couple of videos a day in your target language, even if it’s only 10 minutes at a time.

Maybe it’s from a TV show or a scene from a movie. Maybe it’s even a short lesson from one of the many YouTube language teachers. It doesn’t really matter what you watch, so long as it’s something.

All these videos will add up and you can get quite a lot of exposure from this. If you are learning the language you will be wanting to us it, so use it to enjoy YouTube videos.  

We can all make the time to squeeze some videos in every day, so no excuses.   

(You can read more about – How To Use YouTube To Learn A Language)

Use Social Media

Social media is another curse I know you suffer from. Again we all do it. We all just end up idly scrolling through nonsense every now and again throughout the day. This isn’t really productive for anything …unless you do it in your target language.

It doesn’t really matter what platform you use, you should be able to find plenty of content creators who speak the language you are learning.

All you need to do is make sure you follow them and then when you are mindlessly scrolling at least you will be seeing the language. Just make sure you stop and actually read whatever it is. This is a very easy way to come across a random sentence or two during the day for you to quickly study.  

Listen To Podcasts/ Audio Books

This is another one that you probably already do every day in your own language, so change it to the new language.

I am forever listening to podcasts throughout the day, usually when I am doing other boring tasks, like washing the dishes or making dinner.

When I lived in London I had a 40 minute commute on the tube. This was prime podcast time, 80 minutes a day, 5 times a week. That’s like over 6 hours a week. (Which is crazy when you realise how much time I spent this time on the tube each week) but that was 6 hours I was able to listen to podcasts. 

This time is often called “dead time” you need to do these things, but they are not exactly mentally taxing. This is the perfect time to listen to things in your target language or listen to audio lessons.

I know it is easy to just put on some music on during these times and let your brain coast, but if you want to learn a language, you need to make the sacrifices and put in the effort.

Filling your dead time with the language will be a total game changer for you.  

(You can read more about – Is Listening The Best Way To Learn A Language?)

Spend Time Reading

Reading is something you can also easily break up throughout your day and there are two main ways you can do this.

Reading Books

Of course when you think of reading, books will come to mind. You can easily get some books or a kindle and read in your new language.

You set some time a side to do this, such as reading before bed, or you can just pick up your book through the day and read a paragraph at a time, or maybe a full page. Just do whatever works for you.   

Reading Online

You are probably reading online way more than you realise. Just stop and think about how many things you might look up online throughout your day, maybe it’s the sport results, news, a recipe for dinner or even just some random Wikipedia article. It doesn’t really matter, but the point is will be reading something most days online.

All you need to do is change this to your target language. Every time you want to look up some information, make sure it is in your target language.

This small change can really alter how much exposure you get to your new language every day. Even if have to look it up again in your own language, because you didn’t quite understand, that is fine. The more you do this, the more you will learn and slowly you will just be able to do everything in your new language.

(You can read more about – Is Reading The Best Way To Learn A Language?)

Watch Movies

Watching movies is something a lot of people do to relax, especially in the evening. Watching movies in your target language is a very easy way to get 90 minutes of immersion.

I pretty much got into learning French as I loved French movies. I would sit there and read the English subtitles and thought it would be so cool not to have to do that, and now I don’t.

I’ve said it before, most of us learn a language so we can actually use it and one of the best ways to use it is to just sit down and enjoy something like a movie.

Text A Language Friend Throughout The Day

Hopefully you are already signed up to a language exchange app and have started talking to native speakers in your target language and are making some language friends.

You should text them and have a chat with them and see what they are up to throughout the day. This shouldn’t even be seen as any sort of language lesson, you are literally just talking with your friend about your day. 

The only difference is these friends speak your target language and you can get some real world practice.

If you can’t squeeze some time in to speak with your friends every day, you really need to question your life. I’m sorry, but this isn’t even a chore, this should be a pure pleasure that just happens to have the huge benefit of practicing your language.

(You can read more about – What Are Language Exchange Partners?)

Talk To Yourself About What You’re Doing In Your New Language

This is both the easiest and the craziest thing you can do every day. All you need to do is have an imaginary conversation with yourself through the day in your target language.

I am probably going to seem a little insane here, but this is what I do …I talk to myself as if I was two people.

If I want to go and get a drink, I will ask myself this in my target language. I will then answer myself; as if I was the person being asked. (I could just be one of the people, but why not have the full conversation?)

So I basically have lots of little small conversations why myself to help practice my questions and answers while I go about my day.

One day when I am in this situation for real, I will have both parts totally mastered.

This is really weird at first, but it becomes pretty normal after a while. You will also quickly identify what you do and do not know. You can then look up the information you need to have your little conversations with yourself.

You will find you repeat a lot of things throughout the day, like going to the toilet, or having a drink. Which is great as you will get a lot of practice throughout the day and really start to master some basic things very quickly.    

You will also be surprised at how many things you do through the day. Literally any action you take, just describe it to yourself in your target language. Talk about how you are brushing your teeth, making your lunch, walking the dog, anything and everything. 

(You can read more about – How To Practice Speaking A Language On Your Own (Without Mistakes))

Use Language Learning Apps

There are so many different learning apps and they all have their pros and their cons. It doesn’t matter what one you use, so long as you stick to it. Most of them track your daily use and you can see your “streak” of how many days in a row you have used the app.

Little features like this are sort of annoying, but at the same time, really useful. Wanting to keep that streak might be enough to get you on there every day. You may only spend 5 minutes doing some practice or quickly learning something new, but that is fine. All this time adds up.

I have a few of these apps I like to use. I always spend a few minutes at different points of the day using them. They are like little practice sessions for me.

Sometimes I might stay on them longer, but the main thing is that I do it regularly. I now make sure I use my language apps before I eat my lunch and I’ve got a pretty good streak going so far.  

(You can read more about – Do Language Apps Actually Work?)

Flash Cards

Flash cards are a nice way to quickly get some practice and exposure to the language throughout your day.

This could be flash card apps, physical flashcards, or just a list of vocabulary you are trying to nail down.

Whatever way you do it, just every so often try and go over the words you are learning. Taking a few minutes throughout the day to try and remember the words is really going to help you retain these words in the long run. 

Learning small amounts of vocabulary, with short, quick sessions like this far more productive than sitting with one big list and trying to memorise it all at once.

Conclusion

Using and practicing your language through the day in lots of small little sessions is really going to help you improve your skills.

Using the techniques above is an easy way to effortlessly add in plenty of language to your day and without having to think much of it, each day you will easily put a good amount of time in. They may be lots of little small sessions but they can all add up.

If you’re struggling to commit the time to learn a language you should give this a go and see how effective it can be.

(You can read more about – The Only Study Plan You Need To learn A Language (For Complete Beginners))