Is An Hour A Day Enough Time To Learn A Language?

An hour a day does not seem like much, but it can be enough time to get enough practice and actually learn a language.

It will still be a difficult task and it will take a long time, but it is still very possible. Ideally you should spend longer, but of course not everyone can do that. A hour is always going to be better than nothing and if you are willing to learn for a number of years, you will get results.

We All Have An Hour To Learn A Language

We all live busy lives and have many commitments, but I can almost guarantee that we all have an hour.

You may need to reshuffle some things and maybe make some sacrifices, but we can all find an hour a day to take the time to study a language.

For some people this will be difficult, but if you make the effort and make the time, you can start to learn a language. Over time this hour will start to become a habit and it will start to become a part of your life and easier to do every day.

An Hour A Day Adds Up Over Time

An hour in itself is not that long. Its only 60minutes and it can fly by. However, if you take the time to do this every day it really can start to add up. 

An hour a day for a whole year is 365 hours, that’s a significant amount of time. If we look at the very general guides for how long it can take to learn a language, it is estimated that if you are an English speaker, it should take about 600 hours to learn a language that isn’t to dissimilar, such as French or Spanish.

As you can see in under 2 years you should start to feel proficient if you do an hour a day. Obviously if you are learning a more distant language, which will be harder, it may take longer.

I know many of you think 2 years is a long time, but for only an hour a day that is not much.

 If we think of babies they spend pretty much the whole first 2 years of their life trying to process their native language, so if you can do it in only an hour a day, that’s pretty good. 

Also if you are able to do a little more each day, you are going to reach that target even faster.

Doing More Language Learning To Go Faster Doesn’t Work

Spending a few years slowly learning a language is painful and the first thing people often think is that they can speed it up. If you spend more than an hour learning every day you will get their faster. While this can be true, it will only work to a certain point.

You can very quickly tire your brain out and trying to learn for hours on end can lead to you being overwhelmed with information and fatigued, which will actually set you back.

Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. You are going to get much better results doing an hour a day for 2 years, rather than spending the next 2 months doing 10 hours a day. In both situations you will end up with 600 hours of study, but in only one of these situations are you going to feel confident with your language.

You need to let your brain process things and this can only be done slowly, over time. I know you will become inpatient and want to do more and some days that can be fine.

It’s okay to study a little longer from time to time and personally I can easily do 3 or 4 hours, but I have built up to this. For a long time I just did one hour. Also a lot of the time I spend is immersing, my active study time is probably at about an hour a day at most.    

Slow Your Language Learning Down

Maybe an hour is too much for you and you only want to do 30 minutes. This can work too, but of course is going to take you longer to see the same results. I know a lot of apps and courses try and make claims like “learn in 10 minutes a day” or similar, which to be honest isn’t ideal.

Although it is good to go slow and spread things out, this might be too slow. You need to find that balance where you are moving forward with enough momentum, but not going so fast that you are over whelmed.

10 minutes is of course better than nothing, but it is going to take you a very long time to see any real results. Some days you may not have the time or energy to spend an hour and that is okay. Doing less every now and again is totally okay.   

Stay Consistent With Your Language Learning

Consistency is really the key when it comes to learning a language. Aim for an hour and if you hit that most days you will start to see results. Some days you may do more and some days you may do less. That is fine. Just try and stay consistent and you should get there.

It is also more effective to study an hour every day than to wait until once a week and cram it all in. Doing 7 hours on Sunday might seem manageable since it’s only once a week, but there is still the possibility of overwhelming yourself with too much information at one time, as well as there being too much time in between study sessions, so you will forget a lot of things.

The small little steps of an hour a day will make sure you are regularly practicing while still giving you enough time and space to process what you are taking in. 

(You can read more about How Often Should You Study A Language?)

How You Spend Your Hour Learning A Language Is Very important

You can do a lot in an hour, but you can also do very little. How you spend your time studying is really going to dictate what results you get. What you get out of language learning is very much related to what you put in.

Self Study

This is how most of us will be learning and we have to be focused and purposeful with our study. It is very easy to think we are studying when we are really not doing anything, or at least not going at a beneficial pace.

Having some sort of plan and structure to your learning is going to help keep you actually moving forward and learning new things.

I usually spend this time going through flashcards on Anki and reviewing grammar.

Studying With A Tutor

This isn’t really something we can do every day, but you will find these lessons are very focused and driven.

The tutor will have a plan for you and guide you along it. You will not be just idling around pretending to learn in this situation so they can be very useful to add in to your over all learning plan to help you keep your learning challenging enough.

(You can read more about – Should You Use A Language Tutor?)

Immersion

I think your immersion and study should be separate. I think we can all find an hour to sit down and study some flash cards or grammar, and then we can find an hour to do some immersion.

I am certain you will be watching videos or listening to podcasts in your own language and really I think you should swap these to your new language.

Getting plenty of exposure to your language is going to really help you and it will consolidate your study, so it is very worthwhile to try and find the time to immerse. 

(You can read more about – What Is Learning A Language By Immersion?)

You Need Variety In Language Learning

You need to be adding some variety into your learning. If you spend every day just focusing on vocabulary and learning new words you will get nowhere. You need to spread your learning across the whole language.

This means you need to be covering the 4 main areas of language learning – Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

You can spread this out however you want. Maybe you want to focus on a different area every day or spend 20 minutes listening then 20 mining reading and so on.

Language Learning Needs Motivation

How motivated you are and how determined you are to learn the language is going to play a role in your progress.

It is very natural for this to rise and fall over time. I have found that when my motivation is low I will really drag my feet. I will still spend an hour learning, but really my efforts are almost a waste of time. 

However, when I get a boost in motivation I find my hour is spent very productively and the amount I can achieve in that time seems sky high.

I think this is totally normal and some study sessions are going to feel more productive than others. So long as you are consistently showing up and trying, over time it will even out and you will see the overall results.    

Learning A Language Never Stops

Just because you only dedicate an hour to learning doesn’t mean it stops there. You brain is still processing things long after you study and even when you sleep. You will probably find you are thinking about random things about your language throughout the day. That is totally normal and a very good sign.

You might also notice that as you progress in the language you are able to focus on it longer without being fatigued as quickly. This means you can either study for longer than hour with ease, or perhaps be able to cram more into your hour.

Even once you become proficient in the language, you might not need to study every day, but even then, you will still be learning more. There is no finish line with language learning.

It really is an endless task that you can do for the rest of your life.

(You can read more about What Is The Best Way To Learn A Language By Yourself?)

Consistency Is The Key To Learning A Language

As I have said throughout this article, consistency is key. If you can take the time to repeatedly show up and put the effort in every day it will start to pay off. It may seem like you are getting nowhere for the longest time, but with consistency you will get there.

Just keep learning and the language will start to come. It will be worth it!

(You can read more about What Is The Hardest Part Of Learning A Language?)