Language Learning Methods That Are A Waste Of Time

There are many different ways to learn a language and there are many ways to just waste your time.

Quite often people give up on their dreams of learning another language as they just don’t see any results. This is usually down to their own mistakes and basically they waste their own time, rather than being actually productive.

If you want to see results you need to do the work. The method you use isn’t as important as the amount of time and effort you put in. So long as you do that, you should get there.

I have made a list of some of the common things that can waste your time and slow down your progress so that you can try and avoid these, so lets get into them:

Not Setting Goals Will Waste Your Language Learning Time

A lot of people skip past setting a goal and it usually comes back to haunt them because without a goal, every method you try will be a waste of time.

Unless you know what you are trying to achieve with the language, you will never get there.

No matter what method you want to try, always make sure you start out with a goal. This is going to give you something to focus at make sure you time is set out productively.

If you want to just understand the language you can set a goal to learn a certain number of words every day and spend so long listening and if you would rather get good at speaking you can set goals around how many conversation you can have, or something along these line.

Your goals do not need to be extravagant, but they do need to give you some sort of direction. You are wasting your time if you just start learning this and that and have no system in place.   

The Output Method Is A Waste Of Time

The output method is where you focus on talking right from the start. This method can work, but I think overall it is a waste of your time …as a beginner.

You will see quick results and it will seem like you are learning a lot, but I think it’s all a ruse, the reality is that you will end up with a pretty shallow depth of knowledge, you can only talk about what you have already studied. If your conversation drifts from this you will be very lost.

This method will certainly make sure that what you know is known very well and I do think it has its place, but not as a total beginner.

I think you are much off better focusing on immersion and just absorbing the language at the beginning. Basically you should just try and get an understanding of the language. The more you immerse the more you will understand.

At some point you will come very comfortable with understanding everything and will start to feel like outputting yourself. It’s at this point you should start using the output method, basically when you have an extremely high comprehension of the language.

Once you start this method at this later point in your studies your speaking ability will sky rocket very quickly and more importantly you will have the depth of understanding to back up your conversations.

Don’t waste your time by trying this method first, although practicing some speaking from the start isn’t bad and you should try and do some, don’t be totally mute, just don’t put the majority of your time into this.

The Classroom Method Is A Waste Of Time

The classroom method can also have its place too, but basically if you are only focusing on this you are wasting your time.

Classroom style learning can explain to you what is going on give you the basics, but too many people rely too heavily on this method.

Ideally you should be focusing on getting a lot of exposure to the language though input and then supplementing this with some classroom learning.

Basically you should notice things in your immersion appearing time and time again and you might not be able to quite be able to work out why it is that way. This is where you use the classroom style learning to look up that grammar point and hopefully understand what is going on.

There is a chance that if you keep immersing you will start to work out what is going on, but we are adults and can look up explanations and comprehend concepts.

Doing things this way around is much more effective and you will actually make rapid progress. Just focusing on classroom learning alone is going to teach you one of these grammar points, but you will have no real world reference, so it will either make no sense, or you will quickly forget it.

Don’t waste your time only studying the language, actually use it and immerse in it too.     

Language Apps Are A Waste Of Time

Okay, so some language apps can be great, but in general they are a waste of time.

They can be an okay place find out about the very basics of the language. They can be a lot more fun than reading a grammar book, but at the same time the apps try and push the game side of things a little bit too much.

There can be too much emphasis on XP points and bonuses and leader boards and scores. This can be good fun at times, but never forget that we are here to learn, don’t get too caught up with all this extra gaming stuff.

Apps also can sometimes be too easy, I am not saying you need to only be doing really tough studying, but you should at least have to think and feel challenged.

Learning apps will often have pictures next to the word, which basically just makes it too easy. You might not know the word, but you can look at the picture and automatically guess what the right answer is. 

The same thing can happen with multiple choices questions. There will either be pictures, or three of the four choices are so obviously wrong that you can just guess the correct answer and you are not really challenged.

Another problem with some apps is the can often get you to translate strange phrases.  Like “Does the cow drive a car?” It can be argued the context of the sentence isn’t too important, the important things is you are able to translate the words and use the grammar correctly.

The issue for me is that when I am looking at these words, I will doubt myself. I translate it and end up with some weird sentence about cows and cars and I think “Well this can’t be right, no one would say this, I must have gotten a word wrong”. Then when I check the answer I just end up being confused that I was correct.

This is also bad as we shouldn’t be trying to translate the languages back into our native one. This isn’t productive for us.

Overall apps in very small doses are fine, just don’t let them take over and be your main focus as this will waste your time.      

Other Things That Will Waste Your Time When Learning A Language

I have also noticed a lot of people waste their time with the following behaviours. If you catch yourself doing anything that I mention below then you need to stop at it once, it will just be hindering your progress.

Not Putting Enough Time Into A Language Is A Waste Of Time

If you are not willing to put a serious amount of time into a language, then you are wasting your time.

You need to be exposed to hundreds, if not thousands of hours of your new language to get good at it and people who are not willing to do this will struggle.

This is probably made worse by language apps encouraging you to only study for 5 minutes a day. While this is better than nothing, it’s just not enough.  

I have a duolingo streak that is in the 600s, which seems impressive. 600 days in a row! Epic …but that’s 600 times I’ve only spent 5 minutes on there …that works out to be 50 hours, which is nothing.

At this rate I am going to need to spend about another 15 years studying to get to a decent level. No one is doing Duolingo for a total of 17 years. No one. Not even me.

Luckily I do put the hours in and spent most evenings immersing for a couple of hours, so that time will be drastically reduced.

You can see why so many people quit. They spend two years studying every day and get nowhere, because really they have done nothing. There is no reason why you cannot hit 50… well let’s say 60 hours a month, as that is only doing 2 hours of study a day.     

Put the time in, you will see results. If you don’t, you are wasting your time.

Inconsistency Will Waste Your Time

Consistency is really the secret to learning a language. If you just stick at it for long enough, you will get there. It takes time and effort, if you are consistent with this you cannot fail.

I am forever seeing people dabble with languages and give up after a few weeks. Sometimes they come back to it again, but then take another few months break. This on and off approach will get you nowhere.

Learning a language is exactly like exercise. You need to keep doing it, consistently to get good at it.

If there is one thing I want you to take from this whole website it is that you need to be consistent with your learning.

If we go back to the example above with my duolingo, imagine I didn’t even do it every day, so my 600 streak was only like 300 days …that would be even less time I was putting in, so you can see why consistently turning up every day is so important.

Your efforts will compound over time, so stay consistent, this is how you avoid wasting time.

Being Too Passive With Your Language Learning Is A Waste of Time

Passive learning can have its place in helping you to learn a language, but you are not going to get there with this alone.

Passive listening is when you have the language on in the background and you not paying attention to it.

You need to actually engage with the language to see results, passive listening really only gets you used to the sounds, it doesn’t teach you anything.

Immersion

Before you all lose your minds about what I just said about passive learning, remember that immersion is a little more active.

You should actually pay attention when you are immersing and while sometimes you may turn your conscious mind off, so that you are not really trying to actively understand, you are still paying attention on some level.

You also need to be able to comprehend your immersion, where as passive learning is just basically white noise in the background. They really are not the same thing.

Immersion is a good way to spend your time …passive listening, is a waste of time.

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

Learning Things You Will Never Use Is A Waste Of Time

This sounds obvious, why would anyone do this? Well, they do and it is a total waste of time.

I know sometimes when you are learning some boring grammar rule it can seem pointless, but I’m not talking about that. That probably has a purpose.

This is most commonly seen with vocabulary. People learn weird and obscure words that they are never going to use. It might be fun at the time, but if you are never going to use the word then you are never going to remember it, which means it’s a waste of time.

You would be much better off spending this time learning words that you actually need to know and will see every day in your immersion or are likely to say yourself.

False Progress About Your Language Skills Are A Waste Of Time

Progress reports are something the learning apps can be guilty of, but it’s just not found on apps.

Basically this is when you are given some sort of feedback about how much you have learned or that you much apparently now know.

I once had an app tell me I was 52% fluent in a new language.

The honest truth is I probably would have struggled to order a coffee, so I have a feeling 52% was being a bit generous. If they had said I was 52% through the beginner course, I might have believed them …But fluent? It’s ridiculous.

This kind of false progress may help some people, but the reality is that you are going to get a rude awaking once you leave the app and enter the real world. Your comprehension is about nose dive down to the 0.052% it’s actually at, which will hurt.

I think false progress reports like this actually do more harm than good, and they are certainly a waste of your time.   

Learning A Language Too Quickly Is A Waste Of Time

Some people think to learn a language you just have to whizz through a course and you are done. Yes, you are done with the course, but you are not done with the language, really ask yourself how much of it did you take in? …Probably not a lot.

You need to slow down and process what you are learning. It can take a long time. You probably will not actually understand these concepts until you have seen them over and over again in your immersion, so you can’t rush it, even if you want to.

You also run the risk of taking in too much information at once and confusing yourself, just slow down. it’s not a race.

(You can read more about – What Is Language Learning Fatigue?)

Avoiding Hard Areas Of A Language Is Going To Waste Your Time

Avoiding things we find difficult is very common as we are our own worst enemies.

We will always take the easy option and avoid doing anything we do not enjoy or find too difficult. This of course means the areas we need to work on in our new language, do not get worked on.

It is really common to hear people say they struggle with speaking, but then they don’t do any more speaking to try and get better at this.

You are really just delaying your progress by doing this. You need to stop wasting your time by avoiding your weaknesses. Face them and make them stronger!

Learning More Than One Language At A Time Is A Waste Of Time

Learning two languages at once can be a huge mistake that will waste your time.

However, this is really only a problem if you start two new languages at the same time. You are basically going to get nowhere with both of them.

If you want to learn two languages, it is possible; you just need to focus on one language at a time. Get to a decent level in one language before starting the second.

This may seem like it is slower, but it is actually going to save you a lot of time.   

(You can read more about – Can You Learning Two Languages At The Same Time?)

Learning How To Learn Languages Will Waste Your Time

This point is very counterproductive for someone like myself who owns a website trying to help you learn languages …but you need to be aware of the dangers.

While sites like mine and YouTube videos about learning languages are great and you should watch them …just don’t make this your main hobby.

It’s very easy to get so caught up in the “how to” that you don’t actually “do”.

If you have spent more time today reading about how to study your language, than actually reading in your language then you have a problem. Once you know what you need to do, which is study, my site and all the others are relevant. Just go and study and stop reading about how to do it.

Now you are pretty much at the end of this article you need to go and study, even if it would benefit me more for you read another article.  …so go, go and learn!

Conclusion

As you can see there are many ways you can waste your time when trying to learning a language.

I think more people fall into these traps than don’t, so hopefully now you are aware you will not make the same mistakes and can actually make progress.

So just go and put the hard work in and you will get where you want to be with your language.

To avoid wasting your time, you might want to read – The Only Study Plan You Need To learn A Language (For Complete Beginners)