The Importance Of Making Your New Language Apart Of Your Daily Life

The only way to get comfortable with your new language is to use it a lot, which means that you need to actually make it a part of your life.

Learning a language as an adult can be difficult to achieve, we have busy lives to live. We are not little babies, who can just sit there all day and absorb the language around us and we also can’t just get up and move to a country that speaks the language so that we can be fully surrounded by it 24/7.

This means that the only thing we can do is try and integrate our new language into our existing lives.   

If we can start using our language throughout the day, we are going to be practicing a lot more and therefore start seeing some real improvements.

Change Your Entertainment To Learn A Language

The biggest change you can make is to actually just start using your language for entertainment.

My guess is most of you started learning the language due to an interest in the culture that speaks it, which means one of your end goals is probably to be able to enjoy media in that language.

I am also willing to bet that you spend a lot of time consuming media in your own language. I know I can very easily spend a couple of hours every night watching mindless junk on YouTube.

Really what we need to do is combine these two things which means stop the consumption of your native language and start spending your time with your new one.

I know this not easy for beginners, but just watch some silly cartoons or something like that. It will be struggle at first, but it does become easier, you will notice the gains you are making. It’s also okay if you are not understanding everything, just sit back and soak it all in, your subconscious will be doing its thing.

Spending a few hours doing this every night is going to make you a lot more progress than just watching Tv in your native language.

The second I did this my immersion levels went through the roof. I went from doing about an hour a day, to about 5 hours, simply by now just sitting back and watching things in my new language. (It just goes to show how much of my own time I must have been wasting)  

If you prefer reading, you can do the exact same, change your books to the new language, it will have the same effect.

(You can read more about – How To Immerse Yourself In A New Language)

Set Time Aside To Focus And Study Your Language

One of the most important factors for success in language learning is consistency and the best way to stay consistent is to make time for your studies.

You should actively set time aside every day to make sure you study. Literally dedicate an hour, or however long you want, then sit there and to do some study.

This is the perfect time to read over some grammar, learn some new words or review some flashcards. It can even be time to just do some immersion.

I find it is important to have this dedicated time, then later on in the evening just sit back and do some more immersion based entertainment as I discussed above. I find this dual approach is the best method for success, so long as you actually do it every day.   

However, you will find very quickly that the whole process becomes a habit, you will get to a certain point in the day and it will just feel like it’s time to study, which is exactly what you want to happen.

This habit will help keep you consistent and you will make progress.  

 (You can read more about – How To Make Time For Language Learning)

Using Your Down Time To Learn A Language

You probably think you are busy 24/7. I know it can feel like this, but if you actually stop and evaluate what you do every day you will soon see you have plenty of down time, which can be a good time to squeeze in some learning.

You will often hear this time referred to as “dead time” as it is time you must spend doing something, but it’s also not very productive, such as commuting or tidying the house.

These tasks are important, you can’t avoid them, but let’s be honest, they are not exactly mentally taxing, which is why they are the perfect opportunity to multi task.

Why not listen to some podcasts in your new language while you clean the house, or do some reading while you are sat on the bus?

Making use of this free time can be a real game changer. You can start to get some decent language practice in every day and it also makes the mind numbingly boring things like commuting more entertaining and actually productive.

Talk To Yourself In Your New Language Throughout The Day

To get good at speaking in your new language, you need to speak a lot. Obviously we cannot just sit and talk to people all day long. We have lives to live. However, you can talk to yourself.

You can go about your day while being your own narrator at the same time, explaining to yourself what you are doing in your new language.

You can do this inside your head or if you really want to get good at speaking, actually say it out loud.

I know there is the fear that you might be making mistakes, which could happen, but just go slow and say the things you know are correct. See this as practice, just repeating and repeating the easy things that you already know.

It sounds like a waste of time, but think about how good you are at your native language, and then think of all the times you have spoken it …every day of your life since you started talking.

That’s a lot of talking and a lot of practice. So to get good at your new language you are going to need to do the same.

You will of course never be able to talk in your second language as much as you have in your native one, but you can start to see how all this extra practice can up and help.   

Talk To Language Partners Throughout The Day

Hopefully you have already started trying to make friends on language exchange apps. If you haven’t already, you really should be.

You can use these language exchange apps to talk to people who are native speakers in the language you are learning, but who are also trying to learn your language. You can help each other out by practicing each other’s language with them.

I have talked to a lot of people on these apps and have actually made some good friends through them. I now text them daily, like we are friends in real life. Sometimes we talk in English, sometimes in their native language.

Being able to just message someone in a different language socially is so cool, it just feels like you are messaging a friend, but you are also practicing your language skills. Even if you speak your own language to them, it’s still helping them out with their practice, so it’s a total win-win for everyone, no matter what. 

(You can read more about – Language Exchange Partner)

Conclusion

Using your new language throughout the day is really going to help you get a lot of extra practice in, without even really trying.

A little bit here and there throughout the day may not seem like much practice, but it does all add up and it is all beneficial.

The constant repetition and practice is going to make you feel more comfortable with the language. Being conformable is the key to reaching fluency.

The only way to get comfortable is to practice more and as busy adults we struggle to get enough practice. Hopefully by using some of these techniques I have discussed here, it will help you to use your language more and start getting the practice you need.