How to Schedule Your Language Study for 2021
Hi everybody,
I hope your study of your language(s?) is going well!
We've made it to the end of 2020. In a few days, a new year full of opportunities will start. Let's make it the year you improve the most in the language you're learning.
Whether you're usually a very organized person or not, take these last few days to plan ahead. Don't make the mistake of setting your new year resolution as "improve in Japanese" or "learn Spanish to fluency". Those are vague and won't get you anywhere. Instead, set your resolution to following your learning schedule as much as possible.
And so let's prepare that schedule.
Habits stick thanks to a few key settings: where, when, what, and how.
Where and When
To make language-learning a part of your life, you need to set these two parameters first. If you've done the reflection I advised in the last 2 newsletters, you should have a good idea of your drawbacks. I'm guessing you also know quite well your daily schedule.
Lists times when you always have 5, 15, and 30 minutes. If you have times with 1 hour available, list those too. Think of the energy level you have during those times. List where you are during those as well. Are you at home? On the train? In your office? On the toilet? With this list in hand, prepare corners dedicated for languages.
At home, you can have a room or a desk in a corner for your language. On the train, you can differentiate between when you can sit in a car or when you're standing. In the office, you can have a couch, a part of your desk, or the smoking corner if you smoke. Be creative.
What and How
Now that you know where and when you could have time, find tasks that fit the settings you'll be in. There's no point trying to practice writing while standing on the train. You also can't study a grammar pattern well if you're laying on a couch. Don't get me started on doing intensive listening while on the toilet.
Here are a few ideas you could take:
30 minutes at home in the corner of a room --> Learn and practice some new vocabulary. Do some intensive listening or a podcast and write down its components.
15 minutes at a desk in the office --> Write a short text to get feedback. Study a text. Or learn new grammar patterns
5 minutes on the toilet --> Review flashcards. Text a native friend/language partner. Plan the content of the next study session.
As much as possible, try to have a few minutes of study for each skill every day (listening, reading, writing, speaking). When nobody's available, you can speak to yourself. It's better than nothing and helps to find where you struggle.
Be as precise as possible and commit to this new schedule.
Think in lower limits
Make this schedule as accessible as possible. The first goal is to never skip it. The second goal is to use it as a trigger to study longer. You don't need to study longer, but if you do, you'll improve more (as long as you keep "consistency" the main objective).
Also, divide your goals into sub-goals. Let's say you want to reach a business level in your language. Then you can divide it into "writing emails", "introductions in business settings", "open question types", "how to argue", and so on. If you want to have conversations, you can divide your goal into "greetings", "talking about wishes", "asking questions", "answering these questions", "explaining your hobby", and so forth.
Each sub-goal accomplished will give you a burst of confidence and motivation, often triggering you to learn even more. This is why knowing your goals precisely is so important. Without that, you're lost in an infinite ocean of potential knowledge to acquire. Who wouldn't get scared of that!
Keep time for your weaknesses
The last part of scheduling your study is to find specific times (along with a place) to attack your weaknesses head-on. Two weeks ago, I asked you to find where you struggled and which skills trailed behind the rest in 2020. In 2021, you have the opportunity to correct those.
I've found the best to keep one hour on weekends to tackle precisely what was trailing. Sometimes, I'll spend an hour reading to increase my reading speed and comprehension. Sometimes, it'll be an hour of intense watching of a TV show with subtitles in the same language. Sometimes, it'll be some grammar study.
What matters is to have what I call a "catch up time". Time during which you catch up on your weaknesses. ------------------------ You might think all this preparation is boring. You might even think it's useless. It's not. Polyglots speak many languages because they've planned their study. They attack each language with a plan and then have fun while learning.
2021 is the year you could reach your goals in your language. It's never too late. Let's make this year be the one you blow your own expectations out of the water.
Happy New Year in advance and Happy scheduling!
If you still want to read more about learning and languages, here are a few more articles I wrote and could be useful
Help me help you learn better by answering a survey here.
As always, thanks for reading!
– Mathias Barra