How would you study a language with 3 hours per day?

[Deinonysus]

I wonder how you can't-learn-for-3-hours-a-day people survive work and school? Are 8-hour work days and 6-hour school days torture for you? Or do you manage to sit there but just can't learn anything after the first hour? How did you study for exams? How do you survive parenthood?

Well, my issue with 3 hours a day is under the assumption that it's on top of work/school/family commitments. I work full time, I'm auditing a university-level language class, and have a kid on the way, there's no way I could do 3 hours of language study on top of that. I guess I probably do three hours on days when I have German class if you include class time with study time, but that's just two days a week.

If language learning were my full-time job, like with DLI as IronMike mentioned, then that would change the calculus and of I'm sure I would be able to do full days of language learning. But I'm sure that I would have little to no energy to do any more language learning on the side, outside of class and homework.

[drmweaver2]

Not "piling on" to Iron Mike's comment... and not absolutely directly related to language-learning, but here's my experience with studying a(ny) single subject multiple hours per day.

While in the military, I spent 2 years studying electronics/electronics repair 8 hours a day, 5 days a week not counting after-school hours. At another stage of my military career, I had 2 periods of 40+ weeks of "geo-political-military intelligence analysis" study - theory, fact, current and historical events, Morse Code (going from not understanding ANY code to being able to handcopy 98%+ accurately @24 words per minute) and more. Other periods of similar study were less than 40 weeks long. I don't think I had more than 10 minutes between 50 minute classes except for lunch, which was sometimes skipped to get in more classwork or individual instruction.

After my military career, I returned to college in my early-40s and deliberately set up my schedule to have classes (both "labs" and lectures) from 8am-12/1pm with no breaks except to change rooms. Then I went home or to the library for 3-6 more hours of concentrated study. That was "my life" for 7 years while I pursued a Bachelor's, Masters and PhD (I'm "ABD" [all-but/did-not-complete dissertation]).

In none of those cases did I experience "overload"/burnout, boredom or anything negative as far as I can remember. The keys are simple - interest and motivation. If I was interested in the subject and/or externally motivated to learn, the material itself demanded my attention and kept it, whether in a classroom and out.

I have no problem believing in language-learning for 3 or more hours a day. Individual success (however that is defined) will likely vary. But I know people can keep their concentration up for that long quite routinely - I've seen it happen time and time again.

Obviously, YMMV

[Beli Tsar]

I wonder how you can't-learn-for-3-hours-a-day people survive work and school? Are 8-hour work days and 6-hour school days torture for you? Or do you manage to sit there but just can't learn anything after the first hour? How did you study for exams? How do you survive parenthood?

Well, my issue with 3 hours a day is under the assumption that it's on top of work/school/family commitments....
If language learning were my full-time job, like with DLI as IronMike mentioned, then that would change the calculus and of I'm sure I would be able to do full days of language learning. But I'm sure that I would have little to no energy to do any more language learning on the side, outside of class and homework.

This is the real problem for me. Working a 50 hour week & two small kids does seem to leave surprisingly little opportunity, time, or energy for three hours of language study - if only!

[jonathanrace]

I'm a big fan of SRS so...

1 hour ANKI
30 minutes conversation with a native
30 minutes grammar study
30 minutes reading
30 minutes movie / podcast etc (anything to use listening skills)

[AML]

AML, how would you use your three hours? Have you seen Xmmm's topic about reaching A2 in 20 minutes a day?

Jeff,

First thanks so much for that link. As a scientist, I love when people do experiments. I'll be sure to check in there occasionally.

To answer your question of how I think I would spend three hours/day, for a language I know nothing about (let's say French), I would do something along the lines of the following:

First 6 months:
I'll follow Iguanamon's advice and work through Assimil and Pimsleur, as well as spend time with native materials. In addition, I will want to speak daily. Naturally, in this idealistic scenario, this isn't three straight hours but spread throughout the day.
Assimil - 1 h
Pimsleur - 0.5 h
Play with native materials (intensive reading mostly) - 0.5 h
*Speaking/tutor - 1 h

Second 6 months:
*Speaking/tutor - 1 h
Intensive and Extensive reading - 1 h
Active listening (tv show and/or movies) - 1 h

My goal would be to reach ≥B1 speaking and ≥B2 reading/listening.

*Emphasis on the speaking part, not the tutoring part. I.e., I should be doing 80% of the speaking and not the other way around.

[reineke]

My initial response was that you need a target and a purpose. I didn't have time to elaborate. This will serve nicely:

sample_one_page_language_plan.png

http://www.languagesurfer.com/2016/01/0 ... uage-plan/

You have a huge advantage in learning French compared to many people. Opinions vary etc.

I would also recommend reading through some of the following sites:

The (De-)Fossilization Diaries
A language teacher [and FLT methodology expert] tries to crank up his Spanish
Spoiler: It wasn't easy.
https://scottthornburyblog.com

Paul Nation's page
See: What you need to know to learn a foreign language
https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation

[zjones]

I wonder how you can't-learn-for-3-hours-a-day people survive work and school? Are 8-hour work days and 6-hour school days torture for you? Or do you manage to sit there but just can't learn anything after the first hour? How did you study for exams? How do you survive parenthood?

Because work, school, and intensive language-study are not the same.

The amount of mental intensity I put into doing Pimsleur or a grammar book is very high, especially in my most recent language, Greek, which is not as easy as French. Compare that to a normal 8-hour office workday where you are doing a variety of tasks, many of them menial, and many 'extensive' in nature (talking to clients, filling out forms, calling other businesses and government offices, copying and printing information, making calculations, counting items, sending emails). Now, jobs certainly vary, and a civil engineer will probably have much more intensive work than a doctor, but I don't think it's fair to say that people who "can't learn for 3 hours a day" are unlikely to survive work.

When I am studying a language, I am often: actively producing the language aloud or in writing, working on pronunciation, trying to understand specifics and the gestalt, self-checking my work, trying to pinpoint my problem-areas and how to work on them, and memorizing. I am also responsible for determining when to move on from a lesson, when I need to stick with it, and when I need to repeat a past lesson, which adds even more decision fatigue. I'm expending more mental effort than I would expend at a job, and not having a teacher or supervisor available for questions adds another level of intensity and difficulty to self-learning.

It's also possible that I'm just not good at languages.

As for parenting, I know nothing about that so I can't really comment.

[smallwhite]

> When I am studying a language, I am often: ...

At home studying in pyjamas, I read, listen, write and speak about Harry Potter or the Little Prince. I organise my work around 5 resources. True, I have no teacher or supervisor to help increase my efficiency.

At work in heels and band-aids, I read accounting standards, listen to staff complaints, write replies to auditors' queries, and speak with customers who won't pay. I organise the work of the whole team around insufficient resources. I have supervisors to increase my workload.

Either I'm unlucky with my job or lucky with my hobby.

[patrickwilken]

I wonder how you can't-learn-for-3-hours-a-day people survive work and school? Are 8-hour work days and 6-hour school days torture for you? Or do you manage to sit there but just can't learn anything after the first hour? How did you study for exams? How do you survive parenthood?

Why you should work 4 hours a day, according to science
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang


https://theweek.com/articles/696644/why-should-work-4-hours-day-according-science

[Djedida]

I'd start off the first hour with 10-20 minutes of Clozemaster to warm myself up.
Then I'd use a textbook or EdX course and take notes for an hour.
10 minutes of Stories on Duolingo if the course has it (about 2 stories).
1 row on Duolingo for 30 minutes.
Maybe a few video lessons on Youtube.
Lastly I browse Duolingo's discussion and /r/languagelearning for the remaining time.