How to Make Language Learning a Part of Your Daily Routine?

[stell]

It helps to have at least a few audio-only resources that you can use while driving or walking!

[leosmith]

These days I get up at 7:30, do my anki reps for the day's language, take a 30 min italki conversation class, read about 30 min and watch about 30 min of video in that language. Then I do the Anki reps for my other 9 languages, and work a couple hours on the grammar book I'm writing. There are 10 languages total, so it's a 10 day cycle.

Regarding how to do it every day and stay motivated - if you have to ask...

[philomath]

I spend around two hours on the train every weekday. Lately I spend that time reviewing my Anki cards, listening to a podcast or reading a book in French. (Or I get distracted by reading forum posts, like right now…) I try to have language lessons at 10 or 11 AM on the weekends. Besides that, I’m still trying to develop a routine for formal study. It’s hard to balance language-learning with other hobbies that require a lot of thinking. But I’m a night person so I usually do more language study after dinner.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Make sure you're motivated.
Find opportunities to study/review the language. (Anki whilst waiting in queue, listening to audio during your walk/run/drive and so on.)
I have mentioned listening to audiobooks on my daily walks - it kills the two proverbial birds with one stone. I wouldn't have just taken a walk (it's boring), and I wouldn't have just listened to an audiobook (it makes me fall asleep).

[sirgregory]

At the beginner stage, I find I have to sit down with books and do concentrated study, like you would for a school class. Preferably every day. That means I have to block out time in the morning and in the evening. I find the more demanding stuff is generally better to do in the morning. I have a hard time maintaining a strict study schedule for more than three months at time. I don't even fight it anymore. I just plan on this and try to shift into less structured "studies." I have done two stretches of structured study with German, both around three months, with a long break in between. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but I feel like I made decent progress in the "in between" period despite not doing any proper "studying." Both structured and unstructured have their benefits. Once you have a decent base, you can also sprinkle in some structured study here and there to address specific deficiencies without maintaining any sort of strict schedule.

The best way to work in language practice is to integrate it into things you already do rather than have it be a separate chore. Language is after all simply a medium of communication. For instance, if you already spend a fair bit of time reading online and watching YouTube and stuff like that (i.e., loafing), just do some portion of your loafing in other languages. And if you have something actually useful you can do in the language, all the better! A super easy one: whenever you read an article on Wikipedia (which for me is probably multiple times per day) you can toggle between languages. Typically, I will take a stab at an article first in German (since it's weaker), then I'll move to Spanish and/or English. Reading and watching videos works best once you get the language up to a functional level. But it's a challenge with weaker languages since everything is so labored. For this reason, I think short-form material is generally better. Short article, forum or blog post, 5 minute YT video. Twitter and TikTok are probably good (if you can stand them). Shorter is much more manageable if your comprehension is lacking, and it's far easier to fit into your day than novels and movies and stuff like that. TV shows can be good but I find foreign language TV watching requires a lot of attention, so you can't necessarily "substitute" your TV time 1-to-1, particularly if your regular TV time is very relaxed and you are only half paying attention. But some people seem to get good results with extensive mass exposure via TV, especially people learning English. This probably works best with "bad" TV where you don't care about catching every single word and following everything perfectly. Most of the foreign TV and movies I've watched have been very high quality, but this presents the problem that I want to understand it perfectly the first time through so I end up relying on the English subtitles and it ends up be nearly worthless for language learning.

[jackb]

For book study, I do it immediately after dinner/dishes. We eat at about the same time and have a no device rule at the table. So when it's finished, the kids scurry back to the warm glow of their devices and my wife does something artsy. I pretty much always have a clean/quiet place to study that isn't my work desk.

I also get some intensive time in during the weekend right after coffee. I'm an early riser so I have some quiet time to really hammer away with a fresh brain.

For listening/shadowing, I do it when I walk the dog during the week. Sometimes it's right after my post dinner study so I a get a couple of hours of continuous work. Some tasks are easier after others. Shadowing is one of them.

I also try to squeeze in some reading while I'm in bed. The better I am at reading in the TL, the harder it is to stop.

[jmar257]

I really like that 30-60 minute chunk before the day really starts. I'm not a super early riser but I like getting something done for myself before the workday starts, be it reading or language study. It's normally FSI or reading in a foreign language. As far as Assimil, I try to do those when I work from home a few times a week and sometimes on weekends, but I could be more consistent. The most consistent thing I do it probably listening/watching foreign languages, I listen to podcasts throughout the day and watch YouTube videos while I eat at home and sometimes for leisure. This has kind of replaced reading for me, for better or worse, but I think it has some benefits.

I guess to answer the OP, the "how", just replace something similar you already do with language study vs. trying to wedge a new block of time into your day. Instead of reading English in the morning, I read in a foreign language or do a section of FSI. Instead of watching YouTube videos in English, I'll watch them in French or Spanish (sometimes). Same for reading before bed, I just read Spanish books instead of English ones. I find these types of things are the ones I'm more consistently sticking to vs. trying to wedge study into times where I'm not used to doing it (or not used to doing something similar).

[Carmody]

Well, I think one major omission to this conversation is the absence of discussion of how to keep one's significant other happy while pouring all this time into language study.

I believe an extensive amount of subtle social engineering is necessary to put the hours in on the one hand while at the same time keep others happy.

We need to study language yes, but others around us have needs as well, and to ignore others and set and adhere to stringent language learning schedules could be damaging to relationships.

I started a thread on this topic some time ago but it never went anywhere; which itself was interesting. Nobody thought it worthy of attention; I guess.

[Le Baron]

Well, I think one major omission to this conversation is the absence of discussion of how to keep one's significant other happy while pouring all this time into language study.

I believe an extensive amount of subtle social engineering is necessary to put the hours in on the one hand while at the same time keep others happy.

We need to study language yes, but others around us have needs as well, and to ignore others and set and adhere to stringent language learning schedules could be damaging to relationships.

I started a thread on this topic some time ago but it never went anywhere; which itself was interesting. Nobody thought it worthy of attention; I guess.

Me, from page 1:

At home I can't just do solitary listening or I'll have an unhappy wife.

[Carmody]

My wife and I have a very workable solution to doing different activities in the same room at the same time.

I bought these and think it one of the best investments I Ever made:
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_143RS1752/Sennheiser-RS-175.html?tp=60828



She watches Tv and I read French.