Help
Written by Luca Lampariello.
“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible” - Francis of Assisi
What is the secret of language learning?
Simple.
LEARN EVERY DAY
It's called the law of accumulation at work.
In this article, I will share a few short tips to help you learn any language, and do it every single day.
1. Plan Beforehand
I love running. I love how it makes me feel, and I love that it makes me healthier the more I do it.
What I don't love, however, is waking up early to go running.
To be honest, I had such an aversion to waking up early that I ran very inconsistently for years.
He said that I should streamline my process, so that running was the result of a few simple choices, instead of many difficult ones.
Here's what he recommended:
1. Go to sleep with my running clothes on
2. Keep my running shoes at the foot of my bed.
What does this have to do with language learning?
Everything!
So make things simple.
Organize your life so that you can't avoid making contact with your target language every single day.
2. Learn When You Are Fresh and Willing
Has anyone ever asked you if you are a morning person?
What about a night owl?
Whatever the case, those common questions reveal something important about us as human beings—that we're not all fresh and energetic at the same times.
Why?
Because learning takes energy, just like exercising does.
To get the most out of your language learning, you need to do something similar. You need to schedule your learning sessions around your high-energy periods.
Personally, I always feel focused and energized right after my morning run, so that's often when I'll sit down and study some Greek, or Hungarian. I also know that my energy levels rebound in the early evening, so if I can't get learning done in the morning, I've always got a second occasion then.
3. Start with a Countdown
Of course, if you don't have any desire to learn, no amount of planning and energy-management is going to make it happen.
Managing this desire—this motivation—is the last key to learning a language every day.
In all my years of learning, however, I've found this to be backwards. Normally, I've found that taking action creates the motivation to learn, and not the other way around.
To learn a language every day, you need to train yourself to see motivation in this way—as something that is a consequence of action, and not the cause of it.
Whenever you find yourself lacking the motivation to start a language learning session (or anything important, really), count down from five to one.
It might seem too simple, but I've found it to be a very effective method for taking action. And of course, once I take action, I have plenty of motivation to keep going.
Your Best Way to Learn a Language
There you have it!
With these three simple tips, you now know how to learn any language on a daily basis.
Reluctant to get started?
Then try tip three right away!
Count down from five to one, and get started planning your language learning for the week. Figure out when you usually have the most energy, and decide what kinds of learning activities you will be doing over the next seven days.
Related topics:
- How to become efficient in spoken English
- How to prepare for your job interview in English
- Why do you need to learn a foreign language?
- Why should you learn Esperanto?
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