Many people don’t have time to study a language with notebooks, colors or various sites so i thought i should make a post about how to study/learn a language when you don’t have time.
Grammar
The average learner with plenty of time will use a textbook and a notebook, maybe a workbook too. However, when you wait for your bus or train, you don’t have time or the required space to do so.
You can download a pdf of a grammar book and read the same lesson multiple times until you understand it and you can solve in your mind the exercises that appear there.
An alternative will be to find an app that explains grammar.
You might be stuck at the same 3 grammar lessons an entire week but at least you improve which is better than doing nothing.
Vocabulary
Memrise is easy to use and usually in 1 minute you learn 3 new words. An alternative to it it’s Fun Easy Learn and 9000 words. They work offline and it won’t take more than a couple of minutes to learn some new words. (F.E.L has a version with phrases here.)
If you want to learn more without realizing, Semper requires 3 seconds when you use/open your phone and every time when you check what time is, you learn a new word.
Most people use their laptop daily and you can use it as a study tool. Flewent is a chrome extension that will translate a certain %, set by you, of every article you access. It might not seem a lot but 3 new words here, 3 new words there and at the end of the week you will be surprised with how many new words you know.
p.s. i’m not a big fan of duolingo but that app is good for learning vocabulary. +the site offers grammar explanations.
Listening
Podcasts are great! They will save you. While you walk to the supermarket you can learn something new. Find some podcasts that you like and listen to them.
50languages is an app with 100 audios that you can listen to anywhere so if you don’t have time for Memrise, this is an alternative since all you have to do is to walk/do your thing.
Speaking
Sing, sing, sing! This will improve your pronunciation and you will also memorize every now and then some new structures/words/sentences. You get bonus points if you listen to disney songs since everyone know the lyrics.
As a busy person you might not have time for talking to natives but you can talk to yourself. You develop your ability to talk, it doesn’t have to be correct it just has to be talking. Talk about your day, talk about your shoes, talk about food. Even if you don’t know a word, use the English/you native equivalent or change the structure of the sentence and avoid using it.
Reading
You must probably don’t have time for reading novels but comics are short. Read daily 1 page and you’re fine.
Change the settings of your phone. Even if you know where to click, by reading those new words you will learn them eventually.
Choose a daily mini goal like reading 1 quote in your target language. 1 quote or 1 sentence daily and you still improve. WordBrewery and Clozemaster are amazing choices to read 1 sentence. More than 7-10 seconds won’t take you to read and pick a word.
Thinking
Of course you have to develop your ability to think in your target language, so what can you do in order to start thinking in that language? You know that moment when you wait in line at supermarket and you have nothing to do? Look around, name what you see in your target language. You won’t know everything but you will search those words later at some point.
Force yourself to think in that language even if you combine your native language with your target one and it’s a mess.
If you watch TV, try translating every now and then 1 sentence from your show/movie.
Movies, you can find them online with subtitles in Nth languages. Don’t watch that movie in your native language or English, find subs in your target one.