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Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today I’m talking about…
WAYS TO LEARN A LANGUAGE IN THOSE SPARE MOMENTS
One of the biggest problems people have when learning a language is finding the time to do it. Obviously, you do have to have some dedicated learning time, but there are many small parcels of unused time within a day. What could you do to use those productively for learning your language? You might need to do a little prep, but here are some suggestions, not in any particular order.
Keep a playlist of short videos to watch, downloaded, if necessary. If you keep these to a maximum of 10 minutes, then you can easily play them whilst waiting for the bus, or over lunch. They could be anything, from instructional, to just people speaking in your target language.
Have a playlist of songs, again, downloaded if necessary. Listen to a song, or even two, in those short breaks. If you’re somewhere appropriate, you can even sing along. Probably best not done in a queue, with headphones in, though.
Learn the conjugation of a problem verb. We all have problem verb conjugations that we just can’t fix in our brain. This could be the perfect opportunity to smash one of those. You could, literally, just look at the conjugation, or you could compose short sentences, in your head, or written. Doesn’t matter, as long as you’re interacting with the verb.
Look around the place where you are and try to name everything you can see in your target language. Look words up if you need to. If this is somewhere you go every day, do this multiple times, including the looking up. Eventually, those words will stick and you’re kinda processing them in context.
Pick one object and try to describe as much as you can about it in your target language. Once again, this can be written, in your head, or even out loud. Go as granular as you can, or even as silly as you can. Silly might make you remember what you’ve learned better.
Read out loud. If you’re on your own, what better way to practice your pronunciation than to read something out loud in your target language? It could be a book you’re already reading, or a news article. It doesn’t matter. It’s the practice that’s important.
Make a pretend shopping list of all the things you regularly eat. Next time you make a real shopping list, or make up an order online, try to recall all the items in your target language and write down any things you forget last time.
Put cards up around your house naming everything, so as you go around the house you’ll see them and be prompted to remember them. I’ll bet there are a lot of things in your house you don’t know the name of. I’ve started doing it in my kitchen, cupboard by cupboard!
That’s all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more language learning tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.