You may be surprised at the answer to “How long you should spend studying a foreign language every day?” The answer is simple, there is no optimal amount of time. But there are some guidelines to make sure that you get the most out of studying a language every day.
The biggest secret to learning a foreign language is that you do something every day. It’s much more important that you spend five minutes or learn a phrase or two every day than you try to read half a book or a book once every couple of weeks. You’ll get much more out of the phrase and probably overall you’ll do more because if you can get yourself to at least study a phrase or spend 5 to 10 minutes reading or listening or especially speaking then you’ll find that on a good day you’ll probably easily spend a half hour to an hour or longer. But the minimum is one dialogue or one phrase a day.
The best way to spend that time of course would be with another live human being. If you happen to be in the country where they speak that language then finding a language partner could be very simple. Even if you live in a country where that language is not spoken and it’s hard to find people, there are ways of finding foreign language exchange partners either through the university or online.
Another tip I’ll give you is whatever you do, don’t overdo your daily study. It may seem a good idea to try to pack in as much as possible but make sure that you give yourself some rest. What you don’t want to do is overdo it and burn out and then never come back to studying it. A little bit every day, especially speaking to another person and you’ll find that you get more and more enjoyment out of it and as your skills increase, it will be easier to make conversation with people in that language and then you’ll find yourself spending more time doing it. Remember to study every day, to do a little bit and to make sure that you speak with another human being as much as possible.
Roger Easlick has been speaking foreign languages for over 30 years and is incredibly passionate about foreign languages and I would like you to be passionate about languages as well. For more information, visit www.CrushALanguage.com.
