Hello, today's topic is: How many hours a week to study foreign languages?

You have to remember one thing: Quality over quantity

We are all busy every single day. Our schedule is full of meetings at the job or with friends and we don’t even have free time for ourselves. But we want to learn foreign languages because it’s essential to know them these days. Without them, you won’t have job opportunities and your life will be limited.

Personally, I’m still learning English and my third language is French. I have a 9 - 5 job, and some hobbies and I’m still able to learn these two languages at the same time in my free time.  Of course, my English level is higher than my French so I devote 30 % of my time to English and 70 % to French. Sometimes, I am able to learn these languages for 1h and 30 minutes but mostly just for 1 hour. It’s still good and I’m proud of myself that I’m still doing it.

So, let’s have a look at what’s important for you:

1) Be Always an Active Student

If you want to truly learn a new language, you have to be an active student. Not a passive one. This is crucial especially if you are a beginner in a certain language. Everything is new for you. New words, letters, pronunciation, grammar rules, sentence structure, etc. So try to do your best at the beginning stage. It’s really important because you need to familiarize yourself with the language.

2) Exposure, Exposure, and Exposure

I think it’s simple. The more time you devote to learning your target language, the faster you will be fluent in that language. Exposure reinforces fluency. Maybe you have just 30 minutes every day for an active learning session. That’s totally fine but I bet that you can spend more time with your target language. Do you clean? Do you cook? Do you spend so much time on public transportation to your job? These opportunities are perfect for exposing your target language. Try to listen to some podcast or audiobook. If you want to be fluent, you have to manage your time effectively.

3) Long-Term Run

Being fluent in a foreign language is always a long-term journey. Don’t be perfect on your journey. Instead, be realistic and self-disciplined. Even devoting 15 minutes every single day to a foreign language is much better than having 2 hours of online class per week. Trust yourself, be consistent, and think about the quality and not quantity. Don’t learn new things every day. Try to sometimes revise what you have just learned and you will see your improvement soon.

A language learning journey is a long-term process. It’s not for everybody because you need to be motivated, disciplined and consistent. You can’t learn a foreign language in 3 months but in 3 months you can make tremendous progress. Don’t overthink how much time you have to spend learning a new language. Be realistic and use what you have. Even with 15 minutes of active learning per day, you can make huge progress in your target language. Think big but make small steps.

Have a nice day. :))