What is your minimum?

Many students want to study English, but say they never have the time. It’s a complaint I hear a lot from people who are interested and dedicated, but who have busy routines. And, in fact, these days we have so many things to do that studying a language can easily end up on the back burner while we attend to more pressing priorities. A few years ago, I was in therapy with a psychologist who told me I needed to set my minimum for each daily task in order to consider it “done”. If we can study for 1 hour a day, great! But what if we can’t? What is the minimum you can do?

We are often very hard on ourselves when we decide to commit to something, but the truth is that studying doesn’t have to be heavy or painful. It can (and should) be light and fun. Fortunately, there are many forms of direct and indirect study that we can apply according to our habits and interests.

However, before choosing how to study, we should keep in mind that learning and developing a foreign language is a long-term project. In other words, there’s no point in going all in for a while and then easing off, because we need to train our brain to work in another language. We need to make it understand that it needs that language, keeping the neural connections related to it up to date. But how do we do that?

There are many ways to condition the brain, but the one that has always worked best for me is daily exposure to the foreign language I’m studying (or maintaining! Yes, if you’re already fluent in a language, you need to keep it in constant use). If you live in Brazil, you won’t hear English, French or Spanish on the streets, on TV and so on, but you can create “artificial” exposure to the language you’re studying. For example: choosing a series or a film on a streaming service such as Netflix, or listening to a podcast while you do the dishes, walk on the treadmill or drive, among other options.

The trick is to find a way to fit this exposure into our daily routine. In my life, I listen to a French radio station’s morning news podcast on Spotify while I walk home from the gym every day, and I put on series in French or English while I have my meals. This way, we don’t “take” time away from other activities, but we still study, because consistency matters more than study time.

Generally speaking, 5 minutes a day, every day, are worth more than 2 hours of studying straight through on the weekend (and that’s when we manage it).

I’m not saying we shouldn’t set aside time for formal study of the language. That is very important and deserves proper attention, but if our routine doesn’t allow it, we can at least keep our brain active in the language through indirect study, because even if we don’t understand everything, our subconscious keeps picking up words and structures that will become part of our repertoire in the future. And that way, we can tick off our daily English study.

As the saying goes, little by little, the bird builds its nest. It’s the same with languages: word by word, sentence by sentence, we gradually shape and develop our brain to think in another language, automatically, lightly and without stress. And always remember: consistency matters more than volume, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.