DIY Language Routine

How to Build a Language Learning Routine

Start with pieces - the components you want to be included within your daily, weekly, monthly routine. From here, we build.

We build a routine that includes active and passive practices to move us closer toward our fluency goals in each language, and we grow infinitely closer to reaching those goals - always.

Key Components of a Routine

As you build your routine remember: you are are human - you’re going to slip up, you’re going to miss days, you’re going to struggle, you’re going to find your way.

Understanding & Creating Consistency

Of course, it’s awesome if we can do every task we set out to and keep up with all our goals all the time, but it’s even more awesome if we can accomplish our goals while maintaining our sanity and mental health. Here’s what you need to know about consistency:

It’s about developing traits and habits that make you want to accomplish each of the goals you set for yourself. Sure, you can force yourself to study every day for years and make progress, BUT at what cost?

For me, it was at the cost of my physical and mental health that finished my first bachelor’s degree in record time with near perfect grades all while working multiple jobs. I’ve learned what not to do. I’ve learned to prioritize my health and life in general, as well as making progress toward my language goals.

Find your balance. Sometimes we need to take breaks, and others we need to restart, but ultimately, we need to find a steady pace that we can continue for years. We need to resist the urge to rush and to stop entirely because when we go to quickly, we crash, and when we go to slowly we sink. We have to keep moving at all costs, even if feel as though we’re crawling.

I’ve avoided taking classes or reading books because I thought they’d take to long. Well, I ended up resorting to them later because the path I thought was a shortcut wasn’t so short. So I crawled. I crawled my through the path I knew was certain despite the expense and time - the time I wasted on the shortcut cost me more.

Find your language learning style - your mindset & flow - and you’ll be unstoppably consistent. You’ll be consistent because it’s who you are, and a few bad days here and there are nothing but just that. Commit to crawling toward your goals when you lose the strength to walk, and you’ll regain the energy to run without losing your momentum.

Structure & Flow

Allow your structures to be minimal so that your creativity may flow and expand as you do on your path to fluency. How to choose the structures of your routine:

What is the bare minimum you can commit to each day? Each week? Each month? Each year? Keep in mind that these aren’t necessarily defined individually. Our weekly goals are accomplished over the days and all work together to help us accomplish our monthly goals.

I’ll take time to outline my goals with these structures, but whether I focus on daily, weekly, or monthly tasks varies. Sometimes it works better for me to use bite-size pieces like days to get by and others, I can I work more productively with the flexibility of weekly or monthly timelines. Ultimately, I use them all.

Don’t overbook yourself. It’s better to start slow and build that it is to commit to too many programs or hours of study. Focus on a few tasks like taking a class each quarter or meeting with a tutor every week, and do that consistently for a month or so before adding onto it.

You can potentially try many strategies or resources and weed out the ones that don’t work just so long as you do so carefully. I still recommend building by choosing 2 or 3 strategies or resources, narrowing those down and then trying another set of 2 or 3 if the first ones didn’t work for you. Just be careful not to get into the habit of constantly changing resources - make sure to finish the ones you choose.

Flow through your structures. The structures are crucial, but it’s your flow as you approach them that makes you a successful language learner. Whether you’re taking a course or guiding your own learning with a self-made schedule, your flow is the energy that moves you through this learning structure - without it you’d be forever at the starting line.

I like to take classes and plan my own study activities as well. The classes serve as the major structures and self-planned activities are minor structures to support the major structures. Both are essential components in my language learning process, but the major structure are fixed, whereas the minor structures can be adjusted.

The more realistic your structures are, the more easily you’ll be able to flow through them and continue developing them. It’ll become easier to be consistent in completing your tasks and you’ll find yourself ready to level up for a new challenge. Find the the structure and be consistent in your approach.

Book recommendations are books I’ve read that I felt drawn to share with you as I created this blog post. These are affiliate links from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases❤