Learn Language without Studying

What do you define as studying?

Is it sitting down working through exercises out of a grammar book?

Is it having a conversation with a tutor to practice your speaking?

It’s both.

To learn without studying is possible only when we redefine our learning style with different titles for our practice: immersion, conversation practice, listening to music. These are all forms of studying - of practicing language.

So what makes these fun learning techniques more exciting than “studying”?

We’re finding ways to study language in ways we enjoy learning. We’re no longer associating learning - studying - with a mundane, mandated task.

We’re engaged in the learning process because we’ve found our own motivation for learning, and we’re building a relationship with the language that encourages this desire to learn even more.

Studying vs Immersion

Okay. So, there is a distinction between studying and learning: studying is typically more intensive practice than immersion which can be more casual and less taxing, but both are necessary to learn another language well.

Not only are they both essential, but studying becomes a nice break from immersion to help us add more variety into our language learning process. Of course, we don’t want to study all the time, but we also don’t want to just listen or just speak or just read and write all the time either - we need a balance.

With this balance comes our optimal learning process. When we only “study” - memorizing grammar and vocabulary - we lack practical usage by immersion that we need to work our way to fluency. Likewise, when we only practice through immersion, we learn without structure and depth of the language. Using both studying and immersion, we’re able to achieve fluency more quickly and to a higher degree because these skills compliment each other to facilitate language acquisition.

How do you learn?

Different levels of the language acquisition process require different amounts of studying and immersion. While both are beneficial at all levels, beginners tend to need more “studying” and intermediate/advanced learners are more able to use immersion-based learners because they have enough basic vocabulary and grammar knowledge to be able to understand what they hear and read.

So what do you need?

I challenge you to think about your level and what you struggle with most, if you practice more immersion or studying. Whichever you struggle in is the area you need to practice more❤