Name: 16 habits for learning languages
Uploaded: 2018-06-19T06:31:29.000Z
Duration: 10 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hey, what's up guys this video is about how to form daily habits that support your language learning

so you won't even have to think about it.

I'm gonna share with you 17 habits that have helped me learn languages in the past.

What works for me might not work for you,

But I always recommend trying new things, and all of these habits are at least worth a try.

throughout my daily routine. Triggers are anything you do on a daily basis that you can use to remind yourself to do something

in your target language, and the key is that this becomes an automatic

habit every time you reach that trigger. I divide these triggers into three main groups:

right before going to bed, right after waking up, and then various trigger times throughout the day, such as

eating breakfast, getting into the car, taking a shower,

things like that. The last group is the broadest so that's what I'm going to talk about first. The easiest way to schedule a routine

is to identify any time of day that you normally listen to music or any time of day that you can listen to music.

Then you're gonna use that time to listen to either

music in your foreign language, Pimsleur CDs or other audio courses that you can use to learn the language,

Audiobooks that you can find online. I did a video last year about how every time I get into the car

I automatically put in a Pimsleur CD, and that's an automatic trigger, so I'm studying every time I'm in the car.

I'm in the shower. I went to a garage sale and bought an old pair of computer speakers for like four dollars,

I also have this old mp3 player that I loaded a bunch of audio files onto, and then I put that on every time

And it's an easy way to learn while I would otherwise just be

mindlessly washing my hair.  If you spend a lot of time cooking or cleaning your house,

this is the perfect opportunity to practice your languages because you might already listen to music or podcasts or

Audiobooks while you do that stuff. If you work a tedious job that doesn't require a whole lot of mental capacity,

this is also the perfect opportunity. I used to work on a goat farm in El Salvador

where just spent hours a day carrying grass from the meadow into the goat farm

So they could eat. And every day, I would just put in my headphones

And I would listen to coffee break Spanish, which is a spanish-language podcast.

And I would listen to that for hours every day, and it was really successful.

I also had a friend who works in a factory and she just pulls a lever all day every day for her job.

So she doesn't have to think a whole lot and she's able to listen to music or to

audiobooks or whatever she wants to listen to.

Every time you go for a run or go to the gym

This is perfect because you don't have to spend a whole lot of mental energy

You can do all those things while focusing on listening to the audio files that are helping you learn your language.

I also have a bunch of triggers throughout the day that helped me remember to read in my foreign language.

I always keep a foreign language book sitting right next to my bathtub

and so every time I go to take a bath, which is probably once or twice a week,

I'll grab that book and it's a nice relaxing way to spend half an hour reading in my foreign language.

I've talked about this a lot in my other videos,

but if you have a phone or a computer or a tablet or anything you can go into the settings on that

device change it to the language that you're learning and this is gonna be a great way to force yourself to

automatically have to study every time you use your phone you can also do this with Facebook with Wikipedia with

YouTube and then you're gonna be learning every time you go to those websites.

Along those same lines. I use Google Calendar to schedule events during my day.

so that way right before I go to that class or go to whatever I have scheduled,

in the language that I'm learning and I pronounced it silently to myself or

out loud if no one else is around, and this is just a great way to give yourself little opportunities to practice pronunciation

throughout the day without having to schedule a whole block of time for practicing. A few months ago

I did a video about how to use sticky notes to learn your language.

And I just placed these all around my house on different things.

And every time I see my sticky notes somewhere around my house throughout the day,

that's a little trigger that reminds me to practice my language, and then I pronounce the word of...

whatever the word is of the item that I'm looking at and that's a great way to give myself

little reminders to practice all throughout the day. You're also naturally gonna get a lot of practice throughout the day by forming personal

relationships with people that speak your target language. If you already hang out with friends to speak your language, then that's perfect.

You don't have to look any further, but if there's nobody in your area that speaks your language,

you can go on websites like interpals or apps like

And these are a great ways to connect with native speakers of the language that you're learning.

Once you've made some friends that speak your target language all you have to do is just make it a habit of talking to them

on a daily basis. Talk to them on Facebook Messenger and whatsapp,

follow them on Twitter or on Instagram, and start doing things that normal friends do in everyday life.

Leave comments on their photos in your target language.

Just start interacting with them and become part of the community in a natural way,

just as if you are a native speaker of that language. This next step might be a little controversial,

but if you can find a boyfriend or a girlfriend that speaks your target language, and

especially if this is someone that doesn't speak your native language,

Because this is somebody that you're gonna want to spend time talking to every day you're gonna want to talk to them you're gonna want

to message them you're gonna want to Skype with them. I mean you don't have to force yourself to practice. This is just something

that's gonna come very naturally because you want to do it, and

probably the best way of improving your language skills.

I'm not saying you should start dating someone just so that you can use them for language practice,

but it is gonna be a big help if you can find someone that speaks your target language.

The second main trigger time is right before you go to sleep.

I usually do a little bit of language study when I'm already in bed with the blankets over me right before I pass out.

Psychologists say that right before bedtime is statistically one of the best times to memorize things because

naturally gonna be going over some of the stuff that you had just been learning about

so this is a great strategy for solidifying a lot of the things that you were learning into memories while you sleep.

I usually do something easy because I don't want to strain myself mentally right before going to bed.

So I have a book in Spanish sitting right next to my bed that I read for 10 or 20 minutes right before falling asleep.

Sometimes I'll go on YouTube and look up guided meditations in my target language. And these sound kind of weird and fruity,

but really it's just someone speaking softly in your target language, and they're helping you to relax,

and they're just saying nice positive things until you eventually drift to sleep. In fact a lot of times

I'll type in "guided meditation for falling asleep"

This is just a really nice relaxing way to end your day in the language that you're learning.

I also sometimes use my Memrise app right before going to bed. I do this because bedtime is statistically the best time for forming memories, and

Memrise itself is not that mentally strenuous,