Learning a Language with a Full Time Job

Making the most of the time you have for language acquisition

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! It is no secret that adults are just as capable of learning a new language as children. The biggest hurdle is time commitment. Fortunately for the grown ups, learning a new language does not take as much time as many people think. You do not need hours upon hours upon hours every single day. What you really need is discipline.

Time Audit and Opportunity Mapping

A long time ago, I happened across the concept of “stealing time”. This is not different than “making time” but I prefer the framing because at the end of the day you are taking time from one place and reallocating it to another, not making time appear out of thin air. For me, this manifests itself in waking up at 4am. For you, it may be different.

All that matters is that you find hidden pockets of time and begin using them. This “dead time” could be anything. Especially since we are talking about finding time for comprehensible input. Since you do not need to be sitting down with a pen and paper for that, the opportunities are nearly endless.

Doing the dishes, cleaning the bathroom, washing your car, sanitizing the kitchen. Things that every adult has to do, can be made more enjoyable, and productive, by layering in different levels of comprehensible input. Most of my students get their audio comprehension practice in doing cardio at the gym or during their commutes. That is effective time thievery.

The next step is to take a minute and differentiate between dead time, like the things above, and productive time. That is to say, time you can spend sitting down at a desk or table to actually study. Done right, you only need 20-45 minutes of this dedicated productive time per day; and no, Duolingo on the toilet does not count.

Realistically, 20 minutes is enough if you are doing the right things. In fact, there are several exercises such as dictation, reading out loud, and native to target language translation that I believe 20 minutes is the limit for effective learning. Beyond that 20 minute mark those things often become exercises is managing frustration more than anything else.

Passive vs. Active Learning Windows

Define your windows. It is crucial that you determine for yourself what windows you will use for passive learning and which windows are perfect for active learning. Commutes are great for passive learning, lunch breaks are perfect for active learning. One of my students who is a doctor in Australia translates conversations he has with patients in his head between visits.

While I am not going to urge everyone to lean into micro study sessions, when there is an opportunity to take real life scenarios and turn them into language learning practice, I suggest you take it. The main reason you need to be differentiating between these times is to ensure you are not wasting the valuable time that you do have.

Once you have the lines drawn, you need activities. You can find a full guide with passive activities you can begin immediately on the Guides page of the website. For those of you who want to begin with active learning exercises immediately, here are things you can do with 20 spare minutes today:

1. Dictation/Transcription

Find an audio, write down what you hear, check your work and go again. For a full tutorial on this, check out this article:

2. Journaling

Go over conversations in your day to day life and walk through how you would hold them in your target language. Write it all down and reread it to improve what you can. If you don’t have anything off the top, go back and review previous conversations or arguments you have had. Writing memories out is just as beneficial, if not more. Tell your story in every language you know and learn.

3. Read out loud

This might not seem like a high ROI activity on its face, but for someone who is still unable to hold conversations confidently, there is almost nothing better to do. For a full break down on why, read this:

Sprints

While I am a firm believer that consistency beats intensity, there is something to be said for maximizing free time that you do have. Especially if that time is rare, as it is for families. In many cases it is these sprint sessions that will help you move into the next phase of your acquisition. Maximizing your time at home looks different for everyone, but building an immersive environment comes first.

Fortunately, this is something anyone can do. In fact, the act of building your immersive environment is an exercise in and of itself. Involve everyone in the family and turn it into a challenge. A complete “Home Immersion” guide can be found here:

As you are doing these things, the one thing you need to be careful of is burnout. Yes, it is great that you are taking the time to do some intensive study when time permits, but if all of your free time is taken up with language study you may find yourself less willing to study when that free time comes. Balance is everything. Particularly with regards to education as an adult.

Intensity is great, but consistency is more important. To avoid burnout, make sure you are hitting every aspect of language when you are running your sprints. Do 20 minutes of speaking followed by 30 minutes of audio comprehension followed by 45 minutes of reading, followed by an hour of writing. Cycle through these, in any order that works for you, and play with the times to find a balance.

Conclusion

Slow progress is still progress. That said, there is no reason that even as a working adult with a family you cannot learn a new language. In fact, learning one with your family may be the perfect opportunity to further bond. The more people working together toward the same goal, the more likely that goal is to be accomplished. Daily effort compounds faster than you can imagine.

If you can commit for 21 days, you will get a glimpse into how much you can accomplish. That, in and of itself, should be enough to inspire you to keep going. Remember that choosing to work on your education as an adult already sets you apart from the rest. Since you are putting in all the work, you might as well get the most out of your time. I hope this helps to that end. I am rooting for you.

If you work in healthcare, I’ve built Medical Spanish and French Handbooks with dozens of clinical patterns and vocabulary frameworks you won’t find anywhere else. Available to paid subscribers.

I also build custom courses for professionals. Doctors, nurses, engineers, and anyone who needs targeted language skills for their field. Every program is tailored to your specialty, your patient population, and your schedule. Learn more and get started.