Last Updated on September 13, 2017
Nowadays, many of use are super busy in our lives, and regarding making time to study a language, it can seem like we never have enough time (or any) for studying. While it may be true that some of us are busier than ever, all of us have downtime, times where we aren’t really doing much, like commuting to work, school, or doing other activities that require a lot of waiting. This article will discuss ways in which you can, in effect, use times when you aren’t doing much, and use them for studying.
Transportation
Whether you take a bus, tram, train, metro, or car to work, school, or whatever, all of us can be using extra time for studying. If you are being driven, this is even better, because you won’t have to divert attention to driving. If you are on a bus, you could be using headphones with your smartphone to be listening to Chinese music, a lesson from Youtube , or even Chinese radio, if its available in your area. Say, for example, if it takes you 40 minutes to get to work or school, you could be using that time for studying. With those 40 minutes, if you even just learned 5-10 words of vocab, you would be just a little bit better at the language.
If you are driving, instead of just listening to music you’ve heard a million times before, why not use that time more effectively for language learning? Likewise on a bus or other forms of public transport, you could use the boring time to be studying.
While it may be too noisy or difficult to be reading from a book or textbook, you could be listening to something Chinese-related. Or you could also be using various Chinese-learning apps or Chinese dictionary app for learning Chinese.
Cooking
Cooking for many people, myself included, is fairly boring. I basically make the same 4-5 dishes all the time. Regarding cooking, much of the time actually required, is just waiting idly. Whether it is waiting for the stove, the microwave, or whatever to finish cooking, there will surely be plenty of time which could be used for learning Chinese. For example, if you make spaghetti by boiling it with water, it will likely around 10 minutes to cook. Why not spend that time studying by listening to something Chinese-related on your smartphone or even practicing writing characters?
Stop Watching So Much TV!
According to a recent study, the average Briton spends about 4 hours per day watching TV. Similar amounts of time are spent by people in other countries. Imagine if you even took 30 minutes to 1 hour out of that time for studying. You could actually be doing something productive, and become a little bit smarter as a result.
Do you have anything to add to this article? Let’s discuss it in the comments below.