How to keep improving a foreign language with a busy life

Nowadays learning a foreign language has become a very important requirement both for professional and personal purposes, but we all know how hard can it be to keep it up when our schedule is full of appointments and our daily life is incredibly busy. I have been learning foreign languages for 10 years now and I know how hard can it be to find some time to keep learning/practicing your target language.So the question is, how do we make time to learn a language? How can we keep being motivated? Contrary to popular belief learning a language isn’t just learning grammar from a textbook and doesn’t always require your full attention on one assignment, you can also learn in an easier, more subtle way. How?
  • Newspaper: try to read the news in your target language. You can easily download a digital newspaper on your smartphone and read it on your way to work/school/etc. The key to make this exercise effective is NOT to focus on understanding all the words you read, but to understand the general meaning of what you read. Eventually, if you have time, you can note down the words you don’t know in a vocabulary notebook.
  • Radio: if you struggle with listening to a foreign language, the old-fashioned habit of listening to the radio is an awesome way to overcome the problem. Again, you can find many useful materials online or download apps on your smartphone, just search “radio + name of your target language”. Listening will enable you to familiarize more with the sound of the language if you’re a beginner or it will help you learn more conversational language, slang, idioms and more. This can also help as preparation for a conversation or a lesson with a native speaker here on Verbling.
  • Movies: It’s been a long stressful day and you want to reward yourself with some relaxing activity, what’s better than a movie? You could seize the opportunity and switch the language to your target language, put subtitles on if you’re not comfortable enough to listen to the movie only, but try to focus on what you are listening to rather than only reading the subtitles. This works as a great listening exercise, plus you will learn lots of new words and idioms!
  • Social media: You won’t believe it, but social media can actually help you learn your target language! The secret is to follow accounts you are interested in, maybe a travel blog or a food blog in your target language. In your spare time, instead of scrolling through your Instagram or Twitter timeline pointlessly, search the accounts you followed, read their posts and captions. This way you will practice reading and comprehension skills without even noticing!
26 de agosto de 2019
Profile Picture
18 US$
USD/h

Fluent with Nicole! đŸ—ŁïžđŸ‡źđŸ‡č

security_checked
4.8
18 US$
USD/h
Flag
Italiano
globe
Italia
time
179
Habla:
Inglés
Nativo
,
Español
C1
,
AlemĂĄn
B2
,
Portugués
A1
,
Francés
A1
About my classes 😊 In our lesson, we'll focus on a pre-selected topic for discussion. We’ll begin by reading a short text and then dive into questions designed to spark conversation. Along the way, we'll learn new vocabulary related to the topic, and by the end of the lesson, we'll reflect on the conversation—identifying areas that need more attention and celebrating the strengths you’ve already developed. Don’t hesitate to jump into the conversation! Speaking is the key to mastering the language, and I’ll be here to guide you through each step. Mistakes are more than welcome—they’re the best way to learn and solidify your knowledge! About me 😊 My name is Nicole, and I’m a native Italian speaker with 4 years of experience teaching Italian online. Based in Milan, I’ve had the pleasure of helping over 300 students improve their Italian skills. In addition to teaching, I’m passionate about languages myself. I speak English, Spanish, German, and I can hold conversations in Portugues...
Flag
Italiano
globe
Italia
time
179
Habla:
Inglés
Nativo
,
Español
C1
,
AlemĂĄn
B2
,
Portugués
A1
,
Francés
A1
About my classes 😊 In our lesson, we'll focus on a pre-selected topic for discussion. We’ll begin by reading a short text and then dive into questions designed to spark conversation. Along the way, we'll learn new vocabulary related to the topic, and by the end of the lesson, we'll reflect on the conversation—identifying areas that need more attention and celebrating the strengths you’ve already developed. Don’t hesitate to jump into the conversation! Speaking is the key to mastering the language, and I’ll be here to guide you through each step. Mistakes are more than welcome—they’re the best way to learn and solidify your knowledge! About me 😊 My name is Nicole, and I’m a native Italian speaker with 4 years of experience teaching Italian online. Based in Milan, I’ve had the pleasure of helping over 300 students improve their Italian skills. In addition to teaching, I’m passionate about languages myself. I speak English, Spanish, German, and I can hold conversations in Portugues...
Mi vida antes del Covid- 19 (IMPERFECTO) A-2
Profile Picture
Alejandra Santiago
7 de agosto de 2020
팔랑귀
Profile Picture
Abby H
7 de agosto de 2020
The Origins of popular English Idioms
Profile Picture
Jen Mc Monagle
7 de agosto de 2020