Consistency vs Intensity

When it comes to language learning, it's often more art than science. That means, there are different opinions about the best way to learn a language, and no method has really been proven to work 100% better than others. It usually depends on the person and their personal learning style.

Like many people, I struggle with balancing many things in my life (work, family, friends, study), and sometimes find that I don't practice as often as I'd like to. Many people believe that if you want to learn a language well, you need to dedicate hours upon hours each day studying until your brain goes numb! While there's some truth to this, and I do believe that without enough exposure you're not going to improve, I think consistency holds more value than intensity.

Let's put it this way: Which is more helpful: Studying 1 day a week for 10 hours, or studying 3 days a week for 30 minutes each day?

If you study only 1 day a week for 10 hours, you'll look at a lot of information, but there's too much time in between, so you'll forget most of the information you learn, meaning you don't retain as much.

However, studying 3 days a week for 30 minutes each day allows you to focus at a more comfortable pace, with less time in between. This way, you're more likely to retain information and progress more rapidly.

I believe this also works for people studying 2 or 3 languages at a time. At the moment, I am studying Spanish, Japanese, and Tagalog. The way I balance this is having one language focus each day, usually 2 times a week. So for example:

Sundays and Wednesdays: Spanish

Mondays and Thursdays: Japanese

Tuesdays and Fridays: Tagalog

Saturdays: Free day

I've been using this approach for about a month now, and I've seen a difference in the way my skills are improving. My speaking is quicker, I'm remembering more, and I don't feel as exhausted.

Of course, the best method is different for every person, so maybe not everyone will have success with this. But I do want to highlight that we are not limited to only one strategy when it comes to language learning. Feel free to explore, try different approaches, or invent a new one!

And if you have an approach that works for you, I'd love to hear about it! :)