3 ways to find more time for language learning

What matters most in language learning? I decided to ask AI and I think you'll be a little surprised at the answer. Certainly, I was. This all started because I had a session with my Arabic tutor and he said to me, you know, you have spoken better in Arabic today than ever before. Have you been studying more Arabic? And I said, not really. I've probably spent more time with Persian. However, last night, before going to sleep, I did spend about 20 minutes or so going over a lesson in LingQ from MTV Lebanon. So, did that influence the fact that I spoke better or is it the result of my cumulative involvement with Arabic listening and reading? I have no idea. I speak to Hassan once a week. So, I decided to ask AI. Now, in the past, I've said, if anything, I've said motivation is the most important thing and I've used this formula motivation plus time with the language divided by frustration, inhibition, and so forth. So, I went to AI and I'm a little skeptical of AI because AI sometimes gives you the wrong answer. AI can only sort of react to things that are out there that it scans and reads in this massive language model. It doesn't judge. It has no ability to think for itself as to what is the best way to learn languages. It can only summarize what's out there and draw a conclusion based on what is the most frequent answer that it discovers. And, as I say, it sometimes gets things wrong. I asked AI the other day, name me the EVs available in Vancouver that have the power port on the right-hand side of the vehicle, rear right-hand side, and it said Volvo does. Well, I have a Volvo EV and, in fact, the power port is on the left-hand side. So, I went back and I said, well, no, no, no, I have a Volvo. You're wrong. And, of course, AI came back and said, oh, yes, you're quite right, blah, blah, blah. So, one has to have a fair degree of skepticism in dealing with any AI engine. They are not, by any means, infallible. But, in this case, AI came back and said the most important thing is time, not attitude, time. Now, you could say that the amount of time you spend with the language is influenced by your attitude. However, I decided to focus in on this question of time. How is time the decisive factor in our language learning? Well, obviously, we need to spend that time, but I think it's more than just the amount of time we spend, although that is crucial according to AI. It's also how we deal with time. So, first of all, and I'm much influenced by Montaigne. I've been reading some Montaigne recently or even Zhuangzi, sort of effortless tradition, Wu Wei in Taoist philosophy. And I think the first thing with time is that we need to focus on the time we are in, the now. I think if we spend our time worrying about how much we're learning, are we improving? And as I said, sometimes we don't know whatever we're doing, how much it's going to influence our eventual success. So, it's very important to focus on the time we are in now, to slow things down. And Montaigne is sort of well aware that as we get older, time races faster and faster. And the one way to slow down time is to focus in on the here and now and not on the future. So, I think it's very important when we are engaged with the language that we are enjoying the process. We're thinking about the now. We're almost, as Montaigne would put it, accompanying ourselves on this journey through the language relaxed. So, number one is take the time to enjoy whatever time you spend with the language. So, that's point number one when it comes to time. Point number two, develop habits. Develop habits to spend time with the language. So, I have said before that I like to read before going to bed because some research seems to suggest that whatever we take to bed with us in terms of language activity, that tends to be highlighted or reviewed in the brain while we are sleeping, unbeknownst to us, of course. But there are other habits. Every little bit of exposure to the language, every little bit of time we have with the language, five minutes here, ten minutes there, it's all good. And I notice that if I am listening to something that I don't fully understand, say in Arabic, I nevertheless pick up phrases that I've heard before and that it's renewed. And of course, as I've said before, the whole process of language learning is a constant re-engagement with the language which creates a refreshing of the whole sort of web of networks that we have within our brain. So, every little engagement with the language, whenever we can do so, is a good thing to do. So, we should have the habit of having our language with us on our iPhone. We have some time, we can read, we can listen, we can engage with the language. So, developing those kinds of habits makes it possible to find more time to learn the language. If you feel that you have to sit down for a full hour to review lessons and so forth, you're less likely to do so. If you develop habits, reading before going to sleep, or having it with you in the car, or listening while you're doing other tasks, these kinds of habits are going to increase the amount of time, hopefully enjoyable time, that you can spend with the language. A third point with regard to time is, and here we'll kind of move away from the sort of effortlessness, the wu-wei, the wandering, meandering, you know, pressure-less approach that Montaigne talks about, and recognize that there is some advantage to measuring, setting goals, and measuring what we're doing. It's encouraging to see where we have been, where we might get to. So, I like, on LingQ, for example, to set goals. And I mentioned before that one of the successes of Duolingo has been the idea that people have streaks, people have goals. So, all of this kind of nudging is an important part of making sure that we spend the time, because ultimately we want to spend a lot of time. I think that's what AI said. And along the lines of nudging, of course, it's very encouraging for me to hear from Hassan that my Arabic, that I spoke better Arabic than before. So, every little bit of encouragement is a form of nudging, and we can also self-nudge. So, we should give ourselves credit for whatever we do, even though so often in language learning, we have the impression that we're not progressing. But, of course, we are. We are in ways that we can't measure, and we don't necessarily notice until suddenly Hassan says you spoke Arabic better today than in the past. And the final thing I would say is that how we spend that time. Spend the time with the language. You don't want to be reading a textbook in your own native language about the language. Not even the time that you spend in the classroom is necessarily that helpful. And I mentioned the example of the CEO of Air Canada who had hundreds of hours of lessons and never ended up speaking French. He had lessons in French, which became a bit of a problem in the province of Quebec, particularly. So, make sure you spend that time with the language. Listening, reading, engaging with the language. All of this is giving your brain a chance to regenerate the language in ways that we don't understand. But the long-term benefits are there, as long as we engage with the language. So, what I wanted to do today was simply, you know, share with you. So, typically, my approach to language learning has been this Lam Cato formula. Attitude, time over inhibition, frustration. But, since AI decided to isolate the amount of time on task spent with the language as the most important factor, I thought I would delve into how time affects our language learning success. I hope you find this useful. Thank you. Bye for now.