How I made language learning my favorite hobby (and reached C1 fluency)

I am a native English speaker, but I've also learned three foreign languages. I speak German, Portuguese, and Polish. And after learning three foreign languages, I know that language learning can go two ways. It can be super fun, it can really absorb your life, and it can become one of your greatest passions. Or it can be something that you dread. When you dread learning a language, you are not consistent, don't want to do it, and then you don't learn the language. So here are some quick and easy things that I have done in the past to make language learning my favorite hobby. I love studying languages. It's my favorite thing. It brings me a lot of pride and joy. And there are just a few couple things that I always keep in mind in order to keep it fun, in order to keep the passion alive. So in this video I'm going to share with you my top three tips for making language learning fun and exciting and just keeping it interesting. And at the very end I'm going to share with you the number one most important thing that I always do when learning a language. So let's get started. The first shift that I always make is I stop focusing on grammar drills. I kind of put Grammar charts, grammar drills, workbooks, all of that stuff to the side. I know you need to know your grammar. I know all of that, okay? I've learned languages. I know grammar is important. But instead, I try to replace that constant grammar drill effect with active and passive immersion. Now, active immersion and passive immersion are different. So you have to understand here the difference between the two. And also be very mindful about how you're going to incorporate that in your language learning journey. Passive input is where you're not really paying attention. It can just kind of be on in the background. So I love to have music in the foreign language on all the time. This is helpful because you get it stuck in your head. Great. You're learning words. You're learning pronunciation. You're just getting familiar with the language and it's literally stuck in your head on repeat. Perfect. That is the goal. Passive input can be really helpful. Just having things on in the background. If you're driving your car, have something on. If you're going on a run, if you're cooking, I mean, anything that you're doing where you're busy with your hands, you're not actively like studying something. If you have the opportunity to just have some noise on, put it in that language, utilize that time and sort of make it purposeful. Say to yourself, okay, I'm gonna use, This time that I'm cooking dinner tonight to have some passive input and it's going to make you feel like you're making progress all the time when you're literally just listening to music. I found this to be so helpful. Sometimes in the language learning journey you see ahead and you see that it is so far to get to a C1 or to get to whatever your goal is you're like I am looking down a barrel and this is a really far journey and it could be daunting but when every day you're like check I just listened to music like I just did something you feel so much more motivated and it makes it more fun because you're always making progress. When you make that hard when you're like In order to be progressing in my language learning journey, I have to study two hours a day. That's hard. We want to make the journey easy for yourself. You need a little wins. And so passive input is key for this. So remember that next time you are doing the dishes, next time you're doing laundry, turn on some music. Just listen to something in that language. But then we also have active input. So this is where you're just paying attention a lot more. This is something like watching a movie, watching a TV show, but actively trying to understand what's happening, actively following the plot, looking up words you don't know, you know, really taking note of things. And that's different. I mean, that requires more brain power. It requires more attention. I mean, that is a different skill. But once again, it's not too hard. I mean, if you're going to turn on a movie, turn it on in that language and just Pay attention a little bit more. Even throw in subtitles, you know. I know that that's not perfect. Like you're not listening to it just 100%. But that is better than just not doing something. So turn something on, you know, read a book. Pick something up. Just find something that's interesting to you that you're going to do already and do it in that language. And I promise, once again, you're going to feel progress. You're going to feel a little win there. Like you're doing something. and it's just gonna make you feel like you're in touch with the language like you're learning the language and it makes it fun because you're already connecting interests that you have with that language so if you already love to watch okay i'm just throwing something out say you love to watch sports and then you switch it and you're watching sports in that language Then that language just became really fun. You have to gamify it a little bit. You don't want this to feel like some rigorous school subject. You want it to feel like your passion, your interest. And so tie those things together. The second thing that I always do when I'm learning a language is I keep a language diary. This is some kind of notebook. I mean, just somewhere where you can scribble, write the language down. And every night before bed, I write three sentences in that language. I talk about my day. I talk about totally normal things. You know, I talk about my feelings. I talk about what's on my mind. And the language diary I love because it's so easy. Once again, learning a language requires consistency. That is the most important part. Like I said before, you're going to need grammar. You're going to need to learn things, right? But most of all, you need to practice. You need to hear the language. You need input. You need output. You need all of those things. And you need to be consistent. If you take too much time off, it becomes a lot harder. Consistency is extremely important when learning a language. And if you stay consistent, you will feel your skills just build so much quicker and keeping a language diary aids you in this so much because it's simple. It's easy, but you are creating output. You're actually creating in the language. You're building constructions. You're using vocabulary and you're realizing what you do and don't know. And that's really important. It's so easy to do. You just pick it up and it's only three sentences. I mean, it can take you two minutes. It can take you 10 minutes, but. It's not going to take you any more than that. It becomes a bit of a ritual, a bit of a nighttime routine, something that you do every day. And so when you attach that to the language that you're learning, suddenly the language feels more personal. It feels like it's yours. And that's something that we struggle with when we're learning a foreign language. When I'm learning a foreign language, it actually feels foreign. It's hard to find your sense of humor. It's hard to find your rhythm. It's hard to find how you sound. we're comfortable in our native language and when we switch to a new language that adjustment can be hard and so this helps bridge that gap a little bit you know you become comfortable with yourself alone and on paper and it's personal and then when you're out in the real world and you're actually having conversations and interactions in the language it's a lot easier because you've already gotten to be a little more comfortable with the version of you in the foreign language So, the language diary is something I swear by, it's something I always do, and it's something I always recommend. It's gonna help you improve your language skills, and it's gonna make it more enjoyable. So, for me, that is a must. And then the third and final thing that I do to make language learning fun is I stack micro habits. Now, micro habits are just very small little things that you do in the language, and I have a bunch of these. Now, when I was learning my first foreign language, I didn't have any micro-habits. I mean, it's really something that you build over time. When I was first learning a foreign language, the first foreign language I learned was German, and I literally was just studying flashcards and doing my homework. Like, it was super, super basic. But as I became a more seasoned language learner, I became more familiar with what actually sticks, what actually helps. And so there are a bunch of micro-habits that I've built. So I'll share with you a couple. This is something that I... I'm very mindful of and something I do in order to keep language learning fun and interesting. So here are some examples. Any period of time where I'm waiting, even if I'm at home and I'm waiting, I just start looking around the room and I start to go through everything that I see and I see if there are any words I don't know. So here's an example. Okay, I'm just sitting here. Chair, coaster, laptop. blinds, curtains, windowsill. I mean you can go very in depth. I mean you can get to like wall texture, picture frame, chair. It can be basic but it can also be in depth. You know, leather, fabric, stitching. And I just start to go through everything that I see and words that I don't know I look them up in my dictionary on my phone and then I screenshot them. And then once a week, I go through all of the screenshots in my phone and I put them in my vocabulary notebook. So that's just a small way, but you know, it's very mindful. You're like, okay, the word for stitching, I don't know that word. Then now you've just looked up that word. You've intentionally recognized it. You've screenshotted it, so you have it stored. And then later in the week, you're going to review. And then by the end of that, you probably at least semi know that word. You'll be able to recognize it at least if you hear it. So that's something I do and I just have a bunch of things like this that I always have in my mind. So if I'm waiting at a stoplight, I will do the same thing. You know, I'll look around and I'll just start thinking in the language about what I see, kind of narrating to myself. Another thing I love to do is I love to read instruction manuals in the foreign language. If you get an instruction manual, you know when you flip through, There are tons of different languages. If you're learning a semi-common foreign language, usually it's going to be in there. Like, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, usually those are in there, so you can practice that way, you can read through the manual. I also like to get cookbooks in foreign languages. This is super fun because you have new recipes, usually from the country of where you're learning the language, so it's fun because you get to practice cooking a new recipe, you get to taste the culture a little bit, then you're also practicing your language skills. So this is a huge way that I make language learning fun. I find all these little things that I can do in the language and I just do them, you know, I don't overthink it. I just find ways where I can invite the language into my life and then I actually do it. There are tons of things you can do. You know, you can put sticky notes around your house and every single word, literally put a sticky note. So a picture frame, wall, chair, And I've done this before and it works, it helps. Your house is covered in sticky notes, but it works and it's fun. There are a million ways that you can make language learning fun. But the number one thing that you need to do is you need to be creative. And you just need to stop thinking about it and just do it. Find ways, set your mindset to bringing the language to you and really make that your mantra. When you have just a small second here or a small second there, take the language and bring it to you. What do I see here that I don't know the word for? How would I say in this language exactly what I'm doing right now? How would I think in the language? You know, you have to make it a huge part of your life. And when you do that, you're going to start to love the language too. When you actually develop a love and a passion for the language, that's when the real learning begins. And that's when you're going to see real progress. So bring the language to you, make it fun, live in the language, and you are going to start to see more progress and enjoy it so much more. Those are my three number one tips for making it fun. But in the end, it's just a matter of living in the language and actually doing it. So if this video helped you, please like and subscribe. It really helps my channel and I'll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching. Bye.