Many experts say that you need to work hard and make huge steps in order to succeed in any field. Maybe in your childhood you were told that you will never have a university degree, a job, or a family if you don’t put enough effort into it. It’s scary to make another commitment in your life, like learning a new language, when you keep hearing such things everywhere you go.
You think, ‘I don’t have time to study every day for an hour. Will I be able to learn anyway? How to find time to learn Italian?’
Here’s one of my favorite thoughts of James Clear about the way to succeed that I want to share with you:
You can breathe a sigh of relief. Small, repetitive steps can help you achieve small successes, like being able to understand a YT video in Italian or speaking with an Italian on the train. Don’t you feel better? I do.
When I look at my thick English student book (English is not my mother tongue), I don’t even want to open it because I know how tough and long it would be to learn all this information. You know what I feel, right? To be honest, I abandoned traditional learning (and teaching) methods a long time ago – they were overwhelming to me.
Either way, learning a language still requires time and dedication, and you already have your to-do list full of commitments. Sometimes the timing isn’t the best, and you need to put off your language studies. But if learning Italian is important to you, you can introduce it to your life in a successful way. Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint, and you can adjust this process to your own life and your possibilities. Do you want to make a small action plan with me?
First step: answer the questions
First thing, think about your daily routine.
Answer a few questions:
- How much time can I dedicate to the Italian language? (How much time I am realistically able to devote as opposed to wish I could devote.) Daily? Weekly?
- When do I have time? In the evening or in the morning before work? During the week or on the weekends?
- What are my daily activities that do not require my full attention, so I can listen to the podcast or to the radio in Italian? While I cook? While I run in the park?
- When do I have time to sit with an audio recording or do some language exercises? Do I prefer to choose spontaneously what kind of resource or activity I’m going to do, or do I need to plan it in advance?
- What are the funny and relaxing ways of studying Italian? Watching a TV show, reading a book, journaling, or chatting with an Italian friend?
Once you respond honestly to the questions, you’ll know your time possibilities and studying preferences. You’ll have a half of an action plan to introduce your Italian study routine to your everyday life.
Second step: find resources
Now, choose resources.
If you’re here, and you are reading this article, I suppose you’re an independent learner, and you know that learning a language is living a language. You know that weekly meetings with a teacher are not enough if you want to immerse yourself in the language and make it yours. Still, as I’ve written above, you don’t have to sacrifice your family, quit your job, or turn your life upside down.
So, having said this, you know that you can learn Italian from novels, YT videos, podcasts, which are resources with a real-life language. Choose which you would like to introduce to your studying routine:
You can go a step ahead and write down the titles of resources, just in case you don’t know where to begin when you see hundreds of videos on YT. You will thank yourself for this the moment you try to squeeze a 10-minute Italian session into your busy schedule.
Third step: take action
Now, your action plan is ready. Remember to stick to your plan for a month until it becomes your habit. Planning things is half of the battle, now it’s time to take action and make it your daily habit. I deeply believe in the power of habits in language learning and in the Italian Speaking Lab my students have an occasion to create a habit of daily speaking in Italian.
Do you remember?
“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
After a month, write down your reflections and think about what you’ve managed to achieve.
Tips and actions to take from the article:
- choose small and specific goals like listening to the Italian radio 30 minutes a day for example
- see how much time you can spare, think about when you have time, and how much time you can realistically use
- even if you skip your Italian daily routine sometimes, resume it when you can and keep going
- surround yourself with the Italian language during your passive activities like cooking or walking
- choose only a few resources and focus on them
- repeat your routine for a month and see what happens
- enjoy the process!