3 tricks to learn a new language - without spending ANY time

Many people want to learn a second language but believe it’s too difficult for them to achieve. It isn’t.

Learning another language is perfectly within your reach. It may take some work. It may take some repetition — but these three tricks will speed that process up like you won’t believe.

The best part? They won’t take any time at all.

1. Switch your phone to the language you’re trying to learn right now

It may seem scary — but it works better than most things I’ve tried. The problem with a lot of language courses and books (and sometimes teachers) is that they often fail to teach you current and relevant language. You’ll be able to say things like: “The dog eats the potato.” and not be able to ask someone “Which app should I download for this?”.

I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a little unsettling at first but pretty soon you’ll learn words like: application, download, install, update. You’ll learn about weather, events and activities. You’ll learn about messages, sending and receiving.

You’ll learn current and relevant things daily.

You’ll learn them without spending even one minute of time.

It will become second nature without you even having to try.

2. Listen to the language you’re trying to learn daily

Here’s the trick: this doesn’t have to take any time at all.

All you have to do is find something that you already love listening to and switch to doing it in the language you’re learning.

There’s something called “The Slow News”. Available in many languages.

I love reading the news or watching it.

I want to improve my Spanish.

I now listen to or watch the news in Spanish.

Without spending any time, I am learning very relevant Spanish.

Sure, you’ll take a bit of an understanding knock initially. Much like trying to use your phone in the beginning this may be a bit frustrating — but necessity (and an interest in the subject matter) will make you adapt to your new language more quickly.

Perhaps the news isn’t your thing? No worries. For learning German I turn to rap music. I can highly recommend: Alligatoah or DeichKind.

3. Duolingo on the loo

We all need to use the loo.

We all like something to do while we’re on the loo.

Use a language learning app (I use Duolingo) to get your 10 minutes of daily practice in… while you’re on the loo.

Zero additional time invested.

An automatic, natural trigger to remind you to practice.

The perfect time hack.

Personally I use coffee and smoke breaks as well as these serve as triggers for me. They won’t work for everyone though but none of us can avoid nature’s call for a day.

*Bonus: Learning two languages at once.

Something amazing I discovered recently that won’t work for everyone is that you can learn two languages at once but you’ll need to be conversational in one of them first.

Once I got good enough at Spanish, I switched Duolingo from English to Spanish and continued my German lessons as if I was Spanish. This means that every 5mins I spend learning German, reinforces my Spanish as well.

It has been an absolute game changer for productivity and I highly recommend it to anyone who is keen on becoming a polyglot like me.

Call to Action

If any of this sounds like it could work for you or a friend then please give it a green heart.

Got any great tricks yourself? Please share them in the comments section.