How to learn English when you’re busy

I’m sure some of you have been pondering over (= premýšľali) this issue for some time. How to squeeze learning English into your tight schedules (= nabitých rozvrhov)? There’s work, children, sports, household chores (= domáce práce), boyfriends/girlfriends, Netflix, fatigue (= únava)… There might seem to be literally (= doslova) zero time for English.

Well, don’t worry, there’s a solution (= riešenie) to this problem so keep on reading. 🙂

1. spend (at least) 5 minutes with English every day

First of all (= v prvom rade), you need to think how much time you can/want to devote (= venovať) to learning every day. For some of you it can be thirty minutes, for others five minutes on the tram to work or during a coffee break. And that’s completely fine! Even five minutes a day might do the magic because, in the end, it doesn’t matter (= nezáleží) a GREAT deal how much time you spend on learning because, in my humble opinion, the key to successful (= úspešnému) learning is to (drum roll, please)…

2. be consistent

Yes, consistency (= vytrvalosť, pravidelnosť) is the magic. If you spend an hour a week with English, you may notice some improvement (= zlepšenie) of your language skills after several weeks. However, if you spend 5 minutes with English every single day, you might be able to observe the boost of your English much quicker. Uhm, I feel like you might not believe (= veriť) me yet so let’s take another example.

Say that you want to lose some weight because there wasn’t really much to do during lockdown and you found a new hobby – snacking (= pojedanie). Alright, so what is a better strategy to get rid of that muffintop (= taký ten tučík, čo prečnieva cez nohavice) – exercising for two hours once in two weeks or getting down to it every morning for 10 minutes?

Well, I hope I’ve regained (= znovu získala) your trust now. 🙂

3. make it a habit of yours

I know that you’ve read it many times in those motivational articles (= článkoch) with cool pictures of slim happy people jumping at the top of a mountain, but habits (= zvyky) are really everything. If you make learning English your daily habit, you won’t forget the things you learn that easily and you’ll be closer to your aim (= cieľ) day by day.

So, please, just stop making excuses (= výhovorky). Everybody is busy – Elon Musk, me and you. But if you can spend 30 minutes a day on Instagram or the loo (= vecko), you can find 5 minutes for English, am I right? 🙂

10 tips on how to learn English in 5 minutes a day

Now, those of you who can spend only those 5 minutes a day with English, let me share (= zdieľať) some tips on how you can improve your English in such a short time each day.

  1. Download apps such as Duolingo or Memrise.
  2. Learn vocabulary on Quizlet or Anki.
  3. Talk to yourself (in your head/out loud/write it down on a piece of paper) and describe what you are doing, e.g. at work – I am sitting on a chair. I need to send one email right now. In thirty minutes, I’m going to have a meeting. Got the point?
  4. Name things around you (in your head/out loud/write them down on a piece of paper) – e.g. a stapler, a punch hole, a pencil sharpener, a desktop computer.
  5. Write a journal of what has happened to you that day, how you’re feeling, what your aims for that day are, etc.
  6. Listen to a song in English, google the lyrics and learn new words from it. Or use the awesome app Lyrics Training.
  7. Ask your friend/partner/colleague/relative to chat in English with you (on Messenger/Whatsapp or face to face).
  8. Look up a YouTube workout video with an English-speaking trainer. You’ll kill two birds with one stone – you’ll exercise and listen to English.
  9. At the end of each day, tell yourself/write down 3 things that went well and one thing that could’ve been better.
  10. Read the news in English on international websites such as The Guardian or The New Yorker (or any other) or local ones such as Brno Daily.

And there are tones more! So go on now, find those 5 minutes for English and enjoy them to the fullest. And don’t forget – learning should be fun so always choose those activities that’ll spark joy (= urobia radosť). 😉

Have a good one!

Ivy

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