How To Learn A Language In 15 Minutes Per Day

[alexander koryagin]

Hi, All!

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Babbel school

How To Learn A Language In 15 Minutes Per Day
Karoline Schnur, linguistics expert at Babbel

How long should you practice a new language every day? We sat down with
one of our linguistics experts here at Babbel to find out why our app
gets you speaking a new language in only 15 minutes of study per day.

As you might expect in a language learning company, almost everyone who
works at Babbel is multilingual. I say almost because I'm not one of
them (yet). Like many native English speakers, my attempts to learn a
second language in school were in vain. I have now reached an
intermediate conversational level in German, but it's nothing compared
to my international colleagues. Every day I hear people walking around
the office speaking dozens of different languages, code switching in
conversations with different colleagues, and translating their funny
idioms into English. But even among the serial language learners at
Babbel, you'll never find someone poring over French 101 textbooks,
cramming themselves to fluency.

That's because the central principle of the Babbel language learning
approach is that people should spend about _15 minutes_ per day studying
a new language. This is surprisingly short compared to the length of
time university students are expected to study a language nightly (~90
minutes). So how are people at Babbel picking up new languages even
though they're putting in less time than I spent cramming Spanish verb
conjugation in high school? I sat down with one of Babbel's linguistic
experts, Karoline Schnur, to find out how 15-minute language lessons are
all you need to become proficient in a new language.


The Babbel Approach

Karoline started off by explaining the central principle behind the
Babbel learning approach: "If you read a lot of information, you won't
be able to absorb everything. We call this information overload or
cognitive overload." She explained that the brain is a master at
deciding what information in our daily lives is important and what is
background noise. This background information is tossed out, and never
makes it into our long-term memory. Great for guiding our day-to-day
lives, but not so great for language learning.

Karoline was also keen to dispel the myths about cramming, or binge
learning: "This is when you have a big test coming up so you sit down
and try to learn everything that you need to know. But how much do you
remember after a week? Probably not that much." Instead of worrying
about trying to do a lot all at once, it's actually more important to
repeat a smaller portion of information more frequently. She continued,
"To get something into long term memory, you must make connections and
repeat it. Repetition is really important in language learning."

Fortunately, the Babbel App was specifically designed with the
limitations of human memory in mind. Fifteen minutes corresponds well
with the principle of "chunking" in psychology - our brains work best at
absorbing around seven new things at a time. As Karoline explained, "If
you think about the capacity of your brain to digest around seven chunks
of new information, the time is a clear limit. _From our Babbel
perspective, if you start with a new lesson with a few bits of
information, that takes about 15 minutes. Then you can go into
repetition: Repeat 10 previous items_ and you need less than 5 minutes
for that."

Sounds easy enough, right?

A Scientific Approach That Works

With some of the science behind the Babbel approach under our belt, it
was time to see how the app reinforced this approach. According to
Karoline, "We have repetition built into the lessons with different
exercises and different contexts, so that you make these connections."
While you may first encounter a certain set of vocabulary in the
beginner courses, these words will also pop up in later dialogue
practices - and not just in the obvious contexts. For example, a course
on talking about young children will not only feature the standard
vocabulary of child-rearing, but will also have words related to
seniors, construction and noise. This is because our world is dynamic,
and it's important to recall these words at any time - not just at the
kindergarten!

Because repetition is so important, the Babbel App has a Review Manager
that's designed solely for repeating information and getting it into
your long-term memory. When talking about the rationale behind this
approach, Karoline explained, "This also comes from psychology, and it's
based on time intervals. Each time you repeat something and get it
correct, it will move up a step." When using the app, you'll notice that
items come up for review not only right after a lesson is completed, but
in the days and weeks that follow. She continued, "If you keep getting
it correct, the time until you see it again expands. After all those
steps are done, we say, 'OK, this is in your long-term memory.'" In this
way, Babbel isn't just helping you memorize vocabulary, but truly learn
a language.

Our Tips And Tricks For Language Learning

1. Learning on the go

With only 15 minutes to study each day, I was eager to ask Karoline for
any tips she could give me to best use my time. "If you take a moment to
determine where you have more time and where you have less time, you can
choose your lesson accordingly. At Babbel, we've designed our lessons so
that they fit perfectly into those times when you're waiting or
commuting." Many users (including lots of employees here at Babbel) use
the app while on public transportation, especially on their way to work.
It's the perfect use of an otherwise boring stretch of time.

2. Find the right learning pattern for you

Karoline noted that learners can adapt their studying to their
personality type. "There are two types of language learners: those who
like routines and those who don't. The ones who like routines can make
up their own schedule, like two sets of repetition and one new lesson,
and they stick to it. Then there are ones that don't like routines. It's
no problem, they just don't do the same thing every day." She suggested
that these types of people can choose to dedicate some days to only
repetition (which isn't a lost day, because you didn't forget
anything!), and other days to just new lessons, or whatever ratio they
prefer.

3. Build confidence through practice

She also recommended that one day per week should focus on applying the
language to real life:

+=====+
"If there's a Spanish restaurant in your city, why not greet them with
'Hola!' or try ordering in Spanish? If that's unavailable where you
live, the internet still provides a lot of places to read the language,
or listen to a podcast, or to find an online community where you can
communicate with others. To apply is the best way to really get the
information into long-term memory."
+=====+
If you plan on using the language in real life (which is the goal, isn't
it?), then you should actually put it to use.

4. Make a habit of daily learning

As for Karoline's final tip: "The _most important thing is to do
something every day_. Even if it's just 10 minutes, it's better than
nothing because you made connections." While spending a full 15 minutes
on lessons and taking time to review should be the goal for language
learning, the key to proficiency in another language is daily practice.
With this consistency, you'll be speaking a new language in no time.

Start learning a language now. It only takes 15 minutes per day!

<here was the Babble's try button - AK> ;-)

http://tinyurl.com/ybfe3cqg
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Bye, All!
Alexander Koryagin