How To Learn Another Language In Less Time - Principles From Atomic Habits Book

hi guys today I'm going to talk about applying the principles from the book Atomic habits into language learning I'm James I'm a native English speaker and I can speak Spanish and Italian I help people reach a conversational level in another language so you might have heard of the book called Atomic Habits by James CLA and essentially it's a set of principles that show you how to make small changes in your life that add up and compound over time to make bigger consequences and bigger changes now when it comes to language learning there's a lot that you can take from that because language learning consists of integrating languages or activities around language learning into your lifestyle and doing small things over a large period of time so in this video I'm going to do a high level summary of bits that you can take out the principles from Atomic habits and apply it to your language learning journey to make the process quicker and easier so the first principle is that small habits build into a big difference they make a massive difference in your life that could mean two minutes while waiting in a queue for something going on dualingo or whatever app you like to use and using that app and getting a bit closer to your language goals there will be moments throughout your daily lifestyle throughout your life where you're waiting or you're doing something or you're just relaxing or something and if you can replace little bits of that with actions towards language learning then it makes a big difference over time the second principle focus on systems and processes rather than goals so this one for language learning is quite controversial because many people across internet and across everywhere say what are your language goals you have to have a strong goal for language learning while that is true to an extent it's better if you have your systems in place and processes like what activities and actions you going to be doing every day or every week to practice and get you closer to your language goals that you have in mind however it's all good and well to have a goal but it takes a long time naturally to reach your language goal it can take so long to reach your language goals it can take many months to reach it and essentially if you're motivated and you have a goal you will forget about that goal many times when your motivation drops after the first few weeks your motivation will drop and then that's when processes and systems that you created in your daily and weekly lifestyle take over it could be using a flash card app on your phone to look at the most common words and phrases that you've given yourself it could be 5 minutes of dual lingo or something per day and on this note when it comes to consistency if your daily habits and weekly habits are consistent over time then that will come a second nature you'll be consistent because of the processes and habits you've created in your lifestyle now the third concept from this book is create a new identity based on how you want to be in the future when it comes to language learning this is very true a lot of people I speak to say oh I'm not very good at learning a different language oh I wasn't very good at school I'm not really a language learner but really if you think about yourself in that way then you will prevent yourself from actually progressing because you'll set mental limitations as to what you can do you'll avoid putting that extra bit of effort into something because you don't think that you'll be able to do it you'll think oh it's pointless me doing this extra minute of grammar or something because I'm not a language person an example could be hi I'm James at school I wasn't very good at language learning however nowadays I really love the process of doing it I'm not amazing or incredibly fluent on every single language but I like the process and I can speak Spanish and Italian and that's good for me maybe in the future I'll learn more but my identity is that I am a language learner and I enjoy learning languages that then gives me the mental space to put the effort in and see myself as that sort of person who learns languages as a result any effort that I put in my subconscious will understand and and learn more of it because I identify as someone who likes to do it lastly within this book there are four laws of Behavioral change so this is how you can create good habit to help you with your language learning Journey it's also called a habit Loop and essentially consists of a cue a craving response and reward let's start with number one the QE so make it obvious so when I say obvious I mean integrate it into something else that you're doing in your life so this is a principle called habit stacking if for example at 12:00 every day you go on your lunch break then you might go somewhere you might sit down or you might have a cup of tea or do something do it then so practice the language or do something small even on dualingo or something for a few minutes then so if you stack it with another habit that you have anyway you're much more likely to stick to this new habit because you're already doing something anyway the second law is make it attractive so in terms of any habits we have to enjoy doing them to an extent some are more difficult than others but if we want to create positive change we have to link a habit with something we like doing so if you enjoy doing an activity so like you enjoy going on your break or going for walk if you mix this language learning activity with going for walk for example and you put on a Spanish podcast or a Spanish song that then makes it attractive if you like music combine your target language with music the third law is the response make it easy so the easier something is to do on a regular basis the better for you if something's hard and has a lot of resistance to do it in the first place like you've got a lot of equipment to set up or you've got it's quite time consuming and it takes a lot of effort to do then that won't lasts as a habit a habit has to be as easy as possible so for example for me if I'm in the car about to go to the gym at 7:00 in the morning I can then take my phone out my pocket put it on my phone holder I open Spotify if I already have the podcast the Spanish podcast that I want to listen to ready to play then I just press play and that's sorted I'm in my car and I'm already driving if I have to open a website or do many many different steps to open the actual podcast then for the first few times or the first few days or weeks it might be okay at one point I will think to myself I can't be bothered doing it today no I don't want to do it today and from that point onwards that's when your habit has too much friction to continue so reduce friction and try and make it as easy and seamless as possible to do on a regular basis one tip taken from the book is use a 2-minute rule if something takes less than 2 minutes to do so you're in a queue or you're waiting for 2 minutes open the app get practice the language if it takes less than 2 minutes then that's literally those moments add up and you'll find that throughout your day you have a lot of spare 2 minutes that you can do something else with and if you can do it on a regular basis or you have a lot of 2 minutes regularly every single day then imagine how much you can improve your current level of your target language now the fourth law is the reward make it satisfying so if for example you're doing something on dualingo or you open an app or whatever app of choice you have if you do a little exercise quite of often it'll say Well done you you're keeping your daily streak and it feels good maybe you earn some points within the app that's perfect although it doesn't translate directly into fluency or progress in real life over time you will notice that difference and the most important thing is when you're doing a habit or when you're doing these little actions they should feel good and rewarding to some extent one major point on this last law is never miss twice if you forget to do something in one day you miss your dualingo cycle and you've messed up say 500 Days of your duelingo streak then don't worry about it a lot of people would fall off the bandwagon after missing one day or one session of it or even one week but the idea is be kind to yourself and think look I've missed it on this occasion that's fine I'm not going to give up and just get back onto it again and that's it feel free to leave examples in the comments of some new positive habits that you're creating for your own language learning Journey one final thing is 85% of people who are watching this video right now have not subscribed if you found this video valuable then feel free to subscribe to my channel and also give it a like thanks

Channel: Lingoers

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Keywords: james clear, atomic habits, atomic habits summary, how to build good habits, language learning tips, language learning methods, language learning strategies, language learning techniques, self improvement habits, life changing habits, personal growth, habit formation, atomic habits book review, learn spanish fast, learn spanish for beginners, learn italian language, learn italian for travel, learn italian for beginners

Id: els6gbxgk_E

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024