Should I be doing more?

[u/Icy_Weird_8550]

I’m currently trying to learn both French and Spanish (TL). French is around B1, Spanish the lower end of B2. My goal is to become comfortable and “automatic” in them both. It’s just a personal goal, I don’t have any pressure on me to learn both.

Currently I have a half hour session twice a week in both languages with an online teacher, I’m reading a book in each language (just average kinda books - Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid in French, and Violeta by Isabel Allende in Spanish) and most days I watch videos with subtitles on YouTube in both languages. I generally do a bit in both languages every day and I don’t seem to have any problems with mixing them up.

My question is…is there anything else I should be doing to maximise my learning, that doesn’t take hours and hours?

Thanks for any advice!

[u/Oretell]

Roughly how much time per day are you dedicating to both?

At the end of the day it's up to you how much you do, if there's no deadline then you can do as little or as much as you want, there's no rules.

Sounds like you're covering the main bases. You could do some spaced repitition work, do some intentional study through a textbook or something similar, or find more ways to rack up more speaking time, but what you're doing now seems fine.

[u/Icy_Weird_8550 → u/Oretell]

Both languages get roughly half an hour a day. I read and watch YouTube videos passively in both languages every day. I guess that’s not the most effective thing to do?

[u/Oretell → u/Icy_Weird_8550]

Yeah if you only have that much time I'd personally probably focus on one language at a time, maybe for example doing about 50 minutes on the one you're prioritising and keep the other one on maintenance with maybe about 10 minutes

If you had 4 hours of study time a day then doing 50% on each seems fine, but if you only have an hour total then spliting that in half doesn't leave you with much time in either language

But again, just do whatever you want, if doing half an hour on each is what you enjoy then go for it. But if you want to make "optimal" progress then I'd probably trying focusing on one at a time

[u/silvalingua → u/Icy_Weird_8550]

> Both languages get roughly half an hour a day. 

This is very little, not enough to get you to become comfortable in either.

[u/erichilliard → u/Icy_Weird_8550]

It's not that you won't make gains on that kind of a schedule, but things will definitely go much slower than if you were spending one or two hours a day of structured study with each language. If you enjoy the learning and you're in no rush, you'll eventually get to where you want to be. That said, I'd definitely would not drop below 30 minutes a day on each language, or your progress will be very slow. There are no secrets and there are no shortcuts. Time, steady work, and dedication are what it takes. Stay the course. :)

[u/Ok-Insurance-8295]

sounds like you're already covering the bases pretty well honestly the only missing piece might be actual speaking outside of lessons, even just thinking out loud or talking to yourself for a few minutes a day

[u/ScatteredBrain99]

Honestly, it sounds like you’re already doing a great job! 😊 Since your goal is to feel more automatic and comfortable, I’d just add a little more speaking practice into your routine. Even 5–10 minutes of talking to yourself, shadowing YouTube videos, or having casual conversations can really help.

[u/thelostnorwegian]

The more time you spend in your langauges, the more progress and improvement you'll see. I do more or less the same as you, but I spend probably 5hours~/day in both languages.

My advice if you wanna maximise it, is just to spend more time in them. Find things you enjoy and switch that over to your TLs.

Most of what I do daily(youtube, podcast, football, reading etc) I do in my TL's.

[u/Icy_Weird_8550 → u/thelostnorwegian]

What you do daily, do you just watch/listen/read only, or do you make notes, look up words, do something more “active”?

[u/thelostnorwegian → u/Icy_Weird_8550]

No I mostly just consume content. I look up a word here and there, but nothing organized or anything. Watch my favorite youtubers, listen to podcasts, watch anime, tv series, read daily(trying to at least).

I have 200+ hours on italki having conversations with tutors, but haven't had classes since may now.

[u/silvalingua]

Practice writing. And practice speaking, even if you speak during the sessions.

[u/jmf1488]

Learning languages takes hours and hours. However it moves from active study to just living in the language. Rather than reading conjugations rules and studying verbs, you read books and play games and watch tv. If your low b2 in a language, you should already be doing this.

You also should have already an automatic use of the language from the things you speak and write the most. Its just how much of the language you want to become automatic will depend on how many hours you want to dedicate to making that a reality.

Once you figure out how the language works, the automaticness of it will expand as much as you learn. There is no quick way.