Many people, and especially language students, don’t have a lot of free time. You work. You study.  You have friends and family and maybe you are in a relationship. You have a life and responsibilities. All of these things are very important, and you need to dedicate time to all of them. So how do you find ‘extra’ time to improve your English?

The answer is it is really hard. I think about this a lot with my personal study of Spanish. When can I find time to work on it? Well firstly, when I do have time, I normally take classes with a good Spanish teacher, but then I get busy and I cancel my classes. You and I both know that it is impossible to find extra time consistently.

So, what do we do?

Well, my advice is that you use the time and habits that you already have and change the language to English, or in my case Spanish. Start with the small things and you will be surprised how doing small things can make big changes.

Let me give you some examples.

1. Do you listen to songs? Why not try to listen to songs only in English. You can learn lots of phasal verbs, idioms and useful grammar as you learn popular songs.
2. Do you watch movies or TV series or documentaries? You have some options to work on different English skills. For example, watching a movie in any language with English subtitles practises your reading skills. Watching English movies with English subtitles practises reading too. Watching English movies with no subtitles practises listening skills.
3. Do you read the news? I love reading the news. I read it in English and Spanish every day. Did you know that you can find news websites that have the news from your country in English.
4. Do you listen to podcasts on your interests? I am sure that you can find them in English too. This way you are listening to something that you love and practising your English at the same time.
5. Have you thought about changing your technology to English? You could change the settings on your phones, email, and social media.
6. Do you study in Australia? Every class that you study in cookery, marketing, business and so on is an opportunity to practise your English. Every assessment, reading, and class is you actually studying and learning English.
7. Do you have friends who are learning English? I often hear that my students want to practise their English with their friends, but they feel anxious and nervous. This is difficult, and it can be embarrassing. But many times that fear and judgement is in our own head and our friends love us and want to support us. So, ask them to help you practise your English. You could offer to buy them a beer and talk in English while you drink it. You could make a deal that you only text in English.
8. Do you like to play sports? If you live in Australia, you could join a local sports club. Trust me when you are playing sports with Australians, they are not listening to your English. They are practising their sport so that should take the pressure off you.
9. Take a course or join an online group to learn something new. Earlier this year, I took a course in Emotional Intelligence. Yes, I’m interested in the topic, but this course was delivered by a university in Spain so I was able to sit in a virtual classroom with Spanish speakers. It was great! It was fun! And I learnt so much Spanish and because the topic was so interesting, I ended up buying books in Spanish about the topic. It became an addiction….and in Spanish!

All of these tips work for all levels. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an advanced English language student. The idea is to try to immerse yourself in English. You might not understand it, but your brain is listening to it and something magical is happening. Over time, you will start to understand and hear words and before you know it, you are understanding so much more.

I’m sure there are many other things you can do! If you have any ideas, message me and tell me what you do!