hello Marie honey how are you I am so
good I'm very happy to talk to you it's
been a long time since we've known each
other they actually talking yeah I feel
like we have talked before what we
haven't really it's just Instagram
friendship yeah yeah yeah today okay
first of all I would like you to
introduce yourself to anyone who doesn't
know you okay perfect so my name is
Maddie I am from Venezuela originally
but I live right now in the Netherlands
and I just saw floating languages and
that's why I became a language coach and
I just help people create great
schedules to learn languages and and to
really have fun and see the the positive
things about learning languages like
storing cultures and make it friends
which is like the best thing the best
part of languages I think yeah amazing
thank you so you actually mentioned what
I'd like to talk to you about today
which is making a schedule and is that
important or is that not important in
language learning
right off the bat general answer what do
you think about schedules and language
learning I think that they can be
helpful when applied correctly I feel
like a lot of people make over like over
plan when they make schedules and that's
just unrealistic and I understand it
like when I started I was so excited I
wanted to study like four hours every
day like five different languages and
while that seems fun it's just
unrealistic to achieve especially if
you're working or you're an University
student you have a lot of other things
to do so it's just unrealistic so how is
the person supposed to make a schedule
when they like how do you know how much
time you actually have in a day to to
spend on language learning may be
realistically this person actually does
have four hours but mentally it's too
draining yeah so I will I personally
never do any study session that is more
than 45 minutes because I really cannot
focus for a long time so my ideal study
session is 30 minutes but I think it's
different for everyone
I know people that can study for two
hours straight without pause and for me
that's insane you know but I think it
depends a little bit on your level of
concentration and how interested you are
sometimes even I'm so into what
at the moment that I just keep going for
a long time but I don't think it's
sustainable in the long run so I always
aim for 30 to 45 minutes a day of
focuses study and besides that just
whatever you do in your life like
listening to music or watching TV all of
those things are up at the end so how
does somebody go about deciding what to
put in their schedule how do you decide
you know to learn a few words and watch
the show and learn a grammar structure
or do you just schedule time to spend
with the language yeah so I have a list
of different activities that I like to
do so you see maybe some apps or talking
to other people or like a have a list of
things or sorry whatever that it is that
I need to study and then I have a set
time every day when I study I call it me
time because it's the only time where
I'm allowed to just be my only just
study without people interrupting me so
I can sit down and whatever I feel like
doing that day I do I don't have a
schedule like a strict schedule or it's
like okay from 9 to 9:30 I have to do
this I feel like that's only stressful
and it's not beneficial for anyone so
you just schedule time but then whatever
you feel like doing you live in there
exactly anytime today see I might just
do the minimum I could possibly do so
maybe just use a nap for 10 minutes just
to keep continuity and not break my
routine yeah I think that's very good
because sometimes if we make a schedule
that's too strict we tend to feel very
discouraged when we can't stick to it
especially if you're telling yourself
learn like you know do chapter 1 2 & 3
in the textbook and when you fall back
you have this huge backlog of stuff when
actually you should be rewarding
yourself for the progress you're making
instead of feeling bad about what you
missed exactly so what I normally teach
my my students is to focus on
consistency over
I flew and C or B 1 or B 2 as a goal so
if you're consistent to study at least
four times a week you're gonna learn a
language
eventually you cannot get worse study at
least you know so it's just like a
matter of trying to be consistent and
have continuty with the language more
than trying to achieve B 1 in 3 months
because
that might be possible but it also might
not be possible you know it can it will
depends you don't know how your life is
gonna be like in three-button psyche I
mean that's true but what about somebody
who has an exam coming up and they have
to reach v1 in three months
what kind would you change their
schedule to be more tougher or more
specific in that kind of a situation yes
absolutely more intense that's it I
think that's a different scenario for
lot of people that just learn language
just because they're having fun I think
if you're aiming for something like that
you really have to be more strict
because it's no different to like an
University exam you know so you really
you should really put more effort and
more intense learning in that situation
and get help from professionals that
actually train you if that's if that's
something that you need for work or
something like that if you're doing it
just to evaluate yourself just to study
and like focus ly intensively it's gonna
help you yeah how much is too much
in terms of maybe memorizing words or
grammar structures how much do you what
do you know is what's your limit per day
words I don't do more than ten because I
aim for a long-term memory than
short-term memory so if I do more than
ten I'm gonna forget so 10 is something
that I can again kind of like maintain
and I'd like to use apps like Anki or
Quizlet or things like that to have this
way repetition so I don't have to
calculate that myself okay let's give
the example of what if you are reading
an article in a language and there are
more than 10 words that you don't know
and you're looking them up and at the
end of a page of like 45 words what do
you do with that I take the 10 works
that I find more interesting and then it
will use just the ones that I think I'm
gonna use some conversation because if
you're reading an article and you have
words like are no construction and you
never talk about construction it's not
gonna be useful to you so I only take
the words that are going to be useful to
me there maybe the next day I will look
at the same words and see if there are
other in words that I can use how
important do you think motivation is
with
creating a language learning schedule
and sticking with it I think it's very
important some people may think that
it's just like oh I'm motivated because
I love learning languages well we all
love learning languages that doesn't
mean that I'm every day motivated to do
it so you know I like to think of
benefits I get from learning language
just like I could tell you before it's a
mean time it relaxes me I know it sounds
weird for people outside this world but
never certain kind of relaxes me and
it's fun to me so that's an immediate
benefit I get from learning and it makes
me feel smart and capable and it allows
me to meet people so I try to think of
those benefits rather than I love the
culture and that's what rather than your
reason why were the specific benefits of
learning language interesting that you
differentiate between reasons and
benefits that's quite an interesting way
of thinking um have you ever felt
discouraged though yes yes many times
especially with German I always go back
to it I say it's like like my toxic
relationship with German all right it
always breaks my heart and I always get
back to it I always get discouraged
because it it's the one language that I
have find to be harder for some reason
maybe it's because I don't get to speak
it as much as I get to speak the other
language or as I don't have to see as
many TV shows as I get to see with other
languages so thing is because it lacks a
little bit of culture but the reason why
I always get back to a kiss is because I
love the phonetics and I love the
grammar and it's really hard for me but
I like a challenge
so even if I'm discouraged sometimes I
always remind myself like well if you
really achieve things like for me it's
like a big milestone if I learn German I
can learn absolutely anything in my life
it's really embarrassing and then people
asks you like are you still learning
German it's like yeah it takes time yeah
do you create a different language
learning plan per language no I have a
structural language learning plan that
fits every activity every language so
it's like a blueprint that I created and
I just feel things in
I've been using it for a year now and I
also check with mr. Ian since just a
thing that I just fill in and it's fits
with every language because I focus on
skills rather than the different things
of each language I tracked my
consistency and I also like to film
myself speaking every month every two
weeks just to see how much effort well
and also it serves a little bit as a
boost of motivation when I look back at
my videos and I'm like oh I actually
improve a little bit would you say
consistency equals improvement yes
absolution I think so because the more
you learn like I feel like languages are
about being exposed so the more you're
exposed to a language the more you learn
it that's that has been my experience
that way yeah but then you you might
also have the situation of someone who's
very consistent in you know doing a
chapter in their textbook every day but
they just don't speak and practice
speaking or somebody might have learned
the wrong way to do something and
they're not interacting with native
speakers at all and they keep using the
wrong mistakes so in that sense I could
see consistency is a good thing but you
could be just repeating the same thing
without getting exposures to natives
absolutely agree I think consistency
goes hand-in-hand to be that good I
would call a good plan just a good
balance of things or a good harmony of
things I don't think it's a balance it's
not like you do as much input as you do
output but you must be like well
harmonized and you should have contact
with natives as much as you can because
that's what you get the real version of
the spoken version for beginners how do
you know what's a combination of
elements that you need to put in your
language learning plan so I normally
focus by scale so I will do maybe just
for one month really focus on listening
or the next month will focus on speaking
and stuff like that and I know it sounds
like a little weird for people because
like what don't I have to improve
everything at the same time but if you
perfect listening you're speaking and so
on so when it's gonna improve so I feel
like it's better so as a beginner I
normally first focus on listening or
reading because
you need input in order to produce you
can say something you have never ever
listened to and yeah exactly so let's
summarize so the keys to creating a good
language learning schedule number one
would be to decide maybe on the skills
you want to focus on first and to start
with listening and speaking yeah exactly
and then what other skills do we need to
create a plan we need consistency focus
on consistency and really I like to
measure my success with consistency like
I give myself a little reward even if
it's just like yes I did it when I do my
masala routine for four days that's not
actually really good because some people
trying to fill in every single slot that
they have in their schedule for language
learning or bringing it up into four
days is amazing we underestimate the
importance of rest yes we need to forget
a little bit in order to really flex
that muscle that helped us remember
you know even in confinement during the
weekends you want to spend time with
your friends and family even if it's
just called in and zoom or Skype to me
at that time I'm so glad you brought
that up because people look look up to
polygons and to think that these people
are spending all of their free time
learning a language and like squashing
every it's physically impossible I get
so tired I take so many naps these days
because I know a lot of people look up
to you as well as like a language coach
but that's that's really wonderful that
you said that yeah I think it's very
important for us I think four times a
week is more than enough for you to be
improving in a language and yeah just
remember to meet people make friends
because that's the most amazing power of
language learning and you're gonna be so
much more motivated if you are
surrounded by like-minded people that's
I think people underestimate the power
of learning with a community or with
people who understand you
amazing Mari thank you so much for
chatting with me today thank you for
your advice you were just spewing wisdom
here
it was amazing to talk to you thank you
thank you so much for having me I'm so
excited thank you I will link all of
your social media stuff so everybody
please take a look in the description
and go and befriend Marie okay awesome
thank you so much thank you see you
again sometime yeah